Chapter 3 #4
I nodded, trying to clear through the haze of absolute terror, my training not combating the panic I felt.
“Get the files,” the man holding me ordered the other. It was clear he was more in charge. The shorter Northerner scoured the ground where most of the folders lay, grabbing pages from the file I had been looking at.
“Fuck, you made this so easy, kanin.” Behind, his husky voice tickled my ear. “Except having to watch that pathetic show of him nutting all over you in three seconds. It would have been repulsive to watch, if it wasn’t so pitiful.”
Embarrassment turned my fright into rage. I bit his hand. Hard.
“Fuck!” He yanked his hand away. My elbow rammed back into his stomach, pitching myself forward, breaking from his close hold. A warning scream parted my mouth, needing one person to hear and help me, but music from my own celebration absorbed the cry, confining it in the room.
“Dammit!” he growled, seizing the back of my neck and yanking me back into him.
“No!” I swung my arms, landing a shot close to his groin.
“Shut her up!” the other hissed, stuffing papers into his pants.
“Fuck! Stop!” the thrall behind me gritted, his arms jailing me in his embrace. “What did I tell you?” His knife returned to my throat. “Be grateful they can’t hear you, kanin. Too drunk and gluttonous, enjoying your celebration.”
“Just wait,” I spat. “I will gut you like that pig I just ate.”
A dark chuckle vibrated down my neck. His hand circling my waist, gripped my long hair, whipping me around to face him.
His features were sharp and brutal, his eyes pools of black ink.
“Think yourself so tough, kanin?” he sneered, yanking harder on my hair, tipping my head up to him.
His knife cut into my skin. “You like pigs being gutted in front of you, don’t you?
Who’s to say I won’t disembowel you first? ”
I glowered at him, trying to play out how I could grab his knife, slit his vile throat.
“Wren? Brynden just told me you two were being naughty in here.” The door started to open; Sarina’s giggle floated in before her. “Elvina and your father are looking for you.”
“Sari—!” A cry strangled from my throat, her name spilling out before his hand slapped over my mouth.
She stepped fully in and stopped. Her mischievous smile dropped, her eyes widening in horror at the scene. I could hear her screech bubbling in her chest as the other thrall lurched for her, time speeding faster than I could adapt.
Sarina’s scream penetrated the air in one note. A song of alarm, composed with fear.
The Northerner grabbed her, his blade slicing over her throat in one flick, depleting her ballad in a gurgle.
A wail consumed my body, her name ringing in my head.
Blood sprayed, terminating her cry. Sarina’s body stumbled, her hand going to her throat in shock. Her gaze lifted up, her shoulders convulsing, choking on her blood. She dropped to her knees, her icy blue gown staining the color of overripe cherries.
“Sarina!” Body thrashing, my muddled screams echoed in my head, corroding my throat.
No. This can’t be happening! She can’t die.
Her eyes found mine, peering up in pained uncertainty. Her head hit the rug, gaping for oxygen she could no longer reach. Sadness and fear, then understanding. Her body went limp, her gaze still on me, but she was no longer there.
“Nooo!” I sobbed. Unbearable grief had me sagging to the floor, slipping from my abductor’s hold. I stared at my best friend’s blank gaze. “Rina . . . Rina, please wake up . . .” My heart spilled out in agony, still trying to get to her.
She cannot be dead. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
It should be me.
My head twisted back and forth in denial. “Please . . . Sarina.”
No begging in the world would bring her back.
Sarina was dead.
Voices yelled down the hall, sounding alarmed and loud.
“Faen!” I heard one of the men bark in a thick northern accent. “They know we’re missing. We have to get out of here.”
The Northerner holding me tried to lift me up. My body going limp in his hold.
“Stop fighting me,” he snarled.
“Kill me,” I sobbed, trying to claw my way to Sarina. She was my sister. The only friend I ever had.
“You’re the reason we’re even here, kanin.”
“We have to go! Now!”
“I’m trying!” He grasped for my arms, but I fought against him.
“She’s feather-thin! It can’t be that hard.”
“Then you fucking get her.” The man stepped back, letting me drop to the ground.
“Knock her out!” The other male stepped over me. “We can’t have her keep calling us out. Too much is on the line.”
His statement plucked me away from Sarina, reminding me my mouth was free and that I could still fight.
“Help!” I tried to lunge a hit for his crotch, belting out my last cry of hope to anyone who could hear me. “HEL—”
Something struck the side of my head. Pain sliced across my vision. Losing control of my body, I slumped to the ground, my face right in line with Sarina’s.
My last view was of my best friend’s dead eyes, her blood spreading across the white rug.
I yearned for the darkness, desperate for it to take me and never let me go again, ending the pain and the truth.
I failed.