Chapter 41 #2
The sound of his voice ripped through me, fierce and furious, echoing down the tunnel. Relief and terror crashed together in my chest.
Snake lingered for a moment longer, his gaze dragging over me like a final claim before his fingers released my face. My skin burned where he’d touched me. I sucked in a breath that scraped my lungs raw.
Then he turned.
His boots echoed as he crossed the short distance to Nik, each step measured, deliberate. The tunnel fell unnervingly quiet—broken only by the restless snort of horses and the low snicker of a Thorn somewhere in the dark.
“You should never have come here, Lightner,” Snake said lazily. “Our little interaction on the battlefield a year ago should have been the last.”
“Oh,” Nik shot back, voice tight with pain, “you mean the time I shot you with an arrow and you hit the ground like a pathetic bag of brittle bones?”
Despite everything, a flicker of something like pride sparked in my chest.
Snake’s lips curled. “It’s going to take more than an arrow from a weak Lightner to put me down.”
Nik grinned. “Re-match?”
Snake laughed—a low, pleased sound—then his gaze flicked to me briefly, like I was a prize he’d set aside, before returning to Nik.
The crack from the back of his hand across Nik’s jaw echoed through the darkened tunnel.
Nik’s head snapped to the left, but he brought his gaze back to Snake with a confident ease, the grin still plastered across his face despite the blood trickling down his cheek.
“Nik . . . please—” I breathed, the word tearing out of me before I could stop it.
Don’t provoke him.
Don’t give Snake another reason to take pleasure in our pain.
Snake glanced at me again, angling his head as he assessed me. I had never felt so naked—so stripped bare—as I did in that moment.
“You came all this way,” he drawled, his gaze lingering on me even as his words were meant for Nik, “just to lose her to me again.”
“She was never yours, and she never will be,” Nik snapped.
My heart lurched violently against my ribs. It was true, and I knew it with every fibre of my being. I was my own. Everything that was Sapphire belonged to Blythe. There was no separation anymore—no mask, no fracture.
And now that I understood it, it was too late.
Because not only was I my own . . . I was Nik’s too.
He wanted me. All of me.
And I wanted all of him.
Snake turned slowly on his heel to face Nik. Neither of them looked away.
My chest tightened painfully as hands clenched around my arms, holding me in place. I pulled against them, desperate, because I knew—if I didn’t try to stop this, if I didn’t fight—I would lose half of my heart forever.
Snake’s smile didn’t fade when Nik spoke. If anything it deepened, like he’d just heard confirmation of something he already knew but didn’t care about.
“Bold words,” he said mildly. “Pity they have no effect on me and won’t save either of you.”
His gaze slid to me, lazy and invasive, and my stomach turned. “I know she longs for you,” Snake continued, voice almost conversational. “I’ve heard her whisper your name into the darkness—every time she slips into that exhausted sleep after I’ve had my fill of her.”
The words hit like a physical blow, punching straight through my heart.
A sob tore free from my lips. My vision blurred with fresh tears as my eyes found Nik’s, desperate to anchor myself to something real. Something clean. “I’m sorry—” I choked.
Snake paced slowly in front of me, boots scraping stone, enjoying every fractured sound I made. “She could have stayed with you,” he went on. “But souls like hers always return to where they belong. As if Lucius would ever truly accept her.”
The shame he tried to carve into me burned—but it didn’t take the way it once would have.
Nik’s body went taut, every muscle locking down. Even bound, even bleeding, he lifted his chin, eyes cold and bright with promise. “You have no idea what you’re saying,” he said, his voice dangerous in its certainty. “And when I’m free, I’m going to permanently shut that stupid mouth of yours.”
Snake laughed—soft, delighted.
But for the first time since Nik had spoken, something inside me didn’t collapse. Because Nik wasn’t saying it to provoke Snake. He was saying it because he believed it. And as I looked at him . . . truly looked . . . I knew he would do exactly what he said.
With a flick of his wrist, Snake ordered the Thorns into action. That was all it took for them to move instantly.
“No—!” I cried as they surged forwards, hands clamping down on Nik’s arms, hauling him back with brutal force. Chains rattled, metal biting into him as he fought, snarling, wings straining uselessly against their bindings.
“Get your hands off him!” I screamed, thrashing as much as the restraints allowed.
Snake didn’t even look at me as he spoke. “Take him to the cells.”
Nik twisted violently, trying to tear free. “Sapphire—”
Snake’s fingers closed around my arm, hard, possessive—yanking me forwards before I could react. I froze, my body betraying me, every instinct scrambling but finding nothing to grasp. I didn’t know how to fight men like him. I never had.
Nik strained against the Thorns, voice ripping through the tunnel. “There’s a light in you the dark cannot touch!”
The words struck something deep in my chest.
And this time—I believed him.
“Nik!” I screamed as they dragged him away, boots scraping stone as he disappeared into the dark.
I fought then. Truly fought.
I kicked. I twisted. I wrenched my arms until the chains cut into my wrists, skin splitting, blood slicking my palms. It didn’t matter. Snake only tightened his grip, fingers snapping up to seize my tear-soaked jaw, forcing my face towards his.
“Let’s get reacquainted,” he murmured, breath brushing my skin. “Shall we?”
He dragged me away before I could run. Not that running would help me now. The air grew thick and wet as the walls closed in around me. The stone cracked and crawled with roots that twisted through like veins. The tunnel curved and dipped, not wide enough for horses and a cart to get through.
Every now and then an opening in the wall would appear like a silent screaming mouth of darkness. I’d shudder every time, wondering what lay behind the shadows.
As we moved deeper, it felt less like a passage and more like a burrow—something dug deep and secretive, meant to hide what crawled inside it. A place a snake would dwell in. My lungs burned. My wrists throbbed. And my heart was shattered.
The tunnel came to a sudden halt. Snake pushed open a dark, wooden door and roughly pulled me inside. The door slammed shut behind us with a soft, final click.
The room was lit low and wrong—dark stone softened by silks draped across the walls, gold accents glinting dully in the shadows. Cushions. Low tables. Trinkets like stolen goods from better places.
Snake’s den.
No different to the room I’d shared with him in his castle, except this one was underground. My stomach dropped as the truth settled in my bones. “Why are you doing this?” I whispered, hoarse and shaking,
Snake smiled his sickening smile. “Because I like playing with broken things,” he said. “But I like making Lightners suffer more.”
His cold, grey eyes gleamed. “Especially since we have a debt to settle.”