Page 161 of Hell Bound

If he hadn’t pushed me away. Just a little reassurance that we were still in this together.

I knew it was stupid, but my heart didn’t give a damn. It had a mind of its own and was too stubborn for my own fucking good.

The pain in his eyes, mixed with a wild panic that cut at my soul, had told me everything I’d needed to know.

But too late.

An errant tear slipped down my cheek before I knew what was happening, quickly followed by several others. I let them fall, needing the release of pain and frustration.

At least for a moment. When the trickles began to turn into a deluge, I forced myself to shove them back.

This wasn’t the time to give in to the need to break down at the unfairness of the situation.

I’d get out of it first,thenI’d cry like a fucking baby.

Raking the back of my hands across my cheeks roughly, I examined my surroundings.

I hadn’t explored the area that first night that I’d been forced to remain here for hours. Now I recognized my mistake.

I had as little as minutes to find some kind of weak point in the construction of the stone wall. Anything that I could exploit.

Unfortunately, the tree was too far from the wall for me to climb up and jump to freedom over from a branch. Nor were there any headstones tall enough that I could stand on to boost myself up.

In truth, I was glad of that. Touching the stones had triggered memories last time, and there couldn’t possibly be a worse time for that than this.

I couldn’t go over it, there was no time to go under it, and there was yet to be a visible weakness I could exploit. That left me with a single option.

The guards.

If I could convince them to free me, I could run. It was simply a matter of figuring out what to bargain with.

My heart sank. One guard would have been difficult enough, but two? When I stood here naked with no weapon? When it was obvious that my tenure as queen was quickly reaching its end?

Even if I got the stoic guard to listen, to empathize with how fucked this entire situation was, that would never work on the pusher. His leer had told me exactly what he’d demand in exchange for my freedom.

I shut that train of thought down immediately. Even if it was for survival, I couldn’t bring myself to offer up my body willingly. It might save my life, but I would lose an even bigger part of myself in the process.

The sound of the door crashing open dashed any chance of escape. It was too late.

My doom had come for me.

“LILITH!” The bellow silenced the ambient sounds of creatures in the nearby forest. My panting breaths were amplified in the sudden silence.

I pressed harder against the tree, as if it could somehow swallow me up and keep me safe from him. It was a part of me, after all. The nutrients it sucked from the ground were rich thanks to my decomposing bodies.

Return the favor, dammit!

But of course, it didn’t. And shame welled in my chest.

Here I was, cowering behind a tree, as if I wasn’t the one who’d brought this on. I’d talked my shit, and now the consequences had come to call.

And I’d face them head on.

Old Lilith may have whined and whimpered through her abuse, but it wasn’t going down like that this time.

Squaring my shoulders, I stepped from behind the shelter of the tree and met his burning gaze.

“You rang?” I crossed my arms under my chest, refusing to let my nudity be a disadvantage.

---