“Master!” Damek yelled as he ran into the room, his pride seeping off him. “I found her lurking in the halls.”
“Wonderful,” Edmund’s voice resonated from the bathroom where the sound of running water seeped from behind the wide door, the dark crack of the entry looming.
The door behind me closed with a snap, the guards who leaned against each wall shifting their placement as if on orders. The broad man who had been so kind to me the other day inconspicuously stepped before the door we had come in through. His face was grim as his eyes met mine, his lips a tight line.
With my own lips pursed in frustration, the frantic pace of my heart increased until the water from the bathroom stopped, and my father emerged from behind the door like a shadow, his hands still wet.
“Wonderful,” he repeated as he extended his hands out, letting little Míra dry them off while his eyes focused on me, digging into me.
I cowered. I shivered, and I fought the need to step away, fought the need to run. The intensity of his stare grew with each beat of my heart that passed, each low draw of air.
He smiled, patting Míra on the head roughly, her back arching painfully at the pressure. A small sob seeped from her as she fell to the ground, her body folding into itself. He didn’t even seem to notice; he just looked at me, his steps slow and calculated as he moved toward me, a wide smile spreading over his face.
In the hall, Sain had smiled at me, but his was not like this. Sain’s smile was in power within the game I was in no doubt he understood. Edmund’s was in eagerness for what he was about to do, for the blood he was about to spill. It was a look I hadn’t seen directed at me for hundreds of years. My back ached with the memory, my heart tensing with apprehension so intense I had forgotten such an emotion was possible.
“I’m surprised to see you, Ovailia,” Edmund cooed, his voice low and deep, the rumble of it infecting me. “I thought for sure you would have defected back to your brother after your failure.”
“Father,” I gasped, unable to hide the shake in my voice anymore, unable to keep the fear at bay. “I would never do that. You are my master. I am loyal only to you.”
As I said the words, I stepped closer to him in feeble desperation. However, even as I said them, I was no longer convinced they were true. I was no longer convinced I would give my life up to this man.
Sain’s sobs grew louder as I cowered before my father, the words “pet” and “servant” resounding in my ears.
Edmund’s face fell, his focus falling on the imp for the first time. His eyes narrowed in an anger that trickled through the room like poison, Míra and Damek stepping away in preparation.
“I’ll be good,” Sain sobbed as Edmund came to a stop inches from me. “A good pet.”
“I see you brought Sain back.” He didn’t even look at Sain, only at me, the back of his fingers running down my bare arm, leaving trails like ice against my skin.
I couldn’t help it; I shivered.
I wasn’t the only one. Míra shrank back at the movement, the guards tensed, and even Sain quieted.
The color and emotion in my father’s eyes were dead as he stared at me, the gentle touch of his fingers against my skin becoming a grip, a tight vise I cringed from, a sob seeping from behind my lips as the bite of his nails pressed into me.
“Where. Is. My. Bride?” He spat each word in my face, the grip of his nails against my forearm increasing, the sharp points digging into me, breaking the skin.
“I lost track of her,” I hissed out through the pain, trying my hardest to stand up straight before my father, to show him I could take it, but finding it hard when I knew what was coming. “I tried to find her … but we had to run … Something happened … They knew we were there.” The words came out in strained gasps, my chest heaving as his fingers pressed into me, spreading the tiny cuts in my skin apart, causing blood to flow down my arm in hot rivers, pooling against my wrist and in my palm.
“What happened, Ovailia?” he growled, leaning in to press his face against mine, his breath hot against my ear. “What could have possibly happened that made me lose my bride?”
“There was a sight,” I gasped in desperation as Sain’s cries faded to nothing.
The muscles in my back reacted as his free hand wrapped around the loose fabric of my shirt, the sheer purple cloth pulling against my abdomen for one brief moment before he ripped it from my body. His hand then moved immediately to claw, to dig into the scar that lined my spine.
Hot, wet rivers moved down my cheeks as I cried, their heat matching the blood that coursed down my arm. I tried to move away from him, but he held me in place, leaving me staring straight ahead, into the bathroom he had come from, the floor red with blood, a limp hand laying across the tiles.