Page 124 of Fires of the Forsaken
“Oi! I think she’s waking!” a Wraith called.
Oh, buddy. I waswideawake.
I bucked my hips. Kicked out with both legs. Tried to yank my arms back to my sides, but nothing worked. No matter how much I thrashed and struggled, I couldn’t break free.
“Let me go!” I bellowed. “You stupid, fugly bastards. Let. Me. GO!”
They started walking.
I let my head fall back to see where we were going. “Oh,fuckno!”
An immense bonfire awaited me. It was the size of a mother-freaking pickup truck. Flames stretched four—no,five feetinto the air.
“This should hold her. Tie ‘er down. Quickly.” A Wraith walked over with a seven-foot-long stick. It looked like a sliced tree trunk. Another Wraith approached with ropes.
“Don’t youdare!”I spat.
Too late.
They pressed the stick against my back and tied me to it. I couldn’t doanything.They were too strong. I made a bunch of statements that sounded tough, sure. (“When I get free, I’ll ram this stick so far up your ass, you’ll choke on it.”).But they were empty threats. And the Wraiths knew it.
There were only six of them left.Six.Cheriour had single-handedly taken down almost three-quarters of their group. But I didn’t stand a shot in hell against the rest of them.
I was so fucking helpless.
Tears poured down my cheeks as the last knot was tied, securing me to the stick. My heart galloped at a breakneck pace—I’d put some serious mileage on this organ over the last few weeks. Probably aged it at least a decade.
Not that it mattered.
My heart likely wouldn’t beat much longer.
The Wraiths hoisted my stick up, shifting it over the fire.
I was going to be roasted like a pig on a spit…literally.
Something tight coiled in my chest. I cried, my throat making a lowhic-urgh-hic-urghsound as I struggled to breathe.
Jesus Christ, of all the ways to freaking die!
“Addie!”My mom’s phantom scream returned, making my ears ring.
I shivered so hard, my teeth ground together. Pain shot through my jaw.
This would be a verylongdeath, hovering over a fire until my skin was crispier than Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I howled as the Wraiths placed the stick several inches above the tip of the fire. Heat washed over me. It was dry. And…kind of pleasant? Like sinking into a steaming bath.
“That’s too high. She’ll never cook like that,” one Wraith grunted.
The stick lowered a few inches and shifted sideways, exposing my entire right side to the flames. The heat intensified, sizzling the rope, but it still wasn’t painful. At all.
My skin should’ve beenfrying.And yet…
A Wraith gave the stick a hard shake. “Oi! What is this?”
“Flip ‘er over.” Another suggested.
Shit.Now I was facing the flames.
