“You don’t have a choice. Your lover boy let his bitch-ass daddy violate you, and you still gave him your body, hoping he’d protect you from him,” he responded.
“Stop it, damn it! Can I go five minutes without you making it worse? Do you think you’re better than Hoax? What you’re doing isn’t any different!”
“I don’t have to force my dick into anybody! Everyone I fucked, wanted it more than I did, including you. Compare me to that nigga again, and I’ll rip your wings off your back!” he said.
“The only difference is you just curse them and make them want you!”
War’s anger still crackled in the air, but then—so suddenly it made my head spin—he caressed my chin with his thumb, the touch warmed my flesh. I’d learned to brace myself for these sharp turns in his behavior, but they always left me reeling, unsure whether to fear for my life or surrender to his touch.
“You should never trust the words of your enemy, Eboenia. That’s how you end up in the lion’s den. You don’t even know what kind of curse that was—you only know what I told you. But do you know who will never lie to you?”
“My sisters.”
War shook his head and took another puff of his blunt. “No, your heart. Always trust it.”
“Another one of your mind games! Are you telling me you didn’t curse me?”
“I’m telling your stupid ass that you trust your enemies too easily,” War said.
“That’s how I survive.”
“That’s how you get killed. You have to learn not to be afraid of pain,” he responded.
“You’re twisted, War. I’ve learned to deal with it because that’s who you are. We’ll never see survival the same way.”
A sharp dagger appeared in his hand. War knelt beside the tub, my eyes glued to the blade. He pulled me closer and slipped the dagger into my side, covering my mouth to stifle my scream. The pain was sharp, but the way his body pressed against mine, the way his hand held me steady, made the agony feel almost intimate—a secret shared between us alone.
“Shhh… Don’t think about it. Take deep breaths… relax,” he whispered, his lips brushing my ear. His cruelty was a test, a lesson, but also a twisted caress—a reminder that he could break me, or bind me, with equal ease.
How could I relax with a knife embedded in my flesh? “It hurts!” I squirmed in the tub, but even as I writhed, I felt his grip steady me, anchoring me to him.
“The enemy isn’t supposed to know they wounded you. Fight back, Eboenia. I’m doing this now, while you’re weak, because I want you to learn to never cave in,” he said, jabbing the knife deeper. Blood bloomed in the water around me, and I gasped, but War’s eyes never left mine.
“You are a creature of nature—we’re surrounded by your elements. Use them. Connect with them.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, pushing past the pain, and reached out with my senses—down into the earth beneath the tub, into the roots, the leaves, the water. The scent of damp moss and crushed greenery filled my lungs. I tasted earth and copper on my tongue. Cool energy surged upward, prickling beneath my skin, racing through my veins with a tingling ache. Even as War’s cruelty threatened to torment me, I found a strange comfort in his presence—the twisted intimacy of pain and survival, of being broken and remade in his hands.
Moments later, the pain ebbed away. I looked down and saw black veins writhing beneath my skin, like roots from a tree. The dagger inside me crumbled to ashes as my wound closed. Usually, when I healed, I felt every inch of my flesh knitting together—a scalding, searing pain. But this time, the magic of the elements around me flooded my body, cold and alive, fueling me as if I were undergoing my own kind of photosynthesis.
The last of the pain faded, and I drew a shaky breath, staring at the black veins that had just receded beneath my skin.
War leaned in, fingers hooking the cuff still locked around my neck. “Don’t get any ideas, lil’ pussy fairy,” he murmured in warning. “The lessons I teach can be taken away just as easily—if you ever try to use them against me.”
He tightened his grip, nearly yanking me from the tub. His teeth caught my bottom lip, biting hard enough to draw blood before his mouth soothed the sting with a slow, possessive suck.
“Remember,” he growled against my mouth, “I’m the only one who gets to break you. The only one who gets to put you back together. Don’t try no stupid shit.”
The gears on his chest spun, and a swirling portal opened behind him.
“You’ve been soaking long enough. It’s time we head back to my house,” he said.
War tossed me over his shoulder and stepped into the portal. I just hoped there’d be food on the other side—I was starving.
War watched me tear into a tray of raw frog legs at the kitchen table, my canines ripping out veins while I devoured the meat. Next to it was a platter of grub worms, their guts oozing cheesy, buttery shit when I bit down. War looked like he wanted to gag while poking at his steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus like it might bite him back.
“Why aren’t you eating?” I asked, holding up a fat grub between my fingers.
He grimaced. “My dinner table looks like a damn bait shop. If one of those things crawls on my plate, you’re eating on the floor.”
