LENA
Consciousness delivered pain sharp and insistent, unavoidable in its now insistent presence. I was in pain everywhere — some parts more than others — but, for a horrifying moment, I couldn’t remember why. And then my memory came back in a flash—then I wished fervently for oblivion once again.
Ash. The inn. His hands on me, ripping my clothes, ignoring my tears. The eternity of the violation was at war with the nightmare reality that it had been over too quickly. The moment when I’d known he wasn’t going to rescue me, that there were no more reserves of mercy left for him in his unholy tank, and that I was very thoroughly f****d.
I sat bolt upright in bed, panic rushing through me with such force I couldn’t breathe. Where was I? Where was Ash? Was he still here? Was he going to—
"E
