Page 10 of Seized to Sacrifice
After she had succumbed to sleep, he'd gone in and put her on the dry slab. He'd wrapped her in a blanket and then he'd left her there, guilt chipping away at his resolve. What if they were wrong? What if she was just some poor human girl who, with every passing day, was getting closer to death at their hands. He might not have been the one to chain her, but with every moment he left her there, he was as much to blame as Rye.
That was what drove him to the dungeon door and down the steep steps into the dark. The sconces were empty. There was no point in wasting the fuel to keep torches lit. Prisoners didn’t need light.
Water dripped down the stone walls and the air was dank and musty. He turned down the hall to where her cell was and found Rye standing at the table in one of the chambers away from the cells. The door was open. There was a chair in the middle of the room, a rope nearby.
He was laying out his tools neatly in lines, polishing them. They gleamed maliciously in the low light that Rye had brought with him, and Nyx found that he was more than a little shocked. Rye hadn’t used these implements since before they’d settled here in this keep.
‘Are you sure about this?’ Nyx asked.
Rye didn’t look up, continuing with his polishing. He was meticulous where torture was concerned … had been known for it.
‘Think I’ll be rusty?’
‘It’s not that … What is it that you expect to gain from hurting her?’ Nyx asked him, trying a different tack.
This time Rye did look up. ‘Besides sweet revenge? I'm not aiming to get information, if that’s what you mean. I won’t be asking herwhyshe left us here,’ he said. ‘I no longer care. I just want to make the bitch pay, suffer as we suffered.’
Nyx turned away and went down the hall to the cells. Was Rye really going to do this?
The woman was still unconscious. It looked like she'd lost weight as well.
With a curse, he turned and strode back to where his Brother was still laying out his instruments.
‘The female is half-dead already,’ he said.
Rye ignored him and Nyx let out of growl, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him up to face him.
Rye wrenched himself out of his grasp. ‘Get your fucking hands off me,’ he snarled. ‘What the fuck else do you want to do with her? This was always the plan. I've waited lifetimes for this. I thought you had too. But if you don’t have the stomach for it, fuck off back to your lonely chamber. I'm not about to let this opportunity go to waste.’
‘So, what?’ Nyx ground out. ‘You're going to cut her? Burn her? Make her scream for hours? Will her whimpers be like music to your ears?’
He pulled Rye’s shirt apart and traced one of his many jagged scars.
‘Do you want to leave her covered in marks the way that you are?’ Nyx asked. ‘Is that really what you’ve been waiting all this time for? You want her to cringe every time she sees her own reflection, remembering what you did to her?’
Rye’s jaw worked. ‘If I do, it's no concern of yours. We can each take revenge in our own ways. Now, leave me the fuck alone.’
Nyx let out of sound of disgust and walked back down the hall. Was he going to fight Rye on this? After so many years of peace, could the mere presence of a woman whomightbe her destroy that? Did he really want to go back to the way it had been before their truce; running around this realm trying to kill each other?
Rye came to stand next to him, sharpening a knife.
‘How will you start?’ Rye asked. ‘Tie off her fingers and toes? Or will you disfigure her first to break her? Shave her hair off in front of the looking glass and make her watch?
Maybe cut her face? Then burn the soles of her feet? Pull out her teeth? Perhaps rip off her fingernails while she sobs and begs you to stop?’
Rye’s jaw clenched. ‘Fuck,’ he said. ‘You’ve made your fucking point. Fine! What do you suggest instead?’
Nyx eyed her. ‘Put her to work in the keep with the other girls instead. We all know she hated doing anything laborious.’
‘I’ll talk it over with Thorne,’ Rye said, putting the knife away. ‘But we leave her down here for now. I’ll have to work a conjure so she can’t escape and …’
His Brother hesitated and Nyx tried not to let pity show in his face. He knew Rye’s magick was failing though he hadn’t stated it plainly.
‘… I’ll need the moon to be right for it to work.’
‘Have you not been saving your magick?’ Nyx chastised.
Rye gave him a wary look. ‘I have, but there have been one or two necessities recently. Hardly excessive.’
