Sweet Innocence and Gentle Sin || 𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑

Chapter 5: Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

trigger warning for blood at the end of the chapter.

Leave all your love and your longing behind, you cant carry it with you if you want to survive.

~)(~

There was nothing I could do. If I didn't get Azriel out now, he would die. That would not change. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to me. I had three days. Three days before he would die.

That was, unless he gave them something—anything—just a word. Something that would convince them he's important enough not to kill. But he wouldn't talk.

I sat back in the chair with a sigh, rubbing my chin as I looked at the crackling fire. Tamlin paced the room, whispering his thoughts out loud. Eris sat across from me, rubbing his temples. He looked up and said for the fifth time, "are you sure they didn't say anything?"

"As I told you, no one spoke a word to me—I was locked in a room," I said, now letting the annoyance into my voice.

"Not even the smallest mention of a location?"

"Cauldron boil, she doesn't know," Tamlin snapped.

Eris sat back with a grumble. "You have three days before The High Lord of Spring arrives, and he won't be happy with any of us."

"You aren't the ones that got kidnapped," I said, leaning an elbow on the arm of the chair.

"My father doesn't believe that," Eris hissed. "If you don't have anything to say—he will try everything to convince them you are a traitor."

"Which you aren't," Tamlin added.

I breathed a long sigh. "I wasn't allowed anywhere out of that room—I told them that already—I told them everything."

Tamlin finally stopped his pacing and pointed at my arm. "What about that? There has to be something connected to it, right?"

"It was to make sure I didn't try hurting any of them, nothing more," I said, pulling my tattooed hand towards my lap.

"Then why does that... creature also have one?" Eris asked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "He's the one that forced it onto me. I've already given them all that I know—there's nothing more."

Tamlin grumbled a sigh. "My father's going to kill me."

"So will mine," Eris mumbled as he turned back to the table to take a drink of wine. "Alright... nothing terrible is going to happen to us, though. Yes, our parents will probably reprimand us, since you were under our watch—but you're fine. It's not like you willingly went with them, they kidnapped you."

Don't laugh.

I nodded slowly and said, "and what about... him?"

"The Illyrian? If he doesn't talk, father will probably make another example of him," Eris responded.

"Example?"

"If the brute doesn't talk, they will cut up his body and send it across the island to threaten others out of fighting," Tamlin explained. "A rather barbaric tactic, but it works."

I swallowed down the bile that rose when that visual filled my head. "And how much longer does he have?"

"His trial will be when your fiancé arrives. He personally asked to speak with the creature," Eris said.

I met Tamlin's gaze and saw that he thought the same thing as I did. Theorin didn't want to talk with Azriel. He wanted to watch with all his focus as they ripped the poor soul to pieces. He didn't want to miss the show.