Page 11 of Born of Blood and Ash

The beast was changing, its size shrinking andshifting under the flickering torchlight. Claws turned into hands and feet.Scales disappeared, replaced by flesh. Pants made of some sort of tatteredburlap appeared, and…light brown hair. Suddenly, a male was on his hands and kneesbefore me, trembling.

I knew. Dear gods, I knew before he even turned hishead and I saw his features. Still, my heart stopped when my eyes locked withhis—blue ones set in a face that had once been handsome but was now thin andfilled with stark terror.

My stepbrother.

Tavius.

I went still, but my heart beat faster and faster. Unable toeven look away, I stared at him, pressure clamping down on my chest.

He inhaled sharply, his entire body spasming. A guttural,wrenching sound came from his parched, cracked lips. His back bowed, bodystraining. His mouth contorted, stretching wide. Arms trembling, he gagged assomething beneath the flesh and fragile bones of his throat movedupward, creating irregular bumps.

A fine tremor coursed through my arm as spittle ran down hischin. Strands of something several inches long that looked like slender, blackropes knotted at the ends fell from his wide mouth, spilling to the floor. Heconvulsed and continued to heave. His head kicked back, his jaw popped, andthat cruel mouth of his gaped grotesquely around a thicker bundle of rope.Something oblong-shaped—solid and hard—pressed against his throat. Hisshoulders hunched violently as he gagged. His head bobbed—

Whatever it was worked itself free of his mouth, a handleattached to what I now knew were copper-twined leather strips.

A whip landed on the stone with a soft, reverberating thud.

The whip.

The one I could still hear hissing through the air.Still feel cracking against my skin. The one I had shoved down histhroat.

Folding his arms across his chest and waist, Tavius rockedonto his knees. His entire body shook, and his head fell back. Saliva andblood-tinged mucus trailed from his mouth. Blood streaked his watery eyes. Ourgazes met.

Time stopped.

It sped up.

“Please,” he whimpered.

My reaction was immediate. I didn’t think. I was past thatpoint. I wasn’t in the cavern before the riders. I was in Wayfair’s Great Hall,bound to the stone feet of the Kolis statue as Tavius humiliated me. Hurt mebecause he harbored within him the same kind of relentless, rotten evil thatKolis had. Attempted to ruin me, not because he truly believed I was a threatto his claim to the throne of Lasania, but because hewas a man, and he could.

Dropping the sword, I snapped forward and slammed the heelof my foot into his side. Bones cracked. I could still feel his weight crushingme… The bastard cried out as he fell onto his back, clutching his side, but allI heard was him demanding that I beg with respect. I kicked him againand again. I stomped him, hitting each and every one of those ribs andthe shadows between them that were visible beneath his flesh.

That wasn’t enough.

Neither was his death.

Or the revenge I’d already gotten. Falling to my knees overhim, I gripped his hair and jerked his head back. I brought my fist down, overand over, cracking and shattering bone, seeing his sneer when he’d thrown thatbowl of dates at my face. I saw only the cruel glee he took in tormentingPrincess Kayleigh, not split skin and caved-in bone. I kept hitting him—

“Prove yourself.” A rider spoke. “And slay the monster.”

I sucked in a heady breath and jerked my arm back. Myknuckles were smeared with blood. I stared at Tavius’s unrecognizable features.Slay the monster? I could do that. Gladly.

Rising to my feet, I stepped over the trembling piece ofshit and picked up the sword. I straightened and turned back to him, draggingthe tip of the crimson blade over the stone as I walked back to Tavius.

The promise I’d made to him before whispered in the back ofmy mind, but this time, I wouldn’t promise to see him burn.

That wasn’t good enough.

I smiled as Tavius rolled onto his side, curling up as if hecould make himself the small, insignificant man he’d been when he was alive. Mygrip firmed as he trembled and shook. The curve of my lips spread. “You willnot return to the pits,” I hissed, and this time, my voice was full of fireinstead of smoke. “You will cease to exist in any form. Every part of you willbe gone.”

Tavius stilled, one swollen, half-open eye fixing on me.

“The physical body. Your consciousness. Gone. You will be nomore,” I promised. “I am going to end you.”

That one eye closed.

I lifted the sword above my head, barely feeling its weight—

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