Chapter 39

LEAH

The first thing I noticed was the cold.

Not the sharp bite of winter or the brush of an open window, no, this was different. It sank deeper. Into my bones, my blood, my soul. A cold that said something was terribly, irreversibly wrong

I tried to move, a stupid instinct, really but the second I shifted, white-hot pain exploded at my wrists and ankles. A whimper slipped out before I could bite it back.

Pathetic. Weak. I’m suddenly reminded by Darren’s words as my body in more pain than I could ever imagine

My vision swam in and out of focus. Darkness twisted around me, thick and suffocating, and when I blinked, it felt like prying open rusted shutters. My head pounded with a slow, vicious rhythm, each throb pulling me further from the comfortable ignorance of unconsciousness and back into reality.

Where... where was I? My mind raced to what was going on and what had actually happened but everything was blank till it began to rush in like a fog making me groan out loud.

Sunlight dancing across the gardens. The Lunas laughing, smiling. Then chaos. Screams. The gate crashing down. Rogues pouring through like a flood. The metallic taste of blood in the air.

And then something pressed over my mouth and nose. A sharp, chemical sting that made my limbs go heavy made the world tilt and spin then... nothing.

I tried to suck in a deep breath, but the air smelled wrong. Stale. Moldy. Metallic. My stomach twisted in immediate revolt. I tried to move my hands and that’s when realization dawn upon me

I was chained.

I knew it before I even looked. I could feel the cruel bite of iron cuffs at my wrists and ankles, the raw skin beneath them already slick with blood but it was coated with silver which made burn and worse, I could smell the wolfsbane. What the hell is actually going on?

No wonder my limbs felt like lead. No wonder my mind was so railed up and a bit foggy, the bastards had drugged me. Restrained me and now... now I was goddamn trapped but to make it worst I didn’t really know who it was, I had too much enemies that I couldn’t even trace who did this

The perks of being a queen they never tell you about

Panic skittered through me, sharp and frantic. I blinked harder, forcing my sluggish mind to focus. The room swam into view, dim and cavernous, lit by a sickly green light that made everything look diseased.

Stone walls. Steel reinforcements. Faint symbols etched into the surfaces, binding runes meant to suppress power. My powers, this person knows me well enough to know I had powers which made my heart launched for my throat as my fear took the best of me

A chair, bolted to the ground. My body strapped to it like I was some specimen in a lab. My heart slammed against my ribs.

Dante, Where was Dante? Did anyone even know I was gone? Had they found the blood, the broken flowers, and the signs of a struggle...?

I tugged against the chains on instinct, raw and desperate. The iron sizzled against my skin, and a broken sob ripped from my throat before I could silence it.

No...I couldn’t panic. I couldn’t fall apart, I had to think. They all might be watching me through a camera of sort; I couldn’t let them know am...

A low, mocking chuckle rolled through the room. My entire body stiffened. My head snapped toward the sound but see no one. I looked closer but still no one, I could feel a pair of gaze upon my skin but I couldn’t see anyone which made my heart go into further panic

A figure peeled itself from the shadows, moving with an easy, predatory grace and I felt the air in my lungs being knocked out not out of shock for his beauty but the scar on his face that also gave me chills

Victor. Even if I never met him before it felt like him

He wore black, his long coat swallowing the light around him. His smile curled at the edges like something rotting.

"Awake at last," he purred his voice a smooth caress over broken glass. He stopped a few feet in front of me, arms folded lazily behind his back, like he had all the time in the world. "I was beginning to think I’d have to throw cold water on you."

I stared at him, forcing my expression blank even as my pulse hammered against my throat.

I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I wouldn’t let him see the terror crawling up my spine like a thousand spiders.

He tilted his head, pretending to be disappointed. "No threats? No desperate little insults?" His eyes gleamed. "Good. Save your energy. You’re going to need it."

"You’re a coward," I rasped, my voice raw but steady. "You drugged me. You attacked from the shadows. You know you’d never win if I could fight back."

Victor’s lips twitched, like he was amused. "Oh, Leah. This isn’t about winning a fight." He spread his arms wide, gesturing around the sickening room. "This is about winning everything."

I followed his movements and froze.

Behind him loomed a machine even if I wasn’t very vast in my studies I knew that machine when I saw one. A monstrous, patchwork thing built of pipes, pulsing crystals, and tangled wires.

It looked alive, breathing, watching.

"What the hell is that?" I whispered before I could stop myself, my voice barely a thread of sound.

Victor smiled all teeth and cruelty. "A marvel. A union of magic and science." He walked to it like it was something sacred, running his fingers along the humming surface. "You, Leah, possess a power you don’t even begin to understand. A power that could tip the balance of the world. And I," he said, turning to look at me, "intend to take it."

My stomach knotted painfully. I shook my head. "You’re insane. You can’t just steal someone’s magic. It doesn’t work like that."

Victor chuckled, a soft, pitying sound that made my skin crawl.

"That's what they want you to believe. But with the right... persuasion," he said, tapping the machine with an affectionate pat, "anything is possible."

He flipped a switch.

The machine whirred to life with a low, predatory hum. The crystals embedded in its core brightened, casting the room in a hellish red glow. I didn’t know if he could do what he claims but I had no intention of waiting to see that happen

I yanked against the chains again, desperate, frantic but the wolfsbane sapped my strength, made every movement feel slow, dull, and useless.

Victor busied himself at a control panel, flipping switches and turning dials.

"You should feel honored," he said without even glancing at me. "You’ll be the first of a new age. The beginning of something... beautiful."

"I won’t let you," I hissed, pulling until I felt iron slice deeper into my flesh. Blood trickled down my forearms, hot and sticky.

Victor finally turned back, his expression alight with something dark and fervent.

"You don’t have a choice."

Two mechanical arms descended from the ceiling with a soft, mechanical whir. One clamped around my upper arm, hard enough to bruise. The other forced my chin back, exposing my throat like I was some animal about to be slaughtered.

I fought, goddess, I fought but my body betrayed me at every turn. Sluggish. Weak. Slipping away.

Victor crouched in front of me, holding a thin, gleaming needle. He smiled almost tenderly.

"This will hurt," he said. "A lot."

I bared my teeth at him, pure hatred blazing through my veins. "Go to hell."

Victor just laughed.

He connected the needle to the machine, and then reached for another switch. The hum deepened, rattling the very walls around us. Light burst from the crystals, blinding and red-hot.

The machine clamped tighter. I had just enough time to suck in a breath and then the pain hit.

Agony like I’d never known tore through me, ripping me apart molecule by molecule. It was like my very soul was being unraveled, pulled screaming from my body one delicate thread at a time.

I screamed. I couldn’t stop it. Tears filled my eyes as I struggled, the sound ripped itself free, raw and broken and real, echoing off the stone walls in a symphony of suffering.

Victor watched. He watched with fascination, bathed in the pulsing red glow of the machine, his eyes wide and hungry.

Tears burned down my cheeks. My vision blurred. More of my strength slipped away with every passing second. I could feel it. Feel myself fading, somewhere deep inside, through the haze of pain and terror and rage, I clung to a single thought. A single name.

Dante.

I wrapped my mind around it like a lifeline, like a prayer, even as the darkness rose to swallow me whole.

Please, I thought.

Find me.