Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
AUDREY
Trial Four
A rough slap across my face abruptly woke me from sleep.
Calloused fingers covered my mouth as my eyes blinked open only to find myself surrounded in black.
I attempted to move my arms, only to find that they were bound, forcing my shoulders to strain as I continued trying to break free. Damn it, not again.
My mind debated wondering where I was and how I got here. What am I tied to now? I tried to yank my arms, then my legs, grunting in defeat when restraints refused to budge an inch.
Blindfolded and bound, I refused to let panic engulf me. This would not be worse than the horrors I went through being trained as the Ellsworth heir. I refuse to break.
An air conditioner clicked on somewhere; the constant whir lulled me into a false sense of peace.
Right as my eyes drifted closed again, a countdown started…
bright lights flashed and bled partly through the fabric covering my eyes.
A mechanical voice monotonously droned on, warning me that whatever hell I was about to endure was soon to begin.
Ten.
Nine.
A door clicked open. Footsteps grew louder as my head tilted toward the noise. A heavy weight sat on my chest as unnatural grogginess slowed my reactions down.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
“Remove the binds from the girl.” Rough hands pulled at the restraints at my wrist, until a soft click was heard and my hand was free. “Only her hands.” A few minutes later, both my hands were released, and I lifted them to yank the blindfold off as the voice halted me.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you…”
Five.
“You may not be prepared for what you see.”
Four.
Three.
“The boy is ready, sir.” A second voice interrupted the one counting down. It sounded real, not robotic and fake like the one failing at threatening me. My memory jogged as I held my breath. “I hope you’re right. I fear for what this will do to him…but—”
“We all surrender something when fate calls your name,” the voice in charge cut off harshly. No air of question lingered in his words. A trial was upon me and if my situation was anything to go by…maybe I was foolish to not be afraid.
Trial.
Trial.
“Don’t question me—”
Again, that sluggishness hit me. My limbs felt heavy even as I struggled to turn my head. Small movements. Quiet breaths. Just enough so I could watch the men whose masks were hidden under hoods. The Ludi. Fuck.
Two.
It all rushed back in. Trial Four. Blood. Test. Love. Hearts. The penultimate trial of The Ludi had begun. I threw my arm out, socking the man standing too close to me in the gut.
“Now, now, Ellsworth. I tried being nice.” Grunting was heard as a presence stepped closer to be, on my other side. “Apollo, bind her hands. Tightly. Above her head this time.”
I felt his presence more than I could see his outline as the man giving orders stepped closer to me. The words from the trial card still swirled around my head as my arms were once again brutally yanked and locked above my head. To pass this trial, a love must be poisoned, and a heart must shatter…
“Bring him in. I am looking forward to seeing the destruction a broken heart will cause both of them…”
One.
The mechanical voice hit the final number as the grind of metal on stone rang through the room. It was followed by the angry, yet subdued shout of an achingly familiar voice and the hushed words of admonishment of whoever was guiding him.
“Welcome! You have made it to Trial Four…” The man who was standing as if to cover me stated, “A trial of hearts…of loyalty, of love. And of fate. I am giving you three hours and all you must do is make a choice…your love, the lust you hold for the girl you call your Queen, or accepting defeat and cutting your life short…” The glee was threaded under the robotic eeriness of the voice giving us our instructions.
“By your own hand of course!”
His words dripped like poison as understanding slammed into my brain.
Lexington would have to choose…sleep with me bound, against my will or end his life by his own bloodied hands.
It was an awful choice, since I always suspected that Lex harboured feelings for me.
He was never quite the same after Calliope went missing four years ago…
but it had seemed that he was returning to us… or to Worth at least.
“Come on, boy, step forward and see…what this trial will damn her to.” A gloved hand pulled the blindfold down, tightening it once it hit my mouth. “And even better, she won’t be able to yell or call for help.”
My eyes blinked furiously, trying to adjust to the brightly lit room I found myself in.
Lexington’s horror filled face flooded my vision from behind the shoulder of the man, masked and dressed in black, standing in front of me.
A grimness ploughed into me, my brain finally catching up.
They had sedated me. Just enough to demand compliance, but not enough for outward signs to show. I’m sorry Lexington…
“Blood was tested. A heart found beating for the wrong love will fade…” The masked man slid closer to me, bending down to whisper one word faintly against my lips, “zmeya.”
My safe word. My eyes flared in understanding, knowing if this became too much, this man was giving me a way to escape. To force the end of the horror that might await. But at what cost? I was unsure, even though that was a problem for future me as I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
He tapped a long, gloved finger on my chin. A quick succession of three, followed by a reluctant fourth. Trying to make me see…to make me remember…
A golden gaze, pale green eyes and dark navy orbs gazed down at me, followed by deep violet ones full of secrets I yearned to discover.
The man straightened, striding across the room as he adjusted his clothes. Double and triple checking his god-awful mask stayed in place.
“Three hours, and remember…to pass this trial, a love must be poisoned, and a heart must shatter…”
The door closed, booming in the silence.
Lex stumbled to my side, mouth forming words that I couldn’t hear as tears trailed down his rapidly paling face.
His eyes bounced around the space we found ourselves in, frantic and wild before locking onto the single stone table, a sharp, vicious looking knife atop it.
We sat in silence, Lex and I, for seconds or minutes as an unknown amount of time went by.
Meanwhile, my mind went dark, spinning ruefully.
The pervasive quiet dangling between us like a smoking gun.
Neither of us wished to be the one who broke it first, shattering the illusion we pretended was not this final damning night.
“Audrey…”
Shaking my head, I refused to blink. Feeling the sheen of tears, heavy lids, weighted limbs. Knowing what came next…
“Audr-rey, please. Look at me.” I gave him this. A final glance. A painfilled stare as stars circled above, black spots danced across my eyes as his form focused into startling clarity. And still we sat, the dead air in the room, drowning out the noise our hearts thudded too.
Sacrifice.
No. This trial reminded me that it could always be worse.
Forcing Lex to face feelings he had tried to deny, in a way so repulsive and vile…
Forced to hurt someone who he knew had always been on his side.
It’s a lose-lose trial. I blinked then, unable to bear the emotions filling his face, the way his skin tinted green just a hint.
“I am so sorry, Audrey…”
Lex coughed out the words, voice thick with emotion as his hands fumbled with his belt, fingers shaky and unsure. His legs locked in place, skin still a sickly pale. “So…sorry…”
“No. No. No.” He screwed his eyes closed.
Unable to look at me, he stumbled back, then fell onto his arse.
I couldn’t be sure how much time had passed but I knew this would not get any easier.
Lex curled his legs into himself, hands gripped his hair, as wet tracks slid down his face and hit the cold, stark white floor.
“I can’t. But I must. No.” He battled with his mind as his survival instincts tried to force him to assault me.
His need to live dissociated him from moral, not right and wrong.
Love and hate, because if he lived, he would hate me for this like I would him.
The absence of a choice, the betrayal of taking what he knew wasn’t his.
Giving me a piece of himself, even unwilling, that I had always known was hers. Callie Rose. “Wrong. It’s wrong.”
“No. No. No. No.”
He pushed himself up, yanking his shirt from his frame and sliding his feet from his shoes.
Turning, he bent to pick them up, hurling them at the tinted glass windows I was now looking towards, the panes of glass that surrounded this horror show.
Aleksandr…I hoped he hadn’t been forced to watch, that he wasn’t here.
Even if I wished he was, if only for that silent strength. That he did not have to witness the tragedy about to occur. It would break him, the truth of the secret he had suspected, now a factor in how my body would react to this…of how much trauma I could take.
“I have to. I can’t. Audrey. Audrey. Audrey. I am so—”
Lexington rushed the table with the knife, pausing as his arm reached out to pick it up.
Fingers flexed. Open. Shut. Reaching but not.
His feet pacing, one hand still anxiously yanking at his hair, clawing at his face, debating how best to debase me.
Freezing for ages as I watched, the will to fight leaking out of me as whatever they had sedated me with fully took effect.
“Two hours remain.”
A taunting voice began to echo around the room. The voice sounded familiar, yet not one I could place.
“A love to be tested in a matter of three. One to test her soul…” The voice caused Lex to freeze. His body went so still that he could have been a statue. They played on repeat, speeding up and slowing down, designed to taunt and tease him. To fracture his mind.