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I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG I was unconscious, but when I came to, I was cold and very much alone. My body ached and I found I was on my stomach, touching something like cold metal. I tried to get up, but was bound to the table, what was worse was I seemed to be naked.
“Hel-Hello?” I cried out softly, tears streaming down my hot cheeks. “Please, somebody, I don’t know where I am.”
I felt warm hands on my legs, followed by breath on my back. “Silence child,” a man’s voice crept into my ears.
“Please, don’t hurt me.” I sniffled, trying to rise up again, but my bonds were too tight. I flexed my fingers as my head was lifted by a strap.
“I do what must be done. They call me Hudson; I am the assistant to the executioner.”
“Executioner?” My voice left me as terror seeped in. “Am I to be... Killed?” I looked up into his eyes which reflected golden in the flames of the fire burning in the room’s hearth.
“Your crime should come with that sentence, but they are still discussing it.”
“My crime? I’ve done nothing wrong!” Anger began to surge and my chest tightened.
“Careful, child. You will do no amount of damage here. This room will negate your magics and you will only continue to bleed out. Now, stop trying to unfurl those beautifully deadly wings of yours.”
I went still, I didn’t understand what I had done. All I was doing was trying to defend myself. There came a loud booming at the door and he left me weeping pitifully.
I tried to look around through the blur, the wall in front of me was covered in whips and heavy chains with cuffs attached. In my peripheral, I could see tables and devices of torture, that I had only ever seen in museums and textbooks. I was in a chamber for these things. What were they going to do to me? Was I not going to be allowed to defend myself? I had to be allowed to explain what had happened... What had happened?
I still didn’t understand it. All I had tried to do was get her off of me, but I had changed form. I had never taken on my Dragon in such a full capacity before. I didn’t know that I could. Moments felt like hours as I lay there running the possibilities in my head. Would they simply cut my throat or would I be subjected to the golden scythes? I had heard of the torture of Dragons with gold. We craved it, like silver. It was something we were drawn to, but if it touched our blood we would be burned by it. The torture was that we would be bound with gold flecked ropes and surrounded by the glittering pieces of treasure, and our Dragons would be slowly driven mad by the proximity without being able to touch. Fighting the binds would only result in pulling and burning our flesh as we instinctively heaved against the ropes, eventually we would bleed out or decapitate ourselves. This was done publicly to show our beast for what it is; greedy and single minded, willing to forsake everything just for a few shiny pieces of metal.
“Well, child.” Hudson returned, but he was not alone. With him stood two of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the armed guards to the Seelie Court. They were the Fey equivalent of the Guardians for the rest of the Otherkinds, only their armor was dipped in magic, making them virtually unkillable. If I had a choice to be sworn to a group it would have been them, but to be so sworn I would have needed to be sponsored by a High Court Official, or the Lord and Lady themselves. There was certainly little chance of that now.
“She’s to be dressed for her sentencing. They have made a decision,” one of them spoke, his voice almost like a melody as it whispered through the room. The other held out a black dress, covered in silver details that I realized were actually spikes running along its back in a crisscross pattern.
Hudson took the thing and I could feel his hands as they made to pull the dress up the length of me. Unlatching the binds around my legs and then middle, he lifted me up as the two guards held their swords to me, his fingers lingered uncomfortably long at my breasts before he tied it around my neck. The spikes were pulled across my back, tight enough that I could not ignore their bite to my sore flesh. I winced as I was made to sit up. My legs were shaky, but I was able to stand. I felt like I had been in a very bad fight, and lost considerably. My hands were pulled to my front and clasped within manacles, the chain ran up to my throat and connected to me with a collar, which, like the dress, bore several spikes along my jugular.
“A precaution.” Hudson seemed to know my thoughts before I could voice them. “This is all to keep you in this shape. He pulled my mouth open and slipped in a tube with a large hole, it allowed me to breathe but also forced my eyes to tear as it gagged me, hitting the back of my throat. A strap was fastened over my head to secure it in place. I could feel it as it scraped the back of my teeth, I coughed and spit poured out of the opening. Hudson tapped me on the back. “I am sorry for this. You seemed like a nice girl.” He tilted my head back and poured a liquid through the tube. It burned as it slid down into my belly.
“You will follow,” the Fey soldiers commanded, one in front and one behind. They pushed me on and I obeyed, there was little else I could do. When we left the room, I was taken up a long flight of sconce lit stairs. By the time we reached the top, my legs burned and my chest was covered in tears and spittle. I couldn’t stop it from welling up in the back of my throat. Funny thing about Dragons, that which we have, does not harm us. So even as I salivated and my acid dripped, the only thing it managed to harm was the fabric of my dress and the stone at my feet. I would be easy to follow in this state, leaving a burned trail as I walked. With scorching and heavy legs, I was pushed on. When I fell from the queasy dizziness in my head, I was pulled up and thrust forward once again.
Eventually, we made our way to a set of large oaken doors and I could hear a clamor on the other side. As the doors opened, I saw that Lord Oberon and Lady Tatiana were once again in attendance. The woman who had provoked me was, however, not. I also spied my family, seated on the far side of the room, their heads bowed. Flanking them was King Teague, that girl Collette and her companion Greisen. They were the only ones to actually look at me as I was forced to my knees before my Courtly King and Queen.
I tried to hide within my own shadow as my throat constricted around the tube. I felt the bile and tasted bitter almonds again. I coughed and the acid that fell from the opening landed in a thickened mass on my chest, burning away what was left of the front and leaving me exposed to all who looked upon me, effectively and thankfully loosening the spikes in my back. I pushed up my tongue as the thing in my throat began to break down inside my mouth.
“You are a rambunctious child,” Lord Oberon blasted me with his words. I could feel them as they rippled through me to my very toes. “Defiant. Secretive and not worthy of the bonds offered to you by the Seelie.”
I lowered my head in shame as he continued, my body wracked by my soundless sobs. My choices were to be my undoing.
“You choose to hide your weapon from us, refuse to pledge your allegiance, and when asked by a High Court Official to unsheathe that weapon, you turned on us all instead. The Leanna Sidhe have thus turned their back upon you for slighting the face of their Reverend Mother. If not for the alliances we wish to keep, you would be put to death for this grievous act of betrayal. However, another solution has presented itself to us.” He stepped down from his place on high, pulling me back by my hair. I choked as he did this, the spikes at my throat digging in deep.
“You are to be banished and shunned by the Seelie Court. No longer are you welcomed into our domains. You are to be cut off by friends and kin and will forswear your name. We have seen your heart and it is as selfish as any Dragon. You wish to remain among the Humans longer? Then you will get your wish. You will be bound; your wings shall not rise until it is seen fit. To break the spell, you must swear your fealty and claim your immortality with your blood and your soul in agreement. Until your heart changes, you will be held in this state of limbo, with no attachments to the courts, but one. The Athame family has made it their place to co-sponsor you along with his Royal Highness, King Teague. They will be responsible for you as you are to be returned to the United States where you have been laying claim.”
With my hair still wrapped tightly in his hand, he turned me to the court, who called “Banished,” before turning from me, many with looks of disgust and curses thrown. I was then pulled sideways, falling in the direction I was yanked, to see my family. They stood up in unison and, not so much as looking at me, shouted, “Shunned,” as they turned their backs on me. My heart shattered into pieces, even as my body began to go numb, whatever it was they had given me could not stop the ache in the hole of my heart.
I was then hauled on to the dais and thrown to Lady Tatiana’s feet. I looked up, bleary eyed, to see her hardened features as she lifted my chin. “No more will we look for or upon you. You are no child of the Fey. The Sidhe disown you until your heart does change. Learn selflessness child and you may be redeemed.”
I was lifted from my pitiful place on the ground by the guards of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and dragged back out through the oak doors once more.
***
I MUST HAVE LOST CONSCIOUSNESS, because the next thing I knew, I was barely standing and back in the room with Hudson, who was stripping me down. He circled around my naked form, running his smooth hands down my back. “I gave you an anesthetic with that sedative, it was a kindness from your sister. She was very good to me for it. I’ll spare you the details as I’m more of a gentleman than you would think.” He pulled my arms up above my head and bent me over a table, strapping me down.
My mind raced, what was he going to do to me?
I tried to fight him, but he just laughed. “Now, now, I don’t force myself on women. I just like to look at them as they writhe beneath my needles. Some even say it is a transcendent experience.”
My chest heaved as he strapped my legs against the table and ran another strap around my middle. I couldn’t move, my body was perfectly bound and fully exposed. I felt his hands as they trailed up my spine, stopping to move outward at the base of my neck. Then I felt an enormous amount of pressure, followed by a pop in my inebriated flesh. I thought I was on fire and tried to squirm, but there was no use, I was stuck.
“That’s a good girl.” He hummed in my ear, his body pressed against me, his hardon digging into my ass. “The first one isn’t so bad, it’s when the swelling kicks in that you can really feel it. Your flesh is like butter to my hooks. Be content in what I do. At least it will be a lovely design.”
He pushed against me again and this time I felt the pinch. The anesthetic was beginning to wear off, and I realized what he was doing as he pulled and tore at my back. He was piercing me, slipping thick rings under my skin at different points down the sides of my spine. I cried out and he stopped.
“You feel it don’t you? The bliss of the pain. The exquisite pleasure of its truth. Nothing is more honest than a cry of anguish at the end of a piece of metal. And that burn is the golden rings I’ve been instructed to use. They think that it will sufficiently satiate your Dragon self. I don’t know about that, but they do look awfully pretty against your creamy hide.”
As he was talking I began to overheat, the pain was too much, too often and I screamed.