Fight, I repeated. Yes. I couldn’t let Lavios tear me apart, couldn’t allow anyone to treat me in this manner.
Lavios grabbed my knees, prying them apart with his superior strength. His hardness met my entrance, the first sting of his spiked piercing pushing into my tender flesh.
No!
Use your fury, Valora! Adrik demanded. Use it now!
Fire slammed into me and swirled around my body, anger overruling common sense.
He’ll not take me this way, I seethed, pouring all my hatred and disgust into the fight for my life.
The fire gathered at my shoulders and surged down my arms.
I won’t bend to his will.
My hands ignited into an inferno, landing on his skin.
Die a painful death.
The flames shot from my body and wrapped themselves around Lavios as he pulled back his hips and prepared to thrust inside me. His mouth fell open on a roar I couldn’t hear above the sizzle of flesh, his eyes wide with shock.
I scrambled backward, the blaze intensifying around us and sending him to his knees.
Is this a dream? I wondered. Have I already lost consciousness?
Because I couldn’t be doing this. Not really.
Except his expression told a different story, his skin melting around him in a way I’d never seen before. We were immortal. Fire didn’t kill us. But Lavios appeared to be dying.
I did nothing but watch as bones protruded from his body, singeing away into unspeakable ash.
This had to be a figment of my imagination, a way to reconcile the torture he was inflicting on my body. I’m going insane.
I supposed it was only a matter of time.
Lavios disappeared into a pile of dust, the smoke-tinged air all that was left of my unbridled flames.
Soon I would wake. Feel the pain. Wish this was all true. And die a little more inside.
“Valora,” Adrik’s voice came from the shadows, his expression one of pride.
I canted my head, confused. “Why are you here?” Had he sent me into another sleep state to protect me from the horror happening beyond the dream realm?
“Helping you,” he said, a smile on his beautiful lips. “You feel it now, right? The power residing inside you? I can teach you how to use it.”
I blinked. “What power?”
He glanced pointedly at the ash littering the floor. “That power, little bird. You destroyed him.”
My eyes fluttered, my torso wavering beneath the onslaught of exhaustion. I needed to sleep. To cry. To hide. To rule.
So many conflicting desires.
So much… energy. Or lack thereof.
I yawned, lying in the filth of Lavios’s bed. One would think my mind could at least teleport me back to my own rooms. But that wasn’t how the world worked.
I lived in a true hell.