Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
Ryker
I didn’t acknowledge Val’s blood sliding down my face to drip off my chin or the fading screams of her son as Samael carried him toward the portal. “I can’t take this brat’s yelling anymore. I’m going to take him back,” Samael said to Veni, who gave a brief nod.
Samael vanished through the portal and returned a minute later. He wiped his hands together as if he were glad to be rid of the child.
While I didn’t react, Callan kept saying, “Holy shit,” repeatedly.
He didn’t stop until Tucker leaned over to nudge him. Many of the other captured amsirah wept while one made guttural choking sounds like they were trying not to vomit or sob.
The guard who decapitated Val sheathed his sword and strode over to stand behind the duke. He stared straight at the forest with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Cryton had vanished after they stole his blade from him.
He was either sulking in the forest or gathering an army; I hoped it was the second, but it was probably the first. Poltergeists weren’t known for their emotional maturity, and he was most likely acting like a toddler who’d had their toy ripped away.
“Are we taking them all with us?” Gaius inquired.
The duke rubbed his chin as he studied us before strolling around everyone. When he stopped behind me, it took everything I had not to twist to look at him.
I couldn’t stand the idea of this snake behind my back, but if I turned to look at him, he’d know he’d bothered me. Instead, I remained unmoving, even when he bent to touch my left ring finger. When he pulled it further down, I knew he was studying the metal wedding band I’d forged.
“So, the rumors are true,” he murmured. “You are a married man.”
I didn’t respond; there was no reason for one when the answer was obvious.
“I must have missed my invitation, son,” he continued.
“The poltergeist must have eaten it,” I replied. “Perhaps he could shit it out for you.”
Callan’s eyes widened on me while Tucker sighed. The duke chuckled as he pushed up and down on my finger.
“Is it true she possesses all five weathers?” the duke inquired.
I didn’t respond.
“Are you being stubborn again, son? You know how much I don’t like that.”
When his arm rose over my head, it cast a shadow across the ground. His fingers waved as he beckoned Gaius to him.
With that arrogant look plastered on his face, Gaius strode toward the duke. Once they were both behind me, everything inside me rebelled against having them there, but I kept my chin high and my gaze straight ahead.
Fuck them.
Neither said anything, but their shadows shifted before Gaius’s hand gripped mine and the cold bite of steel pressed against my finger. I didn’t react as everything inside me braced for what was to come.
And I knew exactly what that was, even before the blade sliced through my flesh, caught on my bone, and broke through with a crunch that made Callan recoil. I’d hear that awful sound for the rest of my days, but I still didn’t give them what they wanted.
Inwardly, a fiery pain erupted throughout my hand. It spread up my arm and into my chest, where it clenched at my heart before coursing out to the rest of my body.
Gripped by the agony created by my missing finger, I forgot to breathe. And then my lungs started burning and I inhaled a small breath through my gritted teeth.
I didn’t utter a single sound as the duke strolled around to stand before me again. With a look of distaste, he kicked Val’s head aside; it rolled over to stop before Tucker, who didn’t acknowledge it.
The duke stopped before me again. He smiled as he dropped my finger, with the ring still attached, on the ground.
“Holy shit,” Callan breathed. “Holy shit.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snarled at him. “It’s just a finger.”
I’d lost a lot worse over the years; this was nothing compared to my mother and my dignity. I missed my ring, but this asshole would never know that.
The minstrel’s mouth closed. Veni handed the bloodied dagger back to Gaius, who wiped my blood on his pants before returning it to its holster.
“Consider that your divorce,” the duke said to me.
When I grinned at him, alarm shimmered in the duke’s eyes. “You can consider it whatever you want, but I’m still married,” I told him.
“Until death do you part,” Veni gloated.
“No, it will endure long after that and anything else you do. She’s coming, you know. She will find me… and you.”
The duke couldn’t stop his eyes from flitting nervously toward the forest. “Then she’ll be too late.” He turned and strode to the portal. “Bring them all. One of them will tell me where she is.”