CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE #2
All the nerves I was feeling are replaced with excitement for later.
I turn toward the bitch who made my life at Phixmery like living in the void.
Who hurt and continues to try to hurt my mate.
Who tried to have me killed by going after my familiar.
All the anger I’ve suppressed from trying to keep it together finally boils over and a strange sense of calm overtakes me.
The hilt of my blade finds my hand as I pull the dagger out of its sheath. Jesper and Talyn enter the cell a moment later. The latter stands against the furthest wall while Jesper prowls around Evera and I like he’s sizing up his prey.
I grin at her and she smiles back at me, but I know she’s scared—the slight tremor in her hands gives her away.
“So, you can either tell us everything you know about Lord Craven and I’ll end you quickly, or we can do it ‘the fun way’ as Jesper would say.
” I lean in and whisper. “I really hope you choose the fun way, because I would love to pay you back for hurting my mate and my familiar.”
“You don’t have it in you to—”
I stab my blade into the base of her pinky finger and sever it completely. “I don’t have it in me to what?” I ask sweetly.
She stares at her hand in horror as I remove the blade from the stone and her finger falls to the floor. She screams, and I can’t help the satisfaction I feel.
I slip into her mind and stop the pathetic wails that pour from her lips. I grin. “Shall I ask the question again or do you remember?”
“Go to the void,” she mutters with a pout. “He will kill anyone who betrays him.” Her body shakes from the shock.
“News flash, Evera. You’re dying anyway—the longer you don’t cooperate, the slower and more painful your death will be. Not that I mind if this drags out…” I let the tip of my blade run down her face, watching in morbid fascination as her blood mixes with her tears.
I dive back into her head, searching for fears. I could try to find the answers this way, but I want my revenge first. Ugh—I straighten in disgust as I realize her only fear is not pleasing her father or the males in her life.
Flames roar to life in my hand with the help of the nearby sconce, and I hold the fire near her face. “I’m getting tired, Evera,” I sigh. “Shall I pay you back for what you did to Talyn? I think scars would look good on your face. What do you think, Talyn? Jesper?”
Talyn pushes himself off the bars and makes his way over to me, kissing me deeply. “The honor is yours. My greatest revenge is showing her who I truly belong to.”
My heart melts and I turn my head toward Jesper as Talyn makes his way back to his spot.
“I say do whatever makes you happy, Temptress,” he purrs.
I smile mischievously at him before moving the flame closer to her face. She pants, her eyes darting around frantically as she looks for any sign of help. Too bad she won’t find anyone here that would bother.
She panics. “Screw you, stupid bitch! I’m surrounded by idiots.
Cresida’s father should have sent better fucking assassins who would have actually finished the job!
” She screams as the flames lick her cheek.
The sickening sweet scent of burnt flesh and hair fill the small space before I ease off a bit.
“Cresida’s father, huh?” I confirm. I didn’t see that coming, considering the first asshole to try to kill me was before I even reached Phixmery. “Now why would he want me dead?”
I feel my mates tense up, their anger pushing at the seams of their control.
She doesn’t answer, so using the strength I’ve trained to master, I lift my foot and kick her knee in as hard as I can. The bone-crunching echoes and her screams ring, piercing our ears.
I give her a moment to catch her breath and she spits at my feet.
“Because you stupid bitch, Lord Craven never lost track of you. He used you at that village to keep the Queen under control. Cresida’s father was to make sure you never left.
That you had no friends and that you were punished severely however, whenever he wanted.
You were never meant to leave Shalo,” she hisses.
“You are nothing and no one. No better off than a Null.”
“That doesn’t answer the question about why he would want me dead.” My magick flares and shadows pulse around the room. Best guess, he wanted to undo the mistake of me escaping Shalo, but I want to know for sure. “Nero. Do you reckon she can still speak without an eyeball?”
His excitement bursts. “Yes, I believe she can,” he croaks out loud for everyone to hear.
I grin, my eyes never leaving Evera’s. “Well if that’s the case… Nero, fetch!”
He darts off my shoulder, diving right at Evera’s face talons-first. She screams and thrashes as she attempts to escape my familiar but there’s no use. Nero always gets what he wants.
Within moments I feel his victory as he scoops up the blood-red eyeball and lands back on my shoulder. Jesper is already at my side with a container for him to keep it protected.
Evera screams and shakes, and blood spills down her face and body.
“Now are you ready to tell us more about the red stone your father has? Why doesn’t Craven just take it?”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
I sigh and drive the blade into the joint that connects her shoulder and arm. “Answer the question,” I say with boredom lacing my tone.
“No, I—”
I twist the blade and she screams again.
Jesper laughs. “Isn’t she beautiful when she’s covered in the blood of our enemies?” he sighs and I hear Talyn murmur his agreements.
I notice the bucket in the corner and sense the water within it, and grin as I pull the water out of the bucket and form a ball of piss-tainted water around her head, inspired by what she did to Nero during the second trial.
As I see her begin to lose consciousness I let her have oxygen again, just in time for her to barely catch her breath before I do it all over again. “Why won’t Craven just take the stone from your father?”
She sputters, exhausted. “Because it’s hidden somewhere, somewhere even my father can’t get it under coercion, somewhere so well protected that even Craven won’t fetch it himself, and anyone he has sent has perished.
” She coughs. “Said it’s easier to get his dimwitted son to marry and give me a fledgling than it would be to safely retrieve the Stone.
” She laughs dryly. “You might as well kill me, because that’s all I know. ”
I glance at Jesper who’s practically bouncing with excitement—he’s also realised this can only mean the Naridian Woods.
I know he’s always wanted to venture deep within that mysterious forest, and it looks like we will be going in there for two reasons now: the being my mother talked to, and now the last piece of the Soul Stone.
“Well then. I hope you suffer in the afterlife,” I spit before slowly dragging my blade along her neck and watching as the light drains from her remaining eye.
Talyn takes the flame from the sconce and sets her alight before pulling me close as we watch her body crumble into ash and dust.
Evera Gannon is dead.