Chapter 21
A scream tears through my head, through my ears, through my soul. A scream that goes on for ages and echoes a distant emotional pain I should remember.
But this scream is from a physical torment.
The pain of thousands upon thousands of needles, tiny pinpricks stabbing through my flesh—from the inside out.
My insides are being ripped through my skin. My flesh is being pulverized into a mushy, gelatinous mass.
The scream. It will not stop.
I’m deaf to everything else.
Something hard slams into my cheek and whips my head to the side.
I bolt upright with a sucking gasp.
Riahn stands over me, her hand ready to fly again. I grab her wrist, but my hand slips off, slick from something. In the moonlight, I see a dark, sticky liquid that smells of—
Blood.
“What happened?” My voice burns. “Did it work?”
Riahn looks horrified. Her naked skin is smeared with blood. Her hair is matted with it.
“Where did all this come from?” My hands are covered too. My mouth… I taste copper.
“I had to stop, Kenrik. It was killing you.”
“That’s never stopped you before,” I growl. I rise shakily to my feet and, realizing I’m still undressed, yank my pants on, but not before noticing the blood.
My entire torso, my legs. No, my whole body is coated in blood. I stumble back, crashing into a tree.
Riahn reaches with a trembling hand.
I push it away. “What did you do?”
She folds her hands to her bloody chest. By the Master. That’s my blood. She’s covered in my blood. “I tried to drink your light. I tried to take it.” She sniffs, and a tear slides down her cheek to mix with my blood.
The demon is crying.
You have to be kidding me.
“Are you saying you couldn’t?” I pull my hands down my face, and feeling blood come away, I wipe them on my pants.
“As I pulled the light, the cells in your body tore apart one by one. You started to bleed everywhere. From your eyes, your nose, your mouth… your pores.” Riahn covers her face with her hands.
My body literally breaking apart in front of her as she sucked my light is too much for a demon? “I told you not to stop.”
“I tried to go on, but I couldn’t,” she blubbers through her hands. “You weren’t healing. You stopped healing because I was taking your light.”
I can’t stand looking at her body drenched in my blood. I grab her clothes off the ground and throw them at her. “Get dressed.”
I find my shirt and pull it on. I must be insane. Did I really want Riahn to take my light? To let her paw all over me with her filthy demon hands?
And now she’s crying?
This is not her.
“Snap out of it,” I bark.
Riahn stiffens, with her shirt hanging off one shoulder. “It’s the human in her.” She rumbles. “I don’t become emotional when drinking leads to death.”
Somewhere in the back of my head, a deep cackling begins. It grows in volume until I slump to my knees.
Is this a new form of torture? Caedryn exclaims. First pleasure and then pain!
You felt it all?
Of course. Don’t think for one moment that torture of this sort is new to me.
I didn’t do this to punish you! I yell.
Oh?
I did this to be rid of you.
Caedryn laughs again. You failed miserably!
Why did you kill her?
I have plans for her daughter.
My voice lifts into the night in a ferocious howl of misery.
“Kenrik!” Riahn grabs my shirtfront. “We’ll go now. We’ll kill him.”
Her grip pulls me back to sense. I stare into her silver irises. “No. This is something I have to do on my own.”
Kill Caedryn. At last.
Niawen is dead. I don’t owe her any promises anymore.
I’m coming for you, Caedryn. I’m coming for you!
I welcome you, princeling. Bring your fury.
I storm into camp. “Get up!” I kick at Westin. Gilmar groans.
Kian rolls upright and grabs his knife. “I am going to kill you, Seafarer!”
Westin rubs his eyes and then looks at me. “What the hell happened to you?”
Riahn strides into camp. We’re both coated in blood, so this gets their attention.
Westin throws his blanket off and darts to his feet. “What happened?”
Gilmar unsheathes his sword. “Were you attacked?”
“Nothing like that.” Riahn turns to me. “What do you need?”
“Westin.” I pick the teammate who likes me the best and whose dragon likes me more. “I need to borrow Huflaih.”
“Say what now?” He sticks his finger in his ear and wiggles it around. “You have to be nuts.”
“I just need him to take me to Rolant.”
“Rolant?”
“Can you call him? Please.”
Westin turns to Riahn.
“He’s going to kill Caedryn,” she says.
“Huflaih is about five hours north of here,” Westin says.
“Will he come?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Look, I just need him to drop me off. I’m not asking him to fly into battle with me.”
“He would do it, you know,” Westin says.
“This has to be just me.”
“I’ll come too.”
Riahn shakes her head. “Let him go. Let him take Huflaih.”
“He’ll be here mid-morning,” Westin says. “I suggest you get some rest until then.”
I snort. “Yeah, right.”
“Clean yourself up, at least.” Gilmar settles back onto his bedroll. “You smell disgusting.”
I make my way to the creek. Riahn follows. We strip our clothes off in silence and rub the gore away. I don’t look at her.
I can’t look at her.
“I’m sorry,” I say after we dress. “I shouldn’t have asked you to do that.”
A muscle near Riahn’s temple jumps. “I’m just sorry it didn’t work.”
“I probably won’t come back.”
“I understand.”
“When I kill him, I’ll be free,” I say. “I can go home.”
She claps me on the shoulder. “You deserve to go home.”
I nod but squeeze my eyes tight.
“I trained you well. You will succeed.”
I bob my head, and we head back to camp. There’s an hour until sunrise. I settle against a log and stare into the fire. I will not sleep.
I spend my waking hours sending rage across the bond between Caedryn and me.
Seething, unrelenting, tumultuous rage.