Chapter 5 Serena
SERENA
Iused to be able to tell when I was dreaming. But now that the nightmares look, feel, and taste the same as reality, my guess is as good as anyone’s.
I fight sleep, drifting in and out like a lightbulb on its last leg, even though I want nothing more than to sink into it for days.
It’s when my eyes close that I see them. My friends. I see Jace’s haunting eyes, Zadyn’s warming smile. I hear Sorscha’s laugh. I feel Furi nuzzling against my mind. Mar squeezing my hand in solidarity.
I need them to be alive. And I need them to stay away. Because if Kylian gets his hands on them, I will lose everyone I care about. No matter how hard my mind screams for them to just let me go, I know I’m shouting into a void.
They can’t hear me. I can’t warn them. I can’t protect them. Fuck, I can’t even protect myself. There is absolutely nothing I can do.
Nothing except for watch as Mal strips Kai nearly naked in front of me and draws a long dagger coated in rust. Kai wrestles with the chains stretching his arms out to a “T”. Our eyes link.
I’m so sorry.
Mal grabs a fistful of his dark hair and yanks his head back.
“Keep moving, and this will hurt a lot worse,” he murmurs in a chilling voice.
I glance around at what looks like a medieval torture chamber—dim torchlight, a multitude of chains and restraints hanging from the walls, and racks of objects I can only guess were made with a thirst for blood and suffering.
I’m bolted to one of those walls with a chain linked to the back of my choker.
Yes, I am on an actual leash.
“Morning, gorgeous.” Kylian breezes in looking bright-eyed and well-slept, his skin luminous and that ever-present ironic smirk pinned to the corner of his mouth. “Sleep well?”
I glower at him. “Not particularly.”
“I’d offer you my bed, but seeing how—oppositional—you are, I wouldn’t expect my invitation to be well received.”
Understatement of the year.
He stops above me, hands stuffed into his pockets. “Is today the day?” When I don’t answer, he prompts, “The day you finally say yes to me?”
“She’s not fucking marrying you,” Kai grits, baring his teeth. Kylian turns toward him, chuckling.
“Feeling chatty today, are we? Congratulations, you’ve just earned a letter.” He claps his hands once.
My friend’s anguished cries echo through the chamber as Mal lifts the blade to his chest. I bite my lip to keep from howling along with him.
I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry.
I will not give these bastards what they want. Mal steps back, and I can see the singular letter etched on Kai’s chest—the beads of blood forming a jagged “W”.
“Speak out of turn again, and you’ll earn a second. Now,” Kylian says, directing his attention back to me. “Seeing as I just can’t seem to resist you, I’ll give you the choice of what you do first. Either you tell me where your dragon is, or you marry me. Tonight.”
I don’t know what he wants with Furi, but I know it can’t be good. Just like I know he doesn’t want to marry me for my devastating looks and scathing wit.
“I will do no such thing.”
“What was that, darling?” Kylian cups a hand against his ear and makes a show of leaning in to listen.
“I said I will do no such thing!”
A shark smile splits his beautiful face. “A second letter for my brother.”
I force myself to hold Kylian’s unflinching gaze as Kai’s screams puncture my heart.
“The only way I am walking down an aisle is if you drag me, kicking and screaming.”
Kylian scoffs. “Nonsense. What would I tell our children?”
I want to laugh. He has zero qualms about kidnapping and imprisoning, but he draws the line at a forced marriage.
“You’re delusional.”
He claps a hand over his toned chest. “And you are breaking my heart. Listen, I’m more than happy to keep playing this game with you.
It’s oddly refreshing, hearing the word no.
But this is a game I intend to win. As for my feeble little brother…
I wonder how much a body can take before just”—he snaps his fingers—“giving out.”
Another round of heartrending cries. Crimson blood drips from the tip of Mal’s serrated knife as I dare to read the three letters imprinted on Kai’s heaving chest.
Wor.
Fury tumbles through me.
“You know, this whole big bad bully act is pretty unoriginal. You must be compensating for something.” I make a face, nodding toward his groin.
He smirks, giving me a quick once-over. “Come over here and find out.”
“Better idea. Go fuck yourself.”
A sharp, gut-wrenching cry has my head snapping toward Kai. Mal has his dagger embedded in the fleshy space between his shoulder and neck. His face is pale, contorted in pain, his eyelids twitching as sweat beads on his brow.
“Mind your tongue when speaking to your king, witch.”
“Just stop! Stop hurting him. You want someone to smack around? Fine. I volunteer. But Kai has nothing to do with this.”
Kylian stoops to me like a god descending to his acolyte. He cups my cheek, his eyes raking over my mouth.
“Give me what I want, and this can all be over.”
Temptation—decadent, fatal temptation—drips from his smoky voice. Everything about him is designed to compel. His looks, his scent, the melodic, deep timbre of his voice.
“His suffering can end. We can start over, and I will lay the world at your feet,” he vows with sober conviction.
“I’m only interested in a world without you in it.”
He cocks his head. “Are you really as fearless as you claim to be? Something tells me you’re not, yet here you are gambling with my brother’s life.”
He’s right. The longer I put this off, the bigger risk Kai is at. I don’t know how much more he can take.
“Just tell me where she is. I promise to keep it between us.”
“Prophyria will destroy you on sight. She will obliterate you just like she obliterated Ienar.”
“Are you so sure about that?” His fingers toy with my hair. “My love, I have ways of dealing with dragons just like Ienar and his brother before him.”
My stomach sinks. I’m not sure what he means by that, but one thing is certain—the only thing powerful enough to destroy a god is dragon fire. Which is how both brothers met their demise.
I pull back to look him in the eye. “You want me to call her? Fine. Unbind me. It’s your funeral.”
Kylian’s features remain the same—impassive, unaffected, slightly amused. But for a moment, his expression flickers. It’s brief, but it’s there—that small hesitation.
“Oh, I see.” My parched lips pull into a tight smile. “You won’t do it. You’re afraid. Of her…Of me. That’s why you haven’t taken these chains off—not even to call my dragon. You’re so terrified, you had to level the playing field with these, you fucking coward.”
Anger slashes across his face, and for a moment I think he might actually do it. Might actually hit me. But instead, his expression shifts, and his rich, warm laughter spills out.
“You really think I would put my hands on my own fiancé?” he says, as if reading my mind.
“I’m not your fiancé. And yes. I do.”
“Darling,” he softens his voice, shaking his head apologetically. “I don’t even have to touch you to make you hurt. That’s what my brother is for. And should that fail, I can simply move on to some of your other friends.”
So they are alive. Thank you, god.
“You’ll never catch them.”
“Who’s to say I haven’t already?”
My blood heats, boiling to the point of rage. “Don’t you dare.”
“Haven’t you wondered why no one has come for you? Why you remain bound at my side? Perhaps I already have them. Perhaps we should start with that shifter you call yours.”
I swing my fists, catching his lip with my nails. Kylian laughs, dabbing the pad of his thumb to the perfect crimson dot that squeezes out.
“Little wildcat, aren’t you?”
He yanks me forward and forces his bloody thumb into my mouth. I gag at the metallic tang, wrenching my face away and spitting the taste of him out at his feet.
His cheek grazes mine as he drops his voice to a bedroom-soft murmur.
“You endear me, you really do. But mark my words, Dragon Rider, when I am through with them, you will be begging for me to take you. You are mine. Sooner or later, you’ll see that.
I just hope it’s not too late. For his sake. For all their sakes.”
Kylian releases me and stands, waving a hand in Mal’s direction.
“Finish him off and return my pet to her cage.”
I sit in pained silence, chewing my cracked lip as Mal finishes his scraggly writing, using Kai’s skin as parchment, his blood as ink. When he steps back—vivid red streams like veins trickling down the length of Kai’s torso—I can read the completed word scored into him with perfect clarity.
Worthless.
Why am I here?
My eyes frisk over the mass of High Fae scattered throughout the candlelit hall. Nobles and courtiers flit by in revealing fashions, casting me scornful looks and exchanging whispered jeers at my expense. They leer at me like some sideshow curiosity—manacled, dirty, and powerless.
I am in my usual spot—chained to the cool marble floor at Kylian’s feet, dressed in rags while the party guests strut around clean, proud, and haughty.
The smell of food wafts toward me on a sea breeze, and my stomach gurgles with desperation, demanding to be fed. I ignore it. I’ve become well acquainted with the dull ache of starvation since my stay here began. It’s fine, I’ll just snack on my guilt later.
Grappling for distraction, I glance toward the wall of ivy-covered archways and the backdrop of glittering starlight beyond.
The hall looks magnificent at night, like a Tuscan dream, with romantic pillars expertly placed throughout to give it an old-world, classic feel.
Past the balconies, the Praxian sea is a dark blanket, drenched in pale moonlight.
Soft, sensual music floats through the air as the guests mingle on the dance floor, next to naked in their paneled skirts and matching bras, the men wearing only lightweight linen pants.