Chapter 4
KORMAC
“Berserker!”
Clementine’s scream snatched me out of my light meditation.
Yes! I couldn’t help but yell back into her mind. You missed that thought!
Helplessly, I watched Valance break through the chains as if they were nothing.
Which they weren’t in the face of his fury.
They fell away as screams filled the room.
Some brave goblins tried to grab him, to stop him.
But he grabbed them, driving his fingers into the eyes of the female, snapping the neck of a male trying to help her.
He spun into a vortex of murder. The prince’s fighting was always quick and liquid grace, different to mine but no less vicious.
This, though, was something else. Almost a blur, his face contorted into ugly rage.
A snarling creature with bared teeth and eyes glinting with malice.
No goblin could get their hands on him. He killed them or knocked them aside.
“No!” Clementine cried, grabbing a chopping knife from where the vegetables had been chopped.
Valance tilted his head back and roared to the ceiling. A deep, guttural sound I’d never pin on the likes of him. He killed another goblin, shoving his hand in her mouth, pulling out her tongue. She fell down screaming, blood gushing from her wound. He tore her throat open with his bare hands.
By. The. Gods.
I was really in for some pain now.
Another goblin tried to stab him with one of those poisoned arrows.
Valance broke both of his arms and smashed his face into a wall, tossing him to the ground. Dead.
Clementine threw the knife at him. It missed him, but he heard it clatter. He roared at it, then at her. She shrieked, tried to run. He charged, grabbed her by the hair.
“Unhand me! Unhand—”
He threw her into the bubbling cauldron.
Her screams of agony blazed in my eardrums, twisting my stomach. She clawed at the rim of the boiling pot, skin already red with burns. Trying to get out. She even had the audacity to beg for mercy.
No such luck, I thought at her.
“Help me!”
You made this bed, Clementine.
Soon she stopped screaming, her hand slipping off the rim. The water bubbled and spat as she cooked in a massive sweep of poetic justice.
She could’ve let us go.
Valance watched me now. Silent. Panting. Shoulders hunched, his fingers basically gnarled claws at his sides.
No. No. No.
He came at me, leaping up. He landed, and the platform crashed down to be horizontal again. With his hands planted on either side of my head, he loomed over me on all fours. So close, his lips dripping with saliva.
So close…
His head tilted back and forth, his nostrils flaring. Saliva hit my lips, dribbled down my chin. His nostrils flared. He snarled.
Gods!
I couldn’t speak, no freedom from the poison for me.
This is how I’d die, my face torn off by this prince my ‘side’ had cursed.
Poetic justice again for him—at least a form of it.
His enemy, his source of hatred finally dead.
The soul bond wouldn’t protect me from this, would it?
Berserker rage was on a different level to any other anger.
There was a reason those infected with it were sent to those secluded, southern isles.
Probably where the prince should be, amongst his fellow cursed fae.
No…
This curse, put on him by Ren’s shadow magic, was supposed to cause chaos. It’d done that, but not with the best results. Now he drooled on me, preparing to rip my guts out and maybe throw them into the cauldron along with that fucking goblin.
His face lowered, moved around me. His lips above my eyes. Drool hit me again, just missing my right eye. Lower and lower, his teeth bared.
He pulled back, his deadly gaze on me. He stared. He drooled. He waited…
…was he waiting?
Valance shifted himself into a straddling position, his ass grinding into my groin. Reminding me I could still feel things. Especially down there.
Fuck.
He sat there, seemingly oblivious to his position.
Watching me. Head constantly tilting from side to side like a curious beast. Which wasn’t a bad thing.
The longer he sat there, pressing against my annoying, stirring cock, the better for me.
It beat being torn apart. And, eventually, he’d crash from all the slaughter.
Was the soul bond holding him off?
Did this poison ever wear off?
I just wanted to move again.
Even in this state, the prince didn’t lose his beauty. Being covered in goblin blood failed to make him ugly. Nothing could. But that didn’t mean anything. Deadly nightshade was pretty. Didn’t mean I’d lick it.
Lick the prince?
I’d like to.
More firmness between my legs, thinking of him under me. Me inside—
No. I wasn’t going down that path. Again.
But to fuck him… Gods. So many wanted to get between his legs, experience his seductive reputation.
Even if they hated him. There’d been men and women in my village who’d brought him up in the Riverleaf Tavern after too much ale.
Talking about what they’d do to him. All sorts of things.
Gods! After one man’s detailed scenario, neither he nor the prince would be able to walk again after so much rough fucking.
All that talk came from hate mixed with curiosity. I knew the feeling. Now I lived in it.
I don’t hate him…
Valance drew in a sharp breath. His eyes rolled back, and he dropped forward, landing on top of me. His head landed in the crook of my neck, his hair spilling across my face and neck. Leaving me even more helpless.
Just great.
It felt like hours with the prince sleeping on me, my body slowly working again. It started with the wiggle of a finger—something I kept trying over and over again. Then a thumb. Then a toe until I could move my feet. Eventually, every limb tingled, then my strength returned.
I was tired, my stomach hollow, but happy to be active again. And no goblins had come to spoil it.
Valance on top of me. Him. Half-naked…
No!
Gently, I slid out from under the prince. I scooped him into my arms. He weighed nothing, a delicate fae. His limbs were limp, but his breathing calm.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered. “We’re getting out of here.”
An accident… To be free…
Pain flared at my temples. Enough of this. Escaping took the top spot of the priorities.
Now, then. Where to go? There were several doors carved into the mud. Wooden and closed. I prayed to the gods they weren’t locked.
The gods smiled down on me. Every one of them opened.
Bedrooms and bathrooms and a kitchen. Empty of goblins, full of things. Stolen things from those they’d killed and eaten. Weapons and utensils and lots of clothing. I opened several wardrobes looking for our stuff, finding plenty of gowns and rags and robes. Human and fae alike.
Fucking goblins.
This place was a series of tunnels tall enough for humans like me. I suppose they were made that way to accommodate ‘food’ and that huge cauldron.
An icy tongue licked my spine at the thought.
At first, the tunnels were confusing. A network much like an ant’s nest, but not as complex.
Not by any stretch. When I paused to focus, to consider this place, I realized the design was built to overwhelm and confuse.
Every tunnel imitated the other. For a victim trying to run, it would be easy to think they were running around in circles. But that wasn’t the case.
However, I still hadn’t found the exit.
First things first…
In another bedroom, on my endless search, I lay Valance on a bed. Gods, this bed was big enough for three humans. Too much for a goblin.
“Stay there,” I told him softly.
He was still out cold.
A candle burned beside the bed, casting light across his lovely features. Made shadows of his lashes on his cheeks, highlighted every beautiful detail. He looked so vulnerable, almost innocent.
Ha! If anyone was far removed from innocence, it was this creature.
Fae.
Person.
Damn!
He’d cut out my tongue, even if I did have it back now—thanks to the old woman.
He’d tortured me. He’d had my friend Ren killed in the fighting pits he’d also thrown me into.
Prince Valance had hurt me, was part of the problems in Faerie.
And his brother killed my friend Leanna and so many others.
Prince Daire. That vicious hellpisser. What he’d done to Leanna…
I only prayed he burned in endless torment in the hottest part of the seven hells.
Gods, did Valance have so much blood on his hands.
But I’d gone to Summer to hurt him, hadn’t I? To cause him pain.
Yes! That was war for you. Tough. When you had to bring down evil, you had to spill some blood to get to the roots.
The soul bond stung me, reminded me to shut up and be kind.
I got on with my search, opening an oak armoire. Weapons were stored inside, including our swords. Not our clothes or boots. The mud beneath my bare feet was cold and uncomfortable. Soon I’d have to give up if I kept coming up empty. The longer we lingered here, the more vulnerable we became.
Valance’s curse wasn’t his to control. It came and went when it decided. There were no guarantees it’d save us again if we ended up back on those platforms with poison in our veins.
I looked in on him.
Still sleeping.
“One last room,” I told the prince. “Then we’ll get out of here.”
I left him, hurrying to the last of the thirteen bedrooms in this tunnel. Inside this room, clothing hung on lines fixed to the ceiling. Our armor, smelling of flowers and sugar. Clean and damp.
I couldn’t remember the last time they’d been washed.
Our boots sat by another oak armoire, along with a leather bag. Inside the bag were Valance’s small blades. No filigree blade to use on me this time.
I would never forget what he did to me…
Enough!
My wooden compass was in there, too. Thank the gods. It pointed the way to the other part of the old woman, our guiding tool for crossing the White Wastes. But there was no sign of our other supplies—the blankets, the food.
I grabbed everything, hurrying back with my arms loaded and my nose full of sweetness.
“Hello?”