Chapter 8: Pain

Thalia's POV

Kael didn’t pause as he reached the top of the stairs. Instead, he pushed the door open and disappeared into the dimly lit room that had become both his sanctuary and her prison.

I followed.

The moment the door shut behind me, the atmosphere shifted, like the walls themselves knew what was expected to happen here.

Kael stood by the window with his back still turned and the light casting shadows across his shoulders. He looked calm, composed. But I knew better. He wasn’t calm. He was cruel.

“Come here,” he said without looking.

I moved forward with each step tightening the knot in my chest.

He turned when I stopped a few feet away. His eyes met mine. His gaze was dark and empty. The softness I once knew was gone. Whatever we once were didn’t exist in those eyes anymore.

I swallowed. “Kael…”

But he didn’t blink. “Now,” he began, “I’m giving you a chance.”

My breath stilled.

“Did you kill her?”

The words hit me like a slap and my knees wavered.

I was still bare in front of him, stripped and exposed...like truth itself had been carved out of me and thrown at his feet. The humiliation burned, but it wasn’t just shame that made me tremble.

It was the weight of his accusation.

I couldn't confess to something I didn’t do.

So I said nothing.

His jaw tightened in irritation. Slowly, with terrifying calm, Kael began to unbuckle his belt. The hiss of leather slipping through his loops echoed louder than my own heartbeat.

He then let it hang loosely in his hand like a verdict.

“I’m going to ask you again,” he said. “And this time, I expect the truth.”

He stepped closer, each word deliberate, brutal.

“Did you kill… Alina?”

But his words were like he wasn't asking at all.

He was demanding a confession he had already written for me. A truth he had twisted into his own version of justice.

I looked at him with tears while my own voice burned in my throat. “No,” I whispered.

And so, his hand moved without warning.

The belt snapped across my thigh with a sickening crack.

Pain seared through me, white-hot and immediate. I gasped as the sound caught in my chest. My legs nearly buckled as a raw whimper escaped my lips.

But he didn’t flinch.

Kael’s eyes stayed on me, unyielding, unmoved.

“You still won’t admit it?” he said.

My voice cracked. “Because I didn’t—Kael, I didn’t do it.”

His grip tightened around the belt, getting ready for another strike.

I clutched my arms around myself, biting down a sob. I was hurting not only from the lash, but from the look on his face. From the belief in his eyes that I was already guilty. That I was nothing more than the monster he needed to punish.

Suddenly, in one swift movement, he closed the distance between us. His hand fisted into my hair, yanking my head back hard enough to draw a cry from my throat. My hands flew up, instinctively gripping his wrist, but I didn’t fight...I didn’t dare.

His eyes hovered over mine, cold and merciless.

“I warned you,” he muttered darkly.

Then he began roughly dragging me across the room. My bare feet stumbled against the polished floor, but he didn’t slow down. His grip on my hair was relentless, forcing my body to follow wherever his fury led.

When we reached the bed, he threw me onto it without hesitation.

I landed hard on the mattress with my breath knocked from my lungs. The sheets were still cold from the last time.

I blinked up at him, chest heaving. “Kael… please—”

But my voice meant nothing as he made his way with me. All I could do was whimper beneath the weight of his touch while my body trembled as I endured...numb, silent, and stripped of everything but the one lie I kept whispering to myself:

That I still loved him.

That if I loved him enough, maybe this wouldn't hurt so much.

Maybe he’d stop.

Maybe he’d see me in a different light.

but deep inside I knew… he never would.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Days blurred into weeks and months, and Kael never missed a chance to remind me cruelly that I was the murderer of the woman he loved. He didn’t just say it.

He made me live it.

Every waking moment was his vengeance. I was punished not with justice, but with pain doled out like a sentence I couldn’t appeal. Bruises were starting to show even if I was not beaten on that part of my skin. My body ached in places I could no longer name.

I began to grow pale and thin, and the mirror in my cold room became my witness. My collarbones jutted sharper each day and the bags under my eyes deepened like bruised shadows of the person I used to be. My skin yellowed in places. My head spun when I stood too fast. My stomach churned at the smell of food, but I forced it down anyway because weakness only earned more punishment.

Still, I tried to hide the tears when they came, wiping them away in silence. But I no longer forced a smile like I used to. I didn’t have the strength to pretend.

"Just breathe", I told myself as I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

It was time for the chores Kael had so generously assigned me, reminding me that I wasn’t a guest here. I was his property. A servant to his pain.

I made my way down the stairs quietly, glancing briefly toward the main door, then the windows hoping, praying for some sign of escape. But the guards were always there. Always watching. And I knew better than to run.

The last time I tried, I was locked in the basement for two days. No food. No light. Only his rage.

I shook the memory off and searched for the feather duster, trying to focus.

But then—

A sharp tug on my hair yanked my head back.

I gasped, stumbling, and landed hard on the floor. My back smacked against the tiles. Pain jolted up my spine as my tailbone hit with a sickening thud.

I didn’t even have time to scream.

Only enough breath left to wonder what I had done this time.

But when I looked up still trying to gain back my senses, it was not Kael.