*TRIGGER WARNING. VIOLENCE. FLASH BACK OF TORTURE*
This is an excerpt from Bound by War.
BEEP.
WHOOSH.
Beeeeeep.
Whoosh.
A scrape first. Cold metal stroked
against his bruised skin and the kiss of a blade woke him immediately. The dull
pains of a battered body greeted him as he returned to consciousness, and he
fought not to groan.
The first line of fire stung but wasn’t too bad.
The burn of the rope tightening around his wrists as he flexed his arms annoyed
him more. A mean smile flashed above him. Black eyes gleam in the darkness.
“You will scream for me, Blishue.”
Another slice of the blade. Harder this time. Icy
coldness then a fiery burn as his skin parted. It throbbed and pulsed, but he’d
had worse. More cuts were delivered with glee across his chest and shoulders.
Blood splashed the sheet he lay on.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see naked
skin—his or hers. Shutting out the small discomfort wasn’t anything he wasn’t already
used to. Life of a Blishue was all about pain.
“Open your eyes!”
Knowing better than to refuse an order, he did.
Madness blazed in her black eyes. He’d been warned the Ne Reynian queen was
surly, ill-tempered, and abusive when he went undercover. He knew she’d try to
break him.
She griped the weapon, his blood tarnishing the
blade. Her fingers also were stained. How often had she cut him? His clothes
were in tatters, and so was his skin.
