Chapter 10
Monsters.
There was no other word for them. They were not biologically from this earth, nothing but atrocities to nature. Their magic even felt off, stronger than it should’ve been, their genetic makeup making me nauseous, the sensation grating up the back of my throat to my tongue.
One had crocodile skin, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a thick tail that slid over the ground as he strolled between the beds. Another man on guard had snake skin, fanged teeth, dark beady eyes, and a rattle-like tail, but with a human body. My gaze finally took in a monster rutting into one of the women at the far end, his grunts huffing off the walls. He had a thick, stocky build with a rhino nose and tusks. While the fourth one watched his friend fuck, he rubbed at the tusks at his mouth like it was his cock. With his snout, ears, and coarse black hair running down his spine, he resembled a wild boar.
Bits and pieces of creatures, the things looked like a horror movie, the real monstrosities living in the walls of a castle whose legend was based on fiends and predators.
“What the fuck?” I repeated again. Bile seared my esophagus, my mind still not wanting to accept what my eyes were seeing. I expected more humans in tanks, more Istvan-style experiments. Not this.
Dzsinn stood still, his eyes on them, but he didn’t seem as shocked as I was, as confused as to what the hell they were. He peered at them with a sense of knowing.
“Dzsi—”
My words fell off as an enormous figure stepped through a doorway below, his frame barely making it through the wide archway. Shadows glinted off the rocky walls, the firelight flickering over him.
I took in the beast, the oxygen ripping from my lungs. The man’s heart-shaped face was scaly, with piercing green eyes. He wore patchwork pants cut to fit him, but nothing else. His arms, shoulders, and legs were like a man’s, but were overly muscular. He had no neck and a short torso, making him appear deformed. But that was nothing compared to the thick shell overlaid down his back to a thick, barbed scorpion tail.
“Z.” The snake-man dipped his head like this scorpion-man was their leader.
“Show me the new breeder.” His strange, scratchy voice reached my ears.
“She’s strong. Her magic is nothing I’ve felt before. I want to request to mate with her.”
Dread plunged into my toes, breaking through the floor.
I already knew who they were talking about.
My gaze snapped to Raven. She was unconscious, and both her wrists were cuffed to the bed with goblin metal, her body limp like they had drugged her as well.
“ I mate with all the strongest females,” the man, Z, snarled.
“Of course I meant after you.” He motioned for him to follow him. The two creatures traveled through the rows of beds, all the women sleeping or staring blankly at the wall, as if they had disappeared so far into themselves that they were no longer there.
They headed straight for Raven, stopping at her cot.
Z’s gaze went over her, his lip curling with lust. “Yes, this one is special. She is exclusively mine to breed with.”
My body reacted, everything in me screaming mine . The thought of them touching her whipped fury in me like a tempest. Her name stuck in the back of my throat, sweat dripping down my back as I lurched forward.
“No,” Dzsinn hissed, ramming his arm into my chest and shoving me back into the wall.
“Get the fuck off me.” I pushed him off, my need to get to her taking over every thought.
“Ash.” He shoved me back again, stepping in front of me, his tone severe. The noise in the cavern disguised our voices, but he shot a look over his shoulder, making sure we had not been discovered. “You can’t go down there. Not yet.”
“Fuck off.” My nostrils flared. I was ready to toss him over the railing, desperate to get to her.
“You can’t .” He kept me in place. “You will be killed in seconds. And then she really has no hope.” His grave expression momentarily paused me. “I know what they are. Where they came from.”
My brows rumpled. “What do you mean where they came from?”
He swallowed, his gaze going down to the monsters leaning over Raven.
“I’m assuming you’ve heard of Dr. Rapava?”
A knot formed in my throat, my head bobbing. He was the scientist Istvan tried to replicate, taking his formula for changing humans into fae. Istvan had advanced it, but Rapava was the man who started it all.
“These are Rapava’s first ‘successes’ at creating a stronger species.” He nodded down to them. “Put parts together from animals, fae, and humans. He wanted to build a resilient, more lethal species. They were thought to be all dead by now, or maybe hoped, since they haven’t popped up anywhere in a long time. But they should have known these things are almost impossible to kill. As far as I know, you have to cut off their heads to even have a hope.”
“How do you know all this?”
Dzsinn swallowed. “Someone I know has been hunting them for over fifteen years. Had me on the lookout if any talk or sightings came up. He was there when they were created. They’re not merely the strongest of fae. They also come from a seer.”
“Szar.” I gritted my teeth. Seers were mainly humans who could see through fae glamour and couldn’t be controlled or tricked. Back when the fae were in hiding, they were the only ones who could perceive the creature under the magic and identify the fae hiding amongst humans. Many times the government hired them to become hunters of fae.
Z ran a scabby hand over Raven’s face, sliding it down to her hips, as if he was seeing if they were good for birthing. His hand went to his pants, loosening the waist tie. My body jerked in response, wanting to tear every limb from his body and strangle him with his own intestines.
“Stop.” Dzsinn pushed his weight into me. “That thing will rip you apart in seconds.”
“I’m not going to stand here and let him touch her or…” I couldn’t go on with the thought, knowing the way his greedy eyes moved over her, what he would do with her. What they were doing with all the women. It was very clear why these women were drugged and chained to the beds. It made them easy to assault. Most of these women were not even conscious when they did it.
The rhino-man had moved onto another half-conscious woman, rutting into her with grotesque animal grunts, spilling his seed with a heavy grunt.
“They are using these women to create more of them.”
“That’s what it looks like,” Dzsinn muttered.
At least half of the young women were human. Probably daughters and wives from the villages around. Their husbands, brothers, and fathers were in the tanks we saw at the beginning.
The human women might be able to conceive and carry, but most likely would bleed out and die after giving birth. The rest seemed to be fae and half-fae women, the ones strong enough to carry their abominations for more than one pregnancy.
Being a Druid made Raven a prized possession. Physically, mentally, and magically capable of bearing many fae children. In our dark past, many fae took advantage of Druid women, using them to carry on their line.
The idea of this brute thrusting himself into Raven made my vision blur. No one was going to fucking touch her, not if I still had air in my lungs.
“Z?” Another monster walked in, part man and part what appeared to be a rhino-beetle. He had a round face with dark eyes and hair, normal legs and arms, but had a black shell that protected his chest and back and had a horn for a nose like a beetle. “Queen Sonya wants us to sweep the forest.”
A hiss rattled Z’s chest, his neck swinging to the beetle. “That bitch is not a queen.” He stomped over to the man, retying his pants, stepping up into the beetle’s face. “I am your leader. Did you forget that?”
“No, Commander.” Beetle dipped his head slightly.
“You take orders from me ,” he threatened. The beetle tipped his head more in response. Z watched him for a while, then spat out, “Fine. We’ll go sweep the forest and get something to eat at the same time so I’ll have extra energy for this one.” Z nodded to Raven, stepping back from the beetle. “T?” He called over to the rhino, who was in the last throes of reaching his orgasm, huffing loudly, the bed squeaking under his quick, short rhythm. “You hit your limit for the day.”
T bayed out his release, then quickly climbed off the girl.
“You stay,” Z ordered the one with crocodile skin, then nodded to the rest of his men, all of them following him out. The rhino, T, yanked up his trousers, running after them, leaving just one to guard over the drugged women.
My attention went from Crocodile to Raven, assessing the layout and situation. Whatever expression was on my face screamed my intentions.
“Ash, no.” Dzsinn shook his head.
“I don’t give a fuck what you do.” I yanked a blade from my belt. “I am going down there and get her.”
“That one is like a dozen well-trained fae fighters. And it only takes one shout from him to warn the rest we are here.”
“Then we make sure his mouth never has a chance to open.” Flipping the full-tang knife in my hand, I slipped past him. Staying low behind the stone wall, I kept my gaze on the crocodile, inching toward the steps down.
The reptile peered over his shoulder at the door, like he was making sure Z was really gone before moving through the cots. Acid bubbled up in my throat. The power Raven exuded was a magnet; they couldn’t stop themselves.
Reaching Raven’s bed, he reached out and touched her, a vibrating noise coming up his throat. The sound of a mating call.
Fuck. No.
A growl shot from my mind down into my bones.
Mine.
“Ash…” Dzsinn tried to call my name, but I was already gone. I snuck down the steps, my serrated knife in hand. The gun would call too much attention, and it would take a lot of bullets to penetrate his thick scales.
My boots soundlessly hit the rocky floor, wrath burning through my muscles at seeing him unzip his pants and crawl onto her bed. With no one here, he thought he could get away with rutting her first, sinking his seed in before Z could. Unaware that the real monster in this room was me.
“I’m gonna make you bleed, little girl.” He climbed over her, his white, translucent penis pushing out through his scaly skin, already erect.
Burning rage exploded in front of my eyes, the color of blood painting everything I saw, a deep primal voice rumbling out of me like I was possessed.
“No, I’m gonna make you bleed, you piece of shit.” I slipped behind him, grabbing his head, my blade slashing across his throat. For anyone else, the blade would have cut so deep into the bone that their head would’ve been hanging on by only tendons, but his thick scales prevented it from penetrating deep enough.
Croc thrashed into me, stumbling me backward, barely staying on my feet when he lurched for me, his teeth gnashing. Pain blasted through my shoulder as he knocked me fully over. His heavy form landed on mine, my bones cracking under his weight.
His mouth opened, snapping for me again, blood trailing from the wound I inflicted. Rolling to the side, I tipped him off me, his hand reaching for his gun as I sprang to my feet, kicking the weapon from his grip.
“You are dead,” he hissed, springing for me, moving quicker than I expected, his mouth snapping down on my thigh.
A scream caught in my throat. My legs folded under me, and I dropped to the ground. A cruel smirk twisted his bloody lips as he scrambled forward, reaching the gun I kicked away and pointing it at me. “Such a soft, pathetic species.”
His finger tugged on the trigger when a snapping, squelching sound jolted him in place, a blade pushing through his throat. Croc froze as the blade twisted, digging a deeper hole through his esophagus. The popping of his spine resounded in my ears.
A gurgled cry escaped his throat as I forced myself to stand, getting in his face.
“Who’s pathetic and soft now?” Using all my force, I stabbed my blade into the softer part of his belly, flaying him open.
His body dropped, revealing Dzsinn behind him, his face dotted with blood. “You ever make a stupid move like that again. I’ll snap your vertebra.”
I snarled, stepping over the monster still gasping and bleeding on the floor but trying to rise back up, and I rushed to Raven.
Left only in a thin tank top and underwear, she looked so small and vulnerable. Up close, I could see how beaten and drained she was. Her eyes and cheek were bruised, her lip split, her skin ashen, with marks down her legs and arms. A frenzy of rage thickened my throat. They took something so strong, brutal, and deadly and bled it out of her until she was a shell. A victim.
“Raven?” I cupped her head, my thumbs sliding over her cheeks. Her skin was sticky and swollen, increasing my fury. I wanted to murder every single person who caused these marks. Yet a sense of serenity came over me the moment I touched her, a rightness I hadn’t ever experienced before. “Hey, wake up.” I tried to jostle her, but she didn’t stir. “Dziubu?.” I whispered her pet name, and I swear her lashes fluttered, but she stayed asleep. The goblin metal was draining her dark dweller, and the drugs kept the obscurer weak. Until they were off, she couldn’t fight.
“Hurry up,” Dzsinn commanded, yanking the long blade from the back of Croc’s neck. The man still gagged and sputtered, getting to his feet, showing how hard they were to kill. Dzsinn drove the blade through him again, the bone and cartilage snapping like cracking ice, slicing through it until his head rolled away from his body. “That should do it.” He used the man’s clothes to wipe off his blade. “We have to go.”
“Opie.” I tapped on the pack on my back. “Now.”
He must have sensed the urgency, the thin thread my emotions were riding on. He quickly slipped out of the pack, Bitzy on his back, crawling down onto the bed to the cuffs on her wrists.
“Oh yes, I recognize her juicy smell. Very notable.” He sniffed at her. “Strong, rich, sweet notes with a smoky edge.”
Or maybe he didn’t.
“Opie…” I snarled.
“What? She smells good. Though, the smell of monkey cum is sure strong around here, isn’t it?”
“Uncuff her now.” I spoke slowly, barely keeping it together.
“Or is that hippo cum?”
“Rhino,” I seethed between my lips.
“So close.” He snapped his fingers.
Chirp!
“It’s called research,” he exclaimed.
Voices came from the passage above, the sounds of people moving toward us. Dzsinn bolted to the shadows near the exit Z and his men left from, his gaze meeting mine as both of us realized the way we got in was no longer an option for our own exit.
“ Bazdmeg ,” I cursed. “Hurry!”
Opie worked her cuffs. Every second tapped against my shoulder blades, my feet shifting as the voices grew louder and clearer. They would see us soon, but even if we hid, they would see the dead crocodile here.
“Alllmooost…” Opie bit down on his tongue.
Grabbing the body of the crocodile, I heaved him up on the cot next to Raven, his blood oozing out of his thick neck, the bed squeaking under his weight.
“Got one!” Opie darted to the other cuff, my heart slamming in my chest as I dropped his head next to her and covered him with the sheet, hoping they’d think it was a girl and give us a little time.
The click of boots on the metal platform above blasted through my head.
“Opie.”
Clank . The manacles hit the ground.
“This way.” Dzsinn motioned to the tunnel Z’s men took.
I lifted Raven and cradled her to my chest as Opie leaped onto my shoulder. Turning, I sprinted toward Dzsinn, hearing men’s voices reach the bridge area overhead. I didn’t dare look over at Celeste or the other two, feeling the stabbing guilt of leaving them here, knowing I couldn’t get them out. Not now.
Sparing no time to glance back, we took off down the passage, not knowing what was ahead of us. All I knew was I had her in my fucking arms again, and if I was going to die, I would go out protecting her.
?
We tried to trek quietly over the gravelly ground, the tunnel a steady climb, with only a few firebulbs guiding our way. Raven stirred in my arms, her lashes fluttering, trying to claw out of the cage they forced her mind and magic into. Her powers were there but had been significantly depleted from the goblin poison.
I hitched her higher in my arms, my nose nuzzling into her hair, needing to touch her, appreciate she was alive.
“See?” Opie hung on to my tied-back hair. “Like dark chocolate with smoky caramelized bacon.”
“Bacon?” A snort tickled the back of my throat.
“Or maybe it’s crocodile sperm.”
My molars slammed together, grinding at the understanding that if I wasn’t here, he would have raped her. Been inside her. Touched something against her will, hurt her… and experienced something I hadn’t.
A rumble drummed in my chest, my dick twitching with the overwhelming need to claim and protect her at the same time.
Mine .
The overpowering possessiveness clubbed me over the head, robbing me of air and making me stumble. I didn’t get possessive. It wasn’t in my nature. Yet the thought of anyone near her boiled me alive.
A distant shout dropped me back into the moment, shoving out everything else, pushing those thoughts deep inside.
Dzsinn stayed in front of me, his weapon ready, while I held Raven, keeping tight to the narrowing wall. Noises and murmurs of people trickled to us, a chilly breeze sweeping across my face, telling me the exit was getting close.
The clopping of soles hitting stone slowed us to a crawl, my head ducking against the low ceiling, the passage ending inside a small room. Maybe once used for storage or a guard station, the space was empty, the white stone walls aged with time and history. We stood just inside the wooden doorway, peering out to the lowest part of the multi-leveled small courtyard. The taste of strange magic coated my tongue and sparked memories. I already knew what I would find.
Over fifty figures, mainly men, were packed shoulder to shoulder, marching stiffly out of the castle gate, their movements reminiscent of what I’d seen before in Věrh?za. Most would soon turn feral, and almost all would end up dead. Sonya, like Istvan, had echelons of worth. These people were nothing but bodies to throw away in battle. Poor villagers she turned into the first line of defense. Some others would get the transformation, like Caden and Warwick, and some would become the monsters below.
Trepidation weaved in the back of my throat, rotting my gut. There was only one reason she’d be doing this.
“March out!” a deep, snarly voice called out into the frosty night, the man hidden from my view. My pulse accelerated, thumping in my neck, warning me of something. It sounded familiar, but my brain couldn’t place it, causing more prickles of alarm to stand my hair on end.
“They are brain dead. Basically sleepwalkers.” Dzsinn stared, watching them clomp in unison.
I studied the once-human men, probably innocent villagers, men looking for work, a way to survive. Now they were only weeks away from a brutal death.
Did they have a choice? Get sold a bill of lies? Think they were providing for their families, not realizing they had signed their lives away to the devil? By their dead eyes, they no longer cared about those families they had loved so much.
They were Sonya’s minions.
“Think we found why your spies no longer report back to you,” I whispered, feeling Raven stir more in my arms.
“No.” He shook his head, his voice tight. “Nothing should be able to break it. Unless…” His attention went back out the door. Searching.
A shout suddenly tore up from the tunnel, a cry of alarm.
“Think they found Mr. Crocodile Man,” Opie said.
“Fuck.” Panic surged through my veins when the echo of boots came up the path. It would be just a matter of seconds before we were found. We had nowhere to go, and both our exits were blocked.
Dzsinn hissed, reaching over for my wrist under Raven’s body. “Stay close to me.”
His palm wrapped around my skin, then came the tingle of magic, and our forms slipped out the door as the three guards came into view.
I waited for them to call out, to take note of our fleeting figures, but nothing came. We hugged the wall, the dark night and flickering fire torches keeping us against the stone like shadows, while only feet away, the last of the guards marched out, their robotic movements feeling unnatural. Not one looked over. Not one took note of our presence.
Dzsinn could practically vanish and appear before your eyes, like a genie in a cloud of smoke. His magic gave him the ability to be forgotten and unnoticed. In extending that to me, he labored under the weight. He breathed heavily, and a sheen of sweet veneered his skin as he fought to not only keep me undetected but Raven as well.
“Intruders in the castle!” a man barked, coming out of the tunnel way and running into the emptying courtyard. “One of the Primul is dead!” The First .
I heard a thundering growl, like a savage dog barking, the sound hitting somewhere deep, a terror that froze me in place.
“Go,” the deep voice ordered from a walkway above us. “Find them now!”
A handful of figures descended from stairs around the yard, the night keeping them hidden, but one of them moved like a cheetah, his lean, muscular body darting down the passage before I could even see him. Others with animal qualities followed, leaving the quad silent in their wake.
We stayed still, my pulse ticking the time, my legs itchy to move. After several moments, Dzsinn let go, his head leaning out to peer up at the balcony overhead.
“He’s gone,” he muttered to me.
I surveyed the yard, recalling the map we had studied. “There is an exit through that way.” I nodded with my head, readjusting Raven in my arms. “We can escape through the forest. Opie, get in the bag.” Not waiting for either of them to respond, I crept for the door leading to the front, holding a gun under Raven’s legs, feeling the brownie crawl in the pack.
A groan broke from Raven’s lips, her forehead creasing, consciousness starting to pull her from sleep.
“Shhh, Dziubu? ,” I muttered into her hair, bringing her closer to my chest. “Please stay quiet.” Snow crunched under my feet as I made my way toward the exit, which took me through another chamber, a layer of defense. I ducked my head through the doorway, the thick, white stone walls ebbing the harsh chill from outside. What used to be a gift shop and museum for the thirteenth-century castle had been pilfered long ago. All the important artifacts and history were stripped for money, leaving the space empty except for creaky wooden floors, painted motifs, and bulky furniture no one could move.
I glanced over my shoulder at the genie, finding no one behind me.
“Dzsinn?”
Silence.
“Dzsinn?” I hissed again, hearing shouts come from both outside and inside the castle, my window of opportunity shrinking.
A whimper came from my arms, drawing me back to her. To why I was here. Getting her to safety was my only priority.
Click. Click.
A barrel pressed into the back of my brain.
“You thought it would be so easy, Ash.” A low snarl hit the back of my ear, the familiarity of my name confirming my fear. “I’ve been waiting for this.”
The barking noise wasn’t from a dog. It was from a gorilla.
Numbness slid over my shoulders.
“Joska.” I breathed out, twisting my head to see the former HDF soldier who tortured us as a guard in Věrh?za and then tried to kill us in the pit. Joska was a violent extremist before Istvan experimented on him; afterward, he became a deadly monster.
“You remembered.” He had a high, domed forehead and wide nostrils. His body was bulked up, his chest heavy like a gorilla. He was no longer human, but not exactly fae either. He seemed to belong better with the things down in the cave.
“I was told you fled like a coward after the battle in Budapest.” Hatred seeped out of me. “I should’ve figured you’d join another tyrant to hide behind.”
A disturbing smile tugged on his face, like I was missing something.
“Joska?” Another man ran into the room, followed by the handful I saw in the quad.
The thin, cheetah-like man stopped, glaring at me, his canine teeth protruding from his lips.
“Samu.” Abhorrence oozed from my mouth, staring at the other former HDF soldier. “Not surprised you are still trailing after Joska like a lost puppy… or should I say pussy.”
His jaw snapped, his nose wrinkling like he was ready to swat at me with his paw.
My shock at seeing them had melted quickly to animosity, and I was more surprised at myself for not seeing this coming.
“I’d love to catch up, especially to find out how Brexley is doing…” Joska sneered. His hatred of her was deep. To him, no matter how hypocritical it was, she was the ultimate fae traitor. She also killed one of his classmates in self-defense.
He wanted her dead. That girl had an ever-growing list.
“I’m gonna enjoy even more what’s in store for you.” Joska jabbed the gun into my head harder, turning me back where I came from.
Three other men and a woman I didn’t recognize stood behind them, all with animal characteristics. Like others who survived Istvan’s first experiments, they found their way to each other. A calling only they could hear.
“Balazs, take her.” Joska nodded at Raven, ordering a man who had hyena-like qualities—black and brown spotted hair, pointed ears, and a pronounced jaw and nose, his energy hyper and nervous. The man, Balazs, stepped forward, reaching for my girl.
“Noooo.” The guttural word vibrated the room. I twisted away from him, keeping her close. The trees out in the forest snapped with my wrath.
Thunk!
Joska’s thick hand and gun hit my skull, the force knocking me to the floor, Raven tumbling out of my arms.
“No!” I cried out, my arm stretching for her.
A boot stomped down on my hand, crunching the bones with sharp pain. Joska grunted down at me, the gun pointed at my face.
“The only reason I haven’t torn your limbs from your body and crushed your brain between my fingers is that she wants to see you first.”
Grabbing my backpack, he heaved me up to my feet, my head swimming as he stripped me of the bag and all my weapons. My stomach twinged when he peered into the bag, but I knew Opie and Bitzy would be gone. Sub-fae were the best at disappearing.
Though blurry vision, my eyes stayed locked on Raven. The hyena-man picked up her limp frame, a snarl blowing through my nose as his hands slid up her barely dressed body.
“Move.” Joska shoved me forward while Samu kept his gun pointed at my head as they escorted me back outside. The clips of our boots pounded in tempo with my heart as they walked me into the small, cramped courtyard. Subtly, I peered for any sign of Dzsinn, though I knew better than to think he’d try to save me. Genies didn’t do anything out of the kindness of their hearts. It was all transactional.
Fire torches flickered in the gentle wind, lighting the yard and letting me get a better look at the long-standing castle.
Dark timber beams with white, thick stone walls, cobbled ground, and red slated roofs set the idyllic backdrop for a Gothic fairy-tale castle overlooking the snowy valleys below. A decorative well sat as the focal point on a higher tier. It might look picturesque, but it was built for invasion and war. Various levels and sections of the castle circled the multi-level courtyard, impossible to invade successfully because most of the levels didn’t connect. If you found you went up the wrong stairs or they weren’t in the right area, you had to go all the way back down and find another way. For those raiding, it made them confused and vulnerable.
“Ash.” A beautiful voice glided down to me from a parapet walk above, my head tipping up to the woman. “I expected you here sooner.” She wore an elegant, pale rose dress, sleek and fitted to her body, her hair set in an elaborate braid down one side.
A squawk pierced the air, and hawk wings swooped over my head, landing on the railing next to Sonya.
Nyx. That fucking bitch. One of her wings was slightly bent from where I broke it, but healed enough for her to fly again.
Sonya stepped up to the railing, petting the hawk. “I had to put on such a performance for you. Pretend I didn’t know you weren’t already within my walls.” She gave off a smugness at knowing I was here the whole time. Nyx had been watching me, waiting to lure me in. “Though I am curious how you surpassed my spells without setting them off?”
I didn’t respond. Sonya loved to look like she was the shrewdest, smartest person in the room.
The burning torches lit around the space, ignited her stunning face, her blonde hair shimmering in the soft glow. Bright eyes so similar to ones I had looked into so many times, had loved, now peered down at me with disgust in someone else’s face.
Like Iain, there were too many of Lukas’s features I saw in Sonya. The reminder of his absence stabbed the betrayal of what they did deeper into my heart.
“Took you long enough.” Her head tipped at Balazs. He moved forward, dumping Raven onto the snowy ground just out of my reach, her almost naked body fragile and weak as she tried to fight back against the poison in her system.
Deep rage strummed through my muscles, licking at my bones like fire as if I were set on a pyre, left to burn. I wanted to put my body over hers, protect her, get her far from here. And I was useless to do any of it.
“I was starting to think she doesn’t mean all that much to you. Just as my son clearly doesn’t to you anymore.” Her voice was calm and beautiful, but her words cut through me like an axe.
“Fuck you!” A growl snapped up my throat, my body moving without my consideration. Joska grabbed me, pulling me back, the muzzle of the gun denting into my temple.
Sonya’s head tipped back, her laugh twinkling down like stardust, but cruel and diabolical.
“To have a mother like you…” I spat, my anger shivering the tree near the well, waking it up from its winter slumber. “At least with me, he knew real love.”
“Real love?” She placed her hands on the rail, her head slanting in condescension. “Was it? I mean, how quickly you seem to care for another. Took you no time at all to move on.”
I felt myself glowering. “See, what you aren’t aware of is when you have a soul, you can care for more than one person at a time.”
“Yes, I know you seem to like more than one, don’t you?” Her words were intended to condemn me, to remind me of both Kek and Lukas.
“Don’t let this bitch get to you, pretty boy.” I swear I could hear Kek in my ear. “She wants to provoke you.”
I knew she did, yet it was hard to control my response, the emotions and injustice I carried for them.
“You have me.” I spoke evenly. “Let her go.”
A fake smile curled her lips. “Did you really think it would be so easy?”
“The fight is between you and me. She has nothing to do with it.”
“ You made her part of it. She’s in this now.” Sonya gestured to me. “Seems like anyone near you ends up hurt or dead.”
“Oh, it’s my fault your son murdered your other son? You don’t seem to care at all.”
For one moment, wrath contorted her face, her hands rolling up before her expression went cold again. “Lukas chose his side and the consequences that came with it.”
“Consequences?” I blurted. “It’s not like he was kicked out of the house for staying out all night! Iain murdered him in cold blood! Shot him through the head!” My voice volleyed through the courtyard, emotions taking over. “But I guess that’s what you do to your own flesh and blood.”
“ I didn’t shoot anyone.”
“Doesn’t make your hands any less bloodstained.” My body shook with adrenaline. With abhorrence.
“This world has one less demon in it. That’s a good thing.”
The darkness of my hate thundered through me, branches from the tree in the yard snapping off, dropping to the ground, the trunk creaking as it swayed under my power.
Her spine straightened, pointing from the guards to me. “Cuff him!”
They responded instantly to her order. Grabbing my arms, they yanked them behind me, locking my arms together. My knees bent as the goblin metal slid over my skin, a hiss driving through my teeth as I pushed through the nausea and pain.
It was like being back in prison, living in that nightmare, the underbelly of hell, day in and out. Dealing with constant weakness and agony. But just like many others, I built up a strong immunity to it. Not that it didn’t affect me, it did, but I could stand more than most.
The wave of sickness washed over me. I took several breaths to keep the bile down, getting my legs steady under me. The goblin metal stripped my powers, but it peeled away everything else too. Like all the excuses I had built up to keep Raven out. Denying what was in my face for a while now. Dying had been my plan all along, yet my chest ached at the notion. I no longer wanted to die in vengeance. I wanted to live. For her.
“I thought you were smarter than this.” Sonya shook her head. “Did you really believe I would release her just because you gave yourself up?”
“No,” I replied. “I figured you wouldn’t.”
Sonya’s eyes narrowed, confused at my response. “But you gave yourself up anyway?” She let out a laugh. “Some deluded notion you could save her?”
“You think I did this for her?” I lifted my brow, keeping my voice cold. “I came here for you.”
“You came a long way to be greatly disappointed and then die.”
“As long as I take you out as I go.”
“I could kill you right now.” She leaned on the rail, smirking at me. “Problem solved.”
“But you won’t.”
She stood up fully, curiosity and bewilderment blinking her lids. “And why is that?”
“Because I’m nothing but a nuisance to you, right? Not a true threat.”
She folded her arm, invested in my conclusion.
“However, I mean a lot to the leader of Hungary, don’t I?” I baited. “This is why you are doing all this? Building an army? To conquer and rule more land?” I gestured around with my chin. “I’m great leverage as a prisoner to provoke Killian,” I lied. Killian would do the right thing and chose his people, his country. Not me. He’d make a strategic, rational decision.
Couldn’t say the same about the rest of my friends though.
“You know what my family is capable of. The hell they’d rain down on you if you killed me.”
“Oh, don’t you see?” Her blonde brow lifted. “It is exactly what I am hoping for.” An arrogant smile curved her mouth.
“Killian is aligned with the Unified Nations. You attack him, you will have the UFN after you too. You think the little monsters you have here will stand against that?” I snorted.
If she only knew the woman lying on the ground would bring the world to a standstill if the UFN found out she was a prisoner.
“Tree fairies should stick to fucking and making healing remedies.” Sonya clicked her tongue with a heavy sigh. “It’s all your race seems capable of.” She wagged her head with condescension, arrogance wafting off her like perfume. “Istvan might have been a little hiccup in my plan, but that didn’t change anything in the scheme of things. Czech and Hungary may think they are succeeding, but they will fold just like the rest.” Her fingers pressed into the railing. “And I am far from alone. Especially not when the ultimate prize just fell into my lap.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her lips twisted in mocking grief. “The agony of losing a child can really bond people together. We both know what it’s like to lose a son. Especially when they’ve been murdered in cold blood.”
Acid rained down my throat.
“The loss of the Vozhd’s son, the sweet Alexsei Kozlov… His poor father is beside himself with grief.” Her eyes flipped to me. “Wants revenge for his son’s murder.”
Fuck.
“And Dimitri Kozlov agreed to unite forces in exchange for obtaining his son’s killer.” She smirked. “Who also happens to be my enemy’s greatest weakness. So no, dear Ash, I am not doing this to battle Killian for Hungary. Your country is insignificant to me. I’m going for bigger fish.” Her chuckle twinkled in the air at my simple thoughts. “And you are not the one who’d make great leverage as a prisoner…” She peered down at the girl on the ground. “She is.”