Chapter 8
I’m Dangerous [The Everlove]
Death by suffocation seems more appealing than breathing in thick, smoky air for almost a day.
It slithers down my throat until it tightens, and I envision the smoke making its way into my lungs until it blackens.
It’s spreading like the flu. The burning sensation pierces my throat, nose, eyes, and chest, making it difficult to breathe.
Leaning against the railing, I overlook the sea of smog.
The air is heavy with toxins, and the vibrant, fallen ash taints the crystal-clear blue water grey.
And beyond the sea, behind the tall castle, an active volcano burns as brightly as the sun.
This is the main reason the ground is like lava and the air is thick with humidity.
I’m so close to my goal, but I’ve realised that I don’t know what I’ll do after enacting my revenge. Endless possibilities, like returning to the Kingdom of Crystal, come to mind.
It’s been two years since I last saw my home and the place where I grew up. A part of me wants to rebuild my house, the shopping centres, Loreth Academy, and Elden Keep—where I trained with Desmond until our bones ached and our breaths became a hitched, breathless mess.
I will be alone, but that’s okay. After all that has happened to me, I’m appreciating the silence.
Turning away from the murky ocean, I enter the sleeping quarters. Xavier is a sweaty mess, moaning in pain as he sleeps. I creep past him so as not to wake him and slip into the bathroom, ensuring I lock the door behind me.
Finally alone, I let out a sigh. I thought we had individual sleeping quarters. Yet Xavier, as always, seems to find a way in somehow. He never booked me a private room. Instead, he planned for me to stay with him, all the while giving me the impression we would have separate rooms.
Fortunately for me, Xavier is in a near-comatose state.
As we travelled, he curled up in bed with a fever. I tended to him and spoke caring words, but also thought of sinking a dagger into his jaw and watching his life spool from my clenched hand.
He deserves to die, but not just yet. I’m only hours away from seeking revenge and killing the King of Flesh, so this isn’t the right time or place.
Leaning against the bathroom sink, I flick up the tap handle until cold water sloshes out and rub it over my shoulders, face, and hairline.
Through the blurry droplets, I stare at the tiles and everything black and red surrounding me.
It transports me back to my torture, torment, and hunger for flesh as I take in all that the bathroom represents.
A sickening crunch of pain and anger flushes across my waist as flames lick at my skin and bite deeply.
To think that everyone in Eraminia supported the reckoning of a kingdom when they not only murdered children whose mothers tried to protect, but they also defiled women, reducing them to nothing but a fucking shell.
It’s sick and twisted, and this parched thirst grows until I find enjoyment in seeing the red spool from my hands.
Two Years Earlier
It’s hard to see where I’m going, but I push through the dense smoke with Typha trailing behind me. We make an odd pair, but it will benefit us when we confront the enemy…I hope.
Yet, I find it incredibly hard not to fight back. Shrill screams echo through the night and, gargling on the blood they choke on. And here I am, acting defensively instead of out there fighting.
Dad taught me well. I should be driving the blade of my dagger into every enemy I encounter.
Until I glance at Typha, her arms wrapped around herself.
She walks stiffly, and there’s a wavering anxiety in the hood covering her hair and face.
I doubt her words will come out without a tremble if someone calls out to her.
“Why are they attacking now?” I ask, more to myself than to Typha.
The fire elemnys must have prepared for this attack. They cover themselves in thermal, fitted clothes to weather the storm.
If this was a planned assault, why attack when ice elemny are at their strongest? We would have more of an edge if it weren’t for the suddenness. Yet again, we are dealing with an entire army filled with fire elementals—our weakness.
So, maybe it was a sudden attack.
“Do you have any ideas?” I ask Typha. “Did Dad aggravate King Ragan?”
She doesn’t respond. It’s what I expected, but being alone with my thoughts isn’t doing anything except causing more questions than answers.
Dad will know what to do. The Commander of the Crystal Guards will know what to do. Until he sees us, then will he question where Mother has gone?
A sharp pain blindsides me. Stopping in my tracks, I drag my hand down my face to wipe away the grief.
I can’t cry over her death now. Not when we are still out in the open, and I have Typha to protect.
After I get her to safety, I can cry then.
Until then, I must hold it together and push through the gut-wrenching sadness.
“Did you hear that?” Typha touches my shoulder as she overlooks the next street and hears the sounds of strangled whimpering.
I press my lips together before creeping to the end of the street. Peering down the street, I spot a woman lying on the road. My teeth grind, and my upper lip curls into a sneer at her clothes torn from her body. A fire elemny crawls over the top of her with a dagger to her throat.
I step out when Typha grips my arm and pulls me back. “What are you doing? We need to get to Elden Keep and find Dad!”
I point urgently at the woman being raped and say, “I’m not fucking leaving her! This is wrong.”
Like mother, Typha crosses her arms over her chest, lifts her chin, and declares, “I’m not going.”
“Then stay here,” I spit and step onto the street.
My feet sound hollow and almost fleeting. I keep my eyes on the fire elemny as he grips the woman’s hair and rips at it while he thrusts in and out of her.
I grip my dagger tightly. Iron laces through my fingertips, and my hand trembles with rage.
As I step into the light of the streetlamp above me, the fire elemny stops what he’s doing and stares at me through narrow, suspicious eyes.
The woman sags into the pavement, and her distraught face floods with relief when she sees me there.
“Men. You think you can take fucking everything and face no consequences,” I seethe.
He pulls out of her, shoves her away, and rises.
As the woman scrambles to her feet, his focus shifts to her, giving me an opening.
I throw the dagger at him until I can taste the flesh rip through his throat.
He stumbles back, hands reaching for his neck.
With a roll of my shoulder, I move toward him.
“Thank you.” The woman rises and wraps her arms around her naked body until they cover her chest. Her watchful pink eyes settle on me as I stand over the man. He struggles for breath.
“Don’t,” I say. “For I was too late to save you.” A smile touches my lips, though it’s strained as I add, “Head to the Nova Hotel if you like. There’s a hidden tunnel that goes to Elden Keep. You should be safe there.”
The woman shakes her head. “I need to find my husband. He was at work when this happened.”
“Then stay safe.”
She lowers her gaze to the fire elemny. He’s still struggling to breathe. From his weakened state, he can’t even produce a flame. That, or he has nothing on him to light the fuse.
“He’s still alive.”
A sinister grin appears on my face. “I know. I made sure of it. This pathetic excuse of an elemny does not deserve a quick death.” Removing the dagger from his throat, I drag my finger across the crimson soaking on the blade. “Slow torture is my specialty. By the end, he will wish for death.”
The woman leaves me be, and when she’s covered in shadows, I crouch beside the fire elemny.
The blade of my dagger taps between his legs until the fabric parts and exposes a worthless, shrivelled dick.
He whimpers through gargled, choking breaths as I rest the flat of the blade between his balls and shaft.
“There’s not really much to cut off, is there?
” I let out a breathy laugh. “I mean, I’m doing you a fucking service, right? ”
He cries through broken lungs as I flick the blade up. His dick cuts away from his body. Blood squirts out and soaks into his pants.
“You see, the pain you are going through now, that woman would have gone through the same when you touched her.” I rest the blade underneath his balls.
He chokes on the blood swelling in his throat when I flick the blade until another piece of flesh falls away.
“Once upon a time, my dad tortured a man for a decade. Since you’re my first victim—well, you aren’t a victim—I give it five minutes before you die.
So, I'd better make the most of it, shall I?”
His voice cracks as I flail him. Body parts rip away from him until he’s a bloody mess down there. The fingers that once gripped her hair are soaked in the snow, dismembered. His tongue has split until he chokes on it.
He lasted less than three minutes. Yet, in those three minutes, it satisfied some of the hunger within me. Enough to realise I have overstayed my welcome and should locate Typha before she wonders what has happened to me.
As I round the corner, Typha’s eyes widen, and her hands cover her mouth in horror at the blood dripping from my hands. “Is that…?”
I shake my head. “It’s not mine.”
“What did you do?”
“Eraminia a favour.” I nudge my head towards the Winter Nova Hotel. “Let’s go before anyone else enters through that street.”
“If we get caught, it’s on you,” Typha says.
“Sure.”
“And if you leave me again…”
I turn to my sister and fold my arms across my chest. “What? You will do what?”
Her eyes narrow, and her jaw tightens. All the emotions of someone who despises me.
Yet she would have died in my room if not for me.
It’s difficult for me to grasp her irritation with me right now, when she was the one who refused to help a woman being raped by the enemy.
Does my sister have any sense of morals?
Or does she only care about herself and no one else?
“Never mind,” Typha says through clenched teeth.
“Good,” I reply sharply, then turn on my heels and storm down the street. The Winter Nova Hotel is nearby. They built it in front of Elden Keep and created a secret tunnel that leads inside the Keep. Dad should be behind those broad, tall walls if we can get through the hidden entry point.
I can leave Typha there while I help Dad fight back against the enemy. I will not let my kingdom fall to those wretched elemny!