Page 47 of King of the Dawn

I felt the laughter coming up my throat, as the man’s full delusions came to the surface.

“You think that she is the villain of this tale?”

Brock’s eyes widened, as he looked at me like I was a lunatic.

“You don’t understand!” he pleaded. “She’s a witch! She’ll take you down too, mark my words! She’s… she’s…!”

The man was an idiot. Far from being the great villain and adversary I thought he could be, he was just… a moron. A sinner who did not know he was the sinner. A villain, deluded into thinking he was the hero of the tale.

“Mark my words, Russian,” he said, his face scrunching into something that looked like constipation, which made me laugh even harder. “She will bring you to your knees, and make you beg for mercy.”

I laughed, feeling the madness of my soul coming out, as I twirled the knife in my hand, before planting it in his gut. Blood gushed out, covering my hand, my sleeve and arm, spilling down his stomach, to his naked thigh, before it pooled into many rivulets over hairy legs, before coming together again at his big toe to drip down to the drain.

He didn’t have the energy to scream. What was the point? The human scream was a cry of fear, and a signal to the rest of their kind for help. He knew that none would come.

I pulled the knife out, tugging it downward to open his guts. The scent of intestines filled the air, as half-digested food and fluid fell to the ground between us.

Everything was spilling out of him - all of his life essence falling to the drain. I knew that the contents of his stomach might clog it… but I would make that my sister’s problem.

“She’ll bring you down,” he said, as his head lolled forward, succumbing to the pull of exhaustion and death. “She will break you.”

“I know,” I told him, as he gasped one final time. “And it will be my privilege to allow her to do so.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Aoibheann

“I should get almost-murdered more often,” I said with a small laugh, as Jericho carried me up the stairs to a waiting plane, like I was the most delicate and blissful bride.

“Don’t even joke about that!” Jericho said through clenched teeth, his angry eyes boring into me as he trudged up the slender metal stairs. “It’s not funny.”

The wind blew across the tarmac, and I shivered at his protectiveness.

“Oh come on,” I said, cupping his cheek in my hand. “You all have been so precious to me since I was in hospital. You’ve spoiled me rotten. Even Rose lets me touch her belly whenever I want!”

Jericho smirked.

He laid me on a leather seat of the private jet, buckling me in like I was some kind of invalid. I didn’t mind, though. I didn’t mind his attentiveness. I relished it.

“I could have done that myself,” I said, smiling, as I grabbed his wrists in mine, pulling him to the seat beside me.

“Why would you?” He leaned over me, placing a kiss on my cheek. “As soon as we take off, I’ll take you to the room in the back so you can get some rest.”

“Hmm, will you lay with me?” I said, placing my head on his shoulder.

He shook his head. “You need to rest.”

“I need my husband.” My words were drowned by the roar of the engine, as the pressure from the acceleration slammed me back into the seat.

He flinched at the word, and that set a flutter in my heart going. It was a warning that something was off. Something was wrong with my precious man. But we couldn’t talk about it now. Not with the sound of the engine deafening us.

He did not hold my hand, to my disappointment. He kept his hands intertwined in front him, one finger rotating the ring I had given him long ago. With some satisfaction, I saw that he had the blue evil eye on his wrist, still. After all of this time. I pried his hands apart, laying my left hand in his, our matching scars facing us. A mark of our undying vows.

He covered it with his right hand, and shut his eyes. He was so still I thought he was asleep, until the plane leveled out in the air, coming to a sweet suspension, and gliding across the sky.

His eyes popped open and without a word, he unbuckled my belt, picked me up, and carried me to the room at the back of the plane. A large bed took over the room. A tiny bathroom was to the side.

I knew of such luxuries, but had never had them myself. I did not even think that the Greens had such accommodations with their private jets.

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