Page 91 of Alchemised
He was in the city. She knew how long that journey was.
Aurelia grasped Helena by the chin. Her rings had lengthened into threatening points. “Open your eyes wide.”
Helena trembled. “Please—”
“Shut up,” Aurelia said, dropping the short staff and gripping Helena’s jaw tighter, the tips of her rings sinking into Helena’s cheek.
The banging outside the door grew louder.
Aurelia pressed the tip of one of her ring spikes against the outer corner of Helena’s left eye, digging the tip back into the socket. She smiled, eyes alight with malice. “I hope I’m there when Kaine sees you next. Even if he kills me, the satisfaction of this will be worth it.”
Helena jerked her head back as Aurelia’s ring sliced along her cheek.
“Aurelia!”
The scream shattered the air. Not one voice but several all at once. All in unison.
“Aurelia!”
The thralls were screaming through the door. Inhuman, tearing rage in their voices.
Aurelia started and gave a panicked laugh as she glanced towards the door. “I didn’t know they could do that. Guess you get all the special treatment.”
She turned back to Helena, her fingers digging into Helena’s hair to hold her in place as she dug the spike into the side of Helena’s eye again.
Pain and pressure grew; Helena could feel that her eyeball was on the verge of being pulled from its socket. The thralls were still screaming, but Helena barely heard them above her own heartbeat. She was struck by the surreal thought that Aurelia Ferron’s face would be the last thing she ever saw.
She was going to be left in the dark forever.
Her eye gave, and her vision became one-sided.
The whole house shook as the floor rippled, like a creature come to life.
Aurelia let go, turning in bewilderment. Before she could do anything, iron bars tore themselves out of the floor and walls, darting towards Aurelia like striking serpents, closing around her and dragging her away.
Aurelia screamed in terror as she was dragged off the floor, fighting to free herself with her own resonance, but the iron bars wrapped tighter and tighter until Helena heard bones breaking and Aurelia went limp, her iron-taloned fingers splayed and contorted where they’d been trying to push back against the bars.
Everything stopped.
As quickly as it had come alive, the house sank back into stillness.
CHAPTER 17
HELENA’S ARMS WERE STRAINING AGAINST THE IMPLACABLE iron, the edges scraping across her skin, shoulders screaming as she struggled, trying to wrench herself free. The room around her was only half visible, and all in ruins. Her terrified breathing was the only sound. The house was utterly quiet.
It seemed an eternity before Helena heard the distant sound of footsteps in the hall. The door warped, opening, and then Ferron was kneeling in front of her, blocking the ghastly sight of Aurelia from view as the iron around her wrists melted away. She collapsed towards him.
Her chest was spasming with suppressed panic.
He tilted her face up towards his, and his expression grew horrified. He touched her cheek and held her face as he drew several deep breaths.
“Your eye is out of the socket, and you have a deep puncture in the white,” he said, his voice shaking. “How do I fix it?”
Helena stared dazedly at him, shuddering as tears tracked down her face, running along his fingers. Her breath came faster and faster.
She should know the answer to the question, but she couldn’t remember. She could only feel the spot where Aurelia’s iron talon had punctured her eye.
Ferron gripped her firmly by the shoulders. “Look at me. I need you to stay calm and tell me how to fix this. You know how to do it.”
