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.

hiss, my body shuddering with these new

men look at each other with grim

spot on — another

"I’m sorry, child."

first priest professes gravely,

this

ever experienced before, takes over

me to run, to

tell me that whatever these men intend will be far worse than anything the doctor or dormitory

there isn’t

stronger than I am bearing down on me.I try to scream, but the second

teeth into his palm, but he

simply wrenches me away from the door,

man grabs my legs, and I’m

violently against their hold, my screams muffled and garbled as the priest continues to

my mouth, the metallic tang fanning the flames in my

rises, and I’m gagging, fighting for air and struggling to focus

or how to fight them — I’m powerless

well be a feather swaying in the wind for

keening pierces the air, sounding

cries are deeper than my own, thick with grief and pain more

tinged with

"It’s too much."

"Just a little more."

voice, floating above

"We're so close."

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

onto the

restrains my wrists while the other sits on my kicking legs, pulling his

extracts a shimmering silk cloth, it’s pearlescent

airy, but when they begin wrapping it around my body, it

fabric, winding it round and round like

my arms are locked against my sides and my legs tightly shut, I’m

grip, and soon they’re wrapping

the silk falls over my mouth, the priest finally removes his hand

the moonlight closes over my gaping lips, locking my face into the contours of a

breathe, though I don’t understand

nightmares come to life - my mind is awake but I’m trapped in my own body, unable

endings and muscles to move, to do something - anything! But nothing happens because this isn’t a

walls of my silken prison, and I strain to identify the sounds: the clink of glass? The jostling of beads? novelebook A bottle uncorking? For

a moment before drops of

placed in deliberate patterns on my head, chest,

fight the cocoon, that foreign electricity in my

of time, but I

then, speaking a language

carrying arcane power older