Chapter 38 #2
“Releasing her had been a mistake on their part, but I chose not to punish them for it, believing we could clean it up. After all, Charles was promising, and the Elders had picked him for a reason. I trusted their judgment, so I let him live.” He sighed, turning to face me completely.
“Had I known the problems he would have caused, I never would have signed off on his hire, but alas, here we are. It ends with you, Scarlett, did you know that? You belong to the one son I could never control. If I want all of these…inconveniences to disappear, all I must do is use you to destroy him.”
Destroy Azrael?
Those words didn’t stitch together well, did they?
“The others will fall in line, they always do, but him? He has always been the kink in my plans.”
But not Charles Alascer? If he hadn’t allowed his covetous heart to lead him astray, none of this would have happened. None of it. Why not destroy him? What was so damn special about Charles that kept him alive?
“It’s funny how such a small mistake can lead to such big problems, right?
” He chuckled quietly to himself. “Well, no matter. We don’t like living in the past, do we, Scarlett?
I’ve spoken to Lady Elise, talked to her about what she had planned for you for Christmas, and I decided to modify it just a little.
” He looked over my shoulder and nodded. “Time to—”
Before my heart could even skip a beat, I spun around without thought, grabbed the syringe out of Kat’s hand and slammed it right into his throat, dispensing the entirety of it into him.
I ripped it out and turned on Malachi, my heart pounding, the needle covered in blood. I wasn’t going to be drugged again. Not for him. Not for Malachi Adler.
He looked as calm as ever, the sound of Kat collapsing finding my ears. “Well, that wasn’t such a smart thing to do now, was it?”
I heard footsteps behind me, my smile stretching from ear to ear.
I waited for a count of three before I ducked and slammed the syringe into the thigh of the man behind me.
I snapped the needle off in his skin, stood, and slammed the end of the syringe straight into his eye while he was distracted with the pain in his thigh.
He screamed and instinctively reached for the syringe as I shoved him to the side and lunged for the man behind him.
Eckers and Dimi, probably, but I wasn’t completely sure with how fast things were moving.
The man wrapped his hand around my throat and attempted to throw me back, but I had already flipped my legs up and wrapped them around his neck and arm.
I shoved back against his head hard, wrapping my hands around his wrist and pulling with everything I was.
He snarled and slammed my back into the doorframe, a sharp pain exploding through my body, but I held on, laughing while I did. This was the most fun I had had in months! Why would I let go? I was going to kill them all and bring their heads back home to show Azrael how well I had done.
Maybe we could melt their skin off and I could keep the skulls as trophies—
He slammed me against the wall, having stumbled into the room. “Fucking cunt,” he snarled.
I rearranged one foot, pressing it into the side of his face and kicking over and over and over again, pulling on his arm until I felt his fingers finally release their grip on my throat.
I laughed manically and shoved as hard as I could, using his face as leverage until I heard an unsettling pop! come from his shoulder.
He roared and I dropped to my feet, taking a few steps back as he grabbed his now limp arm.
Azrael would be proud.
I looked around the room for half a second before finding a piece of wood that had come off the wall right next to the door where he had slammed me.
I walked over and ripped a large piece off. These men were always so distracted when they got hurt. Did they not compartmentalize? It was one of the first few rules in training. If you couldn’t block out the pain, how could you ever fight back?
Silly.
I turned around, lifted it, and slammed it down into his stomach.
He gasped, his entire body stilling as he looked down at where my large piece of wood now stuck out of his stomach.
I laughed and shoved him back, forcing him to trip over Kat and fall into the hallway. I turned to Malachi with a smirk on my face, my skin covered in their blood.
He was smiling back. “He did teach you well, didn’t he? You are going to be such a joy to have around.” Malachi took a single step forward, arrogance filling his eyes. “Did he ever teach you about being careful what you touch?”
My smile tightened, my heart slowing. Why would he ever teach me that? Anything could be used as a weapon. It was a rule I knew well, and one I admired now that I didn’t have my dagger.
“You’ll start feeling it here soon, once the adrenaline starts to wear off,” he explained, glancing to the man with the syringe in his eye. “Elise told me how much of a fighter you still were, so I took precautions. Notice the gloves he’s wearing.”
I glanced over to the man bleeding out on the floor. Dima. He did have gloves on.
My brows furrowed and I lifted my own, inspecting them.
“Oh, you can’t see it,” he explained, but just as I found his eyes again, a wave of dizziness hit me like a ton of bricks.
I swayed, grabbing my head. Wait—
“There it is,” he smiled.
I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the feeling. No. No, I could fight this.
“You can’t fight it,” Malachi said. “It’s too potent. A concentration of a sedative that I made myself.”
The world around me started to turn black and fuzzy, my knees shaking. No. But I was already falling.
My head hit the ground with a sickening thud, my limbs tingling and warm.
Malachi stepped up to me, his eyes shining. “Deep breath, Chosen One, I’ll be seeing you very soon.”