9. Eva
Chapter 9
Eva
A tear trickled down my cheek as I kept my eyes squeezed shut, trying in vain to prolong my dream—that stolen moment with my anima. But when I heard someone moving nearby, my eyes flew open, my muscles tensing for a fight.
There was a servant tending to the fire in the hearth, but she wasn’t looking my way, nor was the new guard at the door. My neck stung, and when I gently pressed against it, my fingertips came back bloody. Aviel must have been here…must have bitten me sometime after I had been knocked out, when my drugged sleep was so deep, I hadn’t woken.
I couldn’t stop the shudder going through me at the thought of how helpless I had been, unconscious and chained to his bed as he left that mark behind. I was still clothed, but he had undoubtedly put his hands on me. Could have…I cut off the thought with a harsh exhale. There was nothing I could do about what had already happened. Only fight now that I could.
With a jolt, I realized that my shackles were still only locked around my wrists, with nothing covering my hands. Aviel was apparently confident that my collar was enough to suppress my magic.
Or maybe he didn’t want me to hide a syringe in the bulb this time , I thought with grim satisfaction.
I was still in the same blue dressing gown as—from what I gleaned from the daylight streaming in—last night. Chained to the headboard by the shackles on my wrists, a chain securely looped around a hardwood spire at the top of it, though with enough slack to comfortably move around, at least for now. My ankles were still shackled together but weren’t attached to anything but each other. There was a chamber pot next to the bed, and I smirked, knowing it was a warning not to try the same thing twice or face the consequences.
Having no desire to face the indignity of being scrubbed down again, I relieved myself, my chains going taut as I sat down. As I hoped would happen, the servant turned her back to give me privacy, and the new guard uncomfortably averted his gaze. Carefully, I extracted the key to my shackles from under my arm, wincing as they pulled against my bloodied wrists even as I thanked my lucky stars it hadn’t fallen or been found when Aviel visited me. I closed my hand around it just as another guard walked into the room and came toward me.
He looked bored, like whatever he was about to do was just another chore on his to do list. I wanted to scream at him, demand to know why his first thought wasn’t to help me, but I clenched my teeth, knowing it would only be wasted breath. He gestured for me to move back, the flash of flame from the guard behind him a silent threat if I disobeyed. Without breaking eye contact, I crawled backwards onto the bed as a servant scurried forward to retrieve the chamber pot.
I tensed as the guard reached the edge of the bed. A tight smile curved his lips, then he grabbed the chain that attached to my wrist shackles, pulling it taut. I yelped as my hands were painfully yanked above my head. But I kept my hand clenched as he refastened the end of the chain to the side of the headboard, the key digging into my palm as I twisted my wrist to keep it hidden.
The guard finished fastening my chains as I glared at him, silently vowing vengeance. Even as my panicked, stuttering breaths gave my fear away.
I knew what it meant.
I’m running out of time.
A wave of fear swelled inside me, threatening to turn into a flood. I didn’t dare give in to it, forcing myself to quell the rising panic in my chest, the powerlessness clawing up my throat. My nails dug into the scar on my palm as I sucked in a slow breath, then let it out in a careful cadence.
Waiting until my guards turned away to do a sweep of the room, I slowly opened my hand, moving the key from where I could feel its shallow indent on my palm to between my trembling fingers. I rattled my chains, but the guards didn’t so much as turn around before they left the room, the servant following quickly behind them.
Aviel was coming. I only had seconds.
Each turn of the lock felt like it echoed in the silent chamber as I swiftly unlocked one of the shackles around my wrist, then the other. Before I could attempt to free my ankles, I heard footsteps approaching outside the door. Quickly, I made sure the shackles on my wrists appeared closed, praying Aviel wouldn’t be looking for the same deception a second time.
The click of the door opening made me flinch.
Aviel stood there, dressed in gold and white, the vision of every fairytale prince except for the sadistic glee in his eyes. Despite my plan, my heart thundered like it was attempting to escape at the sight of him—at the way his gaze trailed down my body as if he owned it.
I forced myself to meet his eyes, trying not to betray the fear that threatened to consume me.
He was obsessed with me in the sort of way the worst sort of monster felt they had a right to another. But Aviel only loved what I could be for him; he was incapable of wanting me in a way that wasn’t intrinsically linked with what my magic and birthright could do for him. Still, he thought he loved me, and that delusion was one of the few defenses at my disposal, albeit a fragile form of power.
The door closed behind him with a bang that made me jump. His lips curled into a smirk, that slight movement somehow sucking all the air from my lungs, his pale eyes devouring me as I focused on holding myself together.
“Eva, darling. I hope you slept well. You look lovely waiting for me.”
I hated that his voice sent a shiver of fear down my spine. My nails bit into the rose on my palm as I clenched my fists against the shaking of my hands, not wanting to give away just how much he scared me. While I debated remaining silent, I wouldn’t let him think me cowed, even if a part of me desperately wanted to shrink away; wanted to scream aloud at being forced into this situation yet again.
I wasn’t used to not being able to defend myself. To lay in wait, desperation mixing with my panic yet again. Weaponless beyond my own defiance…and the dagger I had hidden just out of reach. I was looking forward to using it to inflict even a fraction of the pain and terror he had caused me.
“I think the box was better company.”
He laughed, cold and cruel. I tried to act as though his very presence wasn’t causing my lungs to falter in my chest.
Breathe.
“That can be arranged.” Aviel smirked as he unhooked the dagger from his belt, laying it on a dresser across the room. My mouth twitched—at least he knew better than to practically hand me a weapon to use against him. “But we have some unfinished business first.”
He walked toward the bed as though savoring the time it took to get to me—a predator stalking its prey. And I knew the bastard knew exactly how terrified I was beneath the bravado. My heart beat in terrified anticipation as he reached me.
When he pulled himself over me, it was all I could do not to struggle too hard. To keep my hands in place so as not to give the game away. To wait for the right moment, even as nausea simmered in my stomach.
Stout heart, I reminded myself as I tried not to tremble.
I remembered telling a drunk guard in a dungeon not too long ago about the sort of worthless, dickless type of bastard it took to force someone against their will. And I knew I needed to keep this monster talking—too distracted to notice the crack in the iron around my wrists hinting at my freedom. Too caught up in his fixation of me to notice the trap I was laying for him.
It felt strangely fitting using a trick I had already used to escape. If he hadn’t been so arrogant, so assured of his own victory, then maybe he would have learned to double check my bindings.
He would learn not to underestimate me.
“I can see you waiting to strike, darling,” Aviel purred, his hands roving my body as his leg shoved between my thighs. I jerked back into the bed but couldn’t wriggle away enough to do anything other than encourage him, based on the feral gleam in his pale eyes. “Don’t think that I’m fooled into thinking you’ll keep the promises you made to me to save your little friends. Besides…what, precisely, do you think you can do to stop me, when all of you put together failed to keep me from getting exactly what I wanted?”
I refused to think about how he had forced them down, bleeding and prone and suffering. But he hadn’t killed Rivan, hadn’t prevented us from freeing Tobias. And I wouldn’t let him win.
“If you think I’m going to stop fighting you, you’ll be sorely mistaken.”
Aviel laughed coldly. “And where would be the fun in that?”
My chest constricted to the point of pain as his fingers played with the collar, his thumb dipping into the hollow of my throat.
“I told you already that you’ve always been mine,” Aviel said softly. “Even if it takes another century, I will own you, body and soul. And you will learn to stay willingly at my side.”
The only way out is through , I repeated in my head, willing my mother’s strength to be with me now.
“And what makes you think I will ever be willing?” I lifted my chin as I stared him down. “I know exactly who you are. My brother told me everything . And now he’s going to expose you.”
Aviel waved a dismissive hand. “It doesn’t matter now. Once I go through the Choosing with your power, I will finally become High King, and there won’t be anything anyone can do to stop me then. Even if your brother tells the whole realm exactly who I am, and what my powers really are, I want them all to know exactly whom they bow to.” He stroked my cheek, and I suppressed a shudder. “All my life I’ve had to take what I wanted. You, my darling, are no different.”
His eyes darkened as his hand flattened at the base of my neck. I jerked away from the possessive touch, but there was nowhere to go.
“I almost kept your anima to force your obedience. But I far prefer to break you to my will myself.” Aviel’s fingers tightened savagely, and I couldn’t help my hiss of pain. “And when I break you, when you learn you are mine, we will remake this world together.” He smiled cruelly. “It’s almost time now.”
“You’re insane.”
Rage contorted his features. Then he pressed into the band blocking my magic, choking me as he pushed me down, his hand squeezing like a vise. He barely seemed to notice I was writhing underneath his grip.
I steeled myself to pull my hands from the shackles and retrieve my stowed blade. But something sharp and slithering slid along my mind, my…magic. Trying to get in ?—
A scream tore from my throat, then another. There was a tearing inside me, an inexorable tug that felt like Aviel was slowly wrenching out my spine. Like my very consciousness was being flayed, and I was about to break right open. My body shook in agony as a black essence trailed from my eyes, my mouth, my nose, merging together to flow into Aviel’s hand on my throat.
Aviel stared into my too wide eyes as I screamed, those pale irises turning black as he sucked my darkness into himself. Licking his lips as the last of it disappeared, he gently stroked my collar before releasing it. Even so, I could barely manage one shuddering breath in—my exhale a choked, strangled sob.
“Gods, how I’ve missed your screaming.”
I was shaking so violently I was worried my wrist shackles would fall open. Had he done this the whole time I was captured and drugged back at Morehaven? I didn’t know if I would have noticed while unconscious, not with the collar blocking my magic. Though he had never used my darkness against me.
Aviel leaned forward, and I flinched as he ran his lips along my cheek—barely able to manage even that movement, my entire body still stiff and unmoving. His fingers found my neck, and, with a click, I realized with shock that he had unlocked my collar.
For a half-heartbeat, I thought my magic was about to come back. I strained to reach my darkness, seeking it in the chasm inside myself?—
There was only a nauseating nothingness where it should have been, that well of power entirely drained. I thought I might be sick.
My stomach lurched as Aviel pulled back a bloodstained finger, and I realized my collar must have been somehow bound with his blood. Even magicless, this was it: the moment I needed to get away.
If only I could move.
“The only reason I left your anima alive at all,” Aviel said with silken menace, “was so he can feel exactly what I do to you through your bond.” He leaned in, slowly drawing out every word. “As I make you mine .”
As if summoned by his words, I felt that bond flare back to life without the collar constricting it. And I knew Bash could sense it too.
Aviel had only freed me from my collar so that my soul bonded would feel my terror, my helplessness as he raped me, my magic no help before it could replenish.
But I had never been helpless, even before I found out what I was.
I reached for the bond like a lifeline, feeling Bash’s turbulent mix of confusion and hope like a bubbling wave…then his frozen horror trickling down my veins as he sensed the fear and pain I was trying to control. His dread wrapped around my chest like a vise, his panic for me compounding my own.
Aviel leaned forward, his lips brushing my breast before sucking against my neck. I let out an unintended cry of pain when he bit down on the fresh wound he had left there before forcefully kissing me. The taste of my own blood lingered on his lips as he drove his tongue into my mouth, rough and claiming. Groaning into my mouth as one hand roved down my body, his touch proprietary as his fingers pinched my nipple so hard I gasped.
I couldn’t do this again. Couldn’t endure it, especially with my anima’ s helpless desperation breaking me inside.
But I knew he could feel my resolve, too, even as I shoved everything away, slamming a hasty wall down between us as I forced myself to focus.
“Your blood tastes delicious,” Aviel said in a throaty whisper.
The entitlement in his words spurred me to action. Shaking off my stupor, I pulled my hands from my bonds in one sharp tug and punched him squarely in the face. Blood spurted from his nose, and his pained shriek echoed throughout the chamber.
Reaching behind me, I grabbed my plundered blade, leaving its scabbard stuck between the headboard and the mattress as I stabbed downward in one smooth movement.
Aviel was too fast, despite the shock and the injury, rearing back with superhuman reflexes. Instead of hitting the artery I had been aiming for in his neck, I merely sliced a line down his chest, cutting his shirt wide open. I got my knees under me, my ankle shackles yanking painfully as I lunged toward him. But Aviel gripped my wrist with unnatural strength and twisted—the blade clattering uselessly across the floor.
There was a flurry of movement outside the door, but no one entered. I fervently hoped the guards were chalking up the sounds of my attack to a different kind of struggle.
I tried to twist away, but Aviel backhanded me so hard my vision went black for a split second. On reflex, I used the momentum of the blow to roll off the bed, my ankle chains forcing me to land awkwardly on all fours. Faster than I could track, Aviel was on his feet before me.
“Don’t you understand what we could be together?” Aviel’s head tilted to the side like he was truly perplexed at my reticence. “With my power and your birthright, we will rule both realms. I will give you the world, darling. You only need to give in to me.”
“Never,” I spat. “I’m not yours, and I never will be.”
My head swam as he stalked toward me. Blood ran from my nose and my split lip, the taste of iron coating my tongue. I rose unsteadily to my feet and took an involuntary step back, stumbling as my chains stopped me from retreating any further. Prince Aviel might have been about my age, but the False King had been around for far longer. And he was a trained fae warrior, who had survived and succeeded this long for a reason.
And I was trapped, bleeding, and magicless. Something like despair shot through me, and I felt Bash’s answering echo of it. I wished I could hide this from him. But I forced myself to push it all down, blocking Bash out as best I could. Becoming the weapon I had been trained to be.
I wouldn’t give in. Not ever.
Gathering my strength, I braced my feet apart despite the chains rattling between my ankles. Then sunk into my heels, raising my arms in a long-ingrained fighting stance. Settling into my battered body as I readied myself for this fight.
Aviel laughed mercilessly. “You truly think you can stand against me?”
“Oh, I doubt you know how to win without stealing someone else’s magic to use against them, you little leech,” I said with a mocking hand gesture, my thumb and pointer finger moving an inch apart.
If he used magic, I knew I wouldn’t last long without mine. But maybe I could bait him into a situation that would give me a chance. No matter what, I wouldn’t give up without a fight.
A slow smile formed on his face. I suppressed my own as he raised both hands, rudely mimicking my stance.
Thank the gods he’s arrogant enough to take the bait.
“I have hundreds of years on you, foolish girl,” Aviel scoffed. “But I can’t say I mind this particular form of foreplay.”
I tasted bile in my throat. Aviel took a step toward me. Before he could use either of our magics, I threw myself at him, swinging out to strike him in the chest with my forearm. He dodged, but I was already moving, rotating my body into my uppercut. My fist connected with his chin with a satisfying thud, the blow reverberating up my arm. Aviel’s head snapped back. I kicked at his side, but he caught my leg with a snarl, wrenching me toward him before throwing me against the wall.
I let out a small cry as my head slammed against one of the pillars. My vision blurred at the impact, my injured ribs screaming. I let my eyes flutter closed as if stunned, and Aviel stepped forward to press his advantage. Coming to life, I reverse scissor-swept his legs, using my knee to tackle his forward leg and taking him to the ground.
Before I could make another move, my own darkness slammed into me, shoving me down. Bands of my magic wrapped around me, holding me prone as I struggled in vain. Slowly, Aviel got to his feet, calmly straightening his shirt as he placed his foot onto my broken ribs. I screamed as he pressed down, white-hot pain tearing through me as I tried to twist away. But there was nowhere to go.
I should have known it would only be a fair fight until I had the upper hand.
“You will learn to remember your place,” Aviel said with one final press that left me gasping.
“Fuck. You.”
I stared daggers at him as my own magic turned on me. Tendrils of darkness forced me around like a doll, twisting around my torso to pull me upright before shoving me back onto the bed.
He advanced, smirking at me. “I’m going to enjoy this.”