The Final Push

Chapter 28: Things That Fall

~Sera~

When I awoke, I immediately tried to move my arms and legs but found that they were bound. I leaned my head up and saw that my arms and legs were spread out eagle style and I was tied to a dais of sorts. It was made of cracked marble or some other sort of smooth rock and the coldness of it bled through my thin clothes. I did a double take when I saw that I was wearing a thin white dress. Why was it that every chance someone got they put a girl in a dress? Like I would have begged on my hands and knees to be in my travel gear right now. I laid my head back and noticed that it was nighttime and the dais was surrounded by not only torches but by the hundreds of Speed soldiers that seemed to follow me wherever I went.

At the foot of the dais was the Master and next to her was Breccan, gagged and tied up, but he was there no less. The Master moved and stood over me, holding the four keys in her hands, "Today is the day we have been waiting so long for! Today this girl will sacrifice her life so that we may go onto a better life."

Before she could say anything else I piped up, "Hey, don't I get any say in this?"

The Master glared down at me, "You will be silent or I will silence you."

"Uh-uh," I shook my head. "Sweetie, no one silences me." I started to show her just how advanced my vocabulary of swear words was but she shoved a white cloth in my mouth and effectively ceased my very creative collection of insults.

"As I was saying," The Master continued, unrattled. "Today we will enter Paradise and we will feast at the table of the gods!" The Master took one key and tied it to my left wrist. I hissed into the cloth as the key seared my skin in a painful burn. She did the same on my right wrist and then repeated the process on my throat and finally, over my heart. I wanted to spit insults at her and challenge her to fight me when I wasn't tied down, but my heart was starting to beat out of my chest. I hadn't felt fear like this since I watched Breccan hold up Caden to be Tristan's target.

The Master started chanting and soon everyone but Breccan and I had joined in. My eyes darted around and I was starting to see that I wasn't going to get out of this. The faster they chanted the hotter the keys became on my skin and I started to writhe in my bonds from how badly they were burning my skin. I felt as if they were branding me like cattle. Then as quickly as the chanting had started, it stopped. The pain didn't ease though, it only increased as the land around us started to rumble. I was starting to get dizzy with the pain and I felt a familiar tug on my heart. My vision was starting to go black at the edges, but I did see Breccan try to run to me. Guards caught him and held him back though as the rock under me started to tremble. I felt it crack directly under my spine and my body arched into the air before the rock fell away.

Suddenly I was free falling and I expected my heart to be in my throat and my ears to be screaming with noise. There's a funny thing about times like these though, in the end, all you hear is a soft hum and your heart goes still.

I felt my eyes close and I whispered into the white cloth, "I'm ready to see Caden."

End of Book One