67

67
I am able to ignore the way my skin burns. I can also ignore the uncomfortable way my body is being stretched. What I can’t ignore is this throbbing sensation in my chest. It’s my fear for Sophia. Why did she scream?

Was she hurt?

I remember Logan falling down, shock in his eyes. I remember his fingers twitching as he tried to get to me, as he tried to warn me about the people behind me. But it was too late. My body had begun seizing, even as I had gone down.

I know the woman I love. She would’ve tried to chase after me. I hope she doesn’t. Karina is convinced that she has gone back to the pack. I hope that’s the case. I hope the others dissuaded her from coming to find me.

As long as Sophia is safe and sound, I can bear anything. Any kind of torture is nothing so long as my mate is safe.

These thoughts swirl within me, and I test my wrist. The manacles have loosened considerably. However, I still can’t slip my hand through them. What I can do is break my wrist. It’s going to take some time to heal but there are not a lot of options for me right now.

Grinding my teeth, I yank my hand out, feeling the bone crunch as it does. The pain is immeasurable. However, I manage to twist my wrists out of the restraints. There are no guards outside my cell right now. I don’t know when they left. They’ve probably gone to get lunch or dinner. I don’t even know what time it is.

Falling to the ground, I brace myself as well as I can using my broken wrists. I collapse on my face when they refuse to take my weight. It takes a lot of effort to set my wrist and I wait for the bone to heal. Ever since Sophie and I became full mates, my healing has also become faster.

After a couple of minutes, I feel my bones begin to set and reform.

Breaking my ankles is harder and much more painful. I swallow the agony and the white heat that courses through me when the bone breaks.

Once I’m finally free, I drag myself over to the wall to take a rest, my breathing hard. I have to fix my foot so that the bone can heal. With shaking hands, I readjust my ankle, biting down on the groan that follows the movement.

Each second is incredibly agonizing.

I have to get to Sophia. This is nothing compared to what she will go through if I don’t escape.

It is this thought that lets me get to my feet. The air is punched out of me when I try to put my weight on my ankles. But, gripping the wall of the cell, I reach the bars. The next problem is how to get out of here.

I don’t know how, but I can see electricity sparking on the bars. There doesn’t seem to be any electrical box in sight, so this can only be magic. Another way to keep me in. Here’s to hoping I’ll just get a light shock. Taking a deep breath, I grab the bars, bracing myself for the impact.

For a minute, nothing happens.

Then I’m suddenly tossed against the wall, a massive shock of electricity making my whole body tingle. Fading in and out of consciousness, I feel sick to my stomach, curling in a ball.

I close my eyes, breathing through the pain. I can feel the painful tingling all over my body. It’s coming in waves. When I open my eyes, I blink in shock.

What the hell?

Where am I?

I’m not in the cell any longer.

I’m somewhere else.

Confused and disorientated, I look around. The scars on my wrists and ankles from the manacles are not there. I am in a cage. A very small cage at that.

I’m curled up in a ball and I can’t move.

I remember this place. Bile rises to my throat as does a childhood fear.

I spent a lot of years in this cage, as punishment for defying Karina.

Around me is just dirt. This is the one place I’ve feared the most. My breathing increases as despair fills me. This can’t be real. Please don’t let this be real.

“This can’t be real,” I breathe, feeling my mind break a little. “I was in the other cell.”

The sound of laughter fills my head. It’s not mine.

“You’re right,” Karina’s voice echoes in my head. “It was fun though, wasn’t it?”

She mocks me. “Breaking your wrists, breaking your ankles? The witches told me that whatever you experienced in your visions would be real. You will spend your life in this cage, underground, buried. Nobody’s coming for you, Alex. Just like nobody came for you then. But I will show you what I do to your mate. All you have to do is close your eyes and you will see everything I put her through. All because you were born to the wrong parents. This is your hell. This is your purgatory.”

Her laughter dies as her voice disappears from my head, leaving me facing the terror from my childhood.

Chapter 23

Sophia

“What is going on?” Nathan looks around, tense.

The uniforms the shifters are wearing are a dead giveaway to their identity.

“It’s Karina’s soldiers,” Patrick murmurs in a hushed voice. “She must’ve been waiting for us.”

“How is that possible?” I look at the men surrounding us. They’re not moving or attacking. They’re just blocked every escape route. “She shouldn’t have been able to know where we arrived, or that we were arriving at all.”

“We’re not at the entrance of the North border,” Jared points out, his eyes trained on the cloaked witches standing behind the soldiers. “This is the near Karina’s territory.”

“Why did Elsa send us here?” Patrick is furious. “She was a trait…”

My voice is hard. “Elsa didn’t betray us. Something else must have happened. Somebody must’ve interfered with her magic.”

The sound of a slow clap has me looking sharply to the right. The soldiers and witches move aside to let a woman through.

Karina.

She claps her hands, slowly. “Well-spotted. No, your little witch friend didn’t betray you. I’ve had witches monitoring you and any magic cast around you for a while now. I couldn’t track you within the Central Alliance, but outside of it, tracking you was easy. It’s not that hard for a witch to mess with a spell that is in the process of being cast.”

Karina is wearing a deep red jumpsuit, her dark hair tied into an intricate braid that flows past her hips. Her icy blue eyes look entertained, and there is a cruel glint in them that makes me shiver.