Shattered by Alexia Foxx Page B

whispered, but the thought terrified him.  His handlers were gentle, or at the very least they weren’t cruel.  He couldn’t say the same for her.  Yet if she wanted to hurt him he would endure it.  Her will was his, he realized that now, for she left him with nothing else.
    Robin’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly beneath her brow and she cast her gaze over his loose bindings.  She went to the dresser and pulled something out from the bottom drawer, tossing the bundle of cloth in his direction as she spoke.  “Untie yourself and put this on.”
    Nathan did as he was told, as quickly as he could, but his hands were clumsy against the knots.  He knew how to untie a knot, how to follow a strand until it reached its end, but the procedure seemed divorced from the process right now.  He couldn’t stop his shaking.
    Robin left him there and disappeared from the room, and every second she was gone Nathan felt the threat of her return more greatly.  He feared her displeasure when she saw the rope cuffs still on and the building pressure of failure only made him more frantic.
    The trembling of his hands had worked its way up his arms and down into his stomach by the time the click of her boots started the steady countdown of her return.  She crouched in front of him but he was too scared to look up.
    Robin put her hand o ver his and stilled his shaking.  “You still don’t get it, do you prince? You don’t own your fate anymore.  If you act counter to my wishes, if you cannot perform as I ask, that failure is my burden, not yours, and I will do what I need to correct it.  But you, you’re going to hurt regardless.”
    “ Now, here,” she said.  She guided his hand to the proper strand.  Somehow the task that seemed so impossible a moment ago was laid out before him in simplicity when she was here.  It didn’t take him long to strip away the rope and the cuffs both.
    Nathan pulled the loose robe over his head and slipped his arms out through sleeves designed for a much larger man.  The thin curtain of fabric moving down his back brushed against yesterday’s welts.  He grimaced.
    “Up,” Robin commanded and handed him the blindfold.
    He used the chair to help himself rise and drew in a deep breath as he submitted to the blindfold again.  It was that darkness he hated most – the uncertainty it brought and the isolation.  But it didn’t seem so bad now, knowing it was what she wanted.
    Robin held on e end of the rope and pressed the other end into his hand.  Nathan heard her move, felt the rope go taut, and he followed her out.  The rough fabric grated against his wounds on each step and he took small ones to minimize the rub.  Only when the rope pulled did he increase his stride, and soon he fell into a tolerable pace behind her.
    She whispered out directional changes or warnings often enough that Nathan avoided any direct collisions, though he did stumble a few times.  He wanted to remember the way they traveled when it became clear they weren’t simply stopping in the wash room, but the directions quickly became buried in the endless repetition of ‘right’ and ‘left’.
    ‘Stair’ and ‘step’ were both introduced to the list and soon they became just as monotonous.  Nathan knew the blindfold distorted everything, that the heightening of every other sense exhausted him, but he swore they walked on for half an hour or more.
    He only noticed the lack of doors when they reached one.  It whined on its hinges as Robin forced it open.  Beyond a warm blast of wet air hit him and the sound of water, bubbling and flowing, met his ears.  The ground turned from cold to damp and the moisture in the air clawed into his clothing and weighed them down.
    Robin dropped her end of the rope and Nathan stood there alone, smothered by the humidity and the darkness of the blindfold.  He strained to follow her with his ears.  He listened as her boots came off, as she padded around the room, and finally