Page 159 of Emperor of Wrath

I inch forward slowly, crouching with the sword in front of me.

“I wonder…” Valon’s disembodied, ghostly voice rasps in the blackness. “Do you remember how to get back to your dear husband?”

My spine snaps up straight.

“Or will I get to him first. He did seem to be quite out of sorts…”

No.

Whirling, no longer giving a shit about stealth, I rush back the way I came, trying to remember my steps so I don’t get lost in this maze. If I’m going to die in the darkness to poisoned air, I’d rather do it next to the man I?—

When it hits me, all the breath leaves my body as it all comes rushing back with a vengeance.

In the terror of the explosion, and Kenzo being shot, and the water, and the climb, and the blood, a small detail slipped my mind.

But I just remembered.

One of my hands flies from the hilt of the sword to my shoulder, where Valon injected me with the poison.

My blood turns to ice.

I start to run, blindly smashing into walls and corners, bouncing off them like a ping-pong ball in the dark before suddenly, there’s a faint glow of light. I round a corner and almost choke when I see Kenzo lying against the wall where I left him.

I rush to him, but just as I get there I scream when a silhouette steps into the archway from the metal walkway just past it. My throat closes around the scream, choking it off as Valon smiles cruelly and raises the gun in his hand.

“Come. Here. Now, puppet,” he hisses, turning slightly. It’s only then that I see the horror-show that is one half his face—the skin blackened and blistered, weeping pus and blood. He’s missing the ear on that side, too.

“Now now,” he growls. “Don’t be frightened.” His head tilts to the side, and suddenly, he’s cocking the gun and jamming it down into Kenzo’s face.

“COME! HERE!”

My breath is shaky as I slowly step toward him, my pulse thrumming.

“The antidote,” I croak. “Valon, give me the?—”

“Of course, puppet,” he growls quietly, his lips twisting darkly. “I’ll give you that and the way out.”

His smile widens, and a cold ruthlessness I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in his face before creeps over it.

“But I’m going to fuck you first.”

I flinch as though I’ve been struck. Recoiling, I stare at him in horror as he smiles icily back at me and every horrible memory of him bubbles to the surface.

“Oh, and I don’t mean figuratively,” he growls. “I mean quite literally. Right here, in front of your dear husband.”

He turns to cast a withering look at Kenzo, who’s barely conscious and scarcely breathing against the wall.

“You disgusting pig,” I snarl, brandishing the sword as I move toward him.

“Ah-ah-ah.” Valon shakes his head. He lifts something in his hand, and my heart sinks when I see it.

It’s the little glass bottle of antidote.

The top is off it.

“Stop right there,” Valon grunts, “or this goes into the water.” His lips curl. “Besides,” he smiles, “we both know you’re no killer, puppet.”

My eyes slide to Kenzo, willing him to get better. Wanting him to be miraculously healed so he can get up and stop this.

---