It was almost as though he knew I would be coming out today and saved it for me.
“85221.” Hexxus’s powerful voice crawled up the back of my neck, tightening the air leaking through my esophagus. “Is this all you’ve done?” He picked at the clothing pile on my station as if it were contaminated. “Your daily quota doesn’t stop simply because you are not here.”
“What?” I blanched. Did he mean I had three days plus today to catch up on?
Still trying to learn to use the machine, my fingers were raw, and my exhausted mind and body were moving much slower than others.
“Do you know what happens when you don’t keep up on your quota?”
I stared up at him.
“Answer me!”
I figured it was more of a rhetorical question, sir.
Gasps simmered in the room, telling me I had said it out loud. Shit. My fatigued brain had just let my thoughts slip out.
Hexxus’s entire form inched higher as fury filled him, his eyes turning black.
“What did you say to me?”
Coming out of torture just hours earlier with no rest or food, I had hit the part of the day when I had nothing left. I had eaten the extra piece of toast Tad gave me a long time ago, and my stomach gnawed on itself and wobbled with nausea. I flinched at every loud song or bang, leftover trauma from the hole.
“Stand up, 85221,” he snarled. His voice touched the part of my brain that wanted to oblige for fear of what he might do and follow his every direction even as it took you over a cliff. Top demons and Druids were most powerful at turning your mind and body against you. There were rumors within HDF drugs were being made to help humans block their minds to the fae lure, to help our kind survive and fight back.
Even if full magic was blocked here, Hexxus still commanded power with his tone, making my teeth crunch together. My bones were slow to move, my muscles stretching to stand up.
“You like it, huh?” He stroked the whip on his belt. “Gets you off?”
“No, master.”
“Good. I would rather they scream and fight me.” He stepped closer, his height the same as mine, keeping his malicious eyes on me as he tugged the whip free. “More energy in fear.”
My gaze tracked him, already preparing to tuck myself away, hide anything that still could be felt deep inside my mind.
The crack of the whip reverberated off the walls, the tail of it just snipping my chin. It burned down my neck, across my nerves, and made my eyes water. I wanted to believe myself strong enough to endure all this. I wasn’t. A true hero would hold their chin up and take it. I was no hero.
My legs wobbled, a sob choking my throat. His arm went back to whip me again. His yellow eyes turned completely black, reflecting my hollow figure. I hated knowing my life would end like so many before me. Dying in Halalhaz…no one knowing I was within reach. To them, my story ended on that train platform weeks ago.
I wished it had ended with a final view of Caden.
Crack!
My knees drove to the floor, not even a squeak coming from my lips as I shut down. My imperviousness to death seemed to irritate Hexxus more. Did he want me to fight, to scream in fear?
“No! Stop!” a soft voice shouted.
Everyone in the room, including Hexxus and me, jerked to the person in shock.
Lynx stood next to her machine, her hands in the air, wide-eyed, as though she couldn’t believe what she had done.
“Excuse me?” Hexxus heaved back his shoulders. Silence doused the room. Everyone stood opened mouthed and staring, even the other guards.
“It’s my fault.” Lynx licked her lips. “I forgot…” Fear swallowed her words, her throat bobbing.
Hexxus stepped around my table to hers, Lynx’s body trembling, her gaze dropping to her shoes.
What the hell was she thinking?
“She’s caught up. I held her pile on my table.” She tapped the piles on her station, her voice and hand shaking.
Hexxus stared at her, his black demon eyes showing no reaction. For what felt like minutes, he didn’t reply, the threat of his retaliation hanging in every breath.
He took a step up to her table, his fingers sliding over the cloth, his voice low. “You are telling me this is all hers?”
“Yes, master.” She dipped her head in perfect obedience.