Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

was hoping someone might do something to stop this madness. But there was nothing any of them could do, and Siray squeezed her hands into fists, forcing herself to stay silent and still.

 Kinna seemed to come to the same horrible conclusion, and her eyes drifted away from Siray and the others to focus on the ground before her, her midnight-coloured tresses contrasting sharply with her bloodless face.

To the other side of Herrin, Loce was also kneeling, his eyes closed.

The guards gave their whips a readying shake, and Siray felt a sharp pain in one hand. Looking down, she realised that her fingernails had bitten into her palm, she was squeezing her hands that tight.

Just as she was forcing herself to try to relax, two sharp cracks split the air, followed by two grunts of pain.

Siray’s head shot up, and she saw the ends of the whips trailing in the sand as Kinna and Loce leaned forwards on their knees, their faces full of pain.

‘Three and four!’

Siray couldn’t stop her legs from shaking as she moved forwards behind Tamot, and she felt sweat break out down her back and under her arms. This time, she didn’t even feel her nails digging into her palms as she approached the soldier on the right, nor the stinging as sweat from her palms dripped into the small cuts.

As she reached the spot where Loce had left knee prints in the sand, Siray stopped, turning on the spot as Loce had before her, to face the captives still lined up. She absolutely refused to look at Kinna and Loce, who had dragged themselves far off to the side, lest she start hyperventilating over what was to come.

But looking down at the ground before her feet, Siray’s eyes zeroed in on flecks of blood that spotted the otherwise pristine white sand of the arena. And a random part of her wondered if the scars that would result from this would last, like the ones on her face. But then, the marks that crossed over her eye and down her cheek had almost been burned there, by venom. Anything else, her body could heal, given time.

Dropping first to one knee, then to the other, seemed to take a substantial physical effort, though keeping herself upright and her face as vacant as possible was even harder.

Never before had she felt this kind of helplessness. Not even while being tortured by Silver in the depths of the Research Centre in Lalinta. There she had been able to show her defiance, to fight back in whatever way she could.

Here, wherever here was, acceptance seemed the best method of survival. And she wanted to survive.

On her knees now, Siray turned her head slightly to the left. Just enough to see the silhouette of Tamot as he knelt before the other guard. Behind him, she could see the guard drawing back the whip.

As her hands began to shake, knowing that as she did so, the guard behind her was preparing to strike, Siray looked away from Tamot, her eyes automatically searching for something that could offer her comfort.

She locked gazes with Baindan.

His grey eyes seemed to rage like a violent storm, and as they held hers, they seemed to promise a slow death for those responsible for what was about to happen to her.

The slightest whisper of air behind her, then pain seared across Siray’s back as a loud crack exploded in her ears.

For a moment, Siray was stunned—her body and mind in shock. But that protection faded all too quickly, and the intensity of the pain in her back escalated rapidly, making her curl forwards over her knees, the movement only making the pain in her back worse. Such was her suffering that she couldn’t even let out a moan—her voice refused to work at all.

‘Next!’

The cold voice of Master Herrin broke through Siray’s pain, and the fear of further punishment if she didn’t move was the only thing that compelled her to push herself up to her feet.

The effort of standing seemed to double the pain, as the torn muscles of her back fought to stabilise her waving body. Yet once she was up, walking was slightly easier, although each impact of her feet upon the sand caused searing pain to burn its way up her spine.

Tasting blood in her mouth, Siray vaguely realised that she must have bitten her lip to keep from crying out as she stood, but she couldn’t even feel the injury she had caused herself as she kept her eyes on the ground and simply pointed her body in the direction that Kinna and Loce had gone.

At least she could be thankful that she had a smaller distance to traverse than Tamot to get clear of the whips.

Siray had almost reached Kinna when two more cracks rent the air, and she flinched before she could consciously remember that she was now out of range. But then she forgot everything as a fresh wave of pain raked her body.

Feeling slightly faint, Siray considered letting herself drop to the sand where she was. But she whimpered as she considered the pain that would cause and chose to remain standing.

Tamot, meanwhile, had dragged his feet through the sand until he had moved past her and stood on the far side of their small, pain-racked group, his eyes hard as he gazed unseeing at the ground. Surely he wouldn’t do anything stupid …

A moment later, a tense, warm body came to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, and looking up, Siray saw golden hair and eyes.

‘I’d ask how you’re doing, but I’m pretty sure I know exactly what your response would be.’ Zale angled his body so that Herrin would be unable to see that he was speaking, and he looked up as Baindan also painfully manoeuvred himself to stand close by.

Siray adjusted her own position slightly, grimacing as she did so, her gaze flicking over Baindan’s face before returning to Zale. ‘I feel like this is some form