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Finn had accepted he was going to be punished; he knew it was going to be bad, but it couldn’t be as bad as the knowledge that he can never escaped her, that he broke and had tried to leave Freya and Elijah behind, or the memory of Elijah’s eyes horror filled eyes when he found him with the knife.
He should have known better than to underestimate Dahlia
Elijah tries to offer Finn a smile but Finn is too horrified to take it in, his stuck on how small Elijah looks shirtless against the tree with his wrist bound above him.
Back bare for the whip Dahlia had placed in his hand.
It’s the tree he had Freya used to hide in when it got too much in the early days, he and Freya had taught Elijah to climb that tree.
“You're going to keep going until I say.” Dahlia instructs, a simple glance at Freya standing next to her, wide eyes tells him she’s been spelled silent.
Finn doesn’t beg, not often and normally only when he’s pushed to it but this time, he’s on his knees pleading as soon as he gets the full picture. Some part of him hopes she left him to speak because she’d accept begging.
“Please, Dahlia he had nothing to do with it” she stares, “take it from me”
“You’ve already left scars on what mine, I think you should match.” she could force him with ease, it wouldn’t be the first time she had made any of their bodies into a puppet, but she wanted him to do it himself and he couldn’t, the thought made him sick.
“He didn’t do anything.” his voice breaks into a whine that he can’t stop.
“Then you'll think of this next time you try anything.”
“I won't, I swear, Aunt Dahlia. Please.” He never calls her aunt, but if there's anything that he could do to stop this he would
“Nephew,” she smiles, and some part of him thinks it’s real but he’s quickly reminded, real or not she’s cruel despite her affections “I had a number in mind but with all this delay I've forgotten it, we’ll add more to it.”
He bites back a sob and swallows around the lump in his throat as he forces himself off his knees and back Elijah, whip in hand, for a moment his body doesn't feel like his.
He flinches at the sound of the first lash and stops to stare at the faint mark. Of course it isn’t enough.
“Hit him harder.” Dahlia reminds him “or I'll make it longer.”
He apologises on every hit until he can’t anymore then he chokes on his sobs at every scream Elijah fails to bite back, and it keeps going.
“Again.” she calls out every time he falters.
Elijah's back is nothing but blood when she calls a stop, his throat aches and his body screams but as soon as she allows him to stop he’s throwing the whip away and moving to Elijah, Elijah who had stopped screaming what feels like hours ago, who's too still hanging from the tree.
His body freezes before he can reach him and Dahlia breezes past to free Elijah with a wave of her hand, to use their magic to wake him up to soothe his pain, but not heal him. She leads Elijah past the eyes glazed from the shock, free of pain currently but not the memory of it.
Elijah was going to be left with scars for the rest of their lives, same as Finn was with those on his forearms and wrist, to remember the cause every time he moved and felt the tightness of scarred skin, but Elijah’s were larger than his and Elijah’s was all Finn’s fault.
Elijah rarely lets himself do anything that would draw punishment but that never stops Dahlia when Finn and Freya can’t seem to stop.
Dahlia releases her hold on him when he hears her enter the hut with Elijah, he doesn’t try and follow just let his body's exhaustion pull him to the floor, Freya appears a moment later, pushing herself under one of his arms, he ignore the ache, it’s the least he deserves.
He knows she is telling him it’s not his fault, reminding him it’s Dahlia’s, but he can’t hear her, can’t tear his eyes from the puddle of blood at the base of the tree.
He can never look at the tree that was once their safety again without it.
—
It's several moons after the whipping that Elijah learns he can hate Dahlia more. His aches and pains are a memory but the tightness of his back whenever he stretches are a constant reminder, as are the feeling of the scars when he washes.
It's a normal night, Dahlia preparing ingredients they had gathered that day, leaving Finn to wash up her tools while Freya and he sat away to stitch up and repair any of their clothes.
Finn cuts himself with a knife while washing up and before either Freya and him understand what’s happened apologises are tumbling from his mouth as he offers his bleeding palm toward Dahlia.
Dahlia looks surprised for a moment before a wide smile takes its place as she moves towards him.
Her hand came to pull the bleeding hand to her, it was a deep cut down his palm and up his wrist.
“Accident, was it?” she asked as she pressed on the cut, watching as he nodded before dragging a nail through it to watch him wince.
“It’s alright, my sweet boy.” Dahlia coos, pulling the frozen Finn’s head down to press her lips to his forehead, before she releases him to walk away, back to the ingredients.
Finn sags as she leaves him and Freya nearly dives across the room to check on him, to heal the wound closed to not even leave to scar.
Neither of them notice Dahlia but Elijah watches, catches the smug smirk and the silent laughter, as she returns to her work.
Sees the victory in her eyes as Elijah’s big brother shrinks into Freya, in her wake, shaking. As he remembers his back burning from every whip.
One day he promises, one day I will end you.
When she looks at him to meet his eyes he smiles sweetly at her.
One day.