Chapter 23 CHAPTER 23
The sound stopped me instantly.
My foot froze mid-step as I looked down, my heart dropping into my stomach. The ice beneath me was no longer smooth and solid. Thin lines spread out from where I stood, splitting and branching into dozens more, racing across the surface faster than I could react.
“No…” I whispered, barely able to breathe.
Another crack followed, louder this time, and the ice shifted beneath my weight, the sound of it breaking apart echoing around me as the surface gave way in small, sharp pieces.
I turned my head sharply, my eyes finding him again, he had also stopped.
For a brief moment, we just stared at each other, and I could see it in the way he held himself, in the sudden stillness of his body that he knew.
He knew exactly what was about to happen.
The next second, the ice broke. It shattered beneath me, and I dropped straight through it, the freezing water swallowing me whole. The cold hit me instantly, like a thousand knives piercing through my skin all at once, stealing the air from my lungs before I could even scream.
Pain exploded through my body in a sharp, unbearable sensation.
Every part of me seized as the icy water wrapped around me, dragging me down, my limbs refusing to move properly as shock took hold. My chest burned, my throat tightening as I tried to gasp, but all that came was water and cold.
I couldn’t breathe, or move. I was completely paralyzed by the cold.
Panic hit me hard, my body thrashing without control as I tried to push upward, to find the surface, but everything felt heavy, slow, like I was trapped inside my own body, and the worse part was that couldn’t swim.
The realization crashed into me just as the darkness started creeping in at the edges of my vision, the cold pulling me deeper, dragging me down as my strength slipped away faster than I could fight it.
My lungs burned for air, and my chest tightened as I tried to hold out longer.
And for the first time since I ran, I knew I wasn’t getting out of this on my own.
The cold dragged me down, pulling me deeper as my body stopped responding the way it should. My arms moved, but they felt heavy, slow, like they didn’t belong to me anymore. The water pressed in from all sides, stealing what little air I had left, and the last bit of strength I had slipped through my fingers.
Then something broke through the water above me. A force so strong and fast, that
I barely saw it through the blur of darkness closing in, but I felt it. Something wrapped around me, firm and strong, cutting through the freezing water with ease. The grip was rough, urgent, nothing gentle about it, but it held me tight enough that I couldn’t sink any further.
He had come in after me.
The realization barely formed before everything tilted.
I was pulled upward, my body dragged through the icy water as the surface rushed closer, light breaking through the darkness just before we burst out of it. Air hit my face, sharp and painful, but I couldn’t take it in. My chest refused to work, my lungs burning as I coughed weakly, water spilling from my mouth as I struggled to breathe.
His arm tightened around me, keeping me above the surface as he moved, strong and fast, cutting through the broken ice like it was nothing. I felt the shift as we reached solid ground again, the hard surface beneath me as he pulled me out of the water completely.
The cold didn’t ease. If anything, it got worse.
My body shook violently now, uncontrollable, my hands weak as they barely moved against him. I tried to breathe, tried to pull in air, but it came out broken, uneven, my chest aching with every attempt.
I couldn’t focus. Everything felt distant and faded.
I was aware of him, of the heat coming from his body, of the way his grip didn’t loosen, but my vision blurred, the edges darkening as exhaustion and cold dragged me under again.
The last thing I felt was his hold tightening around me, solid and real against everything else that was slipping away.
Then everything went dark.
_____
BEAST
She did not eat.
I knew the moment I stepped into the chamber. The tray sat where it had been left, untouched, the food cold, useless. My gaze stayed on it longer than it should have, my jaw tightening as something sharp settled deep in my chest.
Stubborn girl.
Any other human would have given in by now. Hunger alone would have broken them. It always did. But not her. She sat there and suffered instead, choosing pride over survival like she had something to prove.
“Foolish,” I muttered under my breath, though the word felt too small for what I was feeling.
My eyes shifted to her. She was shaking.
Not lightly. Not something she could hide. Her whole body trembled beneath the furs, her teeth chattering, her hands pulled close like that would somehow keep the cold out. The fire had burned down, and the room had turned against her without it.
She looked weak, too thin. Almost breakable.
Something in my chest twisted at the sight, and I clenched my hand at my side, irritated by it more than anything else.
She should have eaten. I told her to eat.
“I told you to eat,” I said, my voice lower now, rougher, carrying something sharper beneath it.
She looked at me anyway. Even like that. Even shaking.
“And I told you,” she said, her voice uneven but still holding that same fire, “I’m not a doll you can play with.”
That fire, there it was again. It should have gone out by now. Hunger, cold, fear, all of it should have crushed it, should have broken her down into something quieter, something easier to control.
But it didn’t. It burned bright like the color of her hair. She was defiant, and something in me hated it, because I could not put it out.
Something in me snapped all of a sudden. It wasn’t slow. It wasn’t something I could hold back. One moment I stood there, and the next it was gone, control slipping through my hands as the beast surged forward, taking what little restraint I had left with it.
She defied me once again. Mine to command.
Mine to—
No.
Too late.
I was already on her.
My hand wrapped around her throat, forcing her back into the bed as I leaned over her, my grip tightening before I could stop it. Her body tensed instantly, her hands grabbing at my wrist, trying to pull me off, but it was useless.
And still she fought.
Even now, like this. “Do you ever stop?” I growled, my voice rough, strained with something I could not fully control.
She didn’t. Her fingers dug into my skin, her body twisting beneath me, her breath struggling, but she did not give in.