CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Violet had made her way into the room during the lesson, watching all of the students with her bewitching, piercing gray eyes. It only took a second for them to land on Aurora. With a small nod and a lick of a smirk on, she acknowledged her.
Aurora didn’t cower from the females” stare. Having awakened early, she’d had time while she bathed and dressed to process what she could of the ordeal she had been put through. She knew it wasn’t just about as Silas called it, ‘correcting her behavior,’ it was also Violet proving she owned her now and could do whatever she wanted.
As she watched the deadly female watching her back, Aurora knew she was correct in her decision. She wouldn’t give Violet or her inner circle the satisfaction of knowing they had broken a part of her.
Her treatment at their hands had only served to fortify her decision. She would survive the Guild’s brutality the only way she knew how. She would create a mask that no one could penetrate.
The child-like innocence Aurora had held onto upon taking those steps and descending into the bowels of the Guild had finally been stripped away. They had succeeded at destroying that part of her, but she would be damned if she let Violet or Silas see it.
Aurora could feel beads of sweat race down her back as she went through her warm ups. Her body was healing, but the exercises she had been put through before seemed just a little more demanding on her today as she moved through them.
Violet walked through the room, with Aurora tracking her as she went through her stretches. She watched the female and noted the confidence in her stride, her graceful movements as she weaved between the students. Violet made eye contact with those who dared raise their gaze to hers, a soft feline-like smile caressed her lips, a reward possibly for their bravery or perhaps their stupidity.
She was making her way through them, and as Aurora watched her a realization hit. If she was going to survive the pit of Gehenna she was trapped in, she would need to change completely. She was no longer the girl who grew up with Eli, training with him at the side of their cabin. She was no longer free, and if she was going to survive she needed to let the girl she used to be die.
Grief hit her heart, but she quickly pushed it down. She had no choice, not really, she needed to let go.
Time passed, as it always did in the Guild, in a blur. Aurora could tell it had now been months of her in the Guild only for the fact that her hair had grown, no longer did it rest just under her chin. It now almost hit the tops of her collarbones.
In time Violet somehow morphed from her enemy into Aurora’s inspiration. The cunning female, a blueprint for her to emulate.
Aurora trained every day with Eli, growing stronger, faster, more deadly. She focused and worked hard to learn from Silas all the things she could that would push her to be a masterful spy.
In her first training session with him, she could barely look at the male. Memories of him tearing open the flesh on her back rushed to the surface, but she pushed the memory and the emotions down, locking them away. And as they worked and trained that day, the male showed no sign that the things he did to her had affected him.
As she spent more time with him she quickly confirmed why. The male was a sadist through and through. Unlike anyone she had met within the Guild, Silas found pleasure in causing pain. He enjoyed hearing those trapped in that room, screaming and begging as she had.
Lessons with Silas were held privately, it was just the two of them for the most part. Only occasionally did his small league of spies attend. They didn’t bother introducing themselves in any of their sessions. But that didn’t stop her finding out who they were, how long they had been at the Guild nor how long they had been training with the male.
Silas smirked when she revealed the information she knew. She had done it as just another thing to show Silas that she was worthy of being his student. It had earned her his recognition, and earned the others punishment by his hand for their lapse in keeping information private.
She was taught how to move silently over varying surfaces, not that she needed much adjusting and how to talk and write in code. To manipulate information out of her targets, they were techniques not hard to learn. Manipulating others had always come naturally, it wasn’t a great leap to take. From using those boys to carry her basket home to the things Silas was teaching, she was a natural.
After months of nonstop training, she had finally progressed to the lessons she had been wary of. She had moved onto multiple ways of drawing information from a tight lipped target.
It wasn’t her favorite, as a matter of fact she hated it. But Aurora knew to escape the Guild she needed to earn their trust and to do that she had to play the part of the dutiful student.
Her first lesson had bile rising in her throat. It had been filled with flashbacks of her old self screaming, tugging on the chains as the whip flayed her back, but that was all in her head. That was the girl she used to be. The girl she was now stood stoney faced behind a slouched figure. One begging her to stop while she used a dagger Silas had gifted her, as she slowly dragged it across the skin of the male bound in front of her. His back, bloody and decorated in both shallow and deep cuts.
She hadn’t expected the first lesson to be on a living person, but then she should have known because she knew Silas. His teaching style was, why learn on a dummy when you can be taught on the real thing?
He stood behind her, guiding her through the lesson. At one point his hand had found its way to her wrist. Showing the pressure needed and where to press the blade to inflict minor wounds that would cause the most pain. After all, the aim was to get information not to kill them, at least not before getting what was needed.
The two had become closer in the months that passed. She was unsure why, often lying in bed questioning it. Was it because he had trained her and could see things in her the others could not, or perhaps refused to?
Silas had noticed the change in her. He noticed during a lesson, the first one she had with him after her punishment for attempting to run. He had seemed impressed and had told her as much when she didn’t back away from him that day.
But Silas and the scars she bore were a constant reminder of where she was. She could never forget what the Guild did to their members and students, to her.
She hated them.
The strangled sound of pain from the male before her as the blade slowly slid down his back, brought her back to the task at hand. As it tended to do occasionally her mind had wandered. Blinking a few times in quick succession as if to shake herself out of her memories, she focused on the blade she held in her hand. She had decided Silas’ blade would be the only one used for times such as this.
Eli had given her back her own dagger quickly after her punishment, the one he had given her what felt like another life ago. She would never use Eli’s blade in this manner, something about using his gift for what she was now doing made her stomach churn. She would use that blade for awful things too, she was in no doubt, but never for that.
Her own blade was beautiful. Dark wood at the handle and a Starlight Opal crowned the pommel. She had loved how it sparkled when light caught it just right. The dagger had always been perfectly weighted in her palm.
Silas’ dagger was the opposite, the leather wrapped around the grip was so dark she would have sworn it absorbed light, and the blade was sharp, though not as sharp as her own no matter how much she tried to sharpen it.
The weapon was ready for the job in which it was gifted, to torture and kill. Even though it had been weighted by a gifted metalworker it still felt heavy, unnatural in her palm. As if it had been used to take many lives long before it was given to her, each adding to its weight.
“Very good, Aurora.” Silas purred into her ear. “Very good indeed.”
She focused on the work she had been doing. She had carved the males back up, enough so that it looked as if it had been painted in varying shades of red. Deeper, open wounds darker than the blood that wet what little places that had remained untouched though there weren’t many of those.
She did not smile at Silas’ praise.
She rarely smiled anymore.
Aurora stepped away from him, breaking his hold on her wrist. Grabbing a cloth from the table where a variety of whips and different blades, she glanced at the instruments, her eyes snagging on the whip she had known well before she turned resting back on it. Slowly she cleaned her blade and sheathed it on her side, the opposite of Eli’s.
Aurora moved to the water spout, she crouched down and began cleaning her hands, the icy cold water slowly turned red.
She glanced over and watched as Silas began questioning the male. His face was bloodied from the beating gained at Silas’ hands even before she had entered the room. She hated it. It looked as it had when she had hung where the male now was. Smelled the same too.
She filled a bucket from the spout, a memory of Silas doing the same flashed through her mind.
She quickly pushed the memory away.
She noted how Silas carefully picked his words. Fae used their words with purpose. Promises, bonds, and deals were carefully scripted and Silas said being able to work around the wording was vital when it came to collecting information.
Picking up the bucket, she stood and walked back to the table and set it quietly on top. She watched Silas with calculation. Everything was a lesson.
Finally, after getting the information he needed, Silas had the male taken from the room. Two cloaked and hooded figures dragged him with a little effort. The prisoner too weak to support himself even slightly. A frown pulled on her brows, but only briefly.
Aurora’s eyes locked on the male”s back as he was dragged from the room, every slice of his skin seemed more prominent. She had done that, the lattice of slashes were her handy work not his. She felt sick to her stomach but she would not show it, her face a mask of indifference still.
She refused to look away until he was out of the room.
“What happens to him now?” she asked, leaning against the table once more.
Silas walked forward, stopping close to her, too close, “He gets taken to a holding area, I will have a meeting with Violet and tell her what we learned. She will then decide if the male can live.”
Aurora’s green eyes raised to his, “You mean to tell me he could just get away?”
Silas gave her a lethal smile, “I said live, not be free. If he is deemed useful, he’ll have the option to join the Guild. If he refuses he dies.”
Aurora nodded slowly, “I have a feeling he’ll choose death. They always do, don”t they? He seems kind of too old to join the Guild anyway.”
Silas huffed a laugh, “You were the oldest Guild member we’ve had join us, he doesn’t seem much older than you.”
Aurora shrugged, her interest in the male over, “Lesson done for the day?”
“Yes, but I wanted to talk to you about something.” He placed his hands on the table, on either side of her hips, caging her in.
Aurora didn’t move, didn’t lean away, nor did she flinch. Instead she tilted her head, “Oh, and what’s that?”
“You’ve been training for many months now, Violet is impressed. She wants to make things official. You, Little Bird, have your first assignment.”
Aurora’s brows rose, her expression otherwise remained blank, “Really? I didn’t think that would happen for some time.”
“You have proven to be a quick learner and Violet is happy. You’ll officially be considered a Guild member, a small ceremony with the inner circle will be held first and then you’ll be sent off.”
“So, just like that she’s going to trust me? She’s going to let me out even after the stunt I pulled?”
Was Silas testing her? A little seed of fear planted itself in the pit of her stomach. Did they know she had built her walls so high that she would not allow them to touch her? Was this a trick to lure her only to break them down?
Silas’ lips tugged into a tight smirk, as he leaned forward slightly. His face was only a breath from hers now.
Her breathing hitched ever so slightly.
“Don’t worry, we have a way to keep tabs on you. Plus Eli will be going with you on each assignment until you prove we can trust you fully, then you’ll get to go off on your own like everyone else.”
Aurora crossed her arms over her chest, mulling over his words. She hadn’t dared to dream they would have let her above ground so soon. She hadn”t even gotten to the first level of the Guild when she’d tried to run. She couldn’t imagine that Silas wouldn’t be delighted at the idea of torturing her if she ran again.
She knew he would be sent to track her, hunt her and she didn’t doubt he would enjoy every bit of it.
A shiver ran up her spine at the thought.
No, she wouldn’t give him what he wanted. She would be the perfect little spy until she was able to figure out how to get away for good.
Eli had never told her what punishment he had gotten when they had come back. Being forced to stay underground was definitely part of it, but Aurora had a feeling he experienced more than he told her. He hadn”t tried to flee once like she had and she hoped they somehow found the ability to use a little mercy.
“Eli has agreed to this?” She asked, looking up at Silas.
He nodded, a slow up and down, “Of course, Eli knows you best and we do trust his opinion. He thinks you’re ready to go out again.”
Her and Eli’s relationship had gotten better, but even with everything that had happened she still trusted him more than anyone else in the Guild. In truth, she was tired of being angry with him. She had tried to feel something for the mother and father he had taken from her by his hand. But there was nothing, because she had no memories of them. Her life had been Eli, and he had built a good one for them both.
The only thing she felt was a burning anger for the place she had been pushed into joining. But she would never let that show, to them she would appear as a good little pawn to move about their board.
“Fine. It seems you have earned another Guild member then.” Her voice was flat, emotionless.
“If anyone has earned anything it is you, Little Bird. We’ve always been entitled to you, but I do like your agreement, even if you fighting against me is more fun.” Silas smirked; he pushed his body into hers. His lips skimming her ear.
Aurora tensed, she hated the nickname, a twisted version of the one Eli had gifted her and she loved.
“I’ll tell Violet and you’ll meet us in the meeting room with Eli tomorrow.”
Silas lingered for a split second before pushing away from her.
Aurora sighed; relief washed over her in a wave.
As much as she hated the male, there was a small urge she had to pull him in again. She still couldn’t ignore the fact that he was strikingly handsome. Even in his moments of sadism, that twisted smirk held a certain allure she was sure he was aware of. She hated him, wanted him dead, but she didn”t mind looking at him one bit.
All things considered she should feel nothing but disgust while in his presence, but disgust wasn’t the only emotion she felt towards him. No, what she felt was quite the opposite. She was sure there had to be something very wrong with her.
She shook her head to clear it. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, slipping inward, processing her thoughts and actions.
Silas had all but dismissed her. He had begun cleaning the blades and the other utensils he had used or had her use on the male earlier. Taking his body language as her sign to leave she gathered her things and exited the room. No goodbye, not even a grunt to acknowledge the end of their lesson.
As she left the room, she tried not to think about what she had just done. Silas had distracted her with his closeness and the talk of becoming a Guild member, stopping her from processing what she had done.
She made her way along the halls and dark corridors, she managed to avoid running into other students or official members. She made it to her room, closing the door with a snick of the latch and she leaned back against it for a moment. Her heart was racing, her mind working over the memory of the hours previous.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, she pushed off from the back of the door and crossed the room to her bed. She collapsed within moments onto the soft mattress. Aurora curled in on herself. She closed her eyes at the onslaught of memories, and as hard as she tried she couldn’t block the reality of the pain she had put the male through.
Her pulse was erratic, her tunic felt tight and stifling at her throat as panic fought to take a grip on her.
She took a deep breath in and after the count of five she slowly let it out. It had helped, so until the sensation had eased Aurora focused on her breathing as her shaking hands slowly began to settle.
But then she felt it...Something deep within her, something deep down, hidden away in some secret part of her. Aurora’s breathing hitched, her body almost vibrating with power in her body seemed to surge slightly before calming down again to a soft hum.
Anytime her emotions ran high, the same feeling slammed into her.
It had become more consistent as of late. Afraid to probe it too much, she always pushed it away, refusing to acknowledge it.
Whatever was causing the feeling only began when they walked into the clutches of the Guild. There was something inside her wanting to wake, and it was strong. It hadn’t happened until she became trapped underground.
The first time it occurred, Eli and Asher had seen each other for the first in many years, causing Asher to punch Eli in turn, spiking Aurora’s anger. Over the months she had replayed that days’ events over and over.
The thing she knew for sure was that it had to do with her emotions. She had been trying to keep a calm mask of neutrality in place at all times. She had done well, keeping calm in the Guild was no easy task. She had taught herself to not let her emotions take control.
Exhaustion suddenly rolled over her. She didn’t have the energy to change, she pulled the blanket up over her and drifted off into a fitful sleep. Dreams of pain and screams soon dragged her down into the dark.
Always holding tight, always keeping her prisoner.