“A savage world for savages.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Norway***

***Cecilia***

I shake in silent horror and try to eat the food. Gavin hasn't touched his plate. Instead he is pacing through the room like a wild animal. It's too easy to imagine his quarters as a cage and him as a monster. I wonder what I did this time to warrant his anger? Or why I have to be in here with him while he is in such a state?

Chewing, I clench the fork in my hand while bitter tears escape my eyes. I got potatoes and meat while he has fish. He eats a lot of fish. Hopefully he has some deficiencies because of it. I eye the meat which is already cut to tiny pieces. It’s always like that. Gavin is smart enough not to trust me with a knife. Even if he has sealed my magic.

“They are all incompetent!” He takes one of the Chinese vases and smashes it on the ground.

I wince. That piece was from the fourteenth century and in pristine condition. Just what happened that made him so angry?

“And you-” He is about to turn his rage at me when something in his jacket beeps. Cursing, he pulls out a strange artefact and starts talking. “I told you that I am not to be disturbed when I eat with my wife! What are you talking about? What attack?” He perks up, listening. After a few moments he hisses, and whispers. “How did they get into the inner compound so fast!?”

I also listen very carefully, shaking. But not in fear and hopelessness. Now I shake in anticipation. Someone is raiding the Hammons. There might be an end to this endless nightmare. I search the room with my eyes. A weapon. Any weapon. Something better than a fork.

Gavin steps outside, in front of the dining room. “Listen, you will order everyone to fight and then you give out commands only for our loyalists. They have to use the escape tunnels and meet at the safe house. We'll have to cut our losses and relocate. This place lost its value the moment the two bitches escaped.”

I reach out to Gavin's side of the table and grab the fish knife. He likes eating fish and the cook probably thought that a knife without a sharp edge is no different from a spoon. It is indeed a poor improvement over the fork, but at least it looks sturdy enough to be used as a stabbing weapon. I don't trust the filigree fork they gave me. Probably, it would just bend instead of piercing skin.

Gavin returns to the room and heads directly for me. I lower my hand and hide the knife under my seat. If I do something to delay him, then I have to do it now. I've no other memories than of being inside this room. My eyes wander to the door through which we always leave. Who knows what will happen once I am through that door? It could knock me out as soon as I leave this place.

He grabs my arm and pulls me up. “Come, we've to go.”

“But the food?” I whine, allowing him to pull me towards the door.

When he turns towards the door to pull me with him, I strike. My knife is aimed directly at his spinal cord, which is my only hope. Since my magic is sealed, I can't best him in any way. But if I am just a little lucky and incapacitate him, I might gain enough time to run. Or to kill him. It would feel so good to kill him.

The blade sinks into his flesh and he howls. I know that I failed. I felt the metal scraping off the bone. It was a fleeting hope to hit the soft tissue between his spine's bones. It was asking too much. Howling myself, I twist the blade sideways. If nothing else, at least it causes him pain and buys a little more time!

My show of defiance meets its anticipated end when Gavin uses his magic to tighten his grip on my upper arm. I scream when he crushes my flesh and the bone as if I am a bug.

He turns around to face me and pulls the knife from his back. “And I already thought that you were becoming the perfect wife. You didn’t try anything in over a hundred years, but just a little leaked information makes you defiant. Just like our useless daughters. I think I've had enough of your kin. I'd let this little intermezzo slide, but you can't even control your own children. I should have had two little bargaining chips. Instead I have nothing. So even if you are a fertile bitch, what good are you if your offspring can't be used?”

Shoving me, he forces me back to the dining table until I hit the edge with my butt. I try to use my free hand to scrape out his eyes. It's of course just a minor inconvenience for him to subdue me. A brutal backhanded strike, and all the fight I had inside of me is gone. I can even see tiny dots in my vision as he forces me flat with my back onto the table and himself between my legs.

“Haah, do you know that your dear sister is most likely the spearhead of this attack? She truly started raising hell when someone blew the whistle that you are alive and in my custody. So taking you with me only means that she will follow like a bloodhound. What do you think will she do when she comes through that door? And you are sprawled like a whore on this table, dead.” He thrusts his hips at me and I am so glad that the fabric is in the way.

“It's a shame that there isn't enough time to make the scene perfect. I'll just have to savour my memories. After all, I already had you in every possible way.” Then he hammers the fish knife down at my throat, nailing me to the table.

Strangely enough all the pain is suddenly gone when he succeeds in what I failed to do. Bone shatters and then I feel nothing below my neck. There is just a dull ache, but that’s okay. I blink, stunned, and he grins.

He leaves the knife where it is and I suddenly realize that there is no need to cut off my head.

I panic. The wound can't close with the knife lodged in my neck and I can't pull it out because my spinal cord is severed. As long as the knife is inside, I can't heal. And my body can’t push it out because he hammered it into the table! All he has to do, is to wait and watch. I'll bleed out! How long can I survive without blood?

Didn't grandma Felicia bleed out when the house collapsed and crushed her? They dug her out and revived her, but she never was the same. Just a drooling idiot. She had to relearn everything. But maybe a complete restart wouldn't be so bad in my case?

I panic even more at the thought, but all I can do is move my mouth. Like a fish. I want to chuckle, but not even that works, having only my mouth.

Gavin just watches me, waiting, making sure that I am a goner before he leaves. I stop moving my mouth and focus my diminishing vision on the ceiling. Maybe he abstains from further measures if he thinks that I am dead. The sad part is that I don't have to play it. I am really fading away, my vision is blurry. That's when I hear a door being kicked in. Have the attackers reached his quarters?

“Shit!” Gavin turns and vanishes from my vision.

My eyes flutter closed. So tired.

Then the knife is yanked from my throat and I feel hands, trying to stop the blood. Someone is screaming. They are too loud. Can’t sleep.