Page 73 of Wind and Water
With my hands bound, it’s all I can do to keep from landing on my face. My knees are cut and bruised, and the heels of my hands are scraped bloody. Rising, I give him a baleful glare. It’s only Liam’s warning to stay alive that keeps me from lashing out.
Holding my chin high, I walk to the space indicated and stand facing the witch queen. “Wren is my name.”
She smiles, and pure evil pours from the expression.
My stomach lurches, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in warning.
“See, this is better. Isn’t it? I ask you a question, and you answer. No one needs to be harmed.” She takes a deep breath that brings the ridiculous fan higher. “I need information about human magic and how you restore yourselves when you expend it.”
Hmm. A new tactic. “Why?”
“Why?” she bites back.
“Yes. Why do you need to know that?” I have a bad feeling about the way she’s asking this.
“I need to understand human magic. The way a species rejuvenates is key to how the magic is sustained.”
“So that you can invade and conquer my people? No. That’s not going to happen. Besides, humans have no magic.” I stick to my guns.
Venora rises, and she towers over me. Her eyes flash red, then black. “You will tell me, either now or after I rip the magic from your rotting bones.” Black shards of lightning shoot from her hands.
It lances into me like a hundred knives stabbing at the same time. I scream, but no sound comes out, or my ears have stopped working. I can’t tell which. The solid rock floor rises up to meet me as I crash and writhe on my back.
The pain stops. I pull my hands away from my abdomen, expecting to find them bloody, but there is nothing but the dull ache of the torture of a moment before. My pulse races. Adrenaline flushes my skin. This world of Liam’s makes me want to kill, which is something that never occurred to me in my world. The evil here is somehow greater or less shrouded. Also, no one ever tortured me or tried to turn someone I love into a demon back in Texas.
“Tell me how you restore yourself.”
“Sleep.” I close my eyes, hoping she’ll accept that as an answer since I have no knowledge or inclination to tell her anything.
“That is not an answer, Wren Martin. Sleep restores the body but not magic.” There’s a pause, and then the pain begins again and lasts longer.
It’s as if I’m being flayed alive. My screams echo off the walls.
Ciaran laughs from somewhere behind me.
Everything goes black.
“The human has lost consciousness, Ciaran. She is weak. Give her a taste of the power of the source.”
I’m barely lucid, but the dragging of my body across the stone floor pulls me back. Cracking my lids open is the best I can do, even as the ropes around my wrists bite at my flesh.
I cry out as the two steps up to the pool bruise my ribs and hips.
His face presses to mine. “Now you will know the truth. You cannot win, stupid, weak, human.”
My stomach roils as he licks my cheek. His grip is so tight, jerking back does me no good.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you die.” My body is so sore and battered, it’s hard to draw breath, and my words are mumbled.
At the pool’s edge, the heat of whatever roils within makes it hard to breathe. As soon as my hands hit the viscous liquid, a surge a power floods me, pushing through my body, my soul, and my mind. Everything I know exists in a fog, and only the pain of too much power is real. Voices press on my consciousness. Evil. Only evil and dark. There is no light. All good has been wiped from the universe.
Barely able to form a thought, I try to push back at the fires of this energy she called the source. I realize it’s where she’s getting her healing. She’s gaining strength by using this horrible, dark magic.
In my mind, I know that Venora has made a deal with the devil.
The voices clearly want me to hear them, but I don’t want whatever they’re offering. Forcing my mind away, I see Liam with his deep blue eyes filled with love, looking at me as if I’m the only woman in all the worlds. I hold the image in my mind until the voices fade and pain sears up my arms to every nerve.
I shake, and the stairs batter my side. I scream until my throat closes. Gasping for breath, I want to do as Liam asked andstay alive. Never seeing him again fills me with a worse pain than all the evil Venora and Ciaran can throw at me.
