Immortal Healer: Immortal Stonekeeper Prequel (2025) Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Changing The Stakes

Read chapter 18 of Immortal Healer: Immortal Stonekeeper Prequel (2025) by Mercynarie on NovelPedia.

Hilda came to in a moving vehicle. Something that smelled like an old cloth was pressing against her face, making the already stuffy air barely breathable. She opened her eyes and struggled a little, but it didn’t do any good. Whatever was covering her head was blocking the light out completely, and her body was tightly bound by something. Her heart thundered as she tried to piece together the last moments she remembered. What the hell had happened? Right, she had a small fight with Duncan and foolishly left on her own. Hilda had expected him to come running after her, to pull her into his strong arms and promise that he wouldn’t let her out of his sight ever again. She had expected him to profess his love for her, and that he had just been too embarrassed to accept her confession earlier. But he never did. Instead, Hilda found herself all alone in a small alley, facing down a group of cultists yet again. Like before, they came prepared this time as well. But Hilda remembered putting up a pretty good fight. Or rather, the protection spells on her clothes did. A sizeable number of cultists had been knocked out either by her magic mace or the counter spells from her clothes’ defensive magic. It wasn’t until one of them had snatched the weapon from her and used it to hit her that she finally went down. The defensive spells weren’t completely impenetrable, apparently. Hilda tried to pull her arms free, but it didn’t work. Her wrists were tightly bound behind her back, and even the smallest movement sent shooting pain flying through her head. Still, she had to try. After a few more painful attempts to break free, she finally gave up and remained still. Tears welled as panic rose like the water level in a rapidly sinking car. Duncan, where are you? There was a click, and a cooling breeze swept over her body, accompanied by harsh fluorescent light piercing through the hood over Hilda’s head. She shut her eyes and feigned unconsciousness, just in case someone pulled the hood off her. “Think the girl’s awake yet?” a nasal male voice sneered, his Texan accent obvious even through the hood. Hilda swallowed a scream and kept as still as possible, as though playing dead was going to do her any good. Please let me go… Please let me go… Please let me go— Something jabbed her hard in her waist, and a yelp tore from her throat despite her best efforts to keep her mouth shut. “Sounds like it,” a low-pitched female voice said in a thick Russian accent. A pair of beefy hands practically swallowed Hilda’s small arms as they pulled her out of the vehicle’s trunk and slung her over their shoulder. She immediately started screaming, even though she could barely struggle through the bindings. If she was going down, she wasn’t going down without a fight. After a few minutes of futile struggling, hard wood crashed into her body. Someone forced her body into a sitting position before ripping the hood off her head. Cooling air rushed in, and she squinted against the sudden glare coming from all around her. Not that Hilda had been in many motel rooms before, but she could definitely tell that she was in one. Five fake chandeliers lit the entire room, and a velvety red carpet draped the floor where Hilda’s chair was scraping. “Well, well, well. Getting to you was easier than I thought.” Miguel Chukwunyelu was sitting across from the girl. “Where’s your friend?” Friend… “Let me go, you creep!” Hilda yelled with a sudden burst of anger. “What do you want with me?!” “Oof, that’s disappointing.” Miguel leaned back on his hardback chair. Hilda shuddered at the sight of the parasites peeking out from his pocket. “I wasn’t expecting the Angel of Life to be in such tasteless company. Then again, you are that traitor’s daughter.” “What does that mean?” “It means, like before, you are my bargaining chip. No escaping this time, naughty girl,” the man said. “But what’s this? I sense resentment in your heart. Let me take a look.” He leaned forward and stretched his fing