~~Louisiana~~
I was scooped up like I weighed nothing, strong arms caging me in as the blindfold pressed harder against my eyes. My heart hammered. Every nerve in me screamed for the cloth to fall, just once, so I could see their faces—see the beasts I had only heard of in whispered stories. The Monsters of the North. The Destroyers.
But before I could even twitch, the other one—the one who wasn’t Zade—yanked the blindfold tighter. His fingers dug into the knot until it bit into my skin. My world stayed black.
If my face disgusted them so much, then what about theirs? I’d heard rumors… that their bodies were scarred, their skin burned, their faces marked by war. Beasts carved from cruelty itself.
Minutes blurred until I was dropped roughly onto the cold floor. Pain shot up my hip as I
