The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 1214: Owain’s Wedding Gift (Part One)
"Now then," Owain said, his smile returning as he pulled open the heavy door. The smell of damp stone and old blood and human misery wafted up from below, and Jocelynn’s stomach lurched as the scents carried a wave of unpleasant memories with them. "Let me show you what I’ve done for you."
The torchlight from below cast dancing shadows on the stone walls as they descended, and with each step down, Jocelynn felt the weight of the manor above pressing down on her, tons of stone and timber between her and the sky, between her and freedom. Her breathing had become audible now, quick and shallow, the sound muffled by her veil but impossible to hide entirely.
Unfortunately, Owain seemed to interpret it as anticipation rather than recognizing it as terror.
"I know you’ve been frightened," he said as they reached the bottom of the stairs and turned into the corridor she remembered too well. "I know that what Percivus did to you, what he did to your cousin, has left you feeling unsafe. But I want you to understand something, my lovely Jocelynn," he said, stopping where he stood and turning to face her, his hands coming up to frame her veiled face with a tenderness that felt like a mockery or mimicry of real affection.
"No one," he said, his voice dropping to a fervent whisper. "No one hurts what belongs to me and lives to boast of it. I promised these men that the Holy Lord of Light wouldn’t be the only one holding them to account for their sins. And I keep my promises."
Through the veil, she could see his eyes gleaming with something that looked almost like devotion, but felt much more like obsession. Her throat had closed completely, her voice trapped somewhere beneath the terror and the dawning, horrible understanding of what he was about to show her.
The corridor stretched ahead, lined with cell doors. Most stood open and empty, but one of them, one near the far end where Eleanor had been kept prisoner, was closed, and from within came the faint sound of chains scraping against stone. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Owain’s smile widened as he heard it too.
"Come," he said, taking her hand again and leading her forward like a suitor presenting his beloved with flowers. "Let me show you what vengeance looks like, and you’ll come to understand why it’s the only balm for the wounds within your heart," he said, as though he had considerable experience with matters of vengeance.
With each step closer to that closed door, Jocelynn’s mind raced through possibilities, each more terrible than the last. But when they finally reached it, when Owain’s hand settled on the iron handle with proprietary satisfaction, she realized that her imagination had fallen short of the reality.
"I caught him trying to flee to the Church," Owain said, his voice rich with triumph. "Hiding in his abbey like the coward he is. But Sir Gilander tracked him down in Maeril Village, and the Abbot was all too happy to hand him over once he learned what Percivus had done in my father’s name."
As he spoke, Owain pulled open the door, revealing the cell beyond.
There, suspended from an iron ring bolted into the ceiling, his arms stretched above his head by the weight of heavy chains, hung Inquisitor Percivus.
Unlike the acolytes Owain had interrogated, whose bodies bore the marks of his unrestrained brutality, Percivus seemed almost untouched. The crimson and gold robes of the Inquisition hung perfectly straight despite his awkward suspension, the fabric unruffled and unstained, as pristine as if he’d donned them moments ago rather than the day before when Sir Gilander took him prisoner in Maeril.
There was no evidence of struggle, no fabric torn, no bruises on his flesh, nor any other signs of resistance. He had clearly allowed himself to be bound without protest, as though this captivity were merely a temporary inconvenience rather than genuine imprisonment.
His wrists were forced wide apart by an iron bar identical to the one that had tormented Eleanor in her final days, the metal rod fixed between the shackles to prevent him from bringing his hands together in prayer and preventing him from performing any miracles that required the use of his hands.
A leather strap crossed his mouth, buckled tight at the back of his head, and beneath it a wad of cloth protruded slightly at the corners. The gag had to be painful and uncomfortable, and unless it had been removed at some point, he must have gone for almost an entire day without food or drink, yet he gave no sign of weakness or discomfort. If anything, he acted as if he’d simply been... inconvenienced.
But it was his eyes that struck Jocelynn like a physical blow.
Those hardened hazel eyes, the same ones that had watched her with clinical detachment as his acolytes stripped away her robes, the same ones that had shown not a flicker of mercy as Jocelynn shivered and begged for something as simple as a blanket to stay warm through the night... Those eyes met hers through the veil with perfect, unwavering calm.
There was no fear in that gaze. No desperation. No pleading. He wasn’t like her. Wasn’t weak like her. Wasn’t afraid like her. Even here, in a cell just like the one she’d been chained to, he was nothing like her, and the look he gave her made that abundantly clear.
When Percivus looked at her, it was with the same dispassionate assessment he might give to an interesting insect, his head tilted slightly despite the awkwardness of his suspension. Even bound and gagged and hanging from chains, he radiated an unsettling confidence, as if he were still the Inquisitor conducting an interrogation rather than the prisoner enduring one.
His flame-red hair was still precisely cut in the soldier’s style, his matching beard still trimmed to cover only his lips and chin, leaving his pale cheeks and strong jaw clean. His posture, despite the suspension, remained somehow straight, his spine refusing to curve, his shoulders refusing to slump, as though sheer force of will could deny the reality of his captivity.
And beneath the gag, she could see the slight curve of his cheeks that suggested he was smiling...
