Chapter 21
Marian
The ride lasted for days. I slept. I woke.
Drayton kept me mostly drugged. I knew we were going underground from conversations I’d caught in-between bouts of awareness, but I didn’t know specifics.
Drayton kept me on his lap, cradled in his arms. Sometimes I’d come to because of the soft whispers against my face.
He’d brush his lips over mine, and I’d be out again.
He rarely put me down or moved me unless we were stopping for the night.
His smell calmed me. His heat soothed and made me feel safe.
It was cold now wherever we were. Cold and dark.
My body was trembling. My teeth were chattering as I tried to open my eyes.
Silence.
Stillness.
My groan echoed as I attempted to move. My body was so sore. The pull to my muscles as my legs outstretched and I rolled to my stomach had me crying out. We weren’t in the SUV anymore. Had I been lying here long? Lying on my back in a short sundress and cardigan in the cold darkness?
Dirt slid under my forearm as I tried to push myself up.
Tiny rocks bit into my skin and pain had me crying out as I used all my strength just to get my body to work.
My knees drew in underneath me, but I couldn’t lift my head from the ground.
Seconds passed. Longer as my sounds of pain echoed around.
Where the hell was I, and why was it so cold?
“Drayton?”
My call was weak, but it carried through the void around me like an amplifier.
The dirt was loose as it fell from my forehead, falling down my face.
I wasn’t on the road anymore. I managed to lift to my knees as I rubbed against my eyes.
Whether it was the dirt or drugs, the blurriness wouldn’t leave me.
Even though I couldn’t see much, I knew what I was experiencing wasn’t right.
“Drayton?”
Time. The minutes ticked on. And on…
I gagged. I had nothing to throw up. Every inch of my body was screaming from the pain.
Rocks under my knees begged that I stand, but all I could manage was to sit, rolling to my side as I brushed them away where they’d been stuck in my skin from the pressure.
I was weak. So much weaker than the last time.
I wasn’t even sure how many days I’d been kept under. It was all a blur.
Flattening my hands down, I rolled back to my knees.
I felt like a toddler just trying to bring up my legs.
They were so heavy. They weren’t listening to the commands of my brain.
When I finally did manage to stand, vertigo almost had me falling all over again.
My shoulder crashed into what felt like a rock wall, and I used it for stability as I tried waiting for my strength to return.
I was so tired. I just wanted to lie back down and go back to sleep.
If it weren’t for the cold, I might have, but I couldn’t stop the shaking or chattering of my teeth. My jaw ached. My skin burned.
“Drayton?”
His name seemed to run from me as my voice carried through what I could only assume was a long tunnel. As I squinted, trying to bring my vision in clear, I felt my breath hitch. Was that something in the distance? A light?”
It was so far away, I wasn’t sure, but I had to find out. I had to find warmth and water. I could barely swallow through the thickness in my mouth. Even my throat felt too tight to get enough air through.
I took a step, holding to the wall as I tried willing my legs to work.
Just moving made my balance unstable, but I kept going slowly forward.
Foot by foot. Minute by minute. Continuing to exist felt like hell.
Advancing forward was torture. To breathe, hurt.
To walk was exhausting. I could feel the tears trail down my face, but they meant nothing.
This was the beginning of my new life. I’d be damned if I was going to fail before it even started.
“Drayton?”
Orange. Glowing. It tore me from the spinning. That was a light in the distance. Memories flashed. Sounds repeated in my ears.
More time.
Remembrance filtered through as the fog began lifting.
Bastian. I had to kill him. Drayton meant to test me.
To push me to extremes he didn’t think I could survive.
Little did he know, I wasn’t giving up. I wasn’t going to lose.
And before it was over with, the only one caving to his stupid expectations was going to be himself.
If my mother taught me anything, it was that I was capable of whatever I wanted.
All I had to do was figure out how to get it, and then it was mine.
Drayton… would be mine. But on my terms. Under my expectations.
Pressure and pain smacked into my knees as my legs gave out. Scrapes on my palms stung like fire from the gravel over the hard dirt. I forced myself up, using the rough wall as my guide as I kept on.
And on.
And on.
My eyes were rolling with fatigue as I got closer to the burning light.
And there were multiple flames, glowing and dancing to illuminate what appeared to be some sort of circle or path.
I let it hypnotize me as it called me home.
I let the promise of warmth lift my feet so I could continue.
But it wasn’t easy. I was barely able to stay awake.
Although my thoughts were somewhat clear, my body still wasn’t obeying as it should.
The drugs were still in my system, refusing to set me free of the effects.
My foot caught on a small boulder, and I stumbled, whacking my shoulder on the jagged edge of the smooth surface.
My cardigan caught on the rock, and I heard the material tear.
Warm wetness soaked the cashmere down towards my elbow as I struggled to straighten myself.
The sob that left me was full of frustration.
It had me slamming my fist into the wall that supported me.
“Hello? Is someone there?”
My body jolted at the voice. It caught me so unexpectedly that the sound was an alarm to my nerves. My pulse hit hard, and my gut twisted with even more nausea as the tone registered. I took another step, feeling dread turn my limbs into lead.
“I heard you cry out. Hello? Help! Please, help me. I’m tied up. I… I think I’m hurt.”
I didn’t answer as I turned to face the rock.
My forehead eased down against the cold surface, and I breathed in deeply, trying to ground myself.
I wasn’t ready for this. I might have been when I faced Bastian outside the store, but I was too exhausted to face him now.
I wasn’t even sure how I was going to make it the rest of the way to him.
“Please. I know you’re there. I’ll do anything. I’ll give you whatever you want. Help me!”
The offer in his plea left the cold seeping into my bones.
A broken-up breath escaped, and the flashes of his beaten mistresses massacred my heart.
I didn’t love Bastian, but I had made myself vulnerable in believing we’d be partners after our marriage.
I imagined a happy life. Kids, with my distinct light-colored eyes and his black curly hair.
I pictured a warm home like I’d never had.
I didn’t trust, and yet a big part of me had trusted him.
I had believed in him. And he was not who I thought he was.
What would have become of me, of these children I had dreamed up, had I married him?
Would we have become a mirror of those small, broken, busted up women?
Vile, yes. He was a disgusting man. He didn’t deserve to live. No one deserved to be locked into a marriage with him.
I pushed from the wall, finding strength through my anger as I kept walking forward, right to the middle of the large tunnel.
He wouldn’t see me clinging to a wall before I killed him.
Weakness didn’t exist anymore. It couldn’t in my world.
Actions were everything, and mine would speak in bigger volumes than my voice ever could. Drayton would see. They’d all see.
“H-Hello? I think I hear you. I’m back here. Please, hurry!”
Slowing, I stayed in the darkness, taking in the man I used to think was so strong.
So gallant and honorable. I wasn’t na?ve to know we all wore masks.
His were far more deceiving than any fake one Drayton had worn.
At least when I’d been abducted, there was no hiding the motives.
With Bastian, he had fooled us all. Maybe he’d even fooled himself.
“Come closer. I think I see something. I think I see you. Please, hurry. We have to get out of here.”
I didn’t move. I took in his nude body that appeared to be tied to a pole.
His arms were restrained over his head, and his feet were bound together at the ankles.
Next to him rested what looked like a cart.
The tall torches made a path, only to open to a circle where he rested at the very back.
There should have been a torch where he stood, but there wasn’t.
Just him taking its place, surrounded by the fire.
Surrounded by the warmth and light I craved.
I took one step forward. One more. I watched the way Bastian’s head moved and his eyes narrowed at my movements. He could see something, but he didn’t know it was me.
“We don’t have much time, please. I’ve been here for hours. It’s freezing. They’re sure to come back soon. I know you’re hurt. I heard you cry out. You don’t have to be scared of me.”
Scared?
Anger had me fighting my way forward. I was still shaking so badly from the cold, but I held myself together as I headed his way.
I knew the moment Bastian realized it was me.
First, his head reared back. Then, it started shaking.
The confusion was evident as he tried twisting against the rope that trapped him.
“Not you. Not you!”
“I told you I was going to kill you.”