Chapter 27
We stood for several heartbeats. Terym watched me, and I watched him, an oppressive weight settling over me, as if the entire castle waited with bated breath. Then Terym loosened the laces on his pants. “I don’t wish to hurt you, my dear. Come.”
He snapped his fingers. What was I? A fucking dog?
I glanced at Shade’s lamp when I rose, the urge to run to him strong. I just hoped he couldn’t hear what happened next, not what would likely be the worst moment of my life.
No longer seated, Terym took in the full effect of my nightdress and how much it didn’t cover.
His oily gaze roamed over me, leaving me feeling so dirty I wasn’t sure a bath would ever cleanse his scrutiny from my skin.
It was nothing like how Shade looked at me; he made me feel coveted, cherished, seen.
I didn’t move closer, and the king released an inpatient snarl, stalking toward me. He gripped my forearms and dragged me to the bed, throwing me onto the clean sheets. “What have I said about defying me?”
“W-wait,” I choked out, scrambling back as a familiar tightening pulled at my chest. “I don’t—I can’t—Please.” I couldn’t find the words, couldn’t voice my refusal. Fear cloyed on my tongue, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I despised it. Despised how weak this man made me.
He paused, cold blue eyes dilating, and a manic grin spread across his lips. “I like you begging. I think I’ll like your screams even more.”
Bile resurfaced, and it took everything in me to force it down as icy fear cooled my veins, freezing me in place. The king shucked his pants, and before I knew what was happening, he had gripped my ankles and yanked me down the bed. I yelped when he pushed my legs apart and climbed atop me.
It all happened so fast.
One minute I was leaning against the headboard, the next I was trapped beneath him, his sour breath suffocating.
I turned my face away, avoiding those chilling eyes. Terym tsked, gripping my cheeks and forcing me to face him. He glared in disapproval, sending me back to hard blows and gasping breaths.
“I’m going to enjoy this. With any luck, I’ll make your cunt bleed.”
His eyes glinted, and before I could gather myself, white-hot pain flared across my cheek, my face forced sideways. Tears sprung to my eyes at the abrupt hit.
I should have seen it coming, should have known after last time, but I was just as blindsided as before.
Stupid.
Terym hooked his hands into the top of my nightdress and tugged, the fabric straining against my skin as the dress ripped down the middle.
Fear held me immobile when he groped at my breasts, pinching my nipples so hard I cried out in pain.
Tears, hot and thick, spilled onto my cheeks as he took from my exposed body.
Gods, it was so much worse than I thought.
His rough touch was sickening. Wrong—everything about it wrong.
Grimy hands moved south, and the ice in my veins thawed, melting into a blazing flame of fury the nearer he got to the place he thought he was entitled to. The fire was unlike anything I had felt before, surging from my chest and consuming me until I was nothing but pulsing, burning rage.
I wasn’t his to touch. My body wasn’t his to take.
He had blackmailed me. Threatened me. Threatened Eleanor. Only fear for her had me playing along thus far. He knew it, even got off on it.
He wanted to take something precious from me, but it wasn’t his to take.
It was mine.
Only I had the right to choose who to give my virginity to, and it certainly wouldn’t be him.
Fingers reached my core, breaching roughly, and I released a guttural roar. “No!”
Adrenaline fueled the fire in my veins, and I raised my knee quick and hard; it connected with his face in a satisfying crunch. Blood spurted from his nose, splattering on my bare skin as I scrambled out of his disgusting touch.
Forgive me, Eleanor.
I couldn’t do it.
Terym let out a string of curses, cupping his nose, with a torrent of blood rushing down his palm and dripping off his chin. Seeing so much of the deep-red liquid threatened to send me into a panic-induced memory.
I held it at bay. Just.
I had to get free.
Wrathful eyes fixed on me, and I shuddered at the chill it sent down my spine.
Rolling over, I aimed for the nightstand and the lamp that meant safety and protection.
Terym was quicker, gripping my legs so hard they would bruise, dragging me back to him.
I clawed at the sheets, the pillows, anything to find purchase. It all slipped through my fingers.
Fuck.
I twisted, aiming another kick at his face, but he was ready for it this time and caught my foot, chuckling darkly. “The fight only makes me harder, dear Adelia.”
Then he was straddling me, my legs trapped beneath heavy thighs as he raised a fist. If I thought his open palm hurt, it had nothing on the pain when his closed fist met my face. He didn’t hold back.
Dark spots danced in my vision, and I struggled to blink them away. I bucked, my body acting on pure instinct and terror. I screamed for help, even knowing it was futile.
No one could protect me from the king.
No one except Shade.
I had to reach him. Release him from the lamp.
I rolled my head back and forth, searching for the small black trinket through a haze of pain.
Too far. It was too far.
Terym struck my side and the barely healed ribs, making me wheeze out a breath. His strikes continued, no part of my body untouched, until I was nothing but pain.
His movements had his free erection rubbing my bare stomach, and the next hit was accompanied by grinding hips, pressing his dick further against me.
This time, I didn’t stop the bile, letting it spill from my lips and spurt into the air, catching Terym in the face.
He gagged, jerking back and wiping his face with the back of his hand. I used his momentary distraction to my advantage, and gathering as much strength as I could muster, I aimed for the offending appendage and punched him right in the dick.
He howled and clutched at himself, falling to the bed on the side Shade’s lamp was on.
Fuck.
At least I was free. I could either crawl over him or get off the bed and run around. I chose the latter.
Scooting to the end of the bed, I leaped off, tripped over the sheets bunched there and fell to my hands and knees. My head spun, having taken too many hits already.
You can do it, Adelia. Get to Shade.
Pushing to my feet, I swayed, staggering around the bed and toward the nightstand. To the lamp and the help within.
Almost there.
My head swam again, and I stumbled to the floor, bumping the nightstand in the process, the contents rattling. I took several deep breaths, trying to blink away the dizziness.
Focus.
The lamp was right there.
I reached for the black metal, my fingertips grazing the warm surface.
“Fucking cunt.”
Terym’s curse was my only warning before my legs were yanked out from under me, knocking the lamp to the ground and rolling out of reach.
My head reverberated off the edge of the nightstand, and darkness clouded my vision. Something wet and warm trickled down my neck, and I tried to wipe it away but more took its place. Holding my hand in front of my face, I blinked, catching smears of red through the haze.
My body was moving, being dragged along the rug and then flipped. The room spun around me, a sea of white and gold. I was vaguely aware of my legs being ripped apart, then a heavy weight settled between them before there was a sharp intrusion.
The sudden pain honed my focus, and I caught those ice-cold blue eyes above me, victory and lust filling them. I thrashed against the pain building inside me, but he held me down. I couldn’t break free.
Pressure curled around my throat, and I gasped for breath. I clawed at the hand, digging my nails into his skin. He didn’t loosen his grip.
Spots danced before my eyes again, and my world narrowed. All I could see was Terym’s manic expression. My body moved in time with a ruthless jutting, skin chafing against the soft rug beneath me.
This was it. I was going to die.
And the last time I spoke to Shade, we fought. I hadn’t told him how I felt, and now I never would.
No.
I would survive this. I had to.
I flailed my arms out, abandoning my attempts to pull the hard grip from my throat, and searched for the only thing that could save me as my lungs fought for air.
My fingertips scraped smooth metal, humming vibrating down my fingers. If I had any breath, I would have sobbed. I flexed my fingers, trying to grab the lamp just out of reach.
I’d gone too long without air. My body weakening.
Shade.
I screamed at myself to move, to stretch a little farther.
My fingers twitched.
My vision darkened.
A distant grunt came from above me, muffled, as if hearing through water.
Shade’s face swam in my mind, lips tilted up in a half smile. Then Eleanor’s face replaced his, the way I had last seen her, head tipped back in delighted laughter.
I had to survive. For Eleanor. For Shade.
For me.
With a burst of energy I didn’t think possible, I stretched my arm out, my shoulder straining painfully until I reached the lamp. It burned hot the moment it touched my skin.
The grip on my throat released, and I gasped in a sharp breath. The heavy weight lifted, taking the painful intrusion with it. I curled onto my side, coughing, my body struggling with the sudden onslaught of oxygen.
Everything was a haze of pain and spinning white.
When the coughing finally subsided, I blinked rapidly, clearing my vision enough to see what was happening.
His back to me, Shade’s entire body vibrated.
He was shadow and smoke, flickering between translucent and shimmering hardness.
His woodsy, floral scent took a bitter edge, saturating the room in cloying thickness.
The adrenaline filling my body ebbed, leaving me hollow and faint, but I still tried to drag myself to him.
A whimper sounded. Not from me but the king. He was on his knees at Shade’s feet, entirely bound in ropes of shimmering smoke, eyes wide and pained, with his mouth agape.
“How. Dare. You.” I had never heard that deep tone from Shade before.
It vibrated through the room like a storm, sending gray smoke into the air.
“You. Will. Not. Touch. Her.” Power pulsed with each word he spoke, landing on my skin in a cool sizzle.
“She is mine. To protect. To worship. Mine.” Shade leaned close, staring directly into the eyes of a terrified King Terym.
“The chains on my wrists may stop me from taking your life, but do not mistake them for a cage. I can, and will, hurt you.”
Then the tendrils curling around the king’s body sharpened, bindings of sleek black tightening until his eyes bulged, his body shaking as if raw power was being forced into it. The scream that fell from his lips was a terrifying screech, and it stirred something dark within me.
A satisfaction.
I wanted him to hurt. To feel the agony I did. My entire still body throbbed with it, the part of me he had violated in excruciating pain.
The king screamed, but I made no move to end his suffering. Not when I had suffered. When I still suffered. My body and mind were numb, the air thick and heavy. On and on, I stared at the vicious man who caused so much pain.
When the screams took a hysterical edge, it pierced through the weight on my mind, shooting me straight into the past.
A gurgling grunt. Surprised black eyes. Hands clasped a throat, red liquid spilling between fingers. Pounding fists. The crack of my ribs. A malicious grin. Grinding against me as I struggled. Sharp pain. The chafing at my back.
My body shook with every traumatic event flashing before me in an endless loop of pain.
Stop, stop, stop.
The screaming continued, so I covered my ears, rocking back and forth with closed eyes.
A torso slashed. Blood seeping into carpet. Glistening hazel eyes drained of life. Ruthless rutting.
Again and again.
Stop, stop, stop.
Ice-cold blue eyes staring down at me.
“Stop!”
The screaming stopped. I continued to rock, squeezing my eyes tightly. Then warm hands encircled mine, and I opened my eyes to meet molten silver through wet lashes.
“My Solis.”
Those anguished words were the last thing I heard before I sank into unconsciousness.