Moonfire Bride: The One they all betrayed...till she awakened

Della’s chest rose and fell in short, frantic breaths, ”Please.” The word came out so quietly that it disappeared beneath the murmuring crowd.

She swallowed and tried again, louder this time, ”Please, I didn’t steal it. I have been framed,”

She looked at the Merchant, and he didn’t just look furious anymore. There was a kind of gleaning look in his eyes that made her suck in a sharp breath.

Her hands tightened into fists behind her, and her body shook again vehemently.

”As you’ve all witnessed, she stole it,” The Merchant said, pointing at the diamond, ”I want her punished! I want this Thief and Rotblood punished for her actions!”

Someone planted it on me,” Della cried again, turning desperately from one angry, scowling face to another, ”I don’t know how it got there. I swear I don’t.”

”Listen to her.” A woman spat near her feet, ”She thinks we’re stupid.”

”She’s a Rotblood. What did you expect?”

”Why is she still standing?” Someone else yelled angrily, ”Let her kneel!”

A sudden kick struck the back of Della’s knee, and her leg buckled. She crashed onto the ground, landing awkwardly with her bound hands trapped behind her. Pain shot through her injured wrist, but she barely noticed it.

Her cloak fell farther from her shoulders, and Della looked up to see that the crowd had closed around her completely.

”Please,” She whispered.

”Look at her begging.” Someone laughed, ”She should’ve begged before stealing.”

”I didn’t steal anything!”

A stone struck her shoulder, and Della flinched.

Another hit her thigh, and this time she looked toward where it had come from and saw a child holding another stone.

”Stop!” she cried.

The child threw it still, and she turned her head just in time before it struck her eye, and it struck her temple instead. She felt something warm roll down the side of her face.

A woman beside the child laughed, then she picked up a bigger stone and handed it to the child, ”Throw this one.”

The child excitedly did as he was told.

Della ducked her head as best she could, but her hands were trapped behind her, and there was nothing she could use to shield herself.

They aimed for her head even more, and the stones now seemed to be coming from every direction.

”Enough!” She pleaded, tasting blood on her lips as another stone struck her cheeks hard, ”Please, I have done nothing to you!”

”She’s still defending herself.”

”Make her shut up.”

”She doesn’t deserve mercy.”

Someone shoved her, and she fell on the side. A foot came slamming into her ribs, and Della screamed as her entire body immediately curled inward.

Her stomach.

Her baby!!

The thought hit her with such force that panic overwhelmed everything else.

She opened her mouth to scream when another blow came, and she twisted desperately, trying to shield her abdomen with her body.

She felt another impact against her back, and her voice broke into terrified sobs, ”Please! Please don’t hit my stomach!”

”Why?” Someone scoffed, ”Why is it so important?”

A boot struck her again, and Della screamed, ”STOP!”

She tried to scramble backwards, but there were feet everywhere. Someone caught her cloak, and someone else kicked her leg.

A hand seized her hair and dragged her upright, before another person struck her across the face so hard that it made her eyes roll to the back of her head.

Della barely registered who had done it.

Everything had become noise.

Shouting.

Insults.

Footsteps.

The sound of bodies pushing against one another.

A claw raked against her shoulders, and she shrieked as her skin was torn open. No matter where she turned and what she tried to do, she couldn’t fight them.

There were too many!

Her bound hands were useless, her injured wrist screamed whenever she moved, and her head still throbbed from the carriage.

Hands grabbed at her, pulling and pounding and slapping. Feet crashed into her, kicking and stomping all over her.

Claws scratched through her clothes and deep into her skin, drawing blood each time.

Della tried to crawl away again, but someone stomped beside her, and another person kicked her back down.

A blow struck her stomach, and her entire body seized.

She didn’t scream.

She couldn’t.

For one terrifying second, there was nothing in her mind except the possibility that something had happened inside her.

No.

”Please...”

Another impact landed against her abdomen, and this time she screamed so loudly her throat burned, ”My baby!” The words finally came out, shaky and horrified, ”My baby, please!”

Nobody listened.

And that was when Della truly understood.

They weren’t going to stop.

She was alone.

Completely, utterly alone.

Della curled herself around her stomach even more, pressing her body against the ground as tightly as she could, hoping it would swallow her and shield her from the bodies.

It didn’t.

She was being stomped upon, over and over and over again. The legs, hands and claws never stopped coming, and every part of her body was paying the price for it.

Pain came from everywhere.

Her skull throbbed with every strike, each impact sending a violent jolt through her head. Her jaw burned. Her cheek felt numb in one moment and aflame in the next. Her ears rang whenever something struck the side of her head, leaving the world briefly muffled before the noise crashed back in.

Her neck ached from being jerked around, and her shoulders screamed from being stomped on over and over again.

Her arms were trembling, every muscle strained and burning from trying to shield herself with hands she couldn’t even bring forward.

Her ribs were even worse, for each kick drove a deep, crushing ache through her chest, making every breath feel sharp and incomplete. Her back felt as though it had been beaten with iron, and her spine seemed to pulse beneath her skin.

Her thoughts throbbed, her knees burned where she’d been knocked down, and her shins felt bruised all the way to the bone. Her ankles stung whenever someone stepped on them.

A blow landed against her abdomen again despite how tightly she had curled around herself, and a horrible cramp seized her so suddenly that her breath vanished.

Her entire body started to convulse.

She couldn’t think.

Couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t tell whether the wetness on her face was tears or blood anymore.

Another foot came down on her face again, almost knocking her out.

The pain had become one enormous thing now—head, face, neck, ribs, back, arms, legs, stomach—until she could no longer find a single place on her body that didn’t hurt.

She felt battered down to the bone.

And still they kept hitting her.