Chapter 16 #2
The crack of the whip reverberated off the walls, the tail of it just snipping my chin. It burned down my neck, across my nerves, and made my eyes water. I wanted to believe myself strong enough to endure all this. I wasn’t. A true hero would hold their chin up and take it. I was no hero.
My legs wobbled, a sob choking my throat.
His arm went back to whip me again. His yellow eyes turned completely black, reflecting my hollow figure.
I hated knowing my life would end like so many before me.
Dying in Halalház . . . no one knowing I was within reach.
To them, my story ended on that train platform weeks ago.
I wished it had ended with a final view of Caden.
Crack!
My knees drove to the floor, not even a squeak coming from my lips as I shut down. My imperviousness to death seemed to irritate Hexxus more. Did he want me to fight, to scream in fear?
“No! Stop!” a soft voice shouted.
Everyone in the room, including Hexxus and me, jerked to the person in shock.
Lynx stood next to her machine, her hands in the air, wide-eyed, as though she couldn’t believe what she had done.
“Excuse me?” Hexxus heaved back his shoulders. Silence doused the room. Everyone stood opened mouthed and staring, even the other guards.
“It’s my fault.” Lynx licked her lips. “I forgot . . .” Fear swallowed her words, her throat bobbing.
Hexxus stepped around my table to hers, Lynx’s body trembling, her gaze dropping to her shoes.
What the hell was she thinking?
“She’s caught up. I held her pile on my table.” She tapped the piles on her station, her voice and hand shaking.
Hexxus stared at her, his black demon eyes showing no reaction. For what felt like minutes, he didn’t reply, the threat of his retaliation hanging in every breath.
He took a step up to her table, his fingers sliding over the cloth, his voice low. “You are telling me this is all hers?”
“Yes, master.” She dipped her head in perfect obedience.
“And where is yours then?”
“Right there.” She nodded to another pile on the floor underneath her station.
My mouth parted in surprise, the warm blood from the slice under my chin dripping onto the floor. I tried to meet her gaze, but she kept her eyes locked on the ground.
Another guard stepped up, grabbing the pile, inspecting it. She gave a nod to Hexxus. He swung back to Lynx, shaking his head.
“You are claiming she”—he flicked his chin at me like I was dog shit left on the pavement—“finished her three days’ quota just in the few hours she’s been back? Are you sure about that, 84999?”
Her throat bobbed, but her chin stabbed at the air. “Yes, sir.”
“Well . . . my mistake.” Hexxus twisted to me, a smirk coiling his face. His eyes glowed yellow. “Seems you have magically become proficient in mending since coming out of the hole.”
We all knew she was lying. Covering for me. Had she been working double the whole time I was gone? Doing my share as well? Why? Why was she covering for me?
“It’s a miracle.” He snickered. Like a snake, he slunk up to Lynx, sliding his fingers through her silky black hair, then tucking a lock behind her ear.
His tongue skimmed over his lips. His palm caressed her cheek, and his body pressed into hers.
“You are one of my favorites. Always a hard worker, keeping to yourself. And I respect your need to want to save your friend. To protect her. It’s an honorable thing to do, my dear. ”
Smack!
His strike ricocheted over the space. With a cry, Lynx crumpled to the floor at his feet, her hand pressed to her face.
Her name was on the tip of my tongue, but I bit down, knowing my attention would only cause her more harm.
“You still need to be punished for lying and speaking out of turn.” He nodded at two guards close to her. “Three lashings.”
“No,” I grunted.
“Should I add more for your disobedience as well?” He curved an eyebrow at me. “Every time you speak, she gets another. Actually . . .” Evil crept over his smug face. “You will be the one who delivers her punishment.”
“What?” The question barely made it past my teeth.
“You will administer her lashings.” He held out the whip for me. “And if you go easy, I will add four more.”
Bile boiled in my stomach like a cauldron, emotion I didn’t want out blurring my sight.
“Get up, 85221.” He nodded to the switch in his hand. “Make them worthy of her foolish protection of you.”
There was a truth to his statement, which stoked the rage inside me.
Pressing my lips together, I rolled my fingers into balls.
Anger rose off me. It wasn’t just at Hexxus, but for Lynx.
She was a fool. I would have taken my lashings and been done.
Now, two of us would be punished. I didn’t ask her to protect me, and now I was indebted to her.
Her punishment lay at my feet. But her kindness was what destroyed me.
Rising, I wiped the blood from my chin, taking the whip from his hands.
My gaze went to Lynx. Her lips trembled; her eyes swam with tears, but she held up her chin in pride. Again, I wondered what had put her in here; she didn’t seem like a criminal.
The two guards turned her around, pulling her shirt up, displaying her bare back to me.
Just three strikes, and this would be done.
Acid burned along my tongue, but I swallowed it back down. Cutting out my feelings, I regripped the switch in my hand and swung.
The crack of the whip sang, followed by her exploding wail. She fell into the wall, but the guards held her up. A long red line burst from her back, the skin splitting in some areas, blood bubbling angrily to the surface.
“A natural.” Hexxus was at my side, a salacious smile on his mouth. “Not one bit of hesitation.”
How badly I wanted to turn the whip on him, make him feel every bit of my hatred.
“You enjoy it, don’t you?” He licked his mouth. “Don’t deny it. I can feel it on you. There is enormous power in the most depraved actions. Don’t you feel it? The taste of her terror on your tongue, her grief and pain like blood pumping through your veins? Holding a life in your hands.”
I snarled at him because somewhere deep down, I could feel the energy of my act.
Life and death.
I liked it.
He laughed. “Deep down, under society’s rules, all the things they tell you to be, you enjoy the wickedness.” He cranked his neck to look at me. For a moment, I could feel his sexual charge, the desire billowing off his skin like a snare, capturing me in his web.
Grinding my teeth, I faced Lynx, hearing him chuckle. “Again.”
Crack!
Her gut-wrenching scream cut through the air as the whip drove over the open wounds of the first one, Lynx’s sobs clotting in my throat. The guards fully moved in, holding her up as her legs dipped underneath her weight.
One more. Just be done with it.
Sucking in my own cry of grief, I lifted my hand and lashed out.
A noise I couldn’t even describe as human gurgled from her throat before her head dropped forward, her body going limp.
“I’m impressed, 85221.” Hexxus faced me, holding his hand out. Everything in me wanted to refuse, to whirl the whip until no one in this room was left standing.
Seething, I placed it back in his hand, his self-satisfaction itching my skin.
He reached out, sliding his finger under my jaw. Pulling it away coated in blood, he sucked the red liquid off. “Mmmm . . . even your blood tastes sinful. Feral. Full of life.”
He grinned, his eyes glowing like an idea had come to him.
“Now for your punishment.” My stomach dropped, a rush of alarm cooling my skin, as if thrashing my workmate hadn’t been enough. “Flogging is not sufficient for you. Nor is the hole.”
I swallowed.
“You, my pretty thing, are meant for more.”
“What?”
He stared at me for a moment before his expression turned to a taunting sneer.
“I think you will do well. It’s for the truly debauched.”
“Do well? For what?”
“The Games, my pet.” He smirked. “You are going to fight in the Games.”