Chapter 23 #2
Darius laughed, delighted, as if she’d set him up perfectly. “Oh, come now. You still don’t get it?” His gaze flicked back to Cedric, and his expression turned cruel. “I made him.”
“What?” Gwenna’s voice was sharp, incredulous. “You—?”
“I cursed him,” Darius said simply, like he was discussing the weather. “I turned him into a beast, made him a creature of nightmares. And the best part?” He let out a short laugh, tilting his head. “He never even knew.”
Cedric’s entire body shook. Finn felt the force of his trembling, heard the ragged way he sucked in air. “You…” Cedric’s voice cracked. “You did this to me?”
Darius spread his arms. “Of course I did! Who else could have orchestrated such a brilliant plan?” His grin stretched wide, teeth flashing like a predator’s. “The beloved prince—transformed into a beast. The kingdom, thrown into chaos. And me? Rising to power, ready to save them all.”
Finn felt sick. Cedric had never known. Through all the years of suffering, through every agonizing transformation, through all the nights spent alone—he had never known.
Gwenna shook with fury, and before Finn could so much as breathe, she lunged. “You absolute bastard—”
Darius tightened his hand into a fist, the ring flaring with light. Cedric collapsed. His knees slammed into the dirt, his breath ripping out of him in a hoarse, guttural sound.
Gwenna pulled up short, her mouth parting in a small, horrified O before she clamped it shut.
The breath rushed from Finn’s lungs. His body screamed at him to move, to fight, but all he could do was watch. Somehow, he stayed standing—even as every muscle and bone protested.
Cedric convulsed.
His hands hit the ground like something inside him had just snapped. His back arched, his body seizing in violent, unrelenting spasms. A tremor wracked through him, stealing the breath from his lungs.
“Cedric!” Gwenna’s voice cracked.
Finn hit his knees beside the downed prince, reaching out, desperate to stop whatever this was. But Cedric only shook, his wild eyes fixed on Darius.
And Darius? King Raging Ego just watched. Watched. Like this was entertainment. Like Cedric’s suffering was a game.
“What are you doing to him?!” Finn’s voice ripped from his throat, raw with fury—but a sick part of him already knew.
“Stop it!” Gwenna’s scream was edged with panic. Her hands curled into fists, trembling with helpless rage.
Darius ignored them all. His gaze never left Cedric, fixated.
Cedric screamed. The sound split the world in two. Finn had heard battle cries. The wails of the dying. The broken sobs of men past saving. But this…
This was agony in its purest form.
A soul being unmade. Worse than any torture the Duke of Poor Life Choices had visited upon Finn.
A guard grabbed Finn, yanking him back, dragging him away.
“No!” Finn struggled, but he couldn’t break free. All he could do was watch.
And what he saw would never leave him. Cedric convulsed again, his body betraying him. Something inhuman clawed through his form, warping muscle, tearing through skin.
His breath hitched in broken gasps, his cries strangled between the horrific cracks of bone and sinew. Cedric’s spine lengthened, spikes rising like the crash of a wave. His fingers flexed, claws bursting through flesh.
Fabric ripped, clothing shredded as scales rippled over skin. A ragged, animalistic scream tore from his throat as his jaw extended, jutting forward into a dragon’s maw.
Finn had seen Cedric as a dragon before. He had even seen him directly after a transformation. But this…this was different.
Those intelligent, fiercely human eyes were clouded now, hazy with suffering. His massive frame trembled, struggling against the aftermath of a transformation forced upon him. Cedric made an agonized, keening sound, slumping onto his side.
Finn trembled in outrage. He knew pain, knew exhaustion, knew what it meant to have his body pushed beyond its limits. But this? This was something worse.
Darius lowered his hand, and the ring’s glow dimmed like a dying ember. The air still crackled with residual energy, the taste of magic sharp on Finn’s tongue.
A slow, satisfied smile spread across the royal asshat’s face. He looked up at Cedric—at the dragon—as if admiring his latest acquisition. “Perfect,” he whispered.
Finn’s hands clenched into furious fists. “What have you done?” he demanded, wishing that he could do something more than stand there, weak and useless. What was he going to do, glare Darius into submission? Threaten to fall over if the king didn’t leave them alone? Hopeless.
But still, Finn lifted his chin.
Darius turned his smug gaze on him. “I’ve solidified my reign,” he said smoothly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “With a dragon at my command and my wife at my side, no one will dare deny me.”
His attention flicked to Gwenna, lingering there, before sliding back to Finn.
The king’s gaze made Finn’s blood run cold.
“But don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Sir Finnian,” Darius added, almost fondly. “It’s an important day for you, after all.”
Finn’s gut twisted. He knew exactly what that meant. And he was powerless to stop it.
“No!” Gwenna snarled. “He did what you wanted! Leave him alone!”
Darius sighed as if she were a child throwing a tantrum.
“I hope you don’t intend to be this demanding once we’re wed, Gwenna.
It would be tiresome.” He gestured lazily toward his assembled King’s Guard, lined up in perfect formation, eyes blank and obedient as hounds awaiting their master’s command.
“And while I will agree that Sir Finnian’s resilience is commendable, I doubt his ethics will allow me to bribe him like this lot. ”
His gaze flicked to Cedric, still trembling from the forced transformation. Darius smiled. “Beheadings,” he said, almost wistfully, “are so last year. I think this calls for something more...sporting.”