And I was still here.
Because no one was coming.
Chapter 11
“I’m amazed. Really, I am.” Aric held the dagger, turning it so the flames reflected off the blade. It was streaked in red. “You’re still alive.”
There was a part of me that also couldn’t believe I was still alive. How long had I been here now? My thoughts were sluggish as I tried to remember how many little nicks I’d carved into the stone. Forty? Forty-five, maybe. There was something about that time frame that seemed important. Something that should’ve happened in that time.
“I must say, it thrills me that you’re still here. You came to me as a little bird I couldn’t wait to break, but now, you’re my pet.” Lowering his head, Aric’s lips brushed the curve of my cheek, sending a wave of revulsion through me. “My most cherished one. How do you feel about that?”
“Like…like my life is now complete,” I rasped.
“Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?” His breath now danced over my lips, so I turned my head away. Lately, he seemed to be…getting way more into this, so much so that I feared he was beginning to change his views on whether he found mortals attractive. “I hope so. It warms my heart to know you still have so much fight left in you.”
Letting my eyes close, I searched for memories to lose myself in. There was the time my mom had taken me to the Gulf. I’d been a teenager, and I knew I’d loved it there, but I couldn’t remember what the sand felt like between my toes. I focused as hard as I could on what the water looked like, but as soon as the picture began to form in my mind, the image scattered like smoke.
It was so hard to remember the details of…of anything.
“You’re obviously incredibly strong, bizarrely so for a mortal.” My muscles clenched as I felt the cool press of the blade’s edge against the skin of my inner thigh. “Unbelievably so, really.”
I kept my eyes closed, my heart thumping as I waited for the sharp, stinging bite of pain to come. At some point, he would run out of skin to carve up, and then what? Would he start on my face? Probably. He’d already covered my stomach with those tiny slices, and now those scars mingled with the ones he’d left behind before, the old, shiny, pale teeth marks and deep grooves that Caden had…worshiped with his lips.
Forty-five days.
Days that sometimes included feeding, sometimes included baths in cold water. Days where I couldn’t recall what exactly occurred, moments that left me feeling that perhaps it was better that I didn’t remember.
“No one has ever lasted as long as you.” The blade moved swiftly across my skin.
A hoarse scream left me as I pulled against my bonds, trying to escape the blade—the pain—even though I knew it was useless.
His pale eyes glowed. “I’ve had men twice your size die within weeks and lose their minds in days, and yet you and I have had weeks together. More than a month, and you’re still here.”
My head lolled to the side, and I found myself staring at the other stone slab, the one stained in the center. Had men twice my size died there? Members of the Order? Helpless humans? Other fae? Aric was truly a psychopath, so I imagined he was equal opportunity when it came to whom he tortured.
Forty-five days, and I should have had…I should have had my period by now. A frown tugged at my brow. I hadn’t. As far as I could tell, at least. And I figured Aric was the type to have pointed it out if there was more blood than normal. He was an asshole like that.
Probably was the stress of being slowly cut to death and the lack of food and water. Aric seemed to continue to forget to feed me on any sort of regular basis, and I had no idea how much weight I’d dropped, but my stomach was sunken instead of rounded, and I knew my ribs were beginning to jut out, even when I stood, as were my hipbones. I could feel—
He gripped my chin, forcing my gaze back to his. “What I’m trying to tell you, if you’d pay attention, is that I’m beginning to think there is…something different about you.”
I glared at him.
Aric bent over so that our faces were only inches apart. “You shouldn’t be alive, and that makes me very, very curious. Come to think of it, I was somewhat stunned to discover that you’d survived our first meeting. You should’ve died then.”
I should’ve.
His pale gaze flickered over my face, and then he moved away. I tracked him, my heart stuttering when he lowered his head again, this time to where he’d just sliced open my skin. I tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go. Bile crept into my throat as I felt his tongue against my skin.
He lifted his head, smirking. “You taste like a mortal.”
My hands opened and closed into tight fists. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to rip out your tongue and kill you.
“But I no longer believe that you are an ordinary human.” He moved back to where his face was just above me, his head tilted to the side. “Tell me what I don’t know.”
“You’re a fucking psychopath,” I croaked out.
Aric chuckled. “I said something I don’t know.”
Nice.
He lifted the blade, placing it against my cheek just under my eye. The tip was wet as he dragged it down, smearing blood from the cuts he’d made on my thigh. “Tell me, pet. Tell me how you’re still alive. How you survived before.”
“I…I don’t know,” I said, and that wasn’t exactly true. I knew how I’d survived our first little meet and greet.
“Hmm.” He slid the edge of the knife over my chin and down my throat. “I don’t believe you.”
I held still.
“And I don’t like it when you lie to me. I thought we’d moved past all of that,” he said. “That you and I were better than lies.”
“You’re insane,” I choked out.
“I’m a lot of things, pet. Insane is not one of them.” The pupils of his eyes dilated. My breath caught as I started to close my lids. “Don’t,” he commanded, and it was too late for me to do otherwise. “Tell me how you survived.”
My lips and tongue moved, giving sound to words. “Caden saved me.”
His head straightened, and he frowned. “How did he save you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have to know.” He cupped my cheek, smoothing his thumb over the trails of blood. “Think hard about it. What was he doing when he saved your life?”
I did what he asked, thinking back to when Caden had saved me. It was like wading through muddy waters until I came to vague images of a hospital room and beeping and…. “I felt the sun. I tasted…tasted sunlight.”
“Tasted sunlight?” Aric was still for several moments, and then he jerked upright. He stumbled back, dropping the dagger. It clattered off the floor. “He gave you the Kiss.” His eyes widened. “He gave you the Summer Kiss.”
* * * *
Scratching the rock against the stone, I carved another mark.
Forty-seven.
Today was day forty-seven, and it was different. Aric had not been to see me. Not yesterday or today, and I knew this because my thoughts were clearer, even though I was hungrier than I’d ever been.