What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(19)

Something wet splashed against my cheek as I walked, making me pause in my steps to raise my hand. The spit was warm against my fingers as I brushed it away, turning a glare to the man who’d been responsible for it.

“Keep walking, Pet,” Malachi ordered, nudging his knee into the backs of my thighs. “You won’t find any friends here should you do something foolish.”

I turned to the male who’d spit at me, memorizing the sharp edges of his youthful, eternal face. His light hair was so blond it was nearly white, but it lacked the ashen quality of Caldris’s. His eyes glimmered with a vibrant purple hue, the deep glare sinking inside me as I looked at his tense mouth.

My own twitched into a smile. “How brave you must feel to spit on a chained woman when surrounded by your friends. Let me assure you, boy,” I said, smiling when he sucked in a ragged breath. I had no doubt he was older than me, but I didn’t let that technicality keep me from forging on. “I do not need my magic to kill you.”

I turned away from him suddenly, my steps continuing forward as I left him forgotten. One day, I’d remember to return the favor he’d shown me. I’d show him how it felt to be unwelcome just for existing.

I’d show them all.





5


Estrella


Malachi stopped us in front of an ornate door, reaching over my head and rapping his knuckles against its metal surface three times in quick succession. Someone on the other side pulled it open, and a male’s face filled my vision. He looked over my shoulder at Malachi, then stepped to the side to allow us entry. I moved into the room slowly, my eyes scanning from side to side as I looked for the threat I knew must be lying in wait.

The walls were crafted in that same blue-tinted stone as the rest of the palace, and heavy brown curtains hung over what I presumed was the sole window in the room. They’d been drawn closed, keeping out any light that might have drifted into the room. To the left of the door sat a single bath. Small side tables carved from heavy, cherry-hued wood were placed sporadically around it. The bed frame was carved from the same wood and had four pillars which jutted toward the ceiling with pointed spikes meant for murder rather than functionality or practicality. A lone fireplace with light limestone lining the mantle waited just beside the bed as a fire blazed in the hearth.

“How are we to have a civilized meal with her smelling like death itself?” a woman asked.

I spun to look at the long table set up in the alcove to the other side of the door. The guard closed the door as I stared at the table, allowing my gaze to travel up from the female’s feet to the dangerous beauty of her face. Mab’s dark eyes snagged mine. Her lips twisted into a disgusting snarl, as if she hadn’t been the very cause of my appearance.

“I would hate to inconvenience you,” I said with a droll smile, glancing over my shoulder at where Malachi lurked. “Return me to my cell and I’ll gladly fit right in with the smell of decay you’ve provided in such lovely accommodations.”

“That mouth will be your downfall one of these days,” Mab said, her voice quiet. While others may have mumbled these words, Mab whispered them threateningly. She didn’t need to speak loudly in order for her message to be heard, not when she was the epitome of evil in the world. To mumble would be beneath her.

She raised her hand, plucking a ripe berry from a bowl on the table and pinching it between two long, black nails. “Bathe her,” she instructed, placing the berry on her tongue as Malachi’s hands grabbed my shoulders. He turned me away from where Mab sat, heading for a water basin with hot steam billowing up over the edge.

I shrugged his hands off me, swatting them away as he stopped beside the basin and waited. With the iron shackles on my wrists, I was limited in how much I could fight. My magic wouldn’t answer my call, hovering just out of reach like a bitter torment.

Mab sighed behind me, as if my obstinance was futile. It didn’t matter if I ended up bathed, I’d take a part of Malachi with me in the process.

“It doesn’t need to be this way. You must long for a nice bath after your week in the dungeon. Get in, and we’ll allow you to wash yourself at your leisure.”

I swallowed, warring with my pride. I knew what the right choice would be for my health and my desire to not be touched. “I can’t remove my dress,” I said, raising my shackled hands in the hopes that I could gain even the slightest bit more power in this situation. Whatever game Mab was playing, whatever fool she thought me to be, this would never be a civilized meal.

She wanted something, and I very much wanted to keep it from her.

“Malachi,” Mab said, waving her hand passively.

Malachi approached my side, removing a dagger from the sheath at his waist. The fabric of my dress tore down over my ass and thighs, leaving my undergarments exposed.

“Hold still, Pet. I would hate to cut you when I don’t intend to,” he said, the cruel twist of his lips displaying the truth to his words. He would cut me later on. He would bleed me. He would do everything in his power to break me.

I raised my wrists cooperatively, holding his gaze as I held my head high. I wouldn’t show signs of bending as he stripped me from my clothes and did his best to humiliate me.

His dagger slid beneath the hem of my sleeve, cutting the fabric as he slid it up my forearm with painful slowness. The edge of the blade glided against my skin. His eyes held mine, making it very clear just how much damage he could do with a single flick of his wrist. He cut all the way to my shoulder, watching as that half of the dress fell to my waist.