I tried not to move, not to breathe. I wasn’t even sure what was happening or how much pain I would be in.
“Please drink this.” Her brother stepped forward and handed over the goblet.
Dorian, Nora, and Norok watched from the side lines. I tried not to stare back at them or attempt to run away and demand
answers. The brother, who I assumed was Karim, looked at me with worry in his eyes. He probably wondered if I was going to
try and run away, ruining this entire thing.
Hesitantly, I took the goblet and drank the disgusting contents. Whatever it was seemed sweet at first, but left a horrible,
bitter aftertaste, as if I drank swamp water.
A sudden burning hit my ears and had me curling in pain as I screamed. The liquid stung within my throat as my stomach
curdled and ached, begging for relief. Leaning over myself, a hand lifted up my chin as Panya stared at me before a clap of
thunder roared from above.
Karim began to chant words in another language, one I’d never heard before as the contents of the bowl was poured over
my head. It soaked my hair, neck, and face in red. I wanted to scream, to cry, to beg for my brother to help. He just stood and
silently watched. His eyes never left my face.
Panya began to speak words I believed were a spell and pain shot down my neck, into my arms and legs. My body vibrated
with shock, the horror of it all. What was she doing? They told me it wouldn’t hurt much or at all, but it felt as if my entire body
was breaking from the inside out.
“PLEASE!! STOP!!” I shouted, begging. “Brother, please!” Looking directly at Norok he just shook his head as the mages
continued.
“I’m sorry, your highness. It will be over soon.”Panya’s voice again, she sounded as broken as I felt.
A sharp pain ran across the insides of my palms as large deep cuts appeared out of thin air. Panya lifted my wrists up and I
watched as the blood dripped down my arms and onto the ground below.
I thought the pain I was in was at its worst, but it wasn’t. Not by far. As soon as the blood hit the grass below, it felt as if a
million daggers were stabbing me in the back. The crescent moon on my wrist throbbed, burned and then there was this pull. A
pull deep within my chest, in the very pits of my heart. That pull I’d always felt near Nicholas, the light that drew me closer to
him.
It was being taken away.
My eyes widened in shock, in horror at what they were doing. They were taking my bond away, the thing that kept me alive,
pulling me back to him.
“No, please not that,” I begged, pleading as tears streamed down my dirt, blood stained face.
“I must.”