Page 61 of All's Fair in Lion and War
And even though the magick had worn off, even though she wouldn’t forget what he was about to do. What he’d already done.. Time would heal it more. She had to believe that it would always be this raw…at least…if she survived.
“Look. At. Me.”
She opened her eyes, unable to deny the command. His other hand was digging at the wound on her stomach. She screamed and thrashed and begged him to stop.
“When I tell you to do something, you do it. You are mine. You belong to me now. You answer only to me.”
She sucked in as much oxygen as her lungs would allow. “Never. I will never be yours. You killed him. You killed my mate and tore my soul in two. You deserve to die.” His face flickered in the light from the torches the men surrounding them were holding.
He shifted his weight and shoved a finger into her bullet wound
She choked on the pain.
It was everywhere.
In every nerve.
Every movement. He might as well have had his claws wrapped around her spine.
“You remember Tallix dying?” He dug his finger further, curling it up and pulling at her flesh. “The way he cried for you. Begged me to spare your life. It was everything I’d dreamed it would be. And then the world started to burn and we had to come here.”
Lorelei choked on blood. It filled her mouth and leaked out the corners, running down to the back of her neck and soaking her hair. The metallic taste was overwhelming. It took every shred of concentration she had left to manage to get a breath without drowning.
The pressure in her stomach.
The pain.
It was only getting worse. He was slicing her with his claws. Tearing through her body like she was prey he’d hunted.
He was going to kill her. Right here. Right now.
“Do you remember, Lorelei?”
His grip on her face tightened painfully. She met his angry glittering gaze and blinked once, acknowledging his question.
“Everything?”
She tried to move her head back and forth against his grip. She didn’t have everything, not yet, but the pieces were filling in more quickly than she wished them to.
He growled, his frustration hit her face in a puff of hot air. “But much more than that priestess said you would remember. I’ll have to thank her personally for her incompetence, but right now I need her to fix you. No dying on me just yet.” He gave her wound one more deep shove.
The pain gripped every muscle in her body, spasming so that she was unable to move. Unable to breathe. She lay there and wished she was unconscious. Wished she couldn’t feel. At least for a little while. But the darkness didn’t come.
She lay there helpless and cold while Rivian yelled at his warriors. Got reports of dragons taking out several groups which sent him into an even more frenzied angry state.
Good. I hope they burned them all to ash.
“Two magick-benders, you lost two of them!”
The warrior delivering the message received no warning, just a fist to the face, sending him to the ground next to her.
The firelight gave her a clearer look.
Blood dripped from his lip, his entire cheek was purple.
His eyes flashed to her for a second and she thought she saw empathy there. Or a flicker of something softer than hate, but it didn’t matter, he was the bearer of bad news and Rivian would take his pound of flesh out on him.
“They’re not at the cabins. We’re watching that area. Where are they fucking hiding them in town?” The snow crunched menacingly under his boots, each footstep eliciting a slight cringe the closer he got to her.
