Page 76 of The Nightmare Queen

Fuck. I didn’t think that would actually work.Quickly, I pull myself up. Rorin is twisted at an awkward angle on the ground, coughing as he gets his breath back from the fall.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL BLEEDING FUCKING GODS WAS THAT?!” He yells. Good question…I didn’t know if it’d work, but I figured it was worth a try. I pulled on the portal’s magic like I do when I manipulate Armond’s Void powers but instead of calling to the Obsidian portal and landing in Oriya, I called for Vada. But, looking around us, it doesn’tfeellike Obsidian. The air is too warm, and the trees aren’t right.

“Where the hell are we?” I ask.

He turns in place looking at our surroundings. “We’re on the outskirts of Valen…what did you do? How did we end up somewhere other than another portal?”

“I didn’t think of another portal…” I whisper. “I thought of Vada. But why in the gods’ name would she be here?”

I reach for her but she still ignores me through the bond. Her usually familiar presence, still absent. I decide to just choose to head in one direction to look for her. He reluctantly follows after me muttering the whole time we search about how he spent years studying the ways of the portals. Not only the magical element to them, but the technological and industrial elements as well and how a normal person should not have been able to overpower the latter two components and alter thetrajectory. I can't be bothered to explain something I myself don't really understand when my mind is swimming on how she managed this and how I missed my own dragon just minutes outside the city.

Sweat begins beading on both our brows from the warmth and the density of the moisture in the woods. I've lost count of how long we've been out here, but by the looks of the sun setting, we've been out here awhile. He stops in moving, spinning around to look at our surroundings a frown forming on his face. "What? What is it?" I ask, annoyed that we've stopped moving.

"Uhm, well. We're right back where we started." He says cooly.

"What?"

"We just walked in a giant circle, look," I turn around in place, "this the same clearing you somehow portaled us into."

I groan. "Oh not this again."

He lifts his arms up and down, flabbergasted. "Well, I'm sorry but I don't know how the hell you managed to get us out here, it just doesn't make sense!" He shouts.

"That is not the biggest issue here!" I shout back, wanting nothing more than to just leave him here and go look for my damn dragon myself. A loud rustling sound comes from the trees distracting us and both of our heads snap to the noise.

Thwump! Thwump! Thwump! Thhhhwump!

Each sound finds success hitting their marks. "Oh, gods." I choke. It’s too little too late when I notice that they’re arrows protruding from our bodies. He looks to me stunned and tries to say something as my body thuds to the ground and my vision blacks out.

Rorin

The smell is dank and damp in whatever hell hole they’ve brought us to. It takes my eyes several seconds to adjust to the lighting and notice that I’m bound up against the wall. Both of my hands are chained above my head and with the darkness I can only make out maybe five feet from in front of me.

Despite all that it doesn’t take me long to notice the dangling figure across from me.Eveera.There is a steady dripping sound, and while I would like to believe it is from some sewer or tap nearby, I know it isn’t. Her body was riddled with arrows when it hit the ground - I don’t even know if she’s alive.

I can hardly feel my magic, guaranteeing that whatever those arrows had on them to incapacitate us, it also incapacitated our magic. If she is alive she will be pissed once she finds out. “Nightmare.”I call into her mind. She doesn’t answer me right away and a sinking feeling forms a pit in my stomach until she chokes out a guttural groan.

As if our captors knew we were both starting to come to I hear the sound of feet approaching. Fear strikes through me the closer they get to us. But it’s not fear for myself - it’s fear forher.

They’ll reach her before they will me.

The voices stay low and their faces covered. The figure to my right takes the back of his scabbard and hits her torso with it. She yelps out at the impact and I lurch for her, forgetting for a minute that I’m bound.

“Oo-hoo-hoo. Someone’s awake. Look, Gribly.” The man to my left says, knocking elbows with the man to the right - Gribly apparently. They both laugh before cutting at Eveera’s shirt, exposing her tan and bruised skin. From the little stream of light I can see gashes on her sides and chest that have contributed to the pool of blood underneath her.

“Let’s see if we can make him squirm.” The first man chucks his chin at me as a he takes out a knife and digs it into an already weeping wound on her side.

“AHHHHHHH!”Her scream vibrates off the walls as it turns into a sob. I pull on the shackles again.

“Don’t. Touch. Her.” My words are gravelly. The first man turns towards me - only his eyes are visible from the coverings on his head.

“Too late for that, isn’t it.” The sound of fabric tearing and then her flesh echo in the room but she doesn’t scream this time. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she passed out from the pain.

I reach for my magic again, and try to Wield it in their direction but nothing comes. They continue to make tiny slits in her skin and clothes adding to that pool. Their laughter grates on my last nerves as I jerk towards her a third time, my muscles screaming against the wounds and the shackles that they have me in. “I said not to touch her.”

The man Gribly turns to me, “what, don’t want to watch us play with your little girlfriend?” He takes a stubby finger and tugs on the waistbandof her underwear snapping it against her skin. The touch has me seeing red.

“I’ll have your hand for doing that.” I growl. The man steps in close to her taking a deep inhale.

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