“You’d better leave now, my queen. It is going to get bloody in here.”
She flicked her gaze toward the back of the dungeon where the clunking had stopped. He knew what was coming. He signed up for it the moment he gave Isay to the enemy. He should’ve left with her. To think he could persuade the king of his innocence was idiotic.
The queen picked up the hem of her dress and scurried off. I didn’t see any of her in the way Isay ran toward danger instead, or the way she spoke her mind. In fact, I didn’t trust Siya to talk to the king on my behalf. She hadn’t been able to convince him to go after Isay. My life meant even less, despite my skill set being one of a kind.
She’d better stand up for Isay, however, because if I even got an inkling that she’d no longer be safe here, I would take her anywhere else. We could stay on the run together. Just Isay and me.
And Regar. He deserved freedom, as well.
“I feel like locking myself back up after this little confidence boost,” the warrior muttered under his breath as I pulled him to Ferro’s cell.
“She’ll come through for us.” I was trying to convince myself as much as him. But when I laid my eyes on Ferro, I no longer cared at all.
He sat on the concrete floor with a piece of wood that looked a lot like a leg of the cot gripped in his fingers. When he moved his hand, the wood hit against the bars that kept him imprisoned. The clunking resumed. He didn’t look up from his movement, but his lips curled up in a wicked smile.
The dried blood and the twisted angle of his nose made him look uncanny. The smirk on his face just wasn’t right. Ferro had never smirked like that. This was no longer the fae we knew.
“You’re not going to find the girl. It’s too late; they’ve already disposed of the body.” Ferro laughed dryly.
I searched the chain dangling from my fingers trying to find the correct key, but I could only see red. Fingers shaking from fury, my first two attempts to unlock the door failed.
“Felrothians do not kill,” I growled, finally slamming the door open.
Ferro looked way too comfortable leaning his back against the wall, legs stretched out and that piece of wood now pointed at me like a gun.
He made the motion of shooting it, together with a sound effect and all, before bursting into manic laughter.
I had my fingers around his throat, yanking him to his feet and slamming his head against the wall. The piece of wood he’d been holding fell from his fingers as he brought his hands up to punch me. I pressed his windpipe tighter. “Where is Isay?”
“I will tell you nothing,” Ferro coughed.
“Kar, stop. We need him alive.” Regar had joined us in the cell, but he wasn’t holding me back. Despite his words, he wanted Ferro dead just as much as I did.
Needing an outlet for the fire inside my gut, I released Ferro, only to use him as a punching bag. He brought his hands up in defence, but the force of my hits made his knuckles slam into his face.
“I will tell you nothing!” he screamed, dropping to the floor and coughing up blood.
“What? No begging for your life? No elaborate descriptions of your plot? No need for justification?” I didn’t care for his reasons, but if I could get him to talk about something, it’d be easier to steer it to the direction I needed the conversation to go.
“You can’t kill me,” Ferro cackled manically, his crazed eyes meeting mine with fervour. “Nobody can kill me now!”
Regar and I shared a glance, but neither of us knew what he was getting at.
“Nobody can. Nobody can! I am invincible!”
He’d lost his marbles, that much was clear. He was completely bonkers. He was also right; I would get nothing from him.
I pulled him up on his feet again, trying to connect to his ecos through the contact, but it was guarded like before. Splitting headache crushed at my skull as I concentrated on breaking through to his life source, all the while he kept on snickering.
Regar spoke from next to me. “Kar, stop. Let’s just leave him. We can go back to the club and ask around.”
I couldn’t accept it. I needed Ferro’s life force, his emotions. There was truth he wasn’t going to say in his energy. If only I could get to it, I could decipher everything he refused to tell us.
“Kar, you’re killing yourself. Stop!” Regar’s voice was quieter.
He was wisely staying away from me. With my power this drawn out, I would decimate him within seconds. The fact that Ferro was still breathing was not a good sign. It meant there was truth behind his insanity.
Nobody could hide from death. Death was the ultimatum that always had its own way. A force to be reckoned with.
The day of reckoning would catch everyone off guard.
Today was Ferro’s day, no matter what he believed to be true about his invincibility. No matter what appeared to be the case when I had no leeway to squeeze through the barrier between me and his ecos.
My nose bled, and my vision blinked when a gateway within me opened. It was nothing like the new sensation of finding a place to store devos. A burst of light and warmth spread through my body. My chest heated with life and love, so much of it I almost couldn’t comprehend the sensations. What I’d felt for Isay before tarnished in comparison.
I’d called it love, but it’d been nothing. Nothing at all. I hadn’t been able to love with this gateway closed inside me. Love had been a myth, an impossibility. I’d felt a connection, sure. I’d desired her, most definitely. But I had not loved her.
I did now. With this warmth burning in my heart. I loved her now like I’d never loved anything in my life before. The light I’d released in my despair to kill a man had opened my eyes and my heart.
I let go of Ferro, not caring for his life force any longer, and that’s when his ecos released over to me. Without physical contact. Without any concentration whatsoever and right after I’d given up knowing what the other fae was hiding. I’d been ready to drive over to the club where we’d been attacked, and I would have searched for clues until I’d found something, anything at all.
Ferro’s ecos simply slithered over to me. I could see the light grey strands woven through oily black as it crossed the air between us. His eyes widened, and he finally looked at me. Really looked at me.
“How?” he gasped, not laughing any longer. “You got to… me.”
Slowly, painfully slowly his body disintegrated.
Regar stared at me just as wide-eyed. “Holy shit, Kar. What did you do?” he exclaimed.
