Chapter 40 #2
Then her expression shifted, nervousness melting into something bolder. The corner of her mouth picked in with a slow smile. “Where are you headed, soldier?”
Just play along, I told myself. Play the game. It’s all they know how to do.
I folded my arms across my chest, straightening to show off my height. Most women loved tall males . . . right?
“I was looking for you,” I murmured before my mouth broke into a sensual grin.
A pink flush washed up her pale throat, blossoming into her cheeks. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around. Are you new?”
I shrugged lightly. “I might be, and don’t worry,” I said, leaning down to her eye level. “I’ve noticed you.”
Her smile grew bigger, and her head tilted to the side. As it did, a glass wobbled on the tray. I caught it before it could fall, setting it back with more care than I felt.
“You’d better get these to the king before he notices them missing. Perhaps I’ll see you around,” I said with enough confidence to make her blush.
For a second, her eyes danced with mischief, then she realised what I’d said about Snake and her face paled. She swallowed, nodded, and hurried past me without another word.
I waited until her footsteps faded before moving again, my pulse still loud in my ears.
Every pair of eyes in this palace was a risk.
Every breath, borrowed.
I closed my eyes for a brief second, gathered my wits and slipped deeper into the maze of corridors, following the faint echo of music drifting through the stone. Even the tune sounded off. Like it tried desperately to be beautiful, yet remained a shattered melody.
As I moved deeper into the palace, my thoughts flicked to Matthias. Hopefully Abby was safe and he was on his way back here. He knew these halls better than anyone and I could certainly use the assistance.
Twisted corridors wound their way towards the thrum of music, its sounds growing louder with every step.
To the left, a door stood wide open. I slowed without meaning to.
Inside, a man and a woman were tangled together on a bed, the scene raw and ugly.
Not intimacy, but something frantic and unkind.
The woman’s voice rose sharp and breathless, not with joy but with something closer to desperation. The man didn’t seem to notice. Or care.
I turned away, stomach churning.
This wasn’t desire. It was consumption.
I forced myself onward, heart hammering, only to stop again a few doors down.
Another room.
A woman lay sprawled on the floor just inside, half-covered by a discarded blanket, her dark hair spread across the stone. She wasn’t moving. For one terrible second I thought she was dead, but then I saw the slow rise and fall of her chest.
Passed out. Left there.
I clenched my fists until my knuckles burned. “This place is worse than I ever imagined,” I whispered under my breath.
Snake didn’t just rule Oscuro.
He’d hollowed it out.
I left her there—not because I didn’t care, but because I couldn’t afford to stop. I pressed on, every step heavier than the last. Blythe was somewhere here and every second in this place made the need to reach her burn sharper.
Voices drifted louder, coming towards me like a wave.
A group of so-called courtiers, dressed heavily in dark riches, stumbled over themselves in a drunken stupor.
Women in low-cut bodices, breasts spilling free, laughed with wine glasses clenched in jewelled hands.
Men watched with wide eyes, tongues too eager and hungrier hands still, grasping at flesh and hair as though they were entitled to both.
I slipped into a small alcove, waiting there until they passed by. Once it was quiet again, I moved. I’d just rounded a corner when I heard it. A muffled cry. A voice I knew all too well. “Snake, please—”
Blythe's broken voice punched a hole straight through my chest. I didn’t think. I moved. I sprinted down the hall, bursting into the room through the open doors. Everything came into view all at once.
Blythe was on the bed, completely naked, bound with chains and struggling. Her hair wild around her face, eyes glassy with tears. Panic and exhaustion clung to her like a second skin. She looked smaller than I’d ever seen her—but she was there. Alive.
Snake stood a few feet away, shirt half open, sweat beading on his chest. He looked like he’d been enjoying himself far too much. He laughed when he saw me, slow and ugly.
Blythe made a sound when our eyes met—something broken and desperate, muffled but unmistakable. Relief. Hope. Pain all tangled together. “Nik—”
Snake stepped towards me with a mocking grin. “Well, well,” he drawled. “I wondered how long before the loyal dog came sniffing back.” His gaze flicked to Blythe. “See, Sapphire? I told you they’d come.”
My blood went cold. But I didn’t look away from him. “Let her go, Snake.”
The sound that left his lips was a strangled, manic laugh. “Oh no, that would be far too boring,” he sneered. “Perhaps I should fuck her in front of you, show you the whore that she is.”
Heat travelled through my veins at an alarming rate. My vision tunnelled until all I could see was Snake. I lunged for him.
“Nik, don’t!” Blythe screamed.
Snake laughed, but didn’t move. For a heartbeat, it felt like I might actually reach him. Then, from the shadows, Thorns exploded forth. Figures tore free from behind the curtains.
Something looped tight around my throat, ripping my fingers away from the hilt of my dagger as it yanked me backwards. Air fled my lungs in a harsh, startled gasp.
Another force slammed into my wings, pinning them painfully against my back, locking them in place. I fought, twisting, striking out blindly, landing one solid blow that sent someone reeling.
“I see you still haven’t lost your reckless edge, Nik,” Snake called above the noise. “Still the Lightner who fights in his sister's shadow.”
Rage surged through me like a tide breaking against the rocks in a storm. “Still can’t fight your own battles, Snake? So unworthy you have to steal the throne.”
His cold grey eyes narrowed, the grin on his face turning into a sour snarl.
Before I could break free, something sharp stabbed into my arm.
I snapped my head towards it, catching the last remnants of a brackish green liquid disappearing under my skin.
A male Thorn with a jagged scar and a limp grinned at me.
“No,” I rasped, trying to tear free.
“Nik!” Blythe sobbed, pulling against the restraints around her wrists so hard, I could see the faint hint of crimson dripping down her arms.
I wanted to reach for her. To wrap her in my embrace and tell her that everything was going to be alright, but my body was betraying me. Strength drained from my limbs in a terrifying rush, muscles turning heavy and unresponsive as if they no longer remembered what they were meant to do.
I stumbled, and a Thorn tightened the rope around my neck. I went down hard, stone slamming into my knees with a sickening crunch.
Snake stepped into my blurred field of vision, unhurried.
He crouched beside me, eyes bright with something cold and satisfied. My eyes flicked to the ridged scar across his pale throat. A constant reminder of who nearly killed him on the battlefield all that time ago.
Snake reached out and hooked a finger under my chin. “Welcome to Oscuro,” he said with a grin.
I tried to tear my head away. To speak. To breathe, but everything went dark at the edges and somewhere above me, Blythe screamed.
It was the last thing I heard before the world slipped away.