Bound (The Divine, Book Four) by M.R. Forbes Read Free Book Online Page B

band.
    "I remember Clara," she said. "He gave us a daughter to torture us with."
    That was the first memory. Somehow, he had discovered how much it had hurt me, and so Clara had been coming back, subjected to more suffering and agony, tortured in front of both of us. Watching someone torture a child was beyond disturbing. When it was your own, even if it wasn't real, it was the truest form of anguish I could imagine.
    Charis was crying, her body shaking from her sobs. "I underestimated everything about this," she said. I could feel my own tears welling up, mirroring hers. We were both trying to be strong for the other, but the truth was that his efforts were succeeding.  
    We were breaking.
    "What else? Think Charis. We put him in here. We're holding him in here. How? How can he have all of the control, if we're keeping him trapped?"
    Those were the questions we tried to commit to our minds, to ask one another every time we came back. I knew there had to be an answer, that we should be able to do something against him. It didn't make sense that his power could be absolute, because if it was he would be able to escape.
    She wiped her eyes and set her jaw. "Our power was his power. We don't have anything on our own."
    "That can't be true. We're Divine. Diuscrucis. We have the blood of angels, demons, and humans in our veins. That has to count for something."
    I heard barking echoes through the growth. They were getting closer.
    "We were the only ones who could absorb his power," she said. "We were the only ones who could use it."  
    I nodded, my mind racing along that path. "So we should be able to use it, shouldn't we? It's the same power. We're just in a different place."
    She smiled. "Yes, I think that's it. We need to remember that. Come on." She got to her feet and grabbed my arm. We ran through the greenery, pushing past thick, heavy plants and through brush and bushes. The snarling and barking of the wolves was getting louder.
    "Why should we run?" I asked.  
    "We need to last as long as we can," she replied. "We need to remember."  
    His power was our power. We could take his power. We could use his power. I kept repeating the words like a mantra, committing it not only to my mind, but to my soul. An ingrained message, an instinct. We needed to do better than to run. We needed to be able to fight.
    We pressed on, dodging trees, seeking another escape. The wolves couldn't be far back, and now I could hear the laughter carried on the wind. He knew we were running. He was amused.
    "There," Charis shouted, pointing at a climbable tree. "It won't keep us alive forever, but it will buy us some time."
    I followed her to it and we scrambled up, finding a resting spot in a branch thirty or forty feet off the ground. A minute later the wolves arrived, barking and growling, claws scraping against the trunk of the tree, six in all.
    "The power," I said. My breathing was heavy from the run and climb. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to find that river of energy I had grown to depend on. It wasn't there.
    "It isn't in Purgatory," Charis said. "It's here. It has to be. It's all around us."
    I looked up, trying to find the sky behind the trees. Was there a sky here, inside the Box? Or was it all a trick, a lie? I kept my eyes focused on it, refusing to blink though they became dry and scratchy. Was it like those posters that seemed to be just a pattern of color, but turned out to be the Statue of Liberty, or a sailboat? Was the power out there?
    "Oh, Lannnnndddoooonnnn!" His voice echoed loudly, and he appeared at the base of the tree.  
    I didn't look down at him, but I knew he was there. I kept my eyes on the sky.  
    "Helllloooo?" He put a hand to the tree, and it began to shake. It took immense effort, but I didn't let it break my concentration. I could see a spot of blue through the canopy, and as I stared, it began to fade away, turning towards a dark purple.  
    "I've almost got it," I whispered, hoping Charis would hear