Diamond Kisses (The Jewelry Box #4)

Days.

Then weeks.

No light.

No sun.

No way of truly knowing how many nights had passed.

We existed in a perpetual one.

Never-ending.

All consuming.

Nothing but pain and misery.

* * * * *

“Henri. Henri.”

The clanging of chains and the tinny whack of metal against metal echoed in my ears. It reached down, down, down into the abyss where I now lived.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to crawl out of it for long.

My eyes cracked open.

The pain swamped me.

But…it didn’t seem as debilitating as before.

The fiery ache from dislocating my shoulder had abated, the joint now stiff and seized from the endless cold and almost constant unconsciousness. The hundred contusions along my torso and legs slowly slipped through the sickly colours of healing. A cast covered my right ankle and foot. Another locked around my left forearm above my cuff. Heavy bandages wrapped around my torso, keeping me marginally warmer but not stopping the sharp pinch each time I breathed with broken ribs.

I’d never been so badly beaten before.

Hadn’t been prepared for how even my blood ached. How my tendons felt overstretched and my muscles nothing more than congealed meat. Lacerations cut the inside of my mouth from my teeth slicing into my cheeks when the guards walloped their fists into my face. The concussion that slithered around my thoughts—making them soupy and foggy—had improved, but it hadn’t fully gone.

Regardless how much time had passed, I didn’t fully heal.

And time did pass.

I wore the ticking hands of it on my own body.

Outwardly, my bruises faded and my bones throbbed with internal knitting. Each time I woke, I had a little more strength. But…while my body fixed itself outwardly. Inwardly? My soul died, piece by piece.

“Henri, please stay awake,” Ily’s plea cut through the vicious allure of sleep. I did my best to stay coherent even though being alive hurt worse than anything.

No, not anything.

What hurt the most was knowing I’d failed her.

Failed Peter.

Failed every jewel.

Everything I’d hoped to achieve was over now.

We lost.