Page 285 of The Lands Defying
My eyes widen, my head shaking back and forth at the chain wrapped around my skin. I look to the other side and it’s the same position.
No. Gods, no!
I frantically look around at a familiar space, at the pillars on either side of me that have glowing runes, at the platform below me that gently pulses with power.
I wriggle as I’m suspended above it, kicking my feet and letting loose a gritted scream as the chains pull tighter.
“Now, now. There is no need for that.” I freeze at the voice, fearing threatening to swallow me as my eyes going forward to where Charles stands further back.
He has a cloak on him, the hood pulled up but his face is clear to see. His hands are behind his back, his back straight as he watches me.
It all comes back. My fury, my numbness as I killed and slaughtered, sending power into the castle walls, at Darius calling to me, and then Charles…He grabbed me.
“Coward.” I snarl at him. He took me away and ran. Charles smiles as I pull at my wrists even though it hurts. I will rip my own hands off rather than be shackled again. “Let me go!” I demand.
I vowed to myself I wouldn’t be in this position, that I would never be restricted again.
I feel it then, the terbium within the iron. I call for my magic, I beg it to come in my panic, but it doesn’t. It’s just quiet, along with Runa.
She shouldn’t be as quiet as she is.
“What…What have you done to me?” I hear the fear that creeps into my voice, hating that he can intimidate me, scare me.
His grin is all teeth. He lifts a hand, showing me the vial in his palm.
It’s empty.
“Ultrian...it has fascinating effects on males,” he says, and the breath lodges in my throat. “It makes them want to breed until they cannot any longer, makes them want to fuck anything within their grasp.” Dark patches appear on the ground, following in his wake as he starts walking around the platform. I try to follow him with my eyes, but when he’s out of sight at my back, I tense up, watching the craters in the ground with growing fear. “With Heirs, it mutes their power, like the dassil does to normal wolves, dulling down the body to nearly nothing, but still aware.” I swallow roughly when I hear the growls. He comes to my right and my eyes track him, my body shaking now. “How do I know that, you may be wondering? You should ask Darius’s mother when you eventually see her. It was her mate who helped create it, after all.”
Darius’s father.
I think I’m going to be sick.
No, I am sick.
I heave, vile liquid coming from me as I hack and cough while Charles watches on with distaste.
“It is time, Lasandrhea. You escaped your fate once, this time shall be different.” He clicks his fingers, and braziers that weren’t here before light the area, showing piles of bodies.
I gasp, my eyes taking in the amount of piles there are, as he comes to stop in front of me once more.
“What did you do?” I croak out, and he turns, walking over to a pile as those black patches become even darker.
“It seems you have bewitched our Alpha Darius,” he says, ignoring my words. “He would have made a fine Higher. Ruthless, fantastic genes, strong, controllable, but he fell into your cunt and never came out, it seems.”
My teeth start to chatter as a coldness befalls me.
“He would have never become a Higher, especially after finding out what you have been doing.”
“I could have trained him, just like I had been slowly doing over time, waiting for the right moment to strike.”
“He woke up and realized it was a nightmare,” I snarl, rattling the chains again.
“Shame isn’t it?” He sighs like he cares. “These, dear Lasandrhea, are mostly failures,” he tells me, pointing to the bodies and swirling a hand. A body is then being dropped into a black hole, the sounds of snarls following it.
“So you killed them?” I croak, devastation washing over. “Because they were not up to your standards?”
He shrugs. “I have no use for them apart from feeding the hounds.”
