Chapter 23 Planned?
With a flick of his hand, he signaled one of the others.
A moment later, a bucket of ice-cold water was dumped over Addison’s bloodied form, shocking her back to consciousness. She gasped, her body trembling violently from the chill and pain. Her head barely lifted before—
Crack!
Another lash tore across her back.
Addison’s body arched from the agony, the chains rattling above her with a harsh, metallic echo that rang through the dark dungeon. The only light came from a flickering torch on the wall, casting long, wavering shadows across the stone floor. Addison’s silhouette—frail and shaking—looked impossibly small in the midst of the towering figures surrounding her.
And Greg was only getting started.
Each time Addison passed out from the relentless torment, they revived her with another splash of freezing water. Again and again, the whip tore into her. And when her body teetered on the edge of death, barely clinging to life, Greg would finally call in a healer—not to save her, but just enough to keep her alive.
So the punishment could continue.
Blood trickled steadily down Addison’s back, soaking through the already torn remnants of her dress.
The deep, ragged wounds marred her once-smooth skin, painting her back in grotesque shades of crimson—like the petals of a red spider lily in full bloom. The sight was both harrowing and strangely haunting.
Addison appeared frail, her broken beauty striking in its quiet tragedy. Her long brown hair clung to the side of her pale face, and her colorless complexion made her look more like a corpse than someone clinging to life.