I walked into my bedroom, closed the door, and turned on one of the lamps that was hanging from the wall close to my bed. I changed into my nightgown, and didn’t notice the note sitting on my small dresser until I was all ready for bed. I picked up the note. It said:
Meet me in the meeting room on the deck of the ship tonight, once everyone is asleep.
Rowan
I quietly opened my bedroom door, and stepped into the dark hallway. I could hear someone snoring. Other than that, everything seemed quiet.
Rayen went out to swim in the sea, and find something to eat earlier. I did not expect her to be back anytime soon.
I slowly -- so slowly -- crept up the stairs, and across the deck of the ship to the meeting room. I cracked open the meeting room door, and poked my head inside the room. It was pitch black. “Rowan?” I whispered. I opened the door even more, and stepped inside the room. “Rowan?” I whispered again.
In a blink, the meeting room door shut closed, and candles placed around the perimeter of the meeting room lit. Seated at the head of the table -- feet up on the table, hands folded in his lap -- was a man. He had short, gold hair, and gold eyes. Exactly like Manon’s. He grinned at me.
I started to panic. I whipped towards the door, my wings and muscles both hurting in protest to the fast movement. Two guards guarded the door. They each sneered at me. I faced the man again. I forced my face to be neutral as he stood from his chair and walked towards me, his grin growing with each step he took.
“Such a pretty thing,” he said as he circled me. He touched my hair, and I flinched at the touch.
“Don’t touch me,” I growled at him. His grin only grew in response. “Who are you.”
“Aelin hasn’t told you anything about me?” he purred, still circling me.
“No,” was all I said. I scanned the room, looking for any places to escape.
“There is no way to escape, my darling sweet Aiyana,” he said, reading my mind. He moved closer to me. I stepped back. Once. Twice. Thrice.
I backed up into his guards. He quickly glanced at them, and then nodded. I didn’t have time to move before his guards grabbed my arms and hauled me over to the table. I started thrashing. “Let me go!” I demanded. “What are you doing? Let me go!” My body was hurting with the fast movements I was making. I couldn’t feel my legs. I have to get out I have to get out I have to get out --
More of his guards appeared, and grabbed my legs, lifting me up. My wings were being crushed against me. “Let go of me!” I spat. “Let go!” His guards did nothing. They placed me on the table, instantly tying my wrists and ankles, with metal chains that burned, onto the table. I forced my wings to vanish before the could do anything to them.
The man walked over to me, and pulled up my nightgown, revealing my wrapped torso and bare legs. I bared my teeth at him and growled. “Do. Not. Touch. Me,” I spat in his face. He slowly took off the healing cloth from my torso, and looked at the wound I got from the ilken.
He grinned. “My ilken did quite a nice job of giving you a brutal scar,” he said with wicked delight. My stomach turned. I was going to throw up.
He then walked to the front of the room, his guards moving out of his way. They each watched me, pleasure masking their faces. I sneered at them. The man returned. My heart stopped beating. He walked towards me, polishing a long, pointed knife. He grinned.
At a point I couldn’t remember, I started to cry.
“Don’t cry, sweet Aiyana; this will only last a minute,” he purred.
Rayen Rayen Rayen I called through the bond.
“There is no use in calling your animal-friend, since I sound-proofed this room. I also made it so that you can’t get out, and no one can get in. Bring the stone,” the man said, turning to face one of his guards. He then turned back to me, a small stone, the size of a penny, lying in his palm.
Bile rose in my throat.
“Don’t worry, sweet child,” he said as he leaned over my belly with the knife, and cut. I screamed. The metal on the knife was burning my skin. Blood trickled down my belly and onto the wooden floor. He cut again, but deeper this time. I screeched and sobbed at the same time. He then took the stone, and began to place it inside the wound he made --
The door to the room burst open. Darkness, in great big swirls, moved into the room, forming a barrier around me. The guards -- including the man -- cursed.
I looked at the doorway, and found Azriel standing there, hands balled into fists, feral rage radiating off him.
The man and his guards instantly disappeared. I sobbed in relief as Azriel walked towards me, his barrier now disappearing. He carefully picked me up, and walked out onto the deck of the ship. Apparently, the chains they used to pin me to the table were gone; they must have disappeared with the man and his guards.
Azriel laid me down on the steps that were on the deck of the ship, close to the very front of the ship. He quickly looked at me and said, “I have to take the stone out. This may hurt.”
I nodded.
He reached down into the wound, and took the stone out. I had to bide down on my lips from screaming in pain. He set the bloody stone on the deck of the ship. “I have to stitch this wound together. I can heal it with some of my magic, but will have to stitch most of it. I will be right back,” he said as he rose. “I am going to get the tools I need --”
They had already appeared on the deck -- I had summoned them.
“Thank you,” was all he said before he got to work. After a period of silence, Azriel asked me, “What was he trying to do to you?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. I silently cried as the images of what the man was trying to do to me flashed through my mind.
“Do you know who he is?”
“No. I will ask Aelin, though. He apparently knew who she was, and who I was.”
“How?”
“I . . . don’t know.” My words started to slur; I was getting tired.
“Sleep, Aiyana,” Azriel softly told me.
And so I did.
Written by Alexa Gantt
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