Exploring Fae (Lost In Fae #2) - M. Sinclair Page 0,2

come back and leave me to slowly bleed out in the snow. Was that possible? Was this going to be my end?

Electricity ran over my skin as I screamed, tears streaming down my face as my father laughed softly. I could barely see out of my swollen eyes from the well-aimed kicks the guards laid, but in the corner, I could see Victor hitting his head against the wall. Why wouldn’t he help me? I let out another scream, not even caring that my father was laughing as he got not only my magic but continued to get a sick, sadistic thrill from the torturous treatment.

“How have you not died yet, sweet girl?” my father mused, his eyes appearing above me. “Is it because your spirit hasn’t broken? That won’t do.”

I didn’t fully understand what he meant until I was knocked out and woke back up in my cage, restrained once again, a soldier watching me from the entrance, looking amused. Almost instantly, my wings bent around me protectively as I looked around at the wires and electric cords that were connected to different pieces of me. I followed them towards a large, gritty machine that the soldier stood next to.

“Your father wants me to break you, but I don’t think it will be that easy, now will it?” he purred. “You are going to scream and cry, pretty little bug, but you and I are going to be together for a long time to come.”

That was when he turned on the electricity, sending thousands of volts through me all at once. I didn’t pass out. I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I found myself completely escaping into a sense of numbness, rage coating my need to one day kill him. Kill my father.

One day.

My muscles groaned as I struggled to stand, the blood-soaked earth underneath me like a crimson stain of death against the winter scene. I would not be distracted. I couldn’t stop the vivid memories, but fuck—I would not let it end me.

My eyes flickered shut as everything swarmed around me dangerously. Blood trickled down the back of my neck, and I briefly wondered why I wasn’t healing. I was bleeding out, and I didn’t understand how that was possible. How any of this was possible. Why had my magic abandoned me? Where had my familiars gone? I knew if I looked, my tattoos would be absent. I’d bet money on it.

Why wasn’t there anyone else looking for me? Who had I expected to come after me, exactly?

I didn’t have anyone, and I knew that.

Feeling determined to stay upright, I swallowed down the bile as I made my way to the first tree nearby. I gripped the freezing, icy bark, not minding the bite of cold, as I heard a snarl from somewhere close. Hope surged through me as I looked around eagerly.

A small sound of defiance broke from my throat at the weird, strangling hold this place seemed to have on me. I refused to give up.

I had survived so goddamn much. Torture. Imprisonment. I wasn’t about to die from a head injury or hypothermia. Absolutely fucking not. The anger that surged through me was hot and melted some of the numbness over me, but unfortunately it also brought the pain that I’d been avoiding.

Almost as if sensing and backing down from my determination, the wind quieted, and the snarl nearby cut off. Everything went absolutely silent. No creatures. No wind. Absolutely nothing. A chill of apprehension rolled over my spine as I felt a dark energy pulse across my skin, attempting to force me to my knees.

I bared my teeth and gripped the tree harder, unable to accept the notion of kneeling for someone I didn’t know. Someone I didn’t respect. I hadn’t knelt for Mario, and I wouldn’t kneel for this invasive power.

Then it was gone. Lifted by a soothing feminine voice infused with power. A weird calm took over my frame, protectively coating me, and my pain was temporarily lifted, causing me to let out a ragged breath of relief.

“Maize, you need to wake up. Now.”

I opened my mouth, not expecting words to come out, but a croaked response slipped from my lips. “Who the fuck are you? Where are you?”

There. Those were goddamn questions.

Instead of seeing anyone, a dark, almost black mist infused with sparkles surrounded my ankles as a firm, small hand pressed against the back of my head. I cried out, feeling fingers brush inside the open wound. I felt