The stench of burning flesh filled her nostrils. Over the hours she had spent strapped to that table, the heat of the metal had slowly become unbearable. And still the temperature climbed.
Blisters had formed along her naked body, not an inch of fabric provided to shield her, and her shackles, her mask, had begun to heat as well.
As the blisters themselves were burned through, the table had begun to glow softly. The heat seemed to resonate through her very soul, consuming her, becoming her.
Her screams had long since died out, giving way to rasping sobs that wracked her whole body, seeming to press her flesh further into the table with each breath. She could hear her own blood sizzling as it met the immense heat, like water in a pan.
Still she lay, strapped to the table, knowing Cairn would leave her there until her bones had been burned through.
She could feel the lumps of ragged flesh, under what had been her back, which no longer felt like her own. She had run out of sweat and it had dried on her body.
Only when she began to hyperventilate, her sobs run dry, did Cairn turn, eyes gleaming with malice and pleasure, and slowly pull a tool from the fire.
Eyes squeezed tight shut, Aelin gritted her teeth, trying to prepare for the pain that was to come.
The red hot blade grazed teasingly along her neck, new blisters forming immediately.
Then Cairn slowly began to press it down onto her hand, pinning it to the table.
She arched up off the table and a fresh scream shattered her throat as it burned right through the skin between her fingers and thumb. And then he left it there. Lodged in her flesh, embedded in the heat–softened metal of the table beneath her.
Panting, she prepared herself for the next strike.
It never came. "Lie down." She heard the command, leaking in through the roaring in her ears. Slowly, cautiously, she lifted her head.
Fenrys was standing, shaking with effort.
"Your Blood-sworn Queen commands you to lie back down" seethed Cairn, but an edge of fear had crept into his voice.
Fenrys wobbled, but stayed standing.
And then he pounced.