hollowed out shard tower. I looked back over my shoulder at the invisible sound travelling down the staircase before I felt the tugging at my neck. This was naturally to force me into action, and a harsh prompt to continue following him like I had done before our swift and frightening flight up here. I had to say that this was also where I was quickly hitting my limit, despite my hurried steps to follow him. Rushing now so he couldn’t pull again on the leash forcing me to match his pace, which admittedly was more like jogging.
The moment I caught up with him, he granted me a brief look over the side of his shoulder, looking mildly entertained with me trying to keep up with his long strides. I also noticed that he took this into account when holding the spiked leash, keeping it taut and on a short length so it couldn’t catch on my skin. Was this done to protect me from it or to keep me close? I couldn’t decide, but I did know that when we walked under the archway and he turned that indifferent gaze forward once more, this was when I’d had enough of playing the guessing game.
So, I reached out to him and grabbed his arm, being mindful of the spikes in his armour. The pressure caused him to take notice and he paused long enough to look down at his arm to find my hand there.
“Lucius, please… I can’t stand this any…” I started to say in what I knew was a pleading tone, one that had no effect on him at all, when he quickly cut me off,
“You will do well in remembering your place, for you will touch what I tell you to touch, now come!” Lucius snapped, tearing his arm from my hold, quickly putting me in my place. My eyes widened as I stumbled a step and my mouth dropped in shock before that tendril of dread started to weave its way back around my heart. For it was clear now that I had been wrong. Lucius hadn’t been putting on a show at all. For if he had, then where were all the people to witness it now?
Because up here, at the very top of one of his towers, there was no one around us left to fool, other than that of my foolish heart. One that had stupidly held on to the hope that this had all been an act of some kind and as soon as we were alone, then the old Lucius would come back to me. A man who seemed so far gone, I worried if I would ever have a chance at getting him back again!
In that moment, I will be honest, I had never wanted to cry so badly as I had since first setting foot in this Gods’ forsaken place. But my fears had been right, the witch must have got hold of him and somehow made him forget who he really was. But if this was so, then the only thing that didn’t make sense was why had he been hunting me? And in his right-hand man’s words, tearing up the entirety of Hell to find me. Why did he want me so badly and why did he think that I was his Mortal Pet?
Had she planted fake memories or something?
Gods, but there were just too many questions and unfortunately, from the looks of things, Lucius was going to be the very last person who was willing to answer them. Which also meant that at some point I would have no choice but to try and escape him…if something like that was even possible?
Because I knew one thing, that staying here and facing I don’t know how long as some mortal sex slave he cared little about, wasn’t going to save his people, or those I held dear to me, Lucius included. But then one look at the new space he led me into and the startled gasp that escaped became the backdrop song of impossibility and astonishment.
How in the Gods was I ever to escape such a place?
This new panic was settling in deep and growing by the second all from the sight that faced me now. The long and terrifyingly narrow walkway was one of many and one that I had seen from below when first entering this dark, sinister castle. I remembered thinking then that they looked like veins connecting organs to the heart of