Crown of Cinders (Imdalind Series Book 7) (19 page)

I sighed. As much as Damek had irritated me in the past, he had actually begun to prove himself quite useful. I supposed the way Sain broke his servants was good for one thing. He knew nothing, and his loyalty laid in fear, not body. He wasn’t sharing anything unless someone squeezed it out of him.

“Don’t tell Sain where you found me,” I snarled, squatting over him until my body was like a cage over his, my mouth inches from his ear. My hair fell around both of us like a curtain, adding a depth of secrecy to my hissed warning. One he shivered beneath, the weight holding him still. “Do, and I will kill you.”

He shivered again, and my smile expanded, the joy of dominion ripping away the last of my anger, even if I did have to find my current slave keeper.

I guessed Damek and I had that in common.

“Do you understand?” I asked.

The sniveling man beneath me nodded in desperation, a whine of fear spewing from him as though he had sprung a leak.

“Good. Now go,” I spat as I turned away from him, fully intent on returning to the wall in order to secure the blade before I went to meet Sain, before I would let him meet his fate.

But Damek didn’t move. He stood, folded like a beast, writhing his hands, eyes locked on the floor.

“Go, Damek,” I repeated, the anger in my voice paramount.

Still, he stayed.

“Damek!” I roared as I took a step toward him.

This time, the man raised his head, all signs of the cowering, sniveling fool Sain had made him gone. His eyes were hard with the same anger I felt running inside me.

“Do not retrieve the blade yet,” he whispered, his voice so quiet I barely heard him. “Wait. Meet with Sain and find me in the room where Cail took his last breath.”

“What?” I gasped, my voice shaking as much as my body, the conversation no longer making any sense.

“We are playing a game, my queen. I think it is time you joined us.” He shuffled away from me before I had even removed myself from over him, slithering like a snake over the floor in an attempt to get away.

I stood frozen, barely able to coax myself to turn toward the door. I remained still, listening to his retreat.

One stress left as another pressed against my shoulders with a weight I knew wouldn’t leave.

Roles. Queen.

I was already aware that I wasn’t the only one who sought the blood of Sain to be spilled. I wasn’t the only one who was playing this dangerous game.

But did I play it on my own or with them and risk being seen?

You couldn’t hide from a Drak. That much, I knew.

And if I were to succeed, I would have to hide in the darkest shadows. I would have to find my own blood-soaked cloak before I stole his.

With a sigh, I turned away, my steps quick as I made my way out of the closet and toward the hall where Sain was waiting.

S
ituated
on that twisted throne of his, Sain sat with his hand atop the repaired remains of my father’s skull. Blood oozed from between his fingers as it ran down the charred bone as though it were weeping blood red tears that dripped onto the floor in long, steady streams.

Looking at him, I expected some injury. But he sat, smiling, the same blood spilling over his face, dripping off his nose and getting tangled in his beard.

He stood then, signaling for me to join him on the stand, something I did in one quick step, no matter how much I was revolted to stand beside him.

“I take it that your plan to destroy the traitors went well?” I asked sweetly, the sound of my heels echoing loudly in the space as he moved right to me, wrapping his blood-soaked skin around me then placing his hand against my jaw.

I tried not to cringe at the contact, at the knowledge that, with that one touch, I would have to throw away the shirt slash short combo I was wearing. I loved this outfit, too.

The blood was cool against my face, the heat of his hand underneath it a stark contrast, one my magic answered to at once. Awakening in a bubble of desperate need I knew I couldn’t fight, it roared under my skin, begging me to reach out to him.

I hated it. My magic wanted his, while my heart wanted him dead. I wished I could fight it. I had tried enough and failed every time.

He sensed the rise of my magic, too, and smiled, the wide grin revealing white teeth against the blood that glistened in his beard.

“It went better than expected.” His smile grew, and my magic bubbled further at the sound of his voice.

It moved around me like jelly. The warmth fueled by the power and authority that drenched his voice, making me lose control of the hatred that had been feeding me.

“Wonderful,” I sighed, the lust seeping into my voice as I leaned closer to him, all thought of saving my outfit forgotten.

“Come, dear,” Sain said as he pulled away, wrapping his slick hand around mine as he led me into the shadows behind his throne, the darkness that used to be reserved for the Drak seers centuries before.

I had always known this space as the forbidden shadows where the Drak would stand amongst us during council, but it didn’t seem so dark, thanks in part to the golden fireflies that dripped from the ceiling. They were little spots of light that fell from the sky, extinguishing with a small hiss.

“What is it?” I asked, the temporary lust leaving as anticipation began to wind within me.

A dark shape beyond the glistening lights came into focus.

Sain’s smile stretched as I dropped his hand, plunging into the dark before him, desperate to see what was before me.

A dark whisper ran over me with each click of my heels against the stone as a warning I didn’t want to acknowledge pounded against my skull. A warning as loud as the whimpers that came from somewhere before us.

Painful, panicked moans grew louder as I stopped in place, the final echo of my heels fading into nothing.

As he left me standing in the dark, the painful cries of what used to be a man whispered before me. The dark shape of the creature was visible beyond the soft hiss of the golden embers that fell from the ceiling to the floor.

Punishment was too simple a word for what Sain had done. I had never seen my father be so cruel. I had never seen a warning of obedience played quite so loudly. The warning echoed in my head, telling me leaving the knife beyond the false wall had been a glaring mistake that I hoped had gone unnoticed by the seer who came up right behind me, the soft touch of his hand against my hip as caustic as acid.

“Come and see,” he whispered, pushing his hand against my waist as he prompted me forward.

I followed, followed and prayed that he hadn’t seen. That this fate would not be my own.

“Beautiful,” I forced the word out, pushing my fear down as the heavy beat of my heels echoed like a bass drum in my head.

Dark masses of stalactites and stalagmites jutted around the dark shape I had seen. The bright embers of flame danced between them like the bars of a cell. A drop of gold, a hiss of steam as it vanished, not fireflies. Molten stone. The unsteady rhythm cast the darkness in an oddly distorted light.

Stepping toward the prison with an unsteady gait, I strangled a gasp in my throat, the huddled mass of a man finally recognizable.

Alojz.

Or rather, what was left of him.

The man huddled behind the stone, his eyes wide in obvious trepidation. The fire and will that had supercharged his soul had been beaten out of him. Not even a whisper remained.

His eyes were sadness and fear now.

Sadness and fear that echoed loudly, right into my soul, echoing a deep warning. A warning of what would happen to me if I defied him.

My heart stopped beating as Alojz attempted to move his broken body into an uncomfortable crouch, a dead arm dragging on the ground beside him.

“Say hello, Alojz,” Sain taunted, his voice a dangerous whisper that I jerked at, the movement thankfully missed by Sain.

Alojz looked at me, his eyes wide in an understanding that terrified me, his bloodshot eyes crying an identical crimson. He opened his swollen jaw with a gasp, his teeth and tongue missing from the void. He gasped and spluttered as he looked at me, his eyes as red as the deep crimson splotches of his own blood that covered his clothes.

“Wonderful,” Sain said with a clap of his hands, finally leaving my side to circle around the prison.

I had hoped to calm at the distance, but my anxiety grew. Alojz’s mutilated face held me captive.

“What do you think, my darling Ovailia?”

“Beautiful,” I repeated.

Sain’s sigh of pleasure was loud in my ears as he rushed back to my side. I almost expected him to touch me, to pull me closer, but he stayed an arm’s distance away, my magic pulling away from me in an attempt to reach him.

The emotion, along with the lust, was disgusting, but now it was more. It was a disturbing need that was made more twisted as I faced what he could easily create of me.

No, I realized with a start, what he could create of us all.

He was the blood-soaked king, and this was his reign.

“Indeed. If you think this is beautiful, you should have heard his screams as I ripped him apart. As I twisted the bones in his arm and burned his tongue from his mouth.”

I shivered, fear rippling up my spine, burning into my bones in a powerful surge that I was having trouble containing. I could still feel the lust for his power, still feel my magic pull toward him, but now, even my magic was afraid.

Afraid of the idea that was cementing itself inside of me.

I had destroyed the pekelný. I could destroy him.

I didn’t need to follow power. I had that power within me.

The power to destroy him. The power to take control.

And he knew it if the fear that was clouding his eyes were any indication.

Forcing myself to stand still, I smiled, my focus calm, though my heart rate had picked up on something dangerous. The way he was posturing, his hand strong on my elbow, didn’t help.

“After being at the receiving end of such torture for years,” Sain began, his voice a dangerous hiss as he pulled me closer, “it was a delight to find I could still have joy in the gift of giving it to another. That I could come up with new and amazing ways to make someone hurt, to make their devotion change.” Sain pulled me into him, his lips inches from mine, his eyes the only thing I could see.

I gasped, losing my breath as the warning in his words dripped clearly, his threat tearing through me.

He knew something.

“You will have them all on their knees.” I kept my voice low, feigned longing dripping off me in liquid lust as I focused on the deep green of his eyes. Pursing my lips, I ran the side of my finger down his cheek, wiping away some of the still damp blood that was attempting to congeal there. “No one will dare defy you after you reveal what you are capable of.”

“Even you, Ovailia.” His grip on my waist increased with a violent jolt, shoving me against him as a dangerous flash came to his eyes. The creature beside us whimpered in fear of the monster who had unfurled inches from me. “Would you dare defy me?”

“Never, Sain.” My heart beat so fast I could barely hear the words over the thunder, sure the lust I was taunting him with was unrecognizable. “I am not the devil. You are my king.”

He didn’t move, didn’t look away. His eyes remained locked with mine as his hot breath ran over my lips.

My heart pounded against my ribs.

“I will destroy your devil, Ovailia.”

“There is no devil to destroy, only hell.”

He smiled, content with my flattery. Releasing me, he stepped away, and my chest ached with a sigh of release that I wouldn’t give him, not yet.

“A hell that everyone will soon see. Then I will show them the power that lies before them, and no one will dare cross me.” Turning toward me, he smiled gently, lifting his hand to press against my jaw, his thumb against my cheek.

I expected the volatile pressure of his anger, but it was simply a gentle flutter of skin against mine.

The disgusting lust increased under my skin, my magic swimming to meet his with eager energy.

“Don’t worry.” Sain kept his voice low, the deep, sultry notes affecting me like warm milk lulling me into a stupor as I fought the need to melt with the deep need that was threatening to drown me. “You will see this hell. You will help me kill the devils before us. I know it. I have seen it … my queen.”

I started, the similarity in what he had said, in what Damek had said, coating me in panicked fear.

He knew.

He had to know.

The way he smiled. The way he pulled me into him.

This was a warning, a chilling threat.

Sain’s eager grin was ripe with the same malicious intent mine was. The look was so clear I wondered which one of us would kill the other first, whose blood would be a brighter stain against our skin.

Stomach twisting, heart pounding, I stepped closer, leaning in as I breathed him in. I breathed in the bright green of his eyes. I breathed in the smell of blood that infected his skin. I breathed in the tickle of beard against the softness of my cheek.

“My king,” I whispered, letting the hatred drip from me, blending with the lust so powerfully I was certain he didn’t miss either emotion.

He pulled away, his green eyes hungry as his lips twitched. His beard pulled before he leaned into me, pressing his lips to mine with a deep hunger that infected me.

I kissed him back, letting his magic tickle against mine before pulling away with a smile, despite part of me not wanting to. Part of me was dying inside.

Sweeping my hair over my shoulder, I took a step closer, pressing my hip against his. “I live to serve you,” I whispered into the dark, my hatred of this man finally taking control with the realization that I could use him. “Tell me what to do.”

He opened his mouth, but the words were sucked from his throat as the main doors to the hall were thrown open, and Damek rushed in with a look of awe and fear.

“Damek!” Sain screamed.

The intruder froze in place as Sain rushed into the bright open part of the hall. Sain’s shoulders pulled into a tight line of anger as Damek began to wilt beneath his glare.

“I told you not to disturb me, no matter—”

“But, master …” Damek began before the words faded into the clicking and gasping more akin to a fish out of water.

Sain’s hand twitched as his magic closed the man’s throat, punishing him.

“Speak, Damek,” Sain teased, but the request was unneeded thanks to the girl who rushed through the door, screaming like a banshee, her hair wild as it flew behind her, her skin and clothes streaked with blood.

No. It couldn’t be. I had thought she was dead.

“Míra!” Sain yelled gleefully, as if he were a rotund grandfather welcoming home an estranged love one. “I had a feeling I would see you today.”

“He’s dead! You killed him!” the girl screamed, her magic sparking a second before she attacked. The stream of red fire sparkled across the air toward Sain.

His laugh boomed above the current of her magic a second before it vanished. The red dripped to the ground like wax, the fire dissolving to smoke in the air.

Míra’s eyes widened, her anger swept away by fear as she began to tremble.

Sain’s laugh grew deeper. His own magic flew across the air with a flick of his wrist, wrapping around the girl and trapping her inside the deep sheath of black smoke.

Stomach tensing, I took a step forward before freezing.

Damek’s wide eyes met mine, the hushed conversation we’d had clear in the bloodshot gray. Every coded word and hushed phrase stuck out as the scene before me began to unravel. I froze, my stomach twisting as my magic jerked around inside of me, dying to get out.

However, I was no longer clear on who I would attack or even why.

“I killed who, exactly?” Sain mused, his voice full of false promises as it echoed around the wide cavern. “Your master? That weak man who infected you with a Štít? Yes, I killed—”

“You killed him! I killed my brother because of him – he didn’t have to die.” Míra interrupted, her voice strangled underneath the malevolence that was as bright as the blood on her face. “You killed my brother! He’s dead because of you! Because of both of you!”

With the snap of her anger, Míra’s magic broke free of Sain’s control, a whip of gray hissing through the air to slam against Sain’s chest.

The old man gasped, stumbling back into the dark as the magic moved into him. His blood-soaked cloak fell from his shoulders, waving through the air like a fallen banner.

As my chest heaved with dissidence, my magic prickled against my skin as I waited for the right moment to attack, to know what to do.

“You don’t deserve to live!” Míra snapped before another bolt of magic, another attack moved across the air and right into the old man as the child ran toward him, obviously intent on ending him.

Heart thumping in my chest, pressing against me, eager to watch his end, I did nothing.