Sanguine Tides - Book 3

Chapter 23

TW in the description

We do have some triggering material for a brief second on this chapter. Avoid reading anything in bold if you are sensitive to any of the heavier subjects listed in the description. Summary will be underlined immediately after.

Thank you to rare.candykale for the art!

Giulia POV

Giulia counted the days as the sun rose and fell in the window, the velvet hanging sending purple light across the room. She hated those hangings. Because of them, she had lured Mattias and Alberto right into a trap.

But only a few hours after Ercole left to confront them, Giulia listened as hard as she could as a guard got a radio call saying they escaped. Her relief was enough to send her into a restless sleep where she dreamed of strange hands and drowning men.

Giulia only slept when the guard with the boyish face was on duty. She overheard his name. Griffith. His thick beard rested on his bulletproof Visconti vest as he stood at attention, not giving her a second glance. But on her third day of confinement, he broke his silence.

"There is a bed in the middle of the room; you don't have to sleep against the wall, you know."

She glared at him, then gave a frightened look towards the luxurious bed. Ercole's words still rang in her ears. A threat that his men could have their way with her.

"I won't get anywhere near it." She said, her voice stronger than she felt. "You'd have to knock me out to drag me onto it."

Griffith shrugged.

"Your loss. I don't care where you sleep."

They fell into silence again.

Whenever Griffith brought her meals (cold soup and stale bread), he was always deliberate about keeping his eyes down and away from her. Given her nakedness, this made Giulia feel fractionally better.

On the night of the third day, only three days before the battle, Giulia screamed herself awake as a nightmare tore through her head.

"Hey! What's wrong?" Griffith ran over. "Snap out of it." He tried to place a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Get away from me!" She said, kicking and making herself go flat against the wall as much as possible. Anything to get away from his violating hands. Those hands that would surely...

"How many times do I have to tell you. I'm not interested in touching you." He said but stepped away.

Giulia sniffled, her eyes red and her heart racing. She was cold. She was naked. And so vulnerable.

Griffith looked at her, then at the bed.

"Oh, to hell with it." He said and ripped the giant comforter from the mattress. He threw the thick cloth over her.

Giulia looked down at it, wishing she could pull it over herself, but her hands were still painful tied behind her back.

"If you promise to behave, I'll cut your hands loose. But I'm leaving your legs tied. Agreed?"

She nodded and allowed him to snap the ties with a pocket knife. With a flash, she had the comforter in her grip and pulled it over herself. Finally... she felt - well, she couldn't describe it. This blanket might as well have been armor for how much safer she felt beneath it. Her nakedness finally covered and away from starring eyes. She shook and, with red-rimmed eyes, looked at her captor.

"Th-thank you."

He gave her a grunt before resuming his post and staring blankly ahead.

Late that night, Giulia was roused from her nest of blankets as stumbling steps approached the door. Griffith only just had time to clear it before the double doors were pushed open, and two men appeared laughing loudly.