Chapter 6
1414 Words
-Ladon-
She was smart. Red. She had fooled me, I had to admit. I hadn’t suspected something like this, but that didn’t mean I was the loser. One battle was lost, but the war between us was still ongoing, and I would emerge victorious from it. I promised myself that.
I watched the people walk around the camp while they had me tied to a tree with iron chains and kept me weak with a strange sort of potion. It was dark now, but the fire in the middle of the camp provided enough light. Smart of them. Only lighting one in order to make it seem less suspicious. These humans were not stupid, or they had a good leader. Either way, they were going to pay for this.
“Comfortable?”
I looked up at the woman who had succeeded in capturing me. It was clear she ran things around here. I had seen her ordering people around, and some of them came to her for advice. I already knew she was an important member of this group. I just wasn’t exactly sure how important.
“Very,” I replied.
She crouched down in front of me, and an evil smile spread on her lips. She reached out and turned my head to the side a little.
“Seems like I got you good last time,” she remarked.
I pulled my head away and just smiled back.
“I was going to say the same thing. Nice limp.”
Her face darkened, and she quickly stood up, towering over me.
“A small price to pay,” she said. “Because once we end your life, we will bring your brother to his knees.”
“You clearly don’t know my brother,” I retorted.
“No?”
“No.”
She moved down to my eye level again, now curious as to why I would say something like this. Her green eyes ran all over my face, studying me. The loose shirt she was wearing fell open a little because of its deep neckline, but I wasn’t sure she noticed.
Yet she was giving me quite the view. A different smile spread on my lips, and she was confused as to why until she saw where my eyes diverted to. She looked down at herself and quickly pulled the brown leather jacket tighter around her.
“Pervert,” she growled.
“Don’t worry, Red. You aren’t my type,” I informed her.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I even had a type anymore. A lot of things were ruined for me a long time ago.
“Your brother will hand over the North after we hand over your head,” she stated.
“The North is already yours.”
She laughed mockingly, and I looked at her, confused.
“What?”
“You have no idea,” she sneered.
“No, you don’t, Red.”
“Stop calling me that!” she yelled and pulled a knife from her shoe, pressing it against my throat. “Or I will ruin more of your face.”
“Go ahead. Just know I will pay you back with twice the pain.”
“You?” she laughed. “You won’t do anything. I will end your life, like I promised you last time.”
“And again, I would love to see you try,” I said and moved a little closer, feeling the way the knife dug further into my skin.
“You have no idea what I am capable of.”
“I was going to say the same thing,” I said.
We looked at each other for a little while before she harshly withdrew the knife, cutting the skin on my neck. I hissed from the slight stinging pain, and she looked at me almost innocently.
“Oh, my bad. Did that hurt?” she asked.
“What did you dip that knife in?” I asked.
It felt like fire suddenly started to course through my veins, and since I knew these people liked to play with different potions and other things, I could only imagine that the knife had been dipped in something as well.
“This knife?” she asked innocently.
I looked at her angrily as sweat started to appear on my naked skin. Yeah, I was sitting buck naked, tied to a tree in some human camp Gods knows where.
“Just a little snake poison, but don’t worry, we altered it.”
“Really?” I breathed, the world dancing in front of my eyes while my body burned and my muscles contracted in strange ways.
“Yeah, so it won’t kill you.”
“Snake poison doesn’t kill a dragon,” I growled at her.
“White snake poison does.”
I looked at her, shocked. White snakes were so rare and lived in very hot climates. They were also very shy and didn’t like people near them. It was unbelievable that they had even gotten the poison of one, but whoever their alchemist was, they clearly knew a thing or two. It reminded me a bit of the man who had worked for my mother. He liked to experiment as well.
“I thought you wanted to drag this out,” I taunted.
“I told you we altered it.”
“To do what?”
“To hurt you, of course,” she told me.
It definitely did. The poison killed rather fast, but I had heard that it was also a very painful death. Now it seemed they had found a way to make sure the poison didn’t kill me, but still ensured it hurt.
“You will be fine tomorrow, but until then, you will have a very painful night.”
“Wonderful,” I spat.
“Isn’t it? Seeing you suffer. What a great gift.”
“You’re... sick, Red,” I breathed, finding it hard to talk suddenly.
“I know,” she said, smiling. “I have the dragons to thank for that.”
“You’re welcome.”
She slapped me. Hard. I didn’t really feel it since the poison was enough to make me numb to any other pain, but I had to say she knew how to slap someone. My head whipped to the side, yet I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped me.
“You need to hit harder than that... if you wish to... hurt me,” I managed to say.
“I will gladly test your limits when it comes to pain,” she said.
“I don’t... have... any.”
“Liar!” she spat. “Everyone has a limit.”
“Not... me.”
“Only someone who likes to torture people would enjoy torturing themselves, isn’t that right?” she asked.
I smiled a bit cruelly as I leaned my head back, and she just watched me, a little confused.
“Takes one... to know one.”
She looked at me, shocked, moving back a little. “I’m not a monster. Not like you.”
“You sure... Red?”
She reached out with the knife again and looked like she was ready to cut me again, but was then interrupted when some man called out for her.
“Ri!”
She looked over her shoulder and saw the look on the man’s face. He shook his head slowly, and I could see it took everything in her to back away. She really wanted me dead, that was not a secret, and whoever this person was, he had just stopped her from making a big mistake, something that could clearly ruin their plan, but if they expected Ashes to break from my death, they were wrong.
He had his family now—all his children, Laelia, her brothers, Rathilion and Valindra, Tylon and Mayla, Sivanna as well, and her son, who was close to being an adult like Alexia. s**t, how long had it been since I had seen my niece? It had to be at least three years.
“Come,” the man insisted.
Red or Ri, as she was also called—I was unsure if it was a nickname, it sounded that way, but I preferred Red—backed away and got up from the ground before joining her friend and walking away. It wasn’t over between us, though. I would make sure of that.
- Writer
