The worst part was Aran was also experiencing it.
I’d tried to wake her up, but she was in the grips of something that was much more than an ordinary dream. The kings yelled out. For some reason, their bond sickness was also making them suffer.
I endured in silence and did the only thing I could do. I tried to comfort Aran. I squeezed her tight against me and prayed that even in the depths of hell, she’d realize she was no longer alone.
I would stand by her side.
No matter the circumstances.
A single thought repeated in my brain and brought me peace as I convulsed—never again would she suffer alone. Our souls were bound together.
Her pain was my pain.
I drifted off to sleep with her in my arms.
Chapter 48
Corvus Malum
TORTURER’S APPEARANCE
Ignicolis （noun）： A worshiper of fire.
DAY 30, HOUR 23
I was trapped in another one of Arabella’s memories.
I’d thought they couldn’t get any worse.
I’d been wrong.
My Revered was held down by five guards as her mother dragged a blade through her bare skin. Her dress had been pulled off, and she was topless.
The guards holding her were leering at her naked skin, their eyes wide with lust and excitement as she was mutilated.
Her pain was unimaginable.
I ignored it.
I stared at their sick expressions and memorized their faces, and I planned their demise.
It would be slow.
Guards stood along the perimeter of the room. None of them moved to help. A few looked away like they were horrified, but they didn’t move a muscle to assist her.
They were all complicit.
The few faces I recognized, I ignored, but the new faces I studied and added to my list.
There were twenty-five guards in the room that night while my Revered was tortured.
Arabella’s cunt of a mother ranted about how she was a whore for daring to try to lose her virginity. She told her she was filthy and pathetic. She told her no man would ever love an impure whore like herself.
Midscream, Arabella winced, and it wasn’t from the blade carving her flesh.
I felt her emotions.
Her self-doubt.
My fury morphed into unadulterated pain. It radiated from my sternum and destroyed my organs.
The gray tones of the memory disappeared, and I woke up to my mates sleeping around me on a mattress in the middle of a dark room.
Wetness streaked down my cheeks.
I was crying.
Pinned beneath bodies, I reached desperately through the fray until my hand found ice-cold skin. Arabella was trembling and whimpering.
Panic filled my throat, and I shifted until I was pressed flush against her.
I gathered her into my arms. John was wrapped around her on the other side. He reached out and grabbed my forearm.
I paused.
No jealousy or anger filled my chest.
The cunt’s words, that no man could ever love someone like her, stabbed through my brain on repeat.
I’d felt my Revered fill with doubt. I’d heard her whimper. A part of her had believed her mother.
Arabella shivered uncontrollably.
I conjured a flame in my hands and brought it against her chest to warm her.
John mumbled something in his sleep. His hand squeezed my forearm tight, like he was afraid I’d push him away.
Luka’s fingers were tangled in her curls.
Orion and Scorpius shifted in their sleep, so they were draped across me as they reached for Arabella.
My flame burned hot in the center of all of us.
Sadness for what my Revered had been through transformed into determination.
Arabella would be protected and loved by all of us. I’d spend every second of the rest of my immortal life proving her mother wrong.
It was the very least she deserved.
Chapter 49
Luka
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Pauciloquy （noun）： brevity in speech.
DAY 30, HOUR 23
John and Aran twitched beside me.
Distantly, I felt the pain of a knife carving a word into my spine. The agony was muted because my mind was elsewhere.
The only thing I could focus on was the feeling of damp curls wrapped around my fingers and John’s back pressed against my front.
I was touching the two people in the world who meant everything to me.
The pain across my spine should have been overwhelming, but I kept forgetting to feel it. My mind was too overwhelmed with obsession.
My skin buzzed with contentment because the two people I was dependent on were in my arms.
All of us were together, so everything would be okay.
They were my everything.
Physical pain didn’t matter because I was touching them.
I was so grateful to be holding them that a tear trailed across my cheek. Love filled my chest.