Luna's Pov
My eyes burned as red liquid spurted into my eyes. My head throbbed, my wrists and ankles burned as the coarse ropes bored into them, wound so tightly that they sliced into my skin, shredding it like meat in a grinder. My arms and legs were spread so far apart that my joints creaked with annoyance, each threatening to break away from my body under the strain. My back felt like a colony of fire ants had been let loose on it, each one digging its head into my skin and taking a good sized chunk out of my skin. I wondered if the guards would consider loosening one of my arms long enough for me to reach to my back and scratch the itch that was threatening to drive me crazy although something told me I wouldn't enjoy it very much. "Have you had enough?" One of the guards asked. My chest felt like I had drank a mouthful of oil and followed it up with some fire. My chest beat painfully against my thorax and my stomach felt like it had had all its contents pulled out and smoked on a blazing fire before they were all returned, still smoking from the adventure. My legs would have crumbled to the ground if they hadn't been tied so far up. The ropes swaying back and forth gave me so much vertigo that I would have thrown up if my pharynx didn't feel like it had been sewn shut. My head was swaying back and forth as I tried without success to maintain my balance. Every part of me hurt. Of course I had had enough, I wanted to scream. Instead, I forced myself to laugh. "Is that all you got? Such disappointment." I tooted. "I expected the guards of the almighty Druid Peak Pack to have more..." The rest of my words were lost in a muffled grunt as a whip curled around my stomach. When it came loose, it drew bits of cloth and skin along in its tiny jagged teeth. I whizzed as I tried to regain my breath. Not an easy feat with my body swaying in the air. My eyes grew blurry with red lines running wild before it like shadows in the dark. "I see that we are being too lenient with you." The guard who had just whipped me, a buff man with a bald scalp snarled. I had a million annoying retorts but my pain made it impossible to speak. As it turned out, I didn't need to as the guard made his way to the rack of torture tools that laid on the table that stood opposite me. I was in a pretty large room that reeked of pain and death. In the red light (whether the light was really red or it was my sight that was growing more blurry, I couldn't tell for the life of me), I could see black smudges on the walls, on the ground, smudges that I didn't have any doubt about what they were. The room's ceiling was so high up, it was masked in the darkness. In the center of all the four walls hung a lit brazier, affording me a great view of all that was in the room. Directly opposite me sat a table which showed off an assortment of torture weapons ranging from knives of different shapes and sizes, straight, curved, jagged, sharp, blunt, to whips, long, short, and other smaller equipment which I could not recognize either because they were too small for me to see from this distance or my brain was too clouded with pain to recognize. On all the other walls hung different assortments of torture equipment. I watched through hazy vision as one of the guards walked toward the table and started to browse through the weapons. He picked a knife, short and straight and turned toward me, "how would you like this?" He grinned wickedly. "I guess it is not good enough, heh? We have to do better to impress you. Of course. Of course." He turned back to the table and began to browse again. I couldn't help watching his every move, (not because I was scared, mind you) as he rummaged through the piles. Finally, he turned toward me, his head glinting in the light as he started to approach me, his arm tucked behind his back. His footsteps seemed to be amplified a thousand times over so that I almost did not notice he had arrived before he stood in my face, so close that I could feel his breath on my face. Despite the acrid smell of flames, dampness and blood, his smell of smoke and rotten fish was still enough to make me gag. He grinned, the result of which drove me near the edge of passing out. I couldn't help wondering if he ate the flesh of those he tortured here. His teeth were uneven as they boasted of tiny shrapnel which could be meat as easily as they could be fruits skins. Those things looked like they could trap water if they weren't kept in check. I was pulled out of my thoughts as he raised a beefy hand and pried my mouth open. I glared at him as he withdrew his hand from his back and waved what must have been the scariest knife I had ever seen before my eyes. At first glance, it looked like a regular knife with a length of about five inches and a thickness of about 4 millimeters. But on closer look, the knife which had a bronze coated handle had several tiny teeth on either side of it. Looking at it, I couldn't help gulping in fear. I imagined being stabbed with it and the thought was enough to send a tremor through my system. I tried to hide my fear but it soon became obvious that I was not doing a good enough job hiding it away from him. He grinned again as he traced the skin on my face with the rough edges. He didn't apply a lot of pressure, yet, I could feel the skin on my face sting as the blade cut through it. "Where should we start?"Luna's PovSo far, I had been doing a pretty good job enduring the pain and getting on the nerves of my torturers but now, looking down at this blade, I wasn't sure I could keep up the front anymore. I swallowed as I breathed in deeply. "It is just a blade. It is nothing you can't take." I whispered to myself. The man laughed loudly as he turned to his comrade, "can you believe this? She is begging for mercy. Too bad. I expected her to go down with a smile but then again, no one escapes the great Baldwin without being broken." He thumped his chest so hard, I was afraid he was going to end up broken before me. I wondered if his name was a title or his parents had had some insight into his future to have given him such a fitting name. The thought was enough to brighten my mood as I started to smile and suddenly, the knife was not so scary. I thought about Indrik who was probably in his death throes, struggling with the poison that I had fed him and shook my head. What kind of master w
Blaire's Pov"Where have you been?" I spat as I came face to face with Jamil and Ulo. The two were dressed in black robes and had their swords around their waists. In the moonlight, I could notice strands of undergrowth clinging stubbornly to their robes. The two exchanged glances before turning to me. "What's going on?" Jamil asked, looking over his shoulder at the circle that was gathered a few feet away. Following his gaze, I frowned as I realized that the bed was gone and so was the doctor. I hurried over but all I saw were a group of guards huddled in a circle, no doubt discussing what had just happened. "Where is he?" I growled. The group looked at me like I was a stray before one of them replied nonchalantly, "the doctor has had him taken somewhere else."My head spun as I wondered how long I had remained on my knees, uttering a stupid prayer while the person I was so worried about had been taken away. He could have died for all I knew and I didn't know anything about it. T
Ulo's PovListening to Blaire tell us about how Indrik had been poisoned by his maid, my fists clenched as I bubbled with murderous intent. I had never liked that girl and now, she had just crossed the line by threatening the life of my friend. Listening to Jamil trying to defend her only served to increase my anger till I was practically steaming at the nose. Before I could bring myself to speak, thunder suddenly rumbled and rain started to fall. I would have been amazed if I wasn't so furious because we hadn't had rain in a while. As it continued to rain though, I started to notice something. The rain wasn't normal by any standard. Each drop that landed on my head, on my shoulders, on my feet, felt as hard as a stone although it didn't hurt. Stretching out my arm, I caught a drop in my hand and examined it in the moonlight. Like I had suspected, it wasn't a raindrop, instead, the tiny things that fell from the sky were more like pellets, diamond sized pellets. I would have dismisse
Blaire's PovI sat in Indrik's room, my hands tucked under my cheeks on his bed as I stared at him mesmerized by his sleeping figure. Sunlight streamed into the room, making him look even more amazing. I sighed dreamily as I watched his chest heave slowly accompanied by his soft snoring. He had been asleep for three days and his complexion was still pale from what he had gone through at the hands of his maid yet, he still managed a heart stopping beautiful look. His long black hair framed his face perfectly like he had been tending to it all these days, (which I might have been responsible for), his eyes were closed but they looked just as pretty as they were when open, his nose, a work of art that was honed to a point so sharp, it could cut you if you were not careful enough, his full pink lips that always seemed to be calling for a taste, his cheeks that were neither too plump, nor too thin, his perfect ears, his square jaw that always pulsed with power, even now, with ridiculous s
Indrik's PovI just had the most awful dream. My chest had been on fire and my blood had turned to acid, burning my skin away as it coursed through my veins. I groaned as my eyes fluttered open. My head spun as I stared blankly at the surface above me, feeling rather lightheaded. I shut my eyes as a wave of nausea rushed through me. Opening my eyes again, I started to register the scene around me. The image of a golden wolf approached me moving so fast that I freaked out, swatting it away with a yelp. That was followed with another groan as my hand moved a little too fast and hard, missing the target and slamming into my chest with a dull thump instead. I shook my head to shake the buzz in my ears that was serving to disorient me even further. Thump-thump! Thump-thump! A heavy sound drifted into my ears making me want to scream in frustration as I wondered what exactly was going on with me. I could hear the rustling of trees, the gurgling of water in a faraway creek, the chirping of
Luna's PovI had been here for so long that I had lost all track of time. In between the endless torture that the guards now seemed to do as a pastime and the rats that seemed to enjoy the taste of the dried blood that had crusted on the ground beneath me, I was surely having the time of my life. At this point, I didn't even know when I was awake and when I was dreaming anymore. I had grown lightheaded from dehydration and loss of blood. Which was why I couldn't figure out if I was daydreaming or really seeing Indrik walking in on spindly feet. Or if his call really was happening or it was my delirious mind working overtime. "Luna!" A warm arm wrapped around my shriveled one and started to untie the ropes around it. Okay, that was surely not a figment of my imagination. No imagination could be that vivid, or tangible. I tried to open my mouth but my days in the darkness without food or water had gotten to me. To even keep my eyes open was proving to be an herculean task. "Are you
Blaire's PovI paced around in Indrik's room, nearly running mad from my anger at Indrik. That fool! I gritted my teeth wishing I had spent a few days training so I could punch him so hard in the face that his nose would split into two (ok, maybe not so hard. I couldn't bear the thought of ruining his handsome face). Maybe then, his senses would return to him. How could he, after all that girl had done to him, (heck, she had almost killed him. Scratch that, she practically killed him before the doctor had brought him back to life. I shuddered as I recalled how Beta Green had blatantly refused to save him. He would have died if the doctor had not decided to risk everything to save him.) how could he still think about nothing else except her? Why!!!My eyes narrowed as the door opened and Indrik stumbled in holding her up in his arms. My eyes stung as my ears popped and I stomped toward them, intending to slap the grime covered witch back to whatever hole she had crawled out from but ju
Indrik's PovMy heart broke as I watched Blaire stomp out of the room. I couldn't shake the thought that I was the most ungrateful beast I had ever met for treating her like that. I played out our conversation in my head and wondered if there was a way I could have done it better, a word I was supposed to not have said? An explantation I should have given? I definitely should have given her an explanation. I owed her that much but sadly, I couldn't because there was no telling what she would do with the truth. I couldn't afford to risk my master's life. I shrugged, deciding that I would go talk to her once she had cooled down and was more ready to listen. I had to let her know that Luna had not hurt me. Well, technically, she did but it was for the greater good. I flexed my muscles, feeling the spot in the bottom of my belly that had always been empty now brimming with life and energy. "I guess it is just you and me now." I whispered to Luna as I led her toward the bathroom. She had