A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair

Author:Melissa Blair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Union Square & Co.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

MY BLOOD WAS MADE of liquid flame. Every pulse stoked the fire until I could see my flesh bubbling but somehow not burning. I screamed into the darkness, wishing for the pain to stop. I didn’t care if the only way to end it was death, I would gladly take that final reprieve to end my suffering.

My throat ached as I shrieked but then the darkness swirled and took shape around me. Syrra had warned me that this final round would be the hardest. I wouldn’t only face physical pain under the last elixir, but every kind of pain my mind could muster. The part of myself that didn’t want to give up the wine would fight me with everything it had and if it succeeded in tempting me, I would have to start the entire process again.

I didn’t have the strength for that. Or the time. The Shades were waiting for me.

I gritted my teeth and prepared myself for whatever was about to come. My vision blurred but I could see the shadowy figures that had haunted me for decades. The children I was forced to bring to the Order and then couldn’t keep alive. The families that I had been ordered to destroy and did to keep my title. Every one of my names dripped from my skin and transformed into a shadowy silhouette to witness what I deserved.

A goblet dropped in front of me. The lush scent of wine filled my nostrils and with it came a momentary lapse of pain. My body thrashed along the ground, inching closer to it without control. I kept my hands back, waiting for the vision to fade.

It’s not real.

It’s not real.

It’s not real.

I chanted it over and over again to myself, but it was hard to believe when the pain was undeniable. My mind, my body, every part of myself wanted to give in to the craving, but that wine was just part of the illusion. If I couldn’t say no to that, I would never say no when true hardships fell on me again.

I clenched my jaw, shutting my eyes so I didn’t have to see the burgundy liquid swirling in the large cup.

“But this is real,” a voice I’d almost forgotten whispered beside me.

Tears welled in my eyes before I even opened them.

Brenna stood in front of me. Her blond waves framed her face and shoulders as she kneeled. She wasn’t wearing the black garb of an initiate or the bloodstained clothes Damien had been making me see for weeks. She wore a long Elvish robe, in a petal blue that brought out the honey color of her eyes. It was what I would have wanted for her, if we ever had reached the Faeland together.

She cupped my cheek and wiped the tears away. I whimpered at her touch. It was too real. Not cold like a memory or burning like my flesh, but the soft lukewarm temperature her skin had always had. I closed my eyes and I could smell the brine and salt wafting from her hair.

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