Page 301 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

Bones shifted in my back, and nothing anyone was doing helped the agony streaking inside my spine.

“Should we try to stitch the letters?” John’s voice trembled.

Zenith said, “Yes.”

I opened my mouth to tell them no, but another bone cracked in my back, and all that came out was a high-pitched scream.

“We need more supplies,” Scorpius said, and there was a commotion as everyone searched the bathroom for more first aid kits and rags. Everyone was distractedly looking.

Malum pressed his lips against my ear and whispered roughly, “I don’t care that your mother’s dead. That is not enough. Whoever served her will burn by my hand. Whoever failed to help you will burn by my hand. Whoever was within a hundred-mile proximity to her when she did this will burn by my hand. I swear it on the honor of the House of Malum. You will be avenged.”

I tried to speak, but my throat was shredded from screaming.

Turning my head to the side, I mouthed at him, “I hate you.”

I didn’t want his vengeance.

I didn’t want anything to do with him.

As I glared up at Malum, silver eyes hardened into molten steel.

He looked at me sadly.

For a long second, he looked soft and young.

Devastated.

Then his expression hardened. “You don’t have to forgive me, just like I don’t have to forgive them. I will make this right for you. You’re not alone anymore.”

Crack. I whimpered from agony and the pain in my heart.

Did he know that was what I wanted?

My deepest desire?

To finally belong. To have a family that loved me unconditionally.

There was a reason I latched onto Sadie and John.

“It’s not that simple,” I whispered. “Everything isn’t black and white.” I panted as I tried to keep my thoughts straight. “You can’t just murder people.”

Malum’s expression turned dark. “When it comes to those I care about, I can. I’m the Ignis of the illustrious House of Malum. I’m the twenty-seventh immortal king to serve the sun god since the dawn of time. I don’t deal in shades of gray. I hurt those who hurt what’s mine.”

He tipped his head back and bellowed, and fire shot from his tongue in a long arc. “She carved a slur into your flesh, Aran. Everyone who served her is dead. They’re all dead.”

Unconsciousness pulled me under, and one thought rang clearly through my head.

He couldn’t massacre an entire realm. Right?

Chapter 41

Orion

SCARS

Rebirth—Day 56, hour 6.

I turned to my Protector and said, “She has ‘WHORE’ carved into her back. It’s a dark enchantment.”

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