Accidental Surrogate

#Chapter 179 — Bound Trigger warning — Assault (non-sexual)

Ella

"It’s all right, Ella."

The first priest says, approaching me as one might a skittish horse — with slow, measured movements and hands exposed to show he holds no weapon.

"We only want to protect you."

"Protect me from what?" I question shakily, my back flush against the locked door.

"You have a very powerful magic inside you, and if it's allowed to come out you’ll be exposed.We can’t let that happen." He explains, using a tone much too gentle to be trustworthy.

It’s as though he’s trying to trick me, to convince me he’s kind when he truly intends malice.

"I don’t have any magic." I insist, wishing that I did.

Maybe if I was magic I might be able to put a stop to the things happening here — to protect the others without bringing harm to myself.I was so preoccupied with this statement that I almost missed the second piece of information.

"Exposed to what?"

"You do, it just hasn't shown itself yet."

The second priest sighs, keeping his distance but watching me with sharp eyes.

"At least not in ways you understand.Tell me, have you never noticed how much stronger you are than your peers? That you can hear and smell things from much greater distances? That you can run faster, jump higher, suffer greater injuries with less pain?"

He inquires, his hawkish gaze searing into me, "do they not follow you? Gravitate to your side and obey you as a leader?"

My head spins, making me dizzy with the possibilities.He guesses correctly, but that can’t be because I have some sort of special power.It's just the way things are...isn’t it? "And exposed to a world you cannot yet join."

The first man adds.

"It must happen when the time is right - but that time is a very long way off."

"I don’t understand."

I squeak, a sense of pure dread settling in the pit of my stomach.

"We know, Ella."

The second man proclaims, "And I’m sorry that this must happen, it will not be pleasant, but it is necessary for the future of our people."I shake my head, fighting back tears.

Their words are triggering every alarm bell in my young mind.I know what men do to little girls under the guise of necessity, the pretense of helping or protecting.

And I know exactly how unpleasant things can get.

My blood runs cold, and my pulse races, triggering a strange new energy deep in my bones.

It pulses through me like a bolt of electricity, a wild thing writhes just beneath my skin, feral and rabid — begging to be free.

I hiss, my body shuddering with these

each

— another week

"I’m sorry, child."

gravely, closing the distance between

this if there

unlike anything I’ve ever experienced

at me to run, to get away at

whatever these men intend will be far worse

there isn’t anywhere

bearing down on me.I try to scream, but the second priest clamps his

my teeth into his palm,

simply wrenches me away from the door, propelling me

man grabs my legs, and

against their hold, my screams muffled and garbled

tang fanning the flames in my

gorge rises, and I’m gagging, fighting for air

how to fight them — I’m powerless in their strong

as well be a feather swaying in the wind for all the

keening pierces the air, sounding

and pain more complex than the sheer fright in my own panicked

deep voice, tinged with concern, joins

"It’s too much."

"Just a little more."

second voice, floating above

"We're so close."

where these sounds are coming from, and the priests don’t seem to hear

their task with single-minded focus, and i’m nothing more than a pawn in their game — tiny and helpless to stop

thrust onto the floor and

my wrists while the other sits on my kicking legs,

cloth, it’s pearlescent sheen glimmering

looks soft and airy, but when they begin wrapping it around my

in the fabric, winding it round and round like a

against my sides and my legs tightly

soon they’re wrapping my head, as if they

before the silk falls over my mouth, the priest finally removes

my scream escapes before the moonlight closes over my gaping lips,

though I don’t understand

nightmares come to life - my mind is awake but I’m

can only lie there motionless, my brain screaming at my nerve endings and muscles to move, to do something - anything! But nothing happens because this

to identify the sounds: the clink of glass? The jostling of beads? novelebook A bottle uncorking? For all the

filled with some pungent, herbaceous fragrance a moment before drops of moisture seep through

are laid over my body, stones or crystals placed in deliberate patterns on my head,

cocoon, that foreign electricity in my veins

but I refuse to give

speaking a language I do not

around the small room, carrying arcane power older than