Page 85 of Cursed Lifeline

Her welcoming countenance, as I timidly approach and leave the horrors of my confines behind, miraculously reaches to my heart on a hopeful thread that ties me to something I’ve never been lucky enough to grasp before.

Home.

“Hello,” she softly greets me.

“Hello,” I awkwardly grin.

Overcome in her presence by how she makes me feel - worthy, seen, enough - I don’t even bother to take in her shape. Instead, I’m held in a trance as I desperately cling to the magic in her light caramel eyes.

“Do you come here often?” she asks.

“Only when I know you’ll be waiting for me.”

My response is met with a demure smile, and a blush creeps across her charming face as she bashfully lowers her gaze.

After a moment, her small hand reaches out and tenderly holds mine.

I suck in a sharp breath.

“Want to know a secret?” she asks.

I want to know everything about her.

Where she came from.

How I can keep her.

When I don’t respond, her eyes lift, and gently implore mine.

“Promise to never tell?” she grins.

Fascinated, I stare at her and wonder who she is, and how I might find her if I’m ever lucky enough to make it out of my prison alive.

The faint echo of boot steps trail close. As I’m pulled from my daydream back to a nightmare, I fear I’m destined to live out until my dying day; she whispers, “Viktor, I’ll be waiting for you.”

The door to my chambers bangs open. My gaze lifts and locks onhers. Before I can disguise my thoughts, she reads them and says, “Playing with fantasies never ends well, especially if you’re stupid enough to let them control you.”

I bite back the response that desperately wants to unleash. The one where I tell her not all dreams are fantasies. In fact, in exchange for securing one of mine, I gave her the one thing I was foolish enough to think she’d never use against me.

My submission.

Knowing so, loneliness overtakes me.

Forsaken by my coven for what I’ve done, what I couldn’t control, I hang my head, swallow hard, and whisper, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below,words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

Because of my transgressions, I accept my penance asshestalks across the room and viciously slaps me across my face.I struggle against my restraints even though putting up a fight is pointless. Watching me writhe in anger, her magic reaches out and violently pulls against the chains, forcing me back against the wall. I cry out in desperation, but it only fuels her relentless fire.

With a wicked grin, she taunts, “Behave before I make you.”

Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and imagine a mythical goddess with a peaceful gaze, a warm and inviting smile, a tender touch that soothes beforeshesteps forward and brutally grabs my chin.

Forcing me to meet her gaze, her powers reach out and demand my submission. When I refuse to meet her stare,herright hand slashes across my face. The air stings as it meets the cuts her nails inflict, and she seethes, “Look at me, servant.”

Reluctantly, I open my eyes. Jaw set harshly, I raise my chin in defiance and hiss, “To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting? If memory serves right, you weren’t going to come to me for a fortnight.”

She grins.

“There’s been a development,” she taunts.

---