Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
PARIS
Darkness.
Screaming.
Rinse and repeat.
Three.
Two.
One.
I woke up coughing, thick smoke filling my lungs and stinging my eyes.
And heat. So much damn heat.
“What—”
Suddenly there were hands on me, rough and uncaring, fingers digging into my flesh. The air changed around me, freezing. A vicious wind howled in my face, stealing the air from my lungs.
Pressure built inside my head, a nasty bout of nausea turning the night around me upside down.
I collapsed onto my arse into snow, a terrible pressure crushing my body.
What the fuck? Snow? Why was there snow?
I fell back, the kiss of snow on my head confirming it was the chilly white stuff.
“Welcome to the next test,” Aidan yelled over the wind.
That prick. He’d brought me here—wherever here was.
What about the house? The smoke? The heat? Oh, shit. Was it on fire?
Time to get back there.
I reached out to the flora for some energy, finding nothing.
Great.
My weakening eyesight found swathes of starlight in the clear night sky, the moonlight as bright as the sun, the snow gleaming like marble around me.
With shallow, painful breaths, I sat up. Pain raged harder in my skull, blood leaking from my nose.
A mountain range surrounded me, snowy peaks in all directions, all lower than me. That could mean only one thing.
Oh, man. I was at the summit of Savage Queen, the highest mountain in the world, part of the Regal Peaks mountain range that divided the Werewolf Domain in half.
That explained the reaction in my body.
This altitude wasn’t the place for anyone outside of an experienced climber. And even then, climbing this beast of a mountain came with a shit load of dangers.
Like rolling too far toward that edge over there and bouncing down the rugged slopes like a rag doll.
Aidan, unaffected by the altitude and the cold, paced around me in a circle. He emanated a golden glow, his hands folded behind his back.
“What happened?” I managed to say before collapsing onto my back again.
Staying alive was a massive chore up here.
“The real question is how to play this,” he replied. “Should I let you succumb to altitude sickness, or should I kick you off the edge?”
“How about none of the above?” I retorted, the words burning my throat.
He kicked snow in my face. “I’m not asking for your opinion, elf. I want to break this bond we have. You’re a burden to be squished. Get that into your head, insect.”
Rude fucker.
I blinked the snow free, my limbs too heavy to lift. He stood above me, a golden menace boring into me.
If only I had the energy to sweep his legs out from under him.
He lifted an eyebrow at me, his cocky expression full Hal, the one he wore whenever he won a card game he forced me to play.
I missed that guy.
“You’re not him,” I muttered, pangs of sadness hammering into my soul.
The prick crouched over me. “Poor Paris. Do you miss your friend?” He reached down, touching my cheek with the back of his warm hand.
I shivered, recalling Hal’s soothing caress. Then recoiled, sick to the pit of my stomach.
“Get…get away from me,” I warned.
He slapped me, upping the pounding in my head. “Would you like to speak to him? Fuck him again, even? It could be arranged, although I don’t like the idea of it.” He retched mockingly. “Sorry, but my tastes are of a higher standard than some lowly elf.”
Yeah, that’s it. Laugh, you piece of shit.
“Like…like Silvanus?” I bit out.
His hollering ceased, his fury practically dripping from his face. “Watch your mouth.”
Ha! “Touch…touched a nerve?”
He grabbed my face, squeezing until my lips pouted. “There’s no nerve to be touched. The vampire king is a lesser being. A means to an end, nothing more than a lovesick fool now yearning for you.”
My brain lurched with all sorts of emotions, none coming to the surface to dominate.
Apart from one little thought.
Yearning?
“I see it,” he waffled on. “I smell it. He’s falling like he fell for me.”
Falling? In what? Love? Oh, please. Things would never go that far.
He released my face, grabbing me by the hair and tugging hard. “I won’t allow it.”
“Jealous…” I rasped.
He spat in my face, his anger as bitter as the damn wind.
“Oh, you’re so clever, aren’t you? Trying to goad me into, what?
Escaping? You’re going nowhere until you draw your last breath, permanently.
And I’m going to enjoy every single experiment until you do.
” Cue more laughter. “How about I use your mage lover to shit in your face? How humiliating that would be while I pull your intestines from your belly?”
Vile scum!
Man, I wanted to rip his disgusting energy out of my friend. Tear it apart, throw it out there into the gaping wilderness of the mountain range.
He punched me in the nose. It broke, blood spurting, forcing spots of color to swim across my vision.
What a prick.
“No one is coming for you,” he seethed. “It’s just us now, so do the right thing and die. And make sure you take Caer with you.”
A damn shame she couldn’t step in somehow. I tried to sing, but the words wouldn’t come.
He lowered his face, releasing rancid breath at me. “What’s in there, Paris? What’s keeping you alive? I know it can’t be Caer.”
“Her walls are strong, though vulnerable,” he added. “And I feel it when I probe those cracks.” He grinned. “All walls can come down if you kick them hard enough.”
He stood, the magic illuminating his hands. “Let’s begin with this, to stick with a recent theme.”
What now?
He spoke his intention to burn me alive from the inside out. And with a flick of his wrist, he did.
At least the searing, unholy pain lasted for less than a minute until the screaming darkness claimed me again.
Ugh. What a ball ache.