6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Kya
I think I was mistaken. They did want me dead. They were starving me and depriving me of water.
After what I had assumed was the second day, I began to seriously worry. I yelled and screamed so much my voice scraped across my tongue, then I slammed my fists into the walls over and over until they were bloody and raw. Sweat clung to my skin from the high temperature, and I was quickly becoming dehydrated. By the fourth day, I had become so desperate for water that I drank my own urine, gagging down only as much as necessary and trying to keep myself from vomiting all over the hot floor.
I counted as much as I could in an attempt to measure the days that passed. I knew I could last three or four days without food from missions as a Roav before I became weak from hunger. My best guess was it had been at least five days now, and I made slices along my calf to keep track. Running my fingers over the faint scars, I took a rock that had chipped off the floor and made another cut.
Six .
I had barely slept, fearful someone would return and I’d be at an even greater disadvantage. Not to mention, I didn’t want to see what waited behind my eyes. But I was so damn tired.
“Ryker…” I whispered in the darkness.
I wished for his presence, even for the feel of him through the bond. It was tearing me apart and worse than starvation or thirst.
I wanted to remain strong. I wanted to be ready for whenever someone would come so I could fight my way out of here. But I doubted they would. And even if they did, I was too weak to do anything. I couldn’t even summon the strength to sit up.
Maybe I should just sleep. Maybe I should just stop counting. Maybe I should just…stop.
It would have been easier.
At the sound of a loud clank, my eyes snapped open. It was the first sound I had heard, besides myself, since I was put in here. In the next second I was weightless, floating in the air above the floor for just a moment, before slamming into the ceiling face first.
“Shit!” I didn’t even have time to raise my hand to my face before I fell back down and crashed against the hard, unforgiving floor.
The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs, and I couldn’t breathe. Something was trickling down my throbbing face. I gasped, only to suck down the blood that had pooled in my mouth, causing me to choke.
I rolled to my side, spitting and hacking onto the stone until I could finally take a breath. Raising a shaky hand to my face, I whimpered, feeling the blood there but unsure where it was coming from. I didn’t know what the fuck had just happened, and my mind was too disoriented to think about it. Curling my legs to my chest, I held my face in my hands and tried to calm my heaving breaths.
After what was likely only a few minutes, I heard what sounded like stone cracking in front of me. Perhaps whatever had happened had broken the cell. A flame of hope ignited in my gut.
I scrambled to my hands and knees, crawling through the darkness to the wall. But, before I could reach it, the wall split, and blinding light flooded my prison.
I screamed as it found my eyes, having not been exposed to light for days. Or at least, I tried to scream. It was more of a garbled moan as I shrunk back from the light, throwing my arms over my face. I never thought I’d wish to have darkness again. I collapsed against the other wall, no matter how much I told myself not to, and faced away from the opening, cowering in the corner.
I wished for Ryker and his shadows to smother me in its soothing darkness.
My ears were ringing. Between slamming my head on the stone, the deafening crack of the walls, and the piercing light, my senses were completely overwhelmed.
Footsteps sounded behind me and I knew someone else had entered the cell. I barely had time to register the large hands wrapping around my ankles before I was being yanked backward from my confinement. I let out an animalistic cry as my body was dragged across the jagged rock.
I tried to kick, but the grip was unyielding. The moment I removed my arms from my face to reach forward to grab the hands, I immediately regretted it. The light hurt too fucking much. I covered my face again.
For the first time, I was grateful my stone enclosure was small, because it meant a shorter distance that my body was scraped against rough stone. The texture of the ground changed, becoming smooth and cool. A welcome feeling from the coarse, hot box I had been trapped in for days.
I could feel tears leaking from my eyes against my palms. I wanted to scream. To fight. To do anything other than just let it happen, but my body didn’t belong to me anymore. I was barely managing to keep my head off the ground, nevermind fighting off whoever was dragging me.
I felt the chill of wind against my bare skin. I hadn’t felt wind in days, and it brought a lungful of fresh air. I took it in deep, feeling as if my life was being restored. I felt soft grass beneath me, and I could smell wild vegetation all around. Everything was so different and welcoming compared to the environment I had been cooped up in for days. I relished in it even as I was being dragged away.
Eventually, we came to an abrupt stop, and my legs were released, dropping to the ground. From the grumbling voice at my feet, I assumed whoever had dragged me here was male. I tensed, not knowing what he wanted, but aware I was naked and practically defenseless. I only felt a small sense of relief when I heard the sound of footsteps retreating. I curled into myself, pulling my knees up and hunching over to try to hide my body and keep my eyes away from the brightness of the outside world.
With my face buried between the blades of grass, the scent of soil filled my nostrils. I removed my hands from my face, slowly lifting my eyelids until they were fully open.
Subtly turning my head, I saw two figures out of the corner of my eye. I assumed one was the male that brought me out here. He was broad, wearing dark clothes and boots, with long blond hair tied behind his head. He was talking with someone shrouded in strange red robes with only a small gap for their eyes.
They were standing off to the side, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. By the sound of his tone, the male seemed to be getting frustrated, and they both turned to face something he was gesturing to.
They’re distracted.
I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know what I would do. But I knew that this was my only chance to try to run as far as I could. Find a way back.
My mate.
It was all I could think about.
Taking quick note of the landscape, I spotted trees in the distance, deciding that was my mark. The patch of forest looked large enough that I could find a way to conceal myself long enough to lose anyone who followed. If I could make it to the trees, I could hide until I figured out what to do.
I felt my stomach twist, knowing this was a stupid idea but not willing to miss the opportunity to get far, far away. I took a deep breath and jumped to my feet.
Then I ran.
My feet slapped against the ground as I thrust myself across the field. I stumbled, my legs feeling heavy and tired from lack of use, but I pushed through it. I pleaded with my body to cooperate—I could rest and recover later. I just had to get to the trees which seemed so far away. My lungs burned from the exertion even after just a few moments, and the chill of the wind against my bare body reminded me of how utterly exposed I was.
Then I heard a shout from behind me, and I knew I had been noticed. I could hear his heavy steps coming toward me. And fast.
No no no.
I was still far from the treeline, and he was gaining on me quicker than I was getting away. I wasn’t going to make it. Fear coursed through me.
It has to be now.
Afraid of the repercussions of being caught, I exerted more strength than I knew I had, and I tried to shift my wings. I felt them make an attempt to emerge, but they didn’t.
Come on. Come on!
But it wasn’t enough. I was too weak.
A voice roared behind me, and the next thing I knew, a body crashed against me and slammed me to the ground.
“No!” I screamed, and once I started, once I finally found my voice, I couldn’t stop. I was so close, so close to freedom, I couldn’t lose it now—
I kicked and thrashed, my body being crushed under the weight of the male. I clawed at the dirt, trying to get away, but his leg was pinning my calves. I threw my elbow back, trying to catch him in the face, but he caught it in his hand.
“Get off of me!”
He grunted something I didn’t understand. I kicked harder and kept trying to free my arm and hit him. My struggling was futile, but I managed to scratch his face, causing him to hiss as his blood leaked from beneath my nails.
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and shoved my face down on the ground, hard. My screams were muffled as he held my head firm against the dirt and lifted off of me. Then, he yanked me up after him, and I cried out.
My hands went straight to his as I tried to pry his fingers apart, desperate to free myself from his grasp and the pain on my scalp.
He shouted in my ear, and it was the first time I got a look at him, but I was too concerned with being dangled by my hair—my feet no longer touching the ground.
I didn’t care what he was saying—even if I had been able to understand it. He could go fuck himself. I spit in his face, which angered him further, and I regretted it the moment he pulled his free arm back and drove his fist into my face.
Over and over.
The most I could summon of a scream were garbled moans that sounded unnatural.
My body went limp, and if it wasn’t for his tight grip on my hair, my head would have lolled back. I tasted the blood in my mouth, and I was certain my teeth were cracked. My jaw felt like it might have been broken. Everything hurt, but he wasn’t done. My ears were ringing, and I still couldn’t make out the words he spat at me just before he drove his knee into my stomach.
My legs buckled and I gasped for air, aspirating my own blood and praying to Kleio that it would end.
Mercifully, he stopped.
Perhaps my Goddess was listening.
He jerked my head back, forcing me to look up at him. He had a cold expression, like beating a weakened and naked female didn’t faze him at all. I took in his face—every line, every curve. Etching it into my memory. The face of a despicable creature with a voice that grated my ears. Eyes the color of a horrendous and noxious river, eager to swallow me in its depths.
I would never forget who I was coming back for later.
But for now, he had me.
He let go of my hair, and I slumped to the ground, unable to muster up the strength to stand. Then he hoisted me up and slung me over his shoulder. From the short walk back, I knew I hadn’t made it far, and it only confirmed just how idiotic my attempt was in this state.
Without warning or care, he dropped me face first onto the hard, unforgiving ground, and I grunted from the impact.
I didn’t even know who he was or even where I was.
I lifted my head slightly, getting a better view of my surroundings. Everything was bathed in warm, dim light. It was like nothing I had ever seen.
I was in a field of luscious green grass, with a small body of water in front of me and mountains off in the distance. But it wasn’t the field, or the water, or the mountains that took my breath and dropped my jaw. It was the moon behind it.
Encompassing the entirety of the sky before me, a moon—a magnificent blend of every shade of blue and purple curling across its breathtaking surface—filled my vision and momentarily captivated me. I glanced from left to right, taking in its massive size, and could just see the edges of the circumference, craning my neck up to see the top of the curve.
After seeing nothing for days, gazing at the greatest wonder I had ever seen was overwhelming. It was so unlike anything I had ever known, so different from the two moons I was accustomed to—a singular celestial sphere without a story of two Spirits who became the moons of my world.
The thought of those moons brought me back to reality.
This isn’t Taeralia.