Chapter 230
TRIGGER WARNING
This scene contains graphic depictions of torture, emotional abuse, religious fanaticism, and psychological trauma. It may be highly triggering for readers sensitive to themes of captivity, blood, and physical violence. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
Elowen POV
Crucible Dungeon
Aegis Stronghold
I lost count of how long I’d been strapped to this cold metal table. Time didn’t exist here, only pain, screams, and the steady drip of blood onto steel. My blood. Again.
Vaela’s scalpel carved slow, excruciating lines down the curve of my stomach, each stroke humming with sickly red magic. She whispered to herself like she was composing a fucking love song to the gods, except the melody was agony, and the lyrics were ancient blood runes that burned straight through my nerves like acid.
“You should be honored,” she breathed, her voice syrupy and cracked. “To be the parchment for our devotion.”
I screamed through the gag in my mouth. Not because I wanted to. But because she wanted me to stay silent. And fuck her.
“That rune was for pain,” she purred, dragging her nails through the still bleeding line. “Next one will be for obedience. Let’s see if we
can write that into your soul, hmm?”
“Elowen, don’t give her the satisfaction,” Lyssira snarled in my head, her voice fierce and shaking. “You will endure. You are thrice chosen.
You’re not just some wolf pup anymore. You’re fierce. You’re hers.”
I blinked hard against the sweat and blood dripping into my eyes, clutching onto Lyssi’s voice like it was a damn lifeline in a storm. But
that storm was growing.
くう
Lucien paced behind Vaela, twitching like a string pulled too tight. His long fingers fidgeted with a sacrificial blade, the silver already
slick with blood. Seven bodies of willing, crazed cultists lay in a row along the edge of the chamber. Their throats were slit, their blood
draining into a sigil that glowed an ominous red on the stone floor. It hadn’t worked. None of it had.
And now, the cracks were showing.
“She won’t answer us,” he muttered, his wild red rimmed eyes darting around the room. “She always answers. We give. We bleed. We kill.
So why has she turned from us now?!”
Chapter 230
“She’s testing us,” Vaela hissed. “She wouldn’t abandon us. Not after everything we’ve done for her.”
Lucien’s laugh was jagged glass. “Wouldn’t she? We failed. We let the hybrid live. We let them escape.”
He stormed to my side and grabbed a fistful of my blood matted hair, yanking my head back so hard my spine screamed.
“This is your fault, you little cunt,” he spat into my face. “Your very existence is a betrayal, an abomination! And now, she won’t speak to
us because of you.”
I met his eyes through the haze of pain. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t cry. I let the gag fall from my lips with a wet thunk. “Maybe your goddess
just finally realized how fucking pathetic you are.”
He slammed his fist into my cheek. The world spun, my teeth rattled, and stars burst behind my eyes. Lyssira roared inside me. “I’ll rip
his spine out and use it as a spear. Hold on, Elowen. Please hold on. I feel it. I smell it. The wind’s shifting. We’re not alone anymore.”
I coughed blood, but I smiled. “Hit like a little bitch,” I mumbled, my voice thick and slurred.
Vaela’s blade drove straight into my thigh, deep enough to slice muscle. My scream echoed off the walls, raw and unfiltered. She leaned
in, her face flushed, and her eyes glassy with ecstasy.
“She’s hiding from us,” she whispered. “But if we bleed her enough… if we offer her the chosen one’s agony… she’ll come back. She has
to.”
And then…. I heard it. Soft whispers. So soft, I almost thought it was a hallucination. A voice. Feminine. Familiar. Divine. “Hold, child of
mine. Just two more dawns. We are coming for you.”
