The Heart's Ashes (63 page)

“
You’re the king?” I asked delicately, trying to hide the
quiver in my voice.

“
So, you’ve heard of me, then?” he asked.

I nodded.

“
You know, Amara, if you do, in fact, prove to be Lilithian,
that makes us relatives,” he spoke even softer, “—being that you
descended from my sister’s bloodline.”

I nodded
again.

“
Then, you know you must endure the same fate as she.” He rose
and stood above me.

Feeling an
upsurge of panic shake my elbows and chin, I looked down at my
hands—blood-covered, long, thin fingers. These hands were made to
play the piano, not to meet with an ending such as this. “Why do
you have to kill me?” I nearly choked on my own dry tongue.

“
Do you not know?” Drake landed beside me again, cupping my
face with his bony fingers. “You are a weapon, Amara—built only to
destroy. We must rid the world of your kind of evil.”

“
I’m not evil.” I tore my face from his touch. “I’m just a
girl.
You’re
evil.”

Drake took a
breath and drew back slowly, his arm rising as Jason’s hand shot
out and hoisted me off the floor by the nape of my neck. “You will
show some respect, creature,” Jason yelled into my face; I reached
back, gripping his wrist with my nails to free myself from the
tight twisting of my hair.

“
It’s quite all right, Jason.” Drake stood; I kept my eyes on
his cloak. “She will learn her place soon enough.”

The king floated back to the table of councilmen, and Jason
released me; this time, I fell to my side, my hips wearing the dull
impact of the fall. I pushed up on my hand and looked right into
Jason’s soulless eyes;
you nearly ripped
my hair out, Jason.
I touched my fingers
to the back of my neck, so sure I was now bald there.
Why are you doing this?

“
Because you are a creature of sin—and you must die.” He
looked down at me with disgust, stealing my thought.

Creature? How
can he say that? He cared for me, taught me to fly in my dreams,
picked wildflowers with me.

The council
talked quietly among themselves while Jason stood like a soldier in
the middle of the room, me at his feet like a scorned pet, and my
heart on the floor in front of me. The side of my hand hurt where
he’d forced me to the ground, and I traced the tips of my bloodied
fingers with tear-filled eyes. “So, you hate me?” I looked up at
him.

His eyes
narrowed, staying on the council. “Yes.”

I sniffled,
unwilling to even hide my crumpling face. The council stopped
talking, glaring up at as. “But…you said you loved me.”

“
I said nothing of the sort.”

“
Yes, you did!”

Jason’s lip
lifted over his teeth as his arm folded diagonally across his
chest, coming back down sharply across my lip and nose; I screamed
and fell onto my elbow, forced by the sting.

“
I don’t love you.” He dropped to his knees in front of me,
squeezing my face before I could take a breath; “I never did. You
we’re just a game to me.” I looked up at his clenching teeth,
twisting my fingers around his wrists as blood dripped from my nose
in one tickling line.

“
I don’t...I don’t believe that.” My eyes fell past him to see
the reaction of the council, all motionless, watching the show with
a hint of amusement.

“
Did you really think I would love you? You pathetic little
whelp.” His hands shook tightly around my face as he laughed, then
threw me away again. “You disgust me.”

Leaning on one
hand, I pressed the back of my wrist to my upper lip, and through
heavy breaths, smoothed the blood away from the burn in my
nose.

“
She has so much faith,” he addressed the council again. “I
read it in her thoughts. She believes she will be
saved.”

Drake scoffed
with a certain amount of amusement and went back to his discussion,
no longer interested in our little show.

My chest
tightened into my stomach as I sobbed aloud, gasping through each
pause enough to catch a breath. With pleading eyes, I searched
Jason’s gaze for kindness, my face crumpling when only a cold,
stiff man stared back at me.

“
Stop crying,” he said coldly.

My shoulders
shook harder. I folded over, dropping my face as the tears rolled
in lines of three down my cheeks.

“
I said stop crying.”

“
I can’t,” my voice wailed out.

“
Then I’ll make you stop.” He grabbed the base of my neck
again.

“
That’s enough!” Drake stood as I cried out.

Jason stepped
back, and in a slow, ghost-like movement, Drake swept toward us,
his dark cloak gliding over the stone—his feet seemingly
non-existent. My sobs quietened with a pause of my breath. Drake
reached down to me. “To your feet, young one.”

My hand
trembled the slow ascension to his, and I pulled against it to
force my shaking legs to a stand.

“
Do you know why this is happening to you?” Drake asked
kindly.

Lost for
words, my lips sat rounded, parted slightly as air moved through
them. Up close, Drake’s eyes were like a rare gem; if it weren’t
for the malice festering in his soul underneath, the violet flecks
over the brilliant blue would actually be very beautiful.

“
Did you remove her voice box as well?” Drake turned to Jason,
smiling malignantly.

“
That can be arranged.” Jason folded his arms.

My lips
tightened into a pout and the sobs turned to snivels, my heart
calming now with the safety of height.

“
Amara.” Drake’s hand hovered near my cheek, his lips tasting
my name. “Princess Amara. Beauty beyond words, but a bite of
death.” His rounded eyes studied mine carefully. “I must apologise
for what we plan to do to you. Were it not for your bloodline, I’d
claim you as my own. Please understand, my lovely girl, this is
nothing personal.” His eyes narrowed into slits. “Then again. Maybe
it is.” He laughed wickedly, his high-pitched burst of air greeted
with the chuckles of the council at the table—all except one; a man
whose face watched mine, studying me carefully, his eyes narrowed,
intense—familiar somehow.

“
What are you going to do with me?” I drew myself up
stiffly.

Drake spun
back to face me. “Well, of course, we plan to kill you. But before
we take the young warrior’s word on what you are, we must perform a
few tests—to make sure.”

“
What kinds of tests?”

“
Ha!” he squeaked with humour. “What kinds?” He turned to the
council. “What kinds, she asks. Oh, such a brave little girl to
question a king.”

“
You’re no king,” some stupid girl inside me said, running on
nerves and adrenaline. “You’re just a man. I’m not afraid of
you.”

“
That’s only because you know not what I’m going to do to
you,” he said, his mouth suddenly on the bridge of my nose, his
words spitting through his stark white teeth. I drew a quick
breath. “I’m going to make you cry. I’m going to make you scream,
and if you satisfy my needs, I will eventually offer you the mercy
of death.”

Drake shoved
me to the ground; I tumbled like a heavy bag of clothes; my hands
flew out as the force bent my weight into my elbows, just before my
nose hit the ground. The dark shadow of the king lingered for a
second, then tapered away, leaving me alone on the stone floor,
like a dog.

My teeth
tensed in the back of my mouth, my face angled to the ground—away
from the eyes of the council.

I want to run
away—to just get up and tell them I don’t want to play anymore. But
this isn’t a game. And they won’t let me go. They got me, they did
exactly what David told me to be afraid of, only now, it’s worse,
because I’m equivalent to the creature they once so brutally
destroyed.

“
Jason?” The king said. “Undress her.”

“
Undress her?” Jason looked at me.

“
Yes. The council wish to taste her blood. Undress
her.”

I rolled my
face upward to meet Jason’s as he sauntered toward me, his arms
still folded. With wide eyes and crawling skin, I shook my head,
feeling the pinch of fear creep over me like nakedness. “Jason.
Don’t. Please, don’t.”

He grabbed my
wrist and threw me onto my back.

“
No.” I crossed my arms over my chest, gripping my lace dress
with unyielding desperation.

“
Stop it, Ara.” He clutched both my hands in one of his and
pinned them against my neck, forcing my head to the ground. “Don’t
struggle.”

“
Please,” I screeched, “Please just don’t undress me. I won’t
fight. I promise. Drink from me, I don’t care.” I looked at Drake
as Jason clenched the neckline of my dress. “Please?”

“
Stop.” Drake squatted beside me, lifting his cloak a little
as he did, revealing that he does, in fact, have feet. “You promise
to lay still while they drink from you?”

I nodded, as
much as I could with the cold stone under my head.

“
Very well.” Drake stood again. “Jason, lift her dress. My
council enjoy the thigh.”

I closed my
eyes tight and pressed my arms into the floor beside me, rolling my
head back firmly to the ground as Jason stood up from my body and
touched the lace around my ankles. My jaw tightened—too tight to
quiver—and warm, salty tears travelled down my temples, tickling my
ears before dripping onto the floor.

“
You better not move,” Jason said, and cool air kissed my
shins, my knees and my inner thigh as he rolled my wedding dress
over my hips and left my legs, my waist and my underwear exposed to
the room of men—one of them being his own uncle.

Evil. So
frickin’ evil.

My teeth bit
hard in my mouth, fear taking me somewhere outside my body, but not
far enough to feel nothing. Their shadows descended around me,
filling the once empty space with gloom. I kept my eyes closed, my
mind ignorant, leaving only my skin promised to their evil
intentions.

From a touch
at the base of my knees, they fingered their way across my skin—a
doctor feeling for a hidden lump. I took a deep breath and held my
squeal, forcing my nails into my palms.

Oh God, just
get it over with.

Wet lips
formed a seal around the soft flesh above my hipbones on both
sides, and hair brushed along my legs, falling from the heads of
those whose lips were there. Firm tongues licked the flesh first,
so many, all at once. But the one by my left, his hands grappling
my inner thigh, his finger worming against the elastic of my
underwear, commanded all my attention.

Jason, please.
Don’t let him touch me like that?

I waited but
Jason did nothing, probably watching as this pervert abused the
boundaries.

“
Be swift, Councilmen,” Drake called. “We’ve tests to
perform.”

The intruding
finger inched away and tight, unwanted pressure of teeth broke the
flesh. My nails pressed tighter into my palms, scraping ditches of
raised skin. I focused on the sting in my hand—willing it to be the
only pain.

And though I
promised to lay still, I just couldn’t; my back arched and my legs
stiffened, fighting internally, forcing myself not to kick, not to
fight them off.

Fingers held
tight but teeth loosened as my blood seeped out past the moaning on
their lips. It hurt, but only the same as a human bite would;
aching, pulsing, possibly bruising, but not stinging—not like
Jason’s bite had last year.

Like a
deflating balloon, each of my limbs relaxed when their hands
dropped from my skin, their presence shifting from my aura.

A shadow
hovered above my face; Jason stared down at me, his mouth agape,
his eyes fixed on my lower half. I rolled up on my elbows and
looked at my legs; purple bruises bubbled on the surface of my
skin, droplets of red reeling, reversing into the wounds as they
closed.

Silence filled
the room, resting under the soft crackle of the roaring fire.

“
Well, she’s a lot stronger than we imagined.” Drake stood
motionless beside the council table.

Can I move
yet?

I wanted to
pull my dress down. Several of those creeps were glaring, too
interested in my lower half.

My hand edged
toward my skirt. Jason kicked it away, pressing my wrist to the
floor with his heavy, black boot. I glared up at him, my teeth
forcing together inside my mouth.

“
Don’t you move,” he said bitterly, “Not until the king orders
you to.”

One at a time,
I lifted my knees and pressed them together, planting my feet to
the ground.

I’m going to
kill him if I ever get the chance.

Each breath in
my chest tightened my throat with rage and my hands shook under the
clench of my fingers.

“
Right, well, I guess there is only one more preliminary test
to perform,” Drake added, slumping down in the chair at the centre
of the table. “Bring in the prisoner,” he called.

The door
buckled open and a wriggling, kicking being, with long blonde hair,
struggled between the unyielding hold of the two men who brought me
to this room. They threw him to the floor in front of me, his face
hidden by the mop of messed hair, but I could tell immediately he
was young, maybe no older than sixteen. He pressed up on the palm
of his hand and kept his face to the ground—away from me.

My heart
twinged. Poor thing.