Chapter Twenty-Four #3
Tingles trail through my mind as she collects the red, orange, and ochre threads before promptly sending them to the hearts of my latest victims. Their screams are so terrible they strike fear in those watching, with each noble citizen stumbling backward.
Yet His Majesty won’t have his honored guests experiencing fear like the accused criminals, so I split my attention and siphon their terror and redirect it to the bodies of those I am forced to kill.
“This isn’t okay,” Varic whispers. “We can’t just let him do this to her.”
“None of us are willing to risk the innocents,” Lars reminds him.
Tears stream down my cheeks, grieving for the young witch who was made to do this. For what she could have been. Because I have become a fucking monster. How else could I do this?
No, she is doing this. And she is fucking relentless—this monstrous entity His Majesty created, who resides in my body, born the day he first commanded me to kill another.
Pain pierces my middle, and I double over so unexpectedly even Malin didn’t notice the energy shift early enough to catch me.
Varic and Fray drop to a knee on either side of my body as the Emperor strides through the maze of agonized victims until he closes in on me, sending a message by kicking my ankle with the toe of his boot.
“This is all part of the show!” the Emperor lies.
Fray’s hand rests on my back while Varic’s heat hovers as close as he dares to lean in my direction.
“What would you have me do, Your Majesty?” she asks, cold and calculated.
“Give our audience their finale.”
Beads of sweat roll down my temples as I push off of the ground and rise with caution, muscles trembling as they attempt to hold my bones up.
“Emperor, if I may?” Varic asks, playing his role of distractor, as his voice carries a suspiciously jovial tone.
I shudder as a chill rolls through my body with staggered precision, like the spines retracting along the back of a Dragon.
Varic steps between us and engages the Emperor in a private discussion.
“So like a former commander to think it necessary to interrogate the traitors!” His Majesty says, clapping Varic on the shoulder.
“Fine!” Emperor Aldritch calls out. “Fine. This is your night, after all. Have your fun. They’ll only be alive a little while longer!”
Varic spares me a glance, and the hope burning within his irises is a punch to the stomach when he turns to bend and whisper at an angle where I cannot see well enough to read his lips.
“Guards!” His Majesty commands. “Make them stand.”
A horde of Guards swarms in to grab hold of the scattered sorcerers, whom they yank upright to stare at the floor or hang their heads to the side, while their chests all continue to rise.
One of the sorcerers turns and catches my eye until a look of horror deepens the lines creasing his face, and he lets out a scream.
The Imperial Guard holding him shoves a black handkerchief in his mouth to suffocate the noise.
“Hi, we haven’t been introduced,” Varic says with such kindness that tears threaten to spill over my lashes; a sign the Imperial Grand Witch has retreated.
“I’m Imperial Lead Guard Varic, newly appointed to our Imperial Grand Witch Tasch.
” His eyes meet mine as his lips form my name with a hint of a smile entering his tone.
My heart leaps as the familiar heat creeps its way up my neck.
“If you would please inform us as to your purpose for using unsanctioned magic—”
The Emperor scoffs. “There is no reason to use unsanctioned magic.”
“Go on,” Varic encourages the sorcerer nearest him. “You can tell me.”
“I work on the docks,” the older sorcerer begins, and Varic nods. “They require us to work expeditiously, but I’m old and unable to move as fast as I once could.”
“Come now, Varic,” Emperor Aldritch says, gesturing for him to move away from the sorcerer, but he simply maintains his attention on my victim.
“We need the coin. If I lose my job, my family will lose our home. I used the speed magic to help complete my tasks on time.”
Varic nods, while the Emperor storms forward, grabbing hold of Varic’s leather harness and tightening his grip as he leans in. “Enough. You’ve had your fun playing General. They broke the law. They knew the price, and now they must pay it.”
His Majesty sends me a fleeting glance, and my heart drops as I prepare to do what I must.
Varic’s comforting heat returns at my side, pulling my heart back to its rightful spot in my chest as every part of me yearns to grab hold of him and run.
She returns now that there is no hope of stopping this, though Varic was bold enough to try.
The room fades away as threads of fear rush from my body, pulsing in spirals, arcing through the air to cleave the sorcerers’ hearts by amplifying their despair, anguish, terror, and hopelessness—a terrible way to expire, and the same method by which thousands have met their end through my magic.
She disappears, leaving me as my power sputters to nothing, weakened until I can no longer sense a connection with the sorcerers’ emotions. My own pulse slows, and tremors begin to overtake my muscles.
Purple mist rises to support my form as a jumble of words are spoken somewhere nearby, though I cannot hear which through the tinny ringing rising in volume while a black cloud descends over my vision.
Warmth embraces my back as I draw in one last breath filled with nutmeg and clove.