Chapter 48
KORITHAX
Ihear her scream.
It doesn’t travel through the air first. It tears through the bond—pain detonating in my chest, white-hot and violent, like my entire soul has been split open by a blade. The world narrows to a single point as the bond howls, raw and panicked and wrong.
Daisy.
My eyes snap to her instantly. I see it all at once—the blade ripping free from her shoulder, crimson blood spraying against sunlit sand. The boy moves again, faster than thought, driving the weapon back towards her. Something inside me shatters completely, and The Void roars to life.
KILL HIM!
My wings explode from my back with a thunderous crack, shadow and smoke consuming me as I launch into the sky. Heat scorches the ground beneath my feet as I surge forwards, black fire pouring through my veins.
I don’t think. And I sure as shit don’t hesitate. Not when he has harmed my wife.
I land behind him and seize the back of his neck, my grip crushing as I lift him clean off the ground. He gasps, feet kicking uselessly as I slam him down into the sand with bone-breaking force.
The earth fractures beneath us as dust explodes into the air. He releases an ear-piercing scream at the impact. Good. My vision is red; my pulse is a fucking war drum. The Void surges inside me, intoxicating and ravenous as it claws for control.
HE HURT YOUR WIFE. I raise my hand to end him. To erase his existence from this realm.
“Korithax—NO!”
Her voice slices through the chaos surrounding us, through the air and straight into my mind.
I turn to look at her. Daisy is on her knees, blood soaking through her training leathers.
She decided not to wear armour to train civilians.
I told her she should. I told her to protect herself regardless.
She didn’t listen. She didn’t fucking listen.
And now she’s on the floor with a healer’s hand applying pressure to her shoulder.
But at least she’s alive. She’s alive. She’s breathing. She’s mine.
“We need him alive,” she calls, desperation threading her voice. “We need to interrogate him. Please—”
The Void shrieks. LIES. HE MUST DIE.
My body moves without my permission, forcing me to go for the kill again.
“STOP HIM!” Daisy screams.
Soldiers rush in. Guards, warriors from every realm, all charging straight at me. Magic flares and weapons flash in my peripheral, but they mean nothing to me. None of them do.
Only her. Only her. Only her.
I tear through them like a storm given flesh. Flame washes over shields. Lightning dies against my skin, swallowed whole by The Void. Shadows recoil. Earth trembles beneath my feet. Power slams into me from every direction and vanishes instantly, inhaled by the endless hunger residing in my chest.
Bodies fall. One by one. Down. Down. Down.
I barely register it. Someone screams my name. The scent of burning flesh assaults my senses. Others don’t get back up from the pile forming at my feet.
But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
Because The Void is singing now. End him. END THEM ALL.
I hear Daisy yelling orders in a furious, commanding tone. I hear the fear beneath it, but the words blur together. All except one sentence, sharp enough to freeze my blood.
“Get the boy to the dungeons, now!”
No. No. No. I surge forwards, desperation taking over. I cannot let him live. I will not. He nearly took her from me. Nearly ripped my world apart.
The bodies pile higher. Broken. Unmoving.
Then, a sharp sting bites into my neck. Someone managed to touch me. Someone managed to get too close. I snarl and spin, rage coursing through me. Curly ginger hair peeks out from beneath a ridiculous hat, bright green eyes staring up at me, wide with fear.
Ezra.
He’s right there, terror and resolve tangled together as he stands with an almost empty syringe in his hand, the needle glinting with a blueish fluid. Sedation tonic.
Rage explodes inside me. I seize him by the throat and lift him effortlessly, my grip tightening as The Void screams for his death, too.
HE DARES.
The head healer’s son, Cassyr, charges towards us. I don’t give him a chance to get close before swinging my fist backwards, connecting with brutal force. He goes flying, the thud of his body hitting the sandy floor somewhere behind me confirming he’s out of my fucking way.
Ezra’s feet kick weakly, but I can already feel the tonic flooding my veins.
It feels wrong, like another creature is taking over me.
My vision blurs and the roar inside me fractures and distorts.
My strength falters, my grip loosening just enough for Ezra to break free and drop to the ground, gasping for air.
The world tilts as The Void’s furious howls muffle in my head. Darkness creeps in at the edges of my sight, and the last thing I feel is Daisy’s warm hand on my face, her soft cry breaking through the haze as the world fades to black.
I stir to the sounds of muffled voices.
No clashing of steel. No screams echoing through my skull. Just whispers that bounce around the space enclosing me. My first breath feels wrong. It’s shallow, like my lungs are working through mud and nausea rolls through me like I have the world’s worst hangover.
One by one, my senses come back to me. My head lolls sideways as I try to move it, and I realise it’s just about the only part of me that I can move.
My wrists and ankles are bound to what feels like a steel bed, the metal restraints rubbing a little too harshly against my skin.
As my eyes slowly crack open, I notice a ring of faintly glowing runes surrounding me, bathing the darkened chamber in dim light.
Memory slams into me without mercy. Blood.
Her scream. The blade. The boy’s body hitting the ground with a sickening thud.
Ezra’s terrified face as I restricted his oxygen.
Bodies. Bodies. Bodies. Too many bodies.
My chest tightens painfully as I drag in a trembling breath.
I close my eyes and slam my head back against the bed so hard the sound echoes, shame and fury tearing through me.
I feel for her and the bond answers immediately. The relief is so violent it almost knocks me unconscious again. She’s alive. She’s hurting, furious, afraid. Probably of me. But she’s okay.
Footsteps approach and I don’t have to look up to know it’s her. Her presence is my sanctuary. Her aura is my only my peace.
“Korithax.” My name falling from her lips is both agony and salvation.
I turn my head slowly, taking her in. She stands just beyond arm’s reach, on the other side of the glowing runes.
Her shoulder is bound tightly, blood already seeping through the bandages.
Her leathers are torn from where healers cut them away, and there’s dried blood in her golden hair, and not all of it is hers.
My hands curl instinctively, the chains holding my binds to the bed rattling softly as panic floods me.
“I—” My voice breaks immediately. I swallow hard, forcing the words out. “Are you real. Are you—”
“Alive,” she cuts in. “Yes.”
Relief floods as I nod once, unable to hold her gaze. Shame is a heavy, heavy thing. It presses down on my shoulders until breathing feels like penance.
“I lost control,” I rasp. “I heard you scream and—”
“I know,” she says too quickly, a sharpness to her tone.
Silence stretches between us. I hate this. I hate that she has me tied down, unable to reach for her. I hate that she’s too afraid to step any closer to the monster she’s mated to.
“They took him,” she adds quietly. “To the dungeons. Alive.”
The Void surges violently, slamming against the inside of my skull with potent fury. KILL HIM.
My body strains against the restrains before I can stop it.
The runes flare brighter and I can feel The Void trying to absorb the ancient magic that’s fuelling them.
It burns. It burns so brutally I feel like I’m in the pits of Gehenna.
The roar that escapes me is nothing short of agonising.
I fall back against the bed, panting heavily through my nose as I war with The Void to stop.
“You almost killed Ezra,” she says, unflinching.
“I know.” I pant.
“You hurt Cassyr.”
“I know.” Gods, the pain is brutal. I can barely focus on her words.
“You killed—” Her voice falters. She stops herself, her jaw pulsing with restrained anger. “You hurt people who were trying to help you, Korithax. Who were trying to help me!”
I close my eyes to avoid her painful gaze. “I would have burned the realms to nothing but ash if it meant he didn’t breathe another second,” I admit. “The Void wouldn’t let me see anything else. I couldn’t hear you. I couldn’t feel anything but—”
Her pain.
“I scared you,” I finish quietly.
She doesn’t deny it, and that hurts more than anything. I wearily look at her, and her expression guts me, enough so that even The Void shifts uneasily.
“I need you to understand something. I’m not angry that you were trying to protect me. I’m angry that you didn’t stop.”
She lets out a shaky exhale, and all I want in this moment is to wrap my arms around her and comfort her.
“I’m afraid,” she continues. “Not of The Void. I’m afraid of what happens if next time you don’t stop at all. That nothing can stop you. That you’ll destroy everything and everyone around you.”
“I would never hurt you,” I say fiercely.
“I know,” she whispers. “But you could hurt everyone else.”
I have no defence. No justification. Only the truth. That I am a monster made flesh.
“Keep me restrained,” I say firmly.
Her expression softens into something like pity, before she squares her shoulders. She steps towards me, crossing the ring of runes, until she’s right by my side. Her uninjured arm reaches up, her hand cupping my cheeks. Her skin is so warm, so soft. Everything I’m not.
“I will not chain you like some untamed beast, Korithax.” Her thumb brushes beneath my eye, wiping away something wet I hadn’t realised had fallen. “You have been in total control until the moment an enemy injured me.”
Her ocean-eyes search mine, a faint smile gracing her perfect mouth. “You killed innocents today, Korithax. You killed innocent men and women. But you did it to try and protect me. Your loss of control was not unjustified. It was just… extreme.”
I let out a shaky exhale, pressing my cheek into her palm, craving her touch like a beast starved of affection. “I can’t promise it won’t happen again, Daisy. Not when it comes down to your safety.”
“I’ll make sure I’m fully armoured in training. I should have listened to you, I’m sorry,” she says quietly, guilt in her tone.
“None of what happened was your fault,” I reply sternly.
“We’ll figure this out, together,” she says. “Or we don’t do it at all.”
She reaches down and releases my arms and legs from the restraints, my body aching from being held in one position.
I sit up, throwing my legs over the edge of the bed, and instantly pull her into me despite the dizziness fogging my senses.
Her lavender and honey scent invades me, and everything inside me quietens for just a moment as she rests her head on my chest, her arms wrapping around my waist.
“I love you, Daisy,” I murmur against her hair. “More than anything.”
“I love you too,” she says softly. “But there is something we need to go do. And I need you to hold yourself together until I say so, okay?”
I look down at her, noticing the small crease beneath her brows.
Whatever it is she needs us to do, she’s worried about me.
About how I’ll behave. About if I’ll lose control again.
My chest aches at how much I’m putting her through.
I need to be good for her. Even if the voice inside my head is screaming for revenge.
I have been trained to be nothing more than a heartless, savage animal.
I will learn to leash myself for her, no matter how much it fucking burns.