Page 30 of Secrets & Curses of Cerithia

Like the blood in my veins, it coursed through every inch of me, seeping completely into my bones and flesh. It dug its claws into me with such a beautiful pain that I knew it wouldn’t let me go for a long time, if ever at all. The marks on my skin glowed brightly, and my vision pulsed red as I stared down the men. All of them shrank away from me, and I chuckled softly. This only made their fear worse.

“You really shouldn’t have done this,” I said softly. My own voice sounded somehow off—somehow not myself. “Who sent you?”

“Fuck you, Crimson whore,” the blonde one spit at me.

I moved so fast that he didn’t even have a chance to blink before I was in front of him, driving his own dagger into his stomach. Our faces were only a foot apart as I smiled and ripped my dagger upward through his flesh. The light vanished from his eyes as soon as my blade pierced his heart.

“I don’t care much for that nickname,” I smirked as he fell over, but another guard was already running at me before the first guard had even hit the ground.

I turned and ducked from his violent swing, plunging my dagger into his throat. The gurgling sound he made had my darkness happy. As his body slid off my blade, I turned to face the last three men, covered in the blood of their comrades. One of them took a step backwards at the sight of me. Smart move, but it was too late to let them go. My darkness wanted vengeance for what they did to me. With a single thought, my fire mist exploded from me and wrapped up the one that tried to run. Then my darkness stepped in and took hold of my fire magic, tightening the grip I had on him until his body exploded from the pressure.

“For the love of the gods!” one of the men cried out at the sight of me as I slowly turned my red eyes toward him. Blood dripped from me, but it wasn’t mine. I was bored of fighting them, so I flicked my hand and watched their bodies instantly evaporate from my fire. Once they were dead, I took a deep breath and tried to gain control of myself. I felt a strong resistance as my darkness refused to yield.

It dug itself even deeper into me as I felt it frantically looking for something. As soon as I turned and saw Cassius staring at me, my darkness calmed a bit and hummed in satisfaction, like it had found what it had been searching for. Seeing him was like a fever dream—unreal and delirious. As I stalked slowly toward him, he didn’t even flinch at the sight of me. My darkness suddenly lashed out of me and wrapped Cassius tightly in the dark tendrils of its magic.

I stared at him, hating the fact that he wasn’t showing any fear that I would kill him, yet confused by the absolute joy in his eyes as he looked at me. My head cocked to the side as he watched me, like I was the best thing he could be looking at right now.

“Aren’t you scared?” I asked him.

He watched me for a silent moment. It was then that I realized my darkness was not angry. It was not wanting to hurt him at all, and that fucked with my mind. My darkness was happy to see him. It almost felt relieved at the sight of him.

“Of you?” His voice broke through the confusion of my darkness. My eyes stared into his. “You terrify the fuck out of me, little viper.”

His words were not full of hate or worry.

“Why can’t I feel your fear?”

“You won’t kill me, Thea. Your mind might not remember us, but your heart and soul do, and they would never allow you to do it.” Wisp appeared in a dark green flame as she saw Cassius.

“Unfortunately for you, I no longer possess a heart.”

His handsome face frowned at my words, but they were true. I was empty. Inside of me was dark, tainted, and destroyed by what he did.

A noise in the distance caught my attention. Cassius seemed to hear it too, because his eyes shifted to the tree line where horses were approaching us quickly.

“Looks like your kingdom has come to rescue you,” he spoke with venom. When I glanced over my shoulder, I could see both Cerithia and Kizar guards coming. “Let me guess, you are hopelessly in love with Jesper now.”

For reasons unknown to me, my anger expanded at the sight of them. I ignored his jab and turned to focus on him again. I willed my darkness to hurt him, but it refused, just like he had said it would. I tried again, harder this time, but nothing happened. With irritation, I let him go. He fell to the ground and looked at me.

“You didn’t kill me.”

“No, but make no mistake—I will the next time we cross paths. I want to take my time with you, Cassius. I want to elicit the same pain you did in me, and that will take hours.”

The horses were getting closer to us. He stared at me with his bright golden eyes and his chaotic dark hair. I didn’t want him to mistake this for me giving a fuck about him.

“Consider this a promise of what’s to come,” I snapped as I gripped my viper-handled dagger and flung it at him. Cassius didn’t move. He didn’t try to stop the blade like I knew he could have. He grunted harshly when it hit his shoulder. He fell to one knee, his breathing coming out in short, choppy gasps as he grabbed the blade and pulled it from himself.

“You can cross over and come back to Crimson,” he spoke in an exhausted voice as he tossed my dagger back to this side of the boundary. “I will let you do whatever you need to if you come back with me. I will take your anger. I will take your hatred. Yell at me, curse me, or stab me if you want, but do not close me out anymore. This is the worst torture you could give me, my love. Being so close to you without being able to have you.”

“Crimson is not my home, and I will not believe a word from your mouth ever again.”

His golden eyes dimmed. My heart was pounding out of control in my chest. I needed to be away from him before I fell for his pretty lies again.

“Did you do this? Did you have them kidnap me and bring me to you?”

“No.”

“How did you know we’d be here?”

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