And her name is…

I’ve said something stupid again, but what else is new. Kheliq has taken off his belt and buckled it at the back of my neck. I’m straining to breathe and then he shoves me into the wall. I stumble, before Ifall to the floor and then he kicks me. My fingers are fumbling to grab the buckle, but they aren’t all healed and I have maybe three between the two hands to work with.

He doesn’t stop kicking me and then I feel the cracking sound of one of the ribs in my back. That’s going to keep me up all night if I live that long. I need to undo the belt but I cant grasp it. I can feel the blood on my finger tips now as I cut them along the edge of the brass with the effort.

My vision is going hazy and I know I’ll pass out soon. The reprieve from the pain will be welcome, but I never know the odds that I’ll wake up. Kheliq pushes my healing to the brink, and he doesn’t even realize that if I was a human I’d be dead already. A kick to my temple has me falling to sprawl on the floor again and I just lay there. The ceiling of my cell has no lights, they’re all outside the bars, and I stare at the smooth stone and pray that it will break free and crush me.

Kheliq has moved to stand on my hand, but I can’t feel it. I’m blacking out with the lack of oxygen, and with one hand I have no hope of getting the belt off. It is time to accept these as my final breaths.

I look up to see Kheliq’s smiling face. His eyes are locked on mine as he watches the life leave me piece by piece. He’s enjoying watching me die and he doesn’t even seem to care that he’s going to lose his special blood supplier. It feels more like revenge for him at this point, though I don’t know what he feels I’ve ever done to him.

His smile will be the last thing I see. His smile, and the smooth stone ceiling of my cell.

I feel a sharp pain up the side of my neck and my free hand moves out of reflex to grab it. There’s blood there, but I can breathe and I take a coughing breath through my broken windpipe. Everything hurts and I feel tears collecting in my eyes, but I won’t let them fall while he’s still here. Even the guards have only seen me cry maybe a handful of times, and I usually do it, when I have no more strength to stop it, while pretending to sleep, silently, and facing away from them.

I don’t sit up, continuing to lay on the ground as my hand holds my bleeding throat and I try to mentally assess my damages. My eyes roll around the room and I see Wulfric chastising Kheliq with a sword in his hand. He gestures with it to me and Kheliq stops standing on my hand long enough that I can pull it onto my chest and far from his feet.

“You’re going to fucking kill her, and then where will we be?” Wulfric demands. “I thought keeping her was for the greater good, but it looks like you just want a punching bag for some resentment you’re not telling me about. Do you know this half breed?”

Kheliq scoffs. “I don’t owe you any answers. I am yourKingand you will treat me as such.”

With that Kheliq storms out of the room, promising me that he will continue our game soon. I don’t give the promise any weight. Even putting the weight of a feather on that promise is enough to make me hate tomorrow before it’s begun. I’ll never live through this if I consider the pain of tomorrow today.

Once he’s gone Wulfric tosses my blanket from the bed over me on the floor. “Why do you antagonize him? Just give him what he wants.”

“Maybe I would,” I return hoarsely, “but it hurts to speak.”

He chuckles turns around and I roll my eyes as the only thing I can move without too much pain. He might start talking again, but I’m not listening. Staring up at the stone roof I wish it would break away and crush us both, just like this. I don’t want to focus on his words because if I do I’ll realize they have value and I’ll want to answer ifhe’sthe one asking questions.

“When he finds out everything he’s been asking, I want him so stunned that he’d have died from shock if my hand wasn’t tearing his heart from his chest,” I hoarse out slowly and painfully, but he stops to listen.

I hear another chuckle before he’s gone and I barely registering that Wulfric cut the belt from my neck with a flick of his sword. Once the door is closed and it’s just me and my guards, I start to pull and push the bones into place while I distract myself with thought.

Despite the dream, now, I’m able to think of the present. Wulfric never rescued me. He never got me out of there,Idid that. But he never let me die. And I realize now that, more than once despite his attempts at poisoning me, he was the reason that I kept living. Him and his brother had more than their good looks in common. Both of them kept me in that prison for longer than would have been possible for Kheliq on his own.