A blinding pain took hold of me.
My head was ringing, and it felt like the air thinned out. I gasped but couldn’t get enough oxygen in. My hands were tied behind my back, but my arms thrashed instinctively, wanting to fly to my throat.
It was my father’s Alpha power. I heard his footsteps as he came pacing into the bathroom behind me, where his men had set me kneeling in front of the bathtub.
“I tried asking nicely, and then asking not so nicely,” came my father’s voice. “Now, we are done with asking, altogether.”
I felt an aching pressure all through my body. My father’s anger was giving him strength, and he was using that strength on me.
“I am telling you now, Fiona. You are going to comply with what I am instructing you to do. Or you will suffer for it. The choice is yours.”
I wanted to bite back with a sassy retort, but my father’s power was as real as a hand around my throat.
“You don’t need to speak, daughter. A simple nod of the head will do. A simple yes is all I need to see, and I’ll release you at your word.”
I held still, my gaze steady on the surface of the water in the tub. The air in the room was thick with energy, making the water start to stir with tiny waves. I maintained my silence. It was all I had.
My father groaned, standing from where he had been crouched behind me, and swapped places with another man, who knelt behind me with his legs on either side of my body, grasped my hair in his fist, and immediately plunged my head under the water.
I held my breath as long as I could.
And then I started choking some water in, first through my nostrils, and then down my throat. I tried to resist, but the body did what it was going to do, no matter how hard I tried to keep control of it with my mind.
When the water went in, my thoughts turned primal. It was nothing but fear, pain, and panic. Colors and lights and sounds.
I rose gasping from the water as I was yanked out just before I was about to drown.
“Pledge your loyalty to me!” my father cried out from the doorway.
I kept silent, save for my involuntary gasping breath, which was alternating between raspy, rattling sounds and a high, squeaky, sputtering cough.
“Again,” Father said, and back in I went.
White light and immense pressure in the head. That was all there was when I was down long enough, shoulders twitching against the heavy hands holding me under. It felt like my blood was on fire.
The next time I came up, my father screamed so loud that his voice broke. “I say, pledge your loyalty!”
I went deaf for a split second. And suddenly felt drunk, my vision skipping like I had the spins. Pressure in my nose ached intolerably. I exhaled as hard as I could, and a rush of water came shooting out of my nose. The world stopped spinning and my hearing returned.
And somehow I found enough of my voice to speak, managing to croak out one word:
“Never.”
Father growled. The sound filled the small, hard-surfaced room, making the mirror on the wall and the handle on the toilet rattle noisily.
I sputtered, trying to catch my wind, and vomited out a bellyful of hot, sour-tasting yellow liquid.
My father turned and left the room, and I felt his hold over me release. The pressure in my skull let up, though the pain in my head did not go away completely.
The man who had been drowning me became awkward, unsure what to do now that his boss had stormed out. When I started heaving again, he decided to free me from my hand restraints and leave me alone to throw up into the tub.
Alexander
I waited for Fiona in the bedroom, imagining she would be returning to the palace in time to change before dinner. I took my time picking out a tie from my collection, checking my watch every couple minutes. I settled on a skinny, sky-blue silk tie and fussed over the knot, making it perfect.
I started to worry when it was half an hour past the time Fiona should have been back, or at least should have reached out to let me know if she was going to be this late. I walked to the dining room, keeping my stride casual even though my chest was tight with anxiety. There was a small chance she had gone straight there from the car.
But no, she was not there either.
I called her and it went straight to voicemail. I sent a text after that, and then stared at the screen waiting for a reply.
My gut had me imagining something horrible happening to her.
Kayden answered my call on the first ring. “What’s going on, boss?”
“I need you to check on something for me,” I told him. “Fiona hasn’t come home tonight, and I’m worried she’s in trouble. Can you call Nina and see if she knows anything? Or if she can reach her?”
“Uh, yeah. Of course. I’ll call you right back, okay?”
“Thanks, Kayden.” I hung up and let out a big exhale.
I didn’t know what to think. Fiona could have been taken against her will. Or she could have left. I could not imagine exactly why she would, but it was possible. After all, I still hardly knew anything about her…
My phone rang and my heart leapt into my throat with anticipation. But it wasn’t Fiona.
“Kayden?”
“Yeah, I came by Nina’s place and had her call Fiona. No answer. Nina says she’s got no idea where she’s at, but now she’s worried, too.”
“Alright. Stay there,” I told him. “Just let me know if she calls back.”
I hung up and was on the phone with the nursing home a moment later. The person at the desk answered, sounding tired, like they were in the middle of a yawn.
“I need you to tell me if someone visited one of your residents this afternoon.” My words spilled out fast, and my tone came across even sharper than I had expected it to.
“Okay.” The voice on the other end was hushed now, sounding a little frightened. “Um, who is it you’re looking for? I’ll check our visitor sign-in sheet.”
“Her name is Fiona,” I told him. “She should have been there about three, four hours ago to see her grandfather.”
“Hmmm.” The person breathed loudly into the phone as they searched their records. I heard the sound of pages turning, too. “No, I’m sorry sir, I don’t know what to tell you, but I don’t see any Fiona on the sign-in sheet today, not in the afternoon or any other time. Do you want me to check another day?”
I hung up the phone, my heart racing. I headed back to the bedroom, hoping against hope that she would be there by now, having slipped in without my notice.
She wasn’t there.
