Ravage by Tillie Cole

Author:Tillie Cole [Cole, Tillie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250086303
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

14

ZOYA

I had never ever felt my heart beat so fast. As I lay here, trapped in the grip of the man I thought I had grown to understand, my heart beat too fast and too strong.

I could feel my body shaking. I could feel my blood turning to ice as it sluggishly tried to infuse my muscles with strength.

Crystal blue eyes watched me, like a hawk watches its prey. I chastised myself for my emotional naivety, for my abandonment of logic and my seriously misplaced trust.

I tried to pull back, but Valentin’s grip was too strong. Please, I tried to say, but no words fell from my mouth. I had been so wrong. It wasn’t the collar. This man was a heartless monster. Whatever had been in the collar only heightened the blackness scarring his soul.

I gave up the fight, lying as still as I could. I closed my eyes, seeing Zaal’s happy face in my head—the brother I’d just condemned to death.

My breathing quickened in sorrow, then my world was blown apart when the monster said, “Her name is Inessa.” I held my breath, my mind confused. Who was Inessa? What was he referring to?

Then he continued, “She is my sister, though she hasn’t remembered that fact, or even her own name, since she was four.” I blew out a breath, slow and controlled, shock filling every cell of my body. My frantic heart began to slow when I realized, I realized he was confiding in me. He was telling me about himself.

“Valentin,” I said softly, my near whisper sounding like a scream in the deathly quiet room.

Valentin’s hands ran to the back of my head as though he was trying to bring me as close as possible. I let him take comfort from my proximity. But when I saw a tear roll down his stubbled cheek, my heart broke in two.

“Valentin,” was all I could say. I swallowed at the grief in that single solitary tear tumbling to the mattress. “Where is she now, your Inessa?”

Valentin’s hold became rigid, but he managed to explain, “I do not even know how to make you understand. She is being held captive, like we all were. But where the men were trained as fighters or, worse, killers—”

“Like you?” I asked, the question tumbling from my lips without thought.

Valentin’s eyes shut painfully, but he nodded his head. “Yes. Like me.”

“But your sister?” I pushed.

Valentin edged back, his hands sliding from behind my head. He took a grip of my hand, though, like before. No, not this time. When I saw his eyes, they were like nothing he’d shown me before. Vulnerability and despair shone in their depths, and absolute defeat.

“The females are taken down a different path. They are drugged with a serum that makes them sexually subservient. They are driven mad from within, if a man doesn’t fuck them like an animal.”

Bile rose in my throat. “Your sister? As a child…?” I trailed off, not wishing to hear the answer to my question.

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