TWENTY-TWO

"How..." I swallowed as fear left me paralyzed, "How did you get here? What have you done to Edda?"

Lucine pursed her lips and strolled leisurely along the edge of the fountain, running her fingers over the concrete surface. Her eyes unsettled me; they were nothing but endless pools of darkness burning into my soul.

"Edda?" She tapped her chin sagely, "Oh, the little housekeeper? She died years ago - I've just been wearing her skin to keep an eye on the Balfours." She smirked. "And by Balfours, I mean Rheon. Lovely moment you had back there. Tell me, do his claws still come out when things get heated?"

'Don't answer that,' I said to myself. 'She's trying to get under your skin. Don't let her.'

Despite the fear she sparked within me, I tilted my chin up and looked her dead in the eyes. "If you're here for Rheon then you're too late. I've accepted the mark, you've lost."

"I've lost my interest in you, and that is very dangerous."

My feet were rooted in one place as she advanced towards me. Only when I attempted to back up, did I realize that my feet could literally not move. Lifting the hem of the dress, my stomach turned as I saw dark red tendrils of smoke slither up my legs, binding me in one place.

Lucine took pleasure in the terror on my face as she made the smoke curl around my waist, leaving no room for me to escape. "This is what's going to happen; I can't have you breaking the curse and ruining something I've been looking forward to for ten years. So, you're coming with me and we're going to have some fun."

"Rheon will find me," I seethed at her.

"Rheon doesn't have a sense of smell, and even if he did, he won't be able to track you down."

My hope faltered but I realized I had to play for time until he came back. If only I could scream for help - one of the wolves are bound to hear me. However, Lucine would kill me before I could even mutter a peep.

Just as I thought all hope was lost, a deep, throaty growl sounded behind me.

Out of the blue, a dark wolf emanated from the hedge, placing itself between me and Lucine. My body went cold with dread when I recognized its smaller shape - Clemmy. She snarled at Lucine, the fur on her neck bristling as she curled her lip back to display her fangs.

"If it isn't the youngest Balfour, still in the prime of her youth," Lucine said mockingly. "Might as well bring you along for my brother to play with."

With a single look from the half-witch, Clemmy burst out wailing in pain and dropped to the ground. I watched in horror as she writhed around, trying to cover her head with her paws to get rid of any form of torture Lucine was using on her.

"Stop it!" I thrashed against the tendrils of smoke around my arms and legs, trying desperately to break free. "Let her go! You have me so let her go!"

"Sorry." Lucine pouted. "The more the merrier. I really do hope Rheon manages to find you before it's too late. It'd be a pity if he loses both his sister and mate in one evening."

With an airy wave of her hand, the red smoke slithered upwards and consumed me whole.

Darkness.

That's all I knew while I was bound to a chair, invisible binds keeping my wrists strapped to the armrests. My feet couldn't move either, although I had no idea what was keeping them contained. The chair didn't even budge as I thrashed around, and the sickening realization dawned on me that I'm trapped with no way to escape - not blindly anyways.

My thoughts were scrambled with panic as I tried to think of ways to break free from whatever binds Lucine had me trapped with. If only I could see, that would be a great start.

Screwing my eyes shut, I opened them to see nothing but pitch darkness. I repeated the process but got the same result. After blinking a third time, I noticed a bokeh of color clouding my vision. Blinking again, I could roughly make out shapes in the room or wherever I was.

Slowly, my sight returned. It seemed as if I was being kept in a medium-sized room with withered stone walls and floors. The air smelled damp and earthy and judging by the stalactites that have formed after ages worth of dripping water, I'd say I'm in a cave of some sort.

"Amazing what one can do with a little magic."

My head jerked to the side where Lucine was leaning against the cave wall.

"What did you do to me?" I hissed, surprised that my voice worked.

"Deprived you of your sight," she said it as if it was a casual thing to do, "I can make you blind, I can leave you deaf, I can take away your ability to smell and feel. Imagine a world without senses, where everything is dark, quiet, and empty. I bet you'd lose your mind."

I stiffened when she advanced towards me. With a long, manicured finger, she traced a line up my arm towards my shoulder. It took every ounce of self-control not to flinch away from her. I refused to give her the satisfaction of knowing I was scared. She could probably tell anyways with her werewolf senses.

"But I need all your senses at their peak for what I'm about to do next."

Her words hardly left her mouth before her hand clamped down my forearm and the most excruciating pain I've ever felt ripped through me. My screams tore through my body and shook the walls of the cave, causing the stalactites to rattle.

And just like that, it stopped.

Lucine's arm retracted to reveal a bloody and charred patch of skin on my arm in the shape of her hand. However, it didn't hurt.

"That's how it feels to have your sense of touch taken away from you." Her obsidian eyes danced with mirth. "I can leave you like this; you'll never have to experience pain again. Imagine not being able to feel death when it slowly devours you piece by piece. Or..."

I gasped as the pain started all over again, thrashing and crying until my voice was hoarse.

"Or I could give it back to you." She shrugged. "It's much more fun for me this way."

Fighting against the blazing agony on my arm, I choked out, "What... have you done to Clemmy?"

Lucine checked her nails, seeming uninterested in my concern over the youngest Balfour. "Oh, the little runt? She's right behind you."

Turning my head as far back as possible, I saw Clemmy out of the corner of my eye. We were back-to-back, however she was unresponsive to what was happening around her. "What did you do to her."

"The same I did to you; deprive her senses - only, I deprived all of them." Lucine strolled lazily around me to stand in front of Clemmy. In a flash, she grabbed onto her arm like she did to me and a split second later, my senses were filled with the smell of burnt flesh.

"Stop it!" I cried and thrashed against the invisible bonds until my limbs were throbbing, "Stop it! Leave her alone!"

"Oh, please, it's not as if she can feel it unless I allow it. She'll heal in a minute." Lucine's fingers were under my chin, her nails scratching at my skin as she tilted my head up to look at her. "You, on the other hand, won't."

To emphasize that statement, her claws shot out from her fingers and embedded themselves into my shoulders. The pain worked its way through my shoulder blades and down my arms, and I stifled a scream as she gave her claws a twist.

When she finally tore them out of my flesh, her hands were covered with blood - my blood. She brought it to her nose and inhaled its scent, humming in delight, "I'm going to leave the two of you here, for now. I've got some other business to attend to. But in the meanwhile, I'm sending my brother to keep you company. He's been frustrated since I've brought you here."

She blew me a kiss over her shoulder before disappearing into the dark.

My head fell back in utter exhaustion. The burn wound on my arm felt like it was still ablaze and the claw holes in my shoulders throbbed with even the smallest of movements. Looking down at myself, I frowned in displeasure - that bitch ruined my dress. The skirts were torn and stained, one of the straps broke, and now the entire top was covered in blood.

"Bitch," I muttered to myself.

"Ash?"

I perked up when hearing Clemmy's voice, wincing at the sting in my shoulders. "Clemmy? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she breathed, "What did she do to me? I felt... nothing. Everything was dark and quiet, I couldn't pick up a scent, couldn't even taste the air."

"Lucine took away your senses, it's her poetic way of torturing us."

"Are you okay? I can smell your blood."

I nodded even though she couldn't see. "I'll survive. We need to find a way to escape, though."

Peering down at my feet, I noticed the same red smoke tendrils keeping me bound and in place. This was proving to be a challenge.

"You don't by any chance know any spells, right?" I wondered out loud.

"Only one to get Victor to bring me food."

"Not quite the spell we're looking for."

Distant footsteps sounded somewhere deeper into the cave. We both froze and stared into the darkness. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out any shapes that might give me an idea who was coming although I had a nauseating feeling I already knew.

If Lucine let me off the hook with only a third-degree burn wound and a set of claw marks on each shoulder, I shuddered to think what her brother would do to us.

Reaching as far back as possible, I felt my fingers graze against Clemmy's. In a beat, she grabbed onto my hand. I could feel her shivering in fear - even a werewolf with claws and fangs was terrified of what was coming.

I braced myself for the worst when the footsteps stopped.

Any time now, the pain will come. I just hoped he'd leave Clemmy alone and take his frustrations out on me instead.

But all that followed was complete and utter silence.

At last, I braved a look at him. His height was imposing, however, his lack of soulless features like Lucine made him slightly less intimidating than her. His lack of dark eyes and red hair made me wonder how they were related. Perhaps their similarities were found in their sinister personalities, or their shared love for inflicting pain on their prisoners. We'd find out soon.

I held my breath, waiting for him to start torturing us, to spout flames from his hands and burn us alive. But all he did was stare at us with an unreadable expression on his stoic face.

The next thing I knew, he turned abruptly and marched back the way he came. We listened to his footsteps fade in the distance, exhaling in relief when he's finally gone.

"That was... strange," Clemmy whispered and all I could do was nod.

Something told me this was far from over and only a miracle could save us now.