Chapter 40 #2
The stone walls were a pale grey, images carved into them between doorways, though I had no time to pause and study any of them.
The floor was dressed with a dark brown runner and green vines adorned with fruit and flowers climbed over doorways to decorate the ceiling and patches of bare wall.
The Stonebreakers certainly knew how to flaunt their magic.
We followed the parchment past groups of Fae who were running towards the stairs but they paid us little attention and we made an effort to get out of their way.
The corridor turned, growing narrower as we passed into what appeared to be more living quarters until finally, the parchment tumbled over itself and struck a door before sticking there.
Adrenaline rushed through me in a wave, my fingers moving to the vial of blood at my throat as I took a moment to close my eyes and send a prayer out to my lost sisters.
“Sorry I’m late, but this took a bit of doing,” I breathed.
I could have sworn I felt their hands pressing down on my shoulders as I stalked for the door, uttering a single command to Everest and Bastian as I finally made this move to claim my fate. I cast a silencing shield over myself and expelled a heavy breath.
“Stay here. I need to do this alone.”
Neither of them complained, the two taking up position either side of the door while I reached for the handle…and turned it.
I held my breath as I eased the heavy wood open, my pulse pounding so hard it echoed through my limbs.
The room I found myself in was a grand living chamber, two doors leading off of it to other rooms, this one lavishly furnished with comfortable chairs around a fireplace and a table which could seat six for meals.
It was unoccupied, so I beckoned the others inside but warned them not to follow me as I moved closer to my prey.
The spelled parchment slipped across the room and fluttered through the door to the right of the space which stood ajar in welcome to me. Beyond it, a man groaned in pain.
I crept across the room as silent as a shadow, a dagger finding its way into my grip as if it had only ever been destined to live there.
A foul scent struck me as I reached the door, a mixture of potent herbs and barely concealed rot beneath.
I slipped through the door and finally found myself looking at the man I’d been hunting all this time. His back was to me and he was shirtless, revealing the reams of oozing sores and wounds which my curse had placed upon his body.
He appeared to be smoothing the crushed herbs over more of the wounds on his chest, his head lowered, his frame tense. My fingers trembled as anticipation and relief knotted inside me and I curled them into a fist as I forced myself to calm.
I could end it now.
My knife could have been lodged in his heart before he even knew I had come for him.
But where was the fun in that?
“Hello, lover,” I purred. “Remember me?”
Cayde whirled around and though I knew that wasn’t truly his name, I could call him by no other. The lie suited him too well. The falseness of it matching to every other piece of his duplicitous soul.
“You,” he gasped. “How? Guards!”
That last word was a yell, but of course I’d already wrapped him in my silencing shield. Our play date had barely begun and I wasn’t going to let it end so quickly.
“Tut-tut, betrayer of mine. Did you think I’d allow this rendezvous to include anyone but us? We have unfinished business you and I. And I won’t let anyone rush us.”
Cayde blanched, backing up, his hand grasping wildly for the sword which stood in a rack at the rear of the room but I’d already placed a wall of air magic between him and it.
I cocked my head at him as he shook his head, still backing away.
“How did you get in here?”
“Haven’t you heard? I’m a witch. Only a fucking fool with a death wish would ever cross me.”
I threw my dagger so fast he couldn’t dodge it in time, the blade striking him in the shin and sticking in bone, drawing a ragged scream from his lips.
“Crossborn bitch,” he cursed, casting a wooden spear and throwing it straight for me, but his throw was sloppy as rage and pain clouded his actions.
I knocked it aside with the sweep of my hand and a gust of tempestuous wind. It hit the wall with a clatter and I laughed.
“It’s Aquila now, actually. I’m second in line for the crown – isn’t that a wild turn of events?”
I threw another dagger, but he managed to place a shield of air between us in time to deflect it.
“Pity your husband can’t fuck you,” he spat, his eyes bugging out. Had I ever truly found his foul face alluring?
“He can’t?” I asked in confusion. “What do you think you know of my life?”
“I know you ruined us both with your fucking succubus magic. Does your cunt close up when he attempts the act, the way my cock refuses to harden anymore?” he snarled.
“Us?” I released a mocking laugh. “I’m not ruined.
But if you are…you really must have fallen for me – and there I was thinking nothing could give me joy in this situation barring your extended agony and eventual demise.
But I have never ruined any other Fae I’ve taken to my bed because they didn’t feel anything for me aside from lust. You do know that’s how it works, don’t you? ”
I taunted him with those words even though I’d never put much stock in them before. But I’d read about my Order form and knew it was rumoured to be the truth. ‘Fall in love with a succubus and you will forever be ruined for all others.’
“That’s all I ever felt for you too. It’s all you’re good for,” he hissed, trying to rip the dagger from his shin but giving up in a cry of agony.
“Liar,” I hissed, my fingers flicking and air magic slamming into his shield with so much force that I shattered it before hurling him back into the wall. His head cracked against stone and he stumbled as he fell to his feet, his fingers touching the back of his skull and coming away bloody.
I reached for his desires and there it was, buried beneath the hatred and desperate need to kill me – yearning. It was too fucking pathetic. And too fucking poetic as well.
I barked a wicked laugh.
“All this time I’ve been hunting you with nothing more than the desire to make you pay for taking the lives of those I loved.
And here you’ve been, screaming in agony at the mere attempt to spill your secrets, your body a ruined echo of the foulness within you.
Taking a wife who you couldn’t even fuck, and no doubt has had to endure your pathetic attempts to do so, while deep down inside you pined for me too.
Well here I am, lover. Your wish has come true. So why don’t you come get me?”
Cayde bellowed furiously, taking the bait and running for me. I let him come, placing no magic between us and simply focusing on dodging his attack at the last moment. I swung around behind him, my fist striking the back of his head hard enough to send him sprawling to the ground.
He threw a shield of air up between us once more but it didn’t matter. I had what I needed.
His blood stained my knuckles and with it, I let myself fall into the depths of the ether.
“Gotcha,” I said with a dark and menacing grin.
He lurched for me then stopped as my power bore into him, his screams coming like sweet music as I made his blood burn and boil.
His magic shattered as his ability to focus on it fell to nothing and I took another dagger from my belt, weighing it in my grasp while approaching him slowly.
“Now,” I said, the blood magic I was using to contain him making my throat raw and my words rougher than usual.
“Let me show you a few tricks I picked up in the Cavern of Lost Souls. You’ll be surprised how much a Fae can suffer before death.
But I plan on letting you find out exactly how agonising it can be. ”