Chapter 20
Everything hurt. It was so hauntingly familiar that the pain almost shrouded me like a soft blanket.
My mind wouldn’t think in a straight line.
Fuzzy stars and static interrupted every thought that tried to float to the surface.
Aches in my jaw, across my back, around my neck.
I felt empty. My body wouldn’t move, but the unforgiving wooden floor I lay on careened beneath me.
I kept my eyes closed, leaving myself in a void of cigar smoke and alcohol.
Darkness was preferable to Vaetrik’s gleeful smile in the lamplight.
I flinched at each of his heavy footsteps as he walked to his desk to put the knife down. Scorching lines carved into my stomach overwhelmed every other pain across my body, and I huddled tighter into a ball to try and shove it away.
I only remembered shards of the past few days.
Maybe it had been weeks. Vaetrik kept me in his quarters, drunk and half-conscious.
He’d used my intoxicated state to his advantage, calling Shaddan to his room to listen to me sing the Song of the Void.
I had giddily complied with it, ready to give him anything he demanded to make him happy.
And now I lost one of my bargaining chips.
They might not even need me to retrieve the Voidtome anymore.
Shaddan had frowned deeply, and I thought I remembered the echo of his voice asking Captain Tynedall what he planned to do with me.
My thoughts slipped to Reiven. Hopefully Vaetrik wasn’t still having him tortured. I missed him, and that made everything worse.
Vaetrik had said something I didn’t catch. He waited expectantly, but I couldn’t clear the alcohol-ridden fog from my mind enough to say something to please him. My eyes fluttered open for a moment. Then a strike across my face forced them closed again.
“Answer me, pet,” Vaetrik snarled.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry—”
“Open your damned eyes.”
I did as I was told, but my vision blurred. His fingers curled around my neck, and he slammed my head against the floor. More fuzzy stars danced across my sight, but I kept my eyes open. If I didn’t, he’d probably only do it again.
“Good. I wonder what he’s going to say when he sees you. Surely he’ll realize no one can control you like I do. No one—not him, not that Druinn general—compares to me. Isn’t that right, pet?” His lips stretched into a smile, his icy eyes sparkling with cruel light.
I stuttered an agreement, but my pain-addled mind caught on something he said.
He…He wouldn’t bring Rei here, would he?
It was just the type of malicious game Vaetrik would play, trying to prove to Reiven that I would always belong to him.
But the realization that Rei was going to see me like this hit me harder than any of Vaetrik’s beatings.
Dazed, barely conscious. Dressed in nothing but a lace underwear set Vaetrik made me wear to show off the marks he left all over my body.
Reiven would be so disappointed in me for not being able to stand up to the man who haunted me day and night. Maybe he’d even be disgusted.
I didn’t have much time for regret. Vaetrik spun on his heel to sit on his bed when the door creaked open.
Though my vision remained blurry, I was certain it was Reiven who stalked inside, hands chained together in front of him, herded by the hawk-nosed pirate.
He froze mid-step when his gaze fell on me, lying on the floor in a battered heap of lace and bruised, pale blue skin.
His nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened.
My sight cleared a bit, like seeing him reawakened a will to fight inside me.
The muscles in his jaw twinged, and his chest rose and fell faster.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, he threw his elbow back at his guard.
He slammed it right into the pirate’s face, leaving him howling in pain, nursing his gushing nose while Rei dashed across the room and slid to his knees beside me.
He brushed his fingers against my cheek, a touch so warm and kind I almost broke down in tears as I stared wide-eyed at the anguish in his face.
“Zephra…”
Oh, he said my name. I nearly forgot myself and smiled. I nearly asked him to hold me in his arms.
Reiven leaned down and rested his forehead against mine, whispering, “You’ll be alright, I promise.
” The warmth of his skin left mine too soon, as he shot a vicious glare at Vaetrik, who just lazily lit another cigar.
“Is this how you get off, you fucker? Getting girls drunk and beating them until they can’t even stand?
” Horror flashed across Reiven’s face as he looked back down at the lingerie I definitely hadn’t been wearing before I left the cell.
He swallowed and touched the burning lines Vaetrik had carved into my stomach, above my right hip.
They weren’t just lines; they were a word I didn’t want to think about, but that Vaetrik had decided I would carry on my body for the rest of my life.
Pet.
Rei’s voidlike eyes flickered with such burning hatred, it almost seemed that the flames of the lanterns hung on the wall were trapped there.
“You deserve to die for putting your hands on her alone, but marking her like that—” The challenge in his voice rattled me to almost-clarity, and seemed to take Captain Tynedall by surprise, too.
Tension silently crackled in the air, the kind of electricity that sizzled at the edge of an impending storm.
Reiven’s gaze dropped to mine and softened, searching for the spark of life that had diminished, but was fighting desperately to come back.
He stood, moving to put himself between me and Vaetrik.
“It’s unfortunate. I so badly wanted to watch her bathe herself in your blood. ”
Reiven launched himself forward. His boots pounded across the floor and he was on Vaetrik in a heartbeat, flinging him by the shirt off his cot.
Even with chained wrists, he managed to pin him down and slammed his fists repeatedly into Vaetrik’s face.
Purely animal, purely protective. One could only imagine the damage he’d be doing if he was at full strength and unchained.
Vaetrik barely managed to block most of the strikes that crashed towards his face.
I had never seen him more thoroughly bested, and I couldn’t lie. It was satisfying to watch.
The hawk-nosed pirate guard shouted and drew his cutlass with a flash of silver, lunging to slash at Reiven.
But Rei was too quick. He rolled just out of reach and threw the short length of chain hanging between his wrists around Vaetrik’s throat to yank him back when he tried to sit up.
Using the pirate captain’s body as a shield from his lackey’s sword, Reiven cut off Vaetrik’s airflow until he gasped and flailed.
It was honestly a miracle that Vaetrik’s windpipe wasn’t already crushed.
Something feral, almost monstrous, glimmered in Reiven’s eyes.
He snarled and wrenched his arms back so that the chain bit harder into Vaetrik’s neck.
My body wailed to move, to fight back, just like Rei was fighting for me. To protect him with everything I had. I managed to sit up, but another hopeless thought paralyzed me. If I fought back with Reiven, and Vaetrik subdued us, my plan would go out the window. He might even just kill both of us.
Vaetrik didn’t have any weapons on him, and his pathetic henchman couldn’t hurt Reiven without also harming his captain. He tried and failed to pull the chain off his throat, eyes wildly darting between me and the pirate guard.
Screw the plan, he’s powerless right now.
But right as I moved to stand and help, the pirate guard shoved me back down to the ground with one heavy boot, then the point of a blade bit into my chest.
“Release him or the Siren dies!”
Reiven glared, yanking his head back away from one of Vaetrik’s blind attempts to strike him.
The pirate dug his sword into my flesh.
I yelped, but the blade next found my throat, grazing the delicate skin there until warm liquid slid down my neck onto the floorboards.
No, he wouldn’t dare kill me—Vaetrik prized me too heavily to just let me die.
Then again, with the way his skin had gone ashen against the stark white of his eyes, maybe Vaetrik figured a pet wasn’t worth much if he wasn’t alive to play with it.
My body quivered no matter how I tried to force myself still to keep the slice in my throat surface level.
“Stop.” Reiven gritted his teeth, slowly raising his hands.
The pirate guard ran to help his wheezing captain up, but Vaetrik just shoved him away. While he recovered, his lackey forced Rei to his feet with a cutlass at his neck to keep him from trying any other madness.
Reiven didn’t much care about the blade at his throat, apparently.
He laughed. Even when Captain Tynedall pistol-whipped him in the face with the firearm he snatched from his desk.
Rei tossed his hair out of his eyes and smirked, despite the trickle of blood blooming from his lip.
“Feels better taking a shot at someone willing to fight back, doesn’t it? ”
“You think I won’t blast that smug look off your face, you son of a bitch?” Vaetrik cocked his gun and pointed it at Reiven’s head, panting and glaring like a rabid dog. He might actually crack and kill Rei outright, Druinnic link between us be damned.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I stumbled to my feet and got between the two of them, my back to Reiven. I cupped Vaetrik’s face in my hands and stared up at him as if he were the only thing in the world that mattered. His beard was rough against my palms. “Vaetrik…are you alright?”
Icy blue eyes misted with surprise as I pressed my lips against his.
I raked my fingers through Vaetrik’s thick blond hair and used every Siren gift at my disposal to remind him I was his prize for a reason.
Pain lingering in his veins transformed into a jolt of pleasure that made him shiver until I slowly retreated from his lips.
His gaze flicked to Reiven, and a sharklike sneer spread across his face.
I pressed my cheek against Vaetrik’s neck and hazarded a glance at Rei, too.
He flexed his fingers, almost shaking with barely contained fury. Those beautiful dark eyes that usually reflected the surrounding light now swallowed the gleam of the nearby lanterns.
“Pet.”
I froze at Vaetrik’s soft, commanding voice, ready to jump at whatever order he gave me.
All his vicious, gleeful attention was on Rei. He saw something in Reiven—something that made observing him more entertaining than killing him, at least for now. Perhaps I should be grateful for his sadism. “Would you like to go back in the hold with him…or would you prefer to stay here with me?”
For one idiotic moment, my heart leapt. Everything inside me screamed to disentangle myself from Vaetrik and run to the warmth, strength, and reassurance of Reiven’s body.
I wanted to throw my arms around him, bury my face in his chest, and sob for him to carry me away from the pirate that ruined my life.
Even if we’d be locked up again, at least I’d be with him rather than Vaetrik.
Maybe I could figure out the feelings that burned quietly in my heart in time to confess them to him before Vaetrik killed us.
Once upon a time, didn’t I hate Reiven?
More than anything, I hated Vaetrik’s manipulation. “I want to stay with you.” I tightened my grip on him and turned my face away from Reiven, but I felt his stunned silence. He wouldn’t understand. I had to make peace with that for now.
“Anything else, pet?”
“I’m yours.”
“Do you know what that man said to me a few days ago?” Vaetrik snickered. “He said, ‘I’d rather die than see her forced into your arms.’ What a surprise this must be for him, that I haven’t coerced you at all, yet in my arms you’ll stay.”
Why would you say that, Reiven? You’re making everything worse.
“And what do you have to say to him?” Vaetrik asked me.
There was one advantage to understanding Vaetrik’s insecurity; he wasn’t just a sadistic monster, he craved amusement that made him feel powerful. To him, as long as Rei and I were just his playthings, he had nothing to fear. Giving him exactly what he wanted was the only way to keep Reiven alive.
But I had the strength now to defy him in ways so small, they’d float right past him. I turned my gaze to Reiven. “You are nothing like Vaetrik.”
“Nothing compared to me,” Vaetrik gloated, jerking my face to his for another kiss that made my stomach roil.
Luckily, he closed his eyes—otherwise, he would have noticed mine remained wide open, locked on Reiven as the hawk-nosed pirate pulled him away.
I prayed silently to the Spirits that he would read the defiance in my gaze and know I planned to end this tonight.
The moment I had Vaetrik where I wanted him… I’d have ten minutes.
Ten minutes to save Reiven and escape.