There's a difference between hearing her scream in pain when Arkyn breaks her bones or cuts her skin, and when The Eternal gets into her head. I can never tell if he makes her scream because he enjoys it, or if stealing her memories really is a painful process.
It's not her regular screams that haunt my nights, but these ones. The ones that sound like thousands of crying souls from the underworld. The ones that make hearing every other horrid sound in this world sound like a lullaby. And it's never a scream that quiets and then picks up here and there. It's a scream that goes on for however long she can hold her breath, and all at the same volume until he finishes. It's the type of scream that everyone thinks of when they hear of the damned in the underworld, yet has never actually heard and lived to tell the tale.
The scream of a mother losing her child, or a soulmate losing the one they thought they'd have forever. The scream of someone who just broke, and lost.
Even Arkyn can be spotted looking away or cringing and shifting his jaw at the sound. I think all but that demon witch Visha would soon enough need to leave before going crazy themselves. I've been here each time that he's taken a piece of her away, and after each time I can never tell if I'm truly okay. I can't tell if I'm still the Sitara that Siscilla saw as her prodigy.
The only upside about all of this is that I don't have to heal any bones, but her wrists are mangled from her tugging against her chains, and her vocal cords will be hoarse and run thin. Just looking at the blood dripping down her arms makes bile find its way up my throat. I have to swallow it and hold in my cough to rid of the burning feeling it left behind. If I threw up now, I'd just be told to clean it up, and I'd much rather use my time and what energy I've gained on her.
Kallisté has been a presence I never thought I needed. The darkness of my own cell hasn't troubled me as much as it used to, and it makes me more confident that the girl will make it out of here. I could care less for my life when it comes down to it. Sure, I like being a part of the living, but she's not just some girl. She's more, and though I don't know the true depth of which that means, I know that she's going to play a huge part in the likely troubled future to come.
If The Eternal spoke correctly in the ballroom, then the Prince bears the other two elements, and though they're powerful alone, they're nowhere near as powerful as they would be with their remaining brethren. The elements make up this world, and as someone who lives in it, I personally want them to keep it in the light. The men before me want to bathe it in darkness, and we all know how I feel about the labyrinth that still plagues nightmares behind my closed eyes.
My life is a mere thing compared to hers, and as such, I can come to terms with leaving this world so long as she gets to stay. I'm not some suicidal maniac who's going to take the knife at one of the guard's sides and slit my throat, I'm more of a transfer my life force into her kind of person. The siphoning is nothing of a simple chant and spilled blood. I'd have to remain in physical contact with her and be in the process of dying myself in order to give her all I have - merely a minor complication now considering I'm not far from it either. Siscilla says it's painless which I suppose is good, but even if there was pain, I'd still do it. I'd do it now if I weren't practically positive that they'd still torture and break her.
The last thing I want to do is go into the next life and find her following not long after me. My chances at the moment are better spent at healing her and keeping both of us alive. I just wish that he'd stop hurting her - stop making her scream like that.
Normally, The Eternal would've been done by now, but he seems to be truly making her a clean sheet this time. It has my nerves making my chest tighten and my palms sweaty. It took me forever to get her to the memory recovery to which she was before all of this, and now...I'm not even sure that there's a strong chance that I can get her to part one in the next few days.
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Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)
Fantasy{{CURRENTLY UNDERGOING EDITING}} A kingdom across the sea, a man in pain clawing at a hated king who bears two shadows who protect him. A child, born from a mother with the powers of the Gods, screaming at a blood-soaked bed. A boy, a Prince, kind a...
