Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Seraphina
Laszlo made certain I was punished after my little rebellions at the party, and this particular round of abuse was difficult to stomach, even for me.
For what seemed like hours, Laszlo had me tied to his bed and assaulted my mouth with his cock.
The fucking blood oath wouldn’t let me bite his dick off.
He stuck a plug in my ass and forced an orgasm from my body with toys.
Tears streaked down my face, and my insides writhed with disgust. It felt like a betrayal to my men.
It was the first time, in everything he had done to me, that my mind began to fracture.
I couldn’t escape him, couldn’t fight him.
My body betrayed me, and my bonds tying me to the princes frayed.
And all the while. Belial’s whispers lured me away. Promising freedom from this oath, and fucking hell was I tempted. Pain I could handle, but Laszlo forcing pleasure from me was a boundary I didn’t know I had.
Laszlo was gone now, leaving me tied to the bed to wallow alone. When the door handle turned, I flinched, and I fucking hated myself for it.
“It’s me,” Halphas, the odd stranger from the party, whispered as he crept into the room. “Time to go.”
He cut the ropes previously stretching my arms and legs across the bed.
I groaned as he gathered my bruised and battered body into his arms. Laszlo enjoyed my pain, and the stab wounds were still healing from his stellatium razors he used to slice me open.
My muscles were weak, and all I could do was whimper as Halphas took me from the room.
“Don’t let the oath rule you, Seraphina,” he murmured close to my ear, brushing his hand against my cheek. “He finally used your body, didn’t he?”
Shame colored my cheeks and sharp pain pierced my heart at what I allowed him to do to me. “I wasn’t strong enough to stop it.”
His light-blue eyes filled with pity. “He has power only because of the oath, and you are untrained. You can be more, Seraphina.” The stranger cradled my exhausted limbs as we walked, brushing steady circles against my thigh. “Next time, he will take more from you, violate you in every way he can.”
The pain returned, and I knew I couldn’t take this torture any longer. I needed to get out from under Laszlo’s oath. Even if I broke my bonds, there had to be a way to get them back, right?
“I would lose them all,” I whispered, my head bobbing against his chest as he carried me through the castle.
Part of me noted the eerie silence, and the lack of Laszlo’s guards, but I was too tired to care.
“And you’d be free. Free to enact the revenge you are so clearly owed.” Halphas squeezed my thigh, and I shuddered at his words.
A whisper of pleasure tickled my skin, and I leaned into him. “Take me to Belial.”
He smiled, and I was too far gone to notice the smugness of it. As if I’d had any other choice.
My body stirred, a blend of pain and pleasure guiding me back to consciousness.
At some point, I passed out in Halphas’s arms. That was mildly alarming, considering I trusted no one in this fucking place.
There was something familiar about him, though, and maybe on some level, I knew that he was safe.
A tiny corner of my mind scoffed at that, raging at me to wake up.
But I couldn’t. That part of me was locked behind an impenetrable fog.
All I could think and feel was Laszlo’s pain and the immense pleasure I’d feel when that oath was broken.
My gaze landed on Halphas still holding me in his arms. We were back in the throne room, and several others joined us now, including Belial.
“There she is.” Halphas smiled. “Are you ready to break your bonds and take your revenge?”
The girl locked away screamed at me through the fog. Something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t figure out what it was, not with Halphas holding me and smiling like I was making all the right choices.
I turned from him, steadying my weight but still holding his arm. A soft white robe covered my body, and I watched as other creatures circled around us.
Halphas squeezed my hand, and a giddy feeling zipped through my veins. He produced a blade similar to the one I once had, but with a black onyx stone in the hilt. “For this to work, we must carve a symbol over your heart. It will hurt, but I know you can take it.”
A barrage of questions filled my head, slipping into the fog with the screaming girl. “I’m ready.”
The circle of creatures began to chant, and Halphas slipped my robe off my shoulder enough to reveal my chest. His touch was soothing, and I shivered, staring into his eyes as blue as a cloudless sky.
Little sister…
Lailah’s voice echoed in my head, and an inkling of recognition reached me through the fog. “You have her eyes.”
Halphas stopped, the blade poised over my heart.
His eyes shuttered, and his face changed with a cruel grin.
“My brother’s eyes. We always did look alike, although I dare say I’m the more handsome choice.
But where I was clever, he was strong. The greatest warrior, until your father murdered him and mated with your whore mother. ”
A gasp escaped my lips, but I had no time to react to his words.
Halphas gripped my arm, and I screamed in pain.
He was doing this. The pain and pleasure, his touch clouded my true feelings.
The fog lifted, but it was too late. He expertly carved into my skin, and a soul-shattering scream echoed in the room. I barely registered that it was mine.
I could feel them. The bonds of my mates. And they were leaving me.
Laszlo’s blood oath lifted away first, and my power surged. My skin glowed with the force of it, but Belial was there with us now, holding me still as Halphas finished carving the symbol.
Levi left me first. Then Typhon and Andras. And suddenly Dev was there in my mind. His scent wrapped around me, and he shouted my name. I tried to reach for him, but the darkness between us grew heavier and heavier. Phen, his bond was still there, barely, frayed, as Halphas finished the mark.
I’m so fucking sorry. I sent the thought down the last thread of my bond to Phen.
Because I was wrong. I couldn’t get them back.
The endless nothing that existed within me was proof of that.
There was not a whisper of my princes left in my soul.
Laszlo and Belial, of course, knew the consequences of this dark magic.
I was alone, broken and instantly racked with regret.
The weight of what I had done settled in my soul just before all hell broke loose.