Chapter Four
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Ily
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“WAKEY, WAKEY, PRECIOUS ILY...”
Panic cut through me like a dagger.
I shot upright. My hand flew to my chest, stopping my pounding heart from escaping.
Just a dream...
The sick chuckle had just been a—
“Finally, one of you open your eyes,” Victor murmured. “I was beginning to think all of you were dead.”
Throwing myself onto my knees, I looked to my left.
And there he was.
After a month of nothing.
A month of fearing when he’d come.
He’s here.
My heart switched from pounding to galloping. “You.”
“Of course, it’s me. Who did you think it would be?” Victor chuckled. “Your father?”
Huddling into a tight little ball on my hard wooden bed, I couldn’t stop pure hate flowing through me. I’d never truly known the weight of such an emotion. The word was thrown around so frivolously. ‘I hate winter. I hate sand in my shoes. I hate pollen.’
But true hate...real, violent, gut-ripping hate.
It was as potent as poison, and I did my best to get it out of me. Not because Victor didn’t deserve it but because I was only killing myself faster by feeling it.
Forcing my hands to unfurl and my pulse to stop racing, I glowered at him. “You didn’t forget about us, then.”
Victor lounged on a comfy blue suede chair that’d been brought into our dungeon and placed just out of reach of our chains.
The bars behind him were closed, the keys swinging around his forefinger with a gentle jingle.
“Of course not. It’s been a test of patience to leave you this long. ” His gaze flickered to Henri.
God, Henri.
For thirty-three days, I’d had to watch him exist on the line of surviving and dying. Sometimes, I’d physically feel his soul’s attachment to his body growing weaker. I’d scream at him, hoping my voice punctured his dreams, ordering him to stay alive...just for a little longer.
Each time I begged him to stay, he’d suck in a rattling breath across the dungeon and groan in agony as he clung to his broken body.
Whenever he stayed for me, I cried myself to sleep for being so cruel.
I shouldn’t beg him to stay.
I should tell him it was okay to go.
But even with Peter cuddling me in those awful moments and all the terror of what our future held, I just couldn’t say the words for Henri to leave.
Because I knew. I knew as surely as I knew Krish would feel I wasn’t alright that Henri hung on just for me.
He’d clung to life through his beating.
He’d clung to it while Dr Belford spent hours tending to his broken bones and injecting him with God knew what.
And he’d clung to it even as his words grew scrambled with his concussion and he screamed in his sleep.
If I’d given him permission to fade, he would’ve. If I’d made him believe—while he existed in a half-coma, half-stupor for those first couple of weeks—that I was safe and he didn’t have to worry, he would’ve taken one last breath and gone.
And now I wished I’d been strong enough to set him free because Victor stood from his chair, tossed the keys onto the blue velvet, and prowled toward Henri sleeping on his cot.
Unfortunately for Henri, he was now too healed to die on a whim. Too strong to just float away in his sleep.
I’ve condemned him to a fate far, far worse than death.
“Don’t touch him.” I lurched off my bed and ran to the length of my chain. Clutching my collar, cushioning the many lacerations and bruises on my neck from trying to get free, I bared my teeth. “Don’t go near him, you sick bastard.”
Henri’s dirty, healing form went from slack with sleep to stiff with awareness.
Before Victor took another step, he rolled onto his side and sat up with as much power and decorum as he had when he’d been healthy and uncollared.
Victor didn’t see the bone-deep agony inside him or the way his eyes pinched with exhaustion. He merely saw an ex-Master covered in dirt.
I didn’t know how much it cost Henri to give off the vibe of a man not on the brink of breaking—to stand on braced legs and stare down our enemy—but he did.
Victor stopped with a smirk. “Well, it’s nice to see you’re in one piece, mon ami. After Belford’s reports of your injuries, I will admit, I had my doubts.”
Peter roused beside me, his sleep heavier the past few days thanks to our daily meal halving in size.
Our bodies were shutting down. Our skin turning sallow. Our stomachs hollow.
But now it made sense why our rations had been restricted even more than usual.
Victor had no doubt been planning this visit for a few days and wanted to ensure we were extra weak and helpless.
Sucking in a tattered breath, Peter sat up and shot me a look.
The look of pure horror on his handsome, gaunt face did nothing to settle mine.
Ignoring him, I kept my gaze on Henri.
On the way he gathered all the shadows in the room and seemed to use them as his crutches to stand taller. On the way he slipped on a mask that hid his true disgust and despair.
“What do you want?” Balling his hands, Henri looked Victor up and down as if he was one of the many rats that scurried about down here.
“To visit my friend.” Victor grinned. “Is that not permitted?”
“I’d hoped you’d had a heart attack.”
Victor snickered. “Sorry to disappoint.” He bowed with a flourish. “Still fit as a fiddle, I’m afraid.”
“Fiddles are flimsy little things that can be smashed rather easily.” With an arrogant tip of his chin, Henri crossed his arms. “Unlock my chains, and I’ll show you.”
“Nice offer, but I’ll pass.”
“What’s the matter, Vic? Afraid?”
“Of you?” Victor raised an eyebrow. “I’d be a fool to say I’m not aware that when you’re in your prime, you’re a hard man to fend off.”
Henri smiled.
“But you’re not in your prime anymore, are you?” Moving one tiny step closer but not too close, Victor chuckled. “Don’t feel bad, Henri. You can’t help that you’re not who you used to be.”
“I could still kill you.”
“No.” Victor drew himself up. “You couldn’t. Don’t lie, and don’t be argumentative. You tried to win against me, but you lost. What happens next depends entirely on your cooperation.”
Henri didn’t flinch from the pain of his forearm still in its cast. He didn’t wobble on his casted leg or show any signs that his ribs still gave him grief. He didn’t even ask what cooperation Victor wanted, refusing to give him the tiniest bit of satisfaction.
I was so damn proud of him.
So in awe of him.
So inspired by his ability to ignore his pain to protect me.
“Have you come to finish me off, then?” Henri asked with a sneer. “Because if you did, just get it over with so I don’t have to look at you a second longer than necessary.”
Victor scratched his clean-shaven cheek and nodded.
“You know what I feared most, my friend? That being beaten within an inch of your life and denied the basic necessities would break you. I feared you’d turn into more beast than human.
That’s why I allowed you the company of Ilyana and Peter.
” Victor threw us a look over his shoulder.
“Thank you for keeping him sane, you two. You’ve ensured the next part of Henri’s initiation will be far more fun. ”
“What initiation?” Henri snarled.
“Beginning your training as a jewel, of course. Remember all those levels of obedience you never did with Ilyana?” Victor grinned. “I’m going to ensure you learn each and every one and become the most obedient, sought-after jewel in my collection.”
Peter flinched.
I jerked.
But Henri said nothing.
Victor smirked. “Your role in my home has now changed considerably. I have no desire to kill you because you are far too entertaining, but you’ve disappointed me.
You’ve undermined me, mocked me, and tried to kill me.
You’ve proven all over again that I can’t trust anyone.
Which means I’m going to personally oversee your breaking to prove a point to myself. ”
“I don’t care—”
“The point that I don’t need anyone else.
I will soon have my heir, and he can cut his teeth on you as well.
By the time I’m done with you, you won’t be recognisable.
You’ll be my lapdog, my whore, my thing.
You will beg to call me Master. You will submit to my every command. You will bend over and—”
“Like fuck I will.” Henri stepped forward so fast the chain holding him in place clanked. “I will never—”
“Yes, you will.” Victor stalked back to the chair and fisted the keys he’d left there.
“Because if you don’t, I will take every one of your punishments and give them to Ily.
She’s the one who inspired me. A little experiment to see how far you’ll go for love.
I know you wouldn’t have gone far if I only threatened you.
Sure, you might’ve given me a blowjob to avoid a nasty lashing.
You might’ve obeyed me if it meant avoiding another month down here, but you would never go to the lengths you’ll willingly go to without Ilyana. ”
Victor grinned with every drop of evil in his blood. “She’s your true leash, dear Henri, and I intend to use her to make you heel.” He laughed. “I’m rather looking forward to it.”
Henri didn’t look at me. “I’ll kill you. I vow to you on my life, one day, I will fucking murder you.”
“Charming.” Victor licked his lips and looked Henri up and down.
“Seeing as your little fantasy will never come true, I suggest you prepare to kneel for my fantasies. Because the girl you love so much? I’ll make her life a fucking misery if you don’t.
Oh, and Ily?” Victor pinned his flat blue eyes on me.
“The same goes for you. If you misbehave. If you put a toe out of line...Peter will pay your price. What’s that expression?
Shit rolls downhill? Just remember that, all of you.
Henri’s pain becomes yours, and your pain becomes Peter.
As long as no one pisses me off, no one gets hurt. Isn’t that nice?”