Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Silence fell for a moment.
I panted as the cuffs cut into my wrists, holding me upright.
Finally, Victor chuckled. “Fine. If you’re finally ready to stop being a pussy, use this.”
Something heavy clattered by my feet as if Victor had tossed something.
“Thanks.” Ben let me go and ducked for it. Swatting me hard across the ass with a leather beaded flogger, he laughed. “Works well.” Hitting me again, he stepped close and whispered, “I hope you still have those cufflinks—”
“Did I say you could talk to him?” Victor snapped. “Hit him or let someone else have a turn.”
Striking me one last time, Ben left without another word.
My legs gave out.
My system couldn’t survive the agonising gush of despair.
Why the hell did Ben mention my cufflinks? The same ones I’d thrown over the wall.
If they’d worked, Q would’ve been here by now—if only to kill me himself.
And even if they did work, he was either dead or busy hunting Victor’s men who stole his son.
He hated me.
He wouldn’t come.
No one was coming.
And to even hint that someone was.
That this could all be over soon—
Fuck.
I couldn’t.
Couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t stand.
Couldn’t exist.
Blackness swarmed me as another Master struck.
Pain crushed me.
I passed out.
* * * * *
“He’s damn well killing you.”
I groaned as consciousness slammed me awake.
For a single second, I had no memory, no discomfort.
But then…agony.
Everywhere.
My back, my thighs, my shoulders, my legs.
Fuck, make it stop!
I-I can’t do this anymore.
My groan turned to a tortured cry.
I tried to curl into a ball to hide, to die, only strong, no-nonsense hands kept me lying on my emaciated belly. “I’m not done tending to you.”
I cried out as something stinging splashed on the ribbons of my back.
Dr Belford cursed under her breath, her hands shaking as she nursed me back to life.
“Ily…” I gasped around the excruciating throb. “Is she…they didn’t…please tell me—”
“She’s fine. You passed out, and Victor let the Masters, who hadn’t had a turn, finish before everyone retired for the night.”
“Can…can you help me see her?”
“And get all of us killed?” She scoffed. “No.”
I gave up.
Collapsing against the pillow, I let overwhelming pain carry me away.
The last thing I felt was the sharpest prick in my arm. “When you wake, you won’t feel what he did to you. The drugs will numb everything, and you’ll feel a thousand times stronger than you actually are. Don’t think you’re cured. You’re not. Do too much and your system will shut down. Got it?”
I had no capacity to reply.
Her hand sifted gently through my shaggy hair. “I’m so sorry, Henri.”
And then, I was alone again.
* * * * *
“Tonight, you will get your reward, my sweetling.”
I flinched on my knees, not daring to look up at Victor.
Goosebumps covered me thanks to the cold winter evening and the fact that I wore nothing but white-wrapped cloth around my chest and back.
I’d woken a couple of hours ago and suffered through a shower before Dr Belford came to dress me in the softest bandages and soothing salves. She hadn’t spoken, but I’d whispered a quick thank you.
She was right.
Whatever she’d given me had numbed everything.
I felt nothing.
Nothing but the prickly claustrophobia of being trapped when all I wanted to do was run.
My stomach snarled in the quiet ballroom, highlighting my skinniness and the fact that I’d eaten one potato, three finger-sized pieces of fish, and a spoonful of chocolate mousse in twenty-eight hours.
I’d eaten better in the dungeons.
Whatever reward he wanted to give me?
I hoped it was food.
Glorious fucking food so I could get my strength back to kill him.
Standing, Victor clicked his fingers for me to do the same. It took effort to command shaking legs and popping knees to straighten, but I did. Giving Rachel a glance, she winced and looked away.
Her hands cradled her baby bump. She looked plumper and healthier, but the light in her eyes had been snuffed out. The ferocity when she’d lied for me after Emerald Bruises—when I claimed her, Ily, and Mollie as my own—no longer existed.
I hated that she’d given up.
I hated that she was the only jewel who dared make eye contact with me these days and wished she could get a message to Ily. Just a simple message of how sorry I was and just how much I loved her.
“For the past weeks, I’ve diligently proven to you that you are no longer the owner of your senses.” Victor cupped my cheek with a doting smile. “Your ears might be on your head, my pet, but they only obey what I say.”
I clenched my jaw and said nothing.
If he wanted to believe in his lunatic ramblings, so be it.
The only one who truly owned me was the girl chained to the wall. The girl staring at me even now. The girl sending me silent messages that I could feel but never return.