A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 70: Nightmare

Blade POV

"Come now, Blade, are you really going to give up so easily?" Aros asked, tutting disapprovingly. "I expected a bit more fight from you."

I launched myself at him, wishing I could tear his fucking throat out with my bare hands, but I was yanked back by my chains, the inside of the hard metal cuffs was lined with wood that splintered and cut my skin as I fought, burning like a fire, distracting me from the rest of my battered body and fueling my rage.

"Don't you dare fucking touch her, I will tear you apart if you even think about--"

"That's a bit better, but not by much," he said, still looking disappointed. "I really thought you loved this girl. You're not even going to try and get her back?"

"What did you do to her? What did you tell her?" I growled, spitting out the blood pooling in my mouth from where my fangs had been torn out, jaws throbbing painfully and radiating through my skull, my whole beaten body. But it was nothing compared to how I felt knowing Aros had her, had done something to her to get her here, knowing he could do anything he wanted to her, and I was trapped down here unable to do anything about it.

"Me?" he said, eyes wide and shocked, one hand coming up to his chest and immaculate suit, as if scandalized by the accusation. "I didn't do a thing. She came to this conclusion all on her own."

"What. Did. You. Do?"

"I think you should be a little more concerned with what I'm going to do with you than what you imagine I did to her," he said with a smile, wiping a smudge of imaginary dirt off his cane. "She came to me, all on her own. By choice. I didn't take her."

"Don't lie. You took her, she would--"

"--never leave you? She wouldn't be the first," he said, examining his cane more closely. "I'm actually quite surprised at your faith in her. Particularly given your...personal history."

"It's not the same," I snapped. The note she'd hidden in her locket had assured me I wasn't wrong, that she did love me, that she hadn't left me on purpose. It had been Aros, it had to be, it was all him, that selfish arrogant son of a--

"Isn't it? You think you're here by accident, trapped beneath my home? You think she would idly sit by while you're being tortured beneath her feet if she really loved you?" He cracked open her pendant that his guards had taken from me, unfolding the small slip of paper and read "'I love you ~ K'" aloud, then tutted, as if disappointed. "A romantic gesture I'm sure, but wholly untrue."

"You did something to her, she wouldn't--"

"Did you think that note of hers was a cry for help? Did you actually think it was real?" he laughed, as if I'd told a funny joke at a cocktail party, and tossed the pendant to me. It landed by my feet in a pool of my blood, my hands still shackled above my head so I couldn't catch it, couldn't stop it from being tainted black, save her one last reminder of her father. "You truly are more of a soft-hearted romantic than people give you credit for. Oh sure, you acted the part of a playboy quite well, but your heart was never really in it, was it?"

I slumped to my knees, unable to brace against the chains anymore, my shaking legs giving out. He couldn't possibly know about her note. How could he? She had given it to me so subtly, if I hadn't tossed it at the wall when I got home, it never would have been opened to expose it and I never would have known.

"She's been playing you from the start. You fell for it, like the lovesick fool you are."

"No, she didn't. Couldn't have," I said quickly, but the nagging doubts from before were rising, it was happening again, only worse this time. Trusting Eliza a second time had never lead to this...

But Kiana was a good person, she had a good heart, she would never let anyone be tortured like this, she wouldn't let me be tortured like this, she let me drink from her to save me...she wouldn't--