Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 44

44 The Mercy That Will Ruin Them

Arya’s POV

Pain dragged me back first.

Not sound. Not light. Pain.

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It sat in my bones like heat trapped under ash, pulsing, spreading, reminding me I was still

here.

My lashes fluttered. My throat burned. My tongue felt too heavy. When I tried to swallow, something yanked inside my abdomen and my breath hitched.

Then I realised I couldn’t move properly.

My arms were heavy, pinned by weakness, and there was a tug at my skin, tape, lines, the cold pull of something feeding into my vein.

I forced my eyes open.

White ceiling.

Blurred edges.

The faint stink of antiseptic.

Infirmary.

For a second, just one, my mind tried to save me. It tried to fold everything into a nightmare. A bad dream. A fever. A hallucination brought on by exhaustion.

But then my back screamed.

My ribs screamed.

My wrists screamed,

My ankles screamed.

And the memory slammed into me so hard it stole the air from my lungs.

The yard,

The whip.

The crowd.

The silver.

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The laughter.

Rebecca’s voice.

Marcel’s smug permission.

The way my blood had soaked the ground like I was nothing more than meat.

My eyes stung, and before I could stop it, tears spilled down the sides of my face and sank into my hair.

I lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to breathe through the pain.

I didn’t want to cry.

I hated crying.

But my body didn’t ask my pride for permission anymore.

A soft shift came at the door.

Footsteps.

I turned my head slowly, the movement dragging pain across my neck and shoulder.

Elsie stepped in. She was one of the maids in the pack house. I had a few interactions with

her, but she was very sweet.

She froze when she saw my eyes open.

Her face collapsed into something tight and guilty, like she’d been holding herself together and my waking broke the last thread.

“Arya,”

My throat worked. My lips parted.

“Wha,”

Elsie moved fast, like she was afraid of what I might ask. Her hands lifted, then stopped

mid-air, unsure whether she was allowed to touch me.

Behind her, another figure appeared,

Lesley.

Lesley didn’t rush. She didn’t panic. She came in like she always did, controlled, measured, eyes sharp even when her face looked tired.

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She shut the door behind her.

And then she looked straight at me and gave a subtle shake of her head.

Not now.

I frowned, confused, and tried to speak again.

Lesley crossed the room in three strides, reached my bedside, and pressed two fingers gently to my lips.

“Don’t,” she murmured, voice soft and almost pleasant. “Not a word. Smile if you can.”

My eyes widened.

She leaned closer, as if she were checking my breathing, adjusting my pillow. Her hand slid to the edge of the bed, and she tugged the sheet slightly higher, the motion casual.

“They’re watching,” she said, still in that calm tone. “And they’re listening.”

My stomach tightened.

Elsie’s

gaze flicked to the corner of the room.

I followed it.

Nothing obvious. No guards. No men.

But I knew better than to trust what I could see.

They didn’t need to stand at the foot of my bed. They had other ways. They always did.

Lesley straightened, then reached for my wrist like she was checking my pulse.

That was when I felt it.

Something encircling my hand.

A bracelet.

I hadn’t noticed it because the pain had swallowed everything else, but now that Lesley’s fingers brushed it, the cold metal registered.

I stared at it.

It looked like a simple band, dull grey, plain, almost industrial. Not silver-bright. Not ornate. Nothing that screamed threat.

But the moment my fingers shifted, the faint, familiar burn flared underneath.

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<44 The Mercy That Will Ruin

My breath caught.

Lesley’s eyes met mine.

She didn’t need to explain for me to understand. I’d been bound in silver enough times to recognise its hunger.

My voice came out hoarse, a whisper I barely pushed past my lips.

“Silver.”

Lesley’s mouth curved slightly, not in amusement, but in something that tried to pass as

reassurance.

“Covered,” she said lightly, as if we were discussing jewellery. “Zinc galvanised. Conceals the silver. Stops it from burning you as badly. A small mercy.”

Mercy.

I wanted to laugh.

The sound that came out of me was more like a broken exhale.

A mercy would’ve been letting me bleed out on the ground.

A mercy would’ve been ending it when they had me chained, stripped, and humiliated in front of my own people.

This,

as a leash with padding.

y eased herself into the chair beside my bed. Elsie hovered near the foot of it, hands asped so tightly her knuckles were pale.

Lesley picked up my hand gently, thumb stroking across my fingers in a slow, careful motion, like she was trying to calm an animal that might bite.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

I stared at her.

How was I doing?

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