Chapter 19
Blue
I couldn’t help but sigh as I turned. The foolish prince had called to me.
I suppose it was the safer method of contact, letters could fall into the wrong hands.
Looking down at myself I could acknowledge the prince’s words. I was filthy. I’d not had a chance to clean up. Father would be coming for me soon, I knew it.
Staring at the tongue sitting atop the velvet draping, I thought of how I’d lost myself back there. With a groan I dropped my head into my hand, massaging my forehead roughly.
I needed to get away from this stifling place. Return to the middle land for a while.
Erene.
I thought of my twin. It’d been far too long since I’d seen him last. Every time I went back it seemed like he’d grown another five inches. I clutched at my chest as I thought of his dimpled cheeks.
To protect him I needed to keep my distance from him, and yet, I couldn’t bear the thought of him thinking I no longer cared. Each time I saw him my heart was tethered more and more and each time he hugged me the harder and harder it was for me to leave him.
Maybe before I went to Prince Keelan’s kingdom I could escape to go see him once more and recharge my light for what lay ahead.
The door was suddenly slammed open, snapping me from my thoughts. I turned, holding my chin up. Of course, I’d been expecting father. But his violent entrance didn’t bode well for me.
The fiery eyes of an enraged pureblood prince stared down at me with contempt and loathing. It seemed father was in a killing rage.
I could only imagine he assumed I’d betrayed him by going to Prince Mikael behind his back. And for the first time, he’d be right.
“Leave us,” he snarled to his attendants. They exited quietly.
No one looked me in the eye.
“You mutt slut,” he growled, and then he came at me.
I was one of the most powerful assassins in the empire, but I closed my eyes and waited for his fist to connect. I knew it would hurt, but it was worse than imagination.
It was like being struck with a steel rod to my temples, my world turned suddenly black. Stars danced in my vision.
I dropped to my knees, panting as my head exploded with an exquisite lance of pain.
He rained fists down on me. And then he began to kick my stomach once I’d fallen to the floor completely.
Crack.
I gasped as one of my ribs broke. Strangled sobs spilled unchecked from my lips, I tried not to be too loud about it, but it was impossible to keep absolutely quiet.
I had no rights in this world. I quite literally belonged to him. If my master wished to beat me, there was no one who could stop him, and if I dared try to defend myself this beating would only get worse.
I gasped as his fist connected with my mouth, causing my front teeth to bite down on the nerve-rich meat of my lower lip. The throbbing in my jaw let me know one of my teeth had come loose.
Coughing, I wrapped a hand around my middle.
“What did you do, you slut? Trying to plot against me!” Like a rabid dog, he hurled the accusation at me. His spittle landed on my cheek.
I crawled to my knees; each movement was pure agony. I blinked and realized my left eye was rapidly swelling, the eye itself felt like it sat on shifting sand. And when I reached up to gently investigate, I felt my cheekbone rest in an area of my face it did not belong. It also moved oddly. I was pretty sure he’d shattered the occipital bone.
Before I even got the chance to respond, he backhanded my good cheek, so hard, that the force of it caused my head to thump violently against the wall.
Stars again. And a swirling vortex of black at the edges. For the first time I thought he might actually try to kill me. I’d allowed the beating to throw him off, but I’d never experienced his rage to this degree except for when he’d actually killed me. I’d miscalculated and now I was too weak to fight him with my fists.
I groaned. Up until now, I’d managed to swallow my cries, but I could no longer hold back my moans. He yanked his belt from his pants and began to tear into me. I groaned, falling over, and giving him my back. I felt each lash like fire across my flesh, eating me alive. I tried crawling away on my knees and forearms, but I was so weak that all I could do was flop and inch forward one millimeter at a time.
Tears rolled from my eyes. I could survive this. I would survive this. He couldn’t kill me, not yet. It wasn’t over. I’d not finished what I’d started. I had to think my way out of this. But all I could focus on was the agony of my wounds.
“You think I wouldn’t find out! He all but bragged of it to me!” I looked up just as he swung back, ready to lay into me again.
If he beat me too much longer, I would pass out. I raised a trembling hand, warding off his next blow. Stars danced before my eyes.
“I have not,” I said in a raw and painful voice, “beguiled him. Nor… have I… plotted against my master. My father.”
I tried not to cough, but I felt wetness in my lungs. I brushed my wrist across my mouth, it was covered in dark red blood.
He gnashed his teeth, but he’d burned through most of his fury now. I’d survived the beating. I was dizzy and bile was rising up the back of my throat. I would soon pass out but first, I had to convince him I’d not betrayed him. My lashes flickered.
Kneeling, he reached for me.
I flinched, expecting more pain, but his touch was gentle now. A soft caress of his fingers along my throat. Still, it hurt. Everything hurt.
Somehow that tender touch felt a million times worse.
“Why does he want my ugly daughter then?” His thumb pressed just slightly into the hollow of my throat.
I gasped, coughing and fighting the waves threatening to take me under.
“No one knows you are a sorceress assassin. So what other value have you?”
Most everyone in Demonia believed me to be nothing more than one of father’s many accomplished knights, he was right that no one should have known what I was really capable of. And yet, he’d gravely underestimated Prince Mikael’s intelligence, because he’d known from the moment he’d clapped eyes on me.
“Or was the crippled prince speaking the truth when he said the blood of the Light goddess is a drug to our kind? Hm? If only I’d known, I might have sampled your mother’s.” He leaned in, and I felt the scrape of his teeth at the vein on the side. His hot breath against my neck made my flesh crawl. “How come I never knew this? Did she hide that from me too? Do you now hide that from me, daughter!” he snarled.
I squeezed my eyes shut, whimpering. Appearing weak and pitiful, it wasn’t all that hard to do given the circumstances. Father sniffed my neck.
I could not let father taste me, he would instantly realize that the Prince had deceived him.
Planting my hands on his chest, I gently pushed him back, noting the crazed light in his amethyst eyes had dimmed just a little.
“I do not know why the prince wants me,” I said with a tongue that now felt too large for my mouth, “perhaps he is a pervert who enjoys the torture of half-bloods like me. Perhaps he imagines you and not me if he were to bed and break me like a beast, perhaps this is nothing more than an attempt to get beneath your skin by taking away your only blood child. But I have never deceived you, our blood is tainted, dirty, it holds no value whatever. You must believe me, you must,” I finished with a sob.
A glow of dark fae fire ringed the lavender of his eyes.
My jaw ached and when I pressed my tongue against my back molar, I did indeed feel it shift. Father was a sadist, a hateful and violent man, who also sometimes seemed to love me in his own twisted way.
I sniffed, wiping at my nose, making sure to smear the blood across my cheek. He would hurt me, but when the rages were extinguished, he would do almost anything I wanted afterward. He was the typical poster boy for abuse.
He shuddered and finally pulled back. Putting some much-needed space between us. I had to swallow a sigh of relief. Gripping my shoulders, his fingers dug in painfully as he said, “You are loyal to me and only me, yes?”
“Always.” I cupped the side of his face, pouring warmth into my voice I did not feel. “I… I pledged myself to you as a little girl, I am your most loyal knight.” I jerked my chin toward the desk. “There is the tongue of the one who defied you father, the tongue of a traitor. I. Am. Loyal.” I panted, clutching at my chest.
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