Page 22 of Love Me Forever

“And then what?”

“He wanted me to go beg and bring him the money or he’d make me pay. I kept seeing him around the streets, and he always looked mad. Nobody gave me nothing, and he was really mad.”

He’d likely planned to beat her too if she didn’t acquire coins to hand over, and paying another way was a thing she likely didn’t get at her age. Thank Elira. No child should understand that. She had marks on her arm that were already bruising since he’d grabbed her.

“Listen, I’m going to take you to a physician now. Wipe your face with my hanky, and wait here for a minute. Don’t move. Whisper’s a good boy.”

Tom had drawn his sword, and the man was standing against the wall with a defiant expression.

“Go watch Éloïse and Whisper,” Sébastien told Tom. “I’ll deal with him.”

“Er, Your Majesty?”

“Don’t argue with me.”

Tom headed down the side of the tavern and out of sight. Without Tom and his sword right there, the man made a move like he was going to try to run the opposite way to get to the next street and away.

Until Sébastien’s fist collided with his nose and forced him back into the wall. He grabbed at his face and howled.

“You’re a sick fuck!”

“I didn’t do nuthin’!” He clutched his bleeding nose. “I was just helbin’ and-”

“By leaving bruises and using her for money?”

“If you touch me again-” The man brought fire to his fist.

“What?” Sébastien screamed at him. “You’ll do what? I’ll run you through and set your corpse on fire, you fucking piece of shit. I know exactly how you planned to make her pay.”

The man let his fire go out. “Whatever she said, she’s lying.”

“Even if you only planned to force her to beg and give you what she collected, that’s a form of slavery. I’ve outlawed slavery. Then again, maybe you weren’t paying attention to the laws since you were too busy looking for a victim to snatch.”

The man’s eyes flashed as he wiped his sleeve across his nose. “You’re sick because you came up with the worst thing to blame me for. I was just helping her out.”

“You were undoing your trousers right in front of her face. She told me you threatened to burn her wings if she ran away.”

“I think you’re messed up in the head, and I don’t care if you’re the King. Go ahead and toss me in prison for speaking my mind. You spent too much time with that Rowland King, and you were in the Palace before it collapsed. I heard you got stabbed by someone inside. Maybe too much blood drained out of your head, and now your brain isn’t thinking right if you believe a kid’s wild stories.”

“You know what?” Sébastien let his gaze trail up along the wall to a point a couple of feet to the right of the man’s head. “What do you think of that?”

“Huh?”

“Right there on the wall. Do you see it?”

The man’s befuddled expression would have been funny if Sébastien wasn’t quietly raging inside. He turned a little to look up.

“What the fuck are you tal-”

He made a choked noise when Sébastien’s dagger sliced across his throat. Blood sprayed on the bricks, and he stumbled as he clutched at his neck. Running him through with his sword would have been satisfying, but that could’ve gotten messy, and Sébastien didn’t want to return to Éloïse with blood all over him like a crazed lunatic. Still clean and neat, he stepped back and flicked off the blade as a strange noise came from the guy.

“I’ve sentenced you to death for enslavement, child abuse, and attempted rape.”

Sébastien breathed heavily as the rage flared for a moment. Part of him wanted to burn the man to ashes too, but he didn’t need to do that. He couldn’t anyway. Not without standing there for ages and using his fire magic on the man. Despite his anger, Satan was gone and not returning, so he’d never have that kind of fire again, thank Elira. If anyone looked at his eyes at that moment, they wouldn’t see red.

The man’s knees buckled. Falling against the bloody wall, he went limp and collapsed. The blood slowed since the heart had little to pump out. Sébastien took a few moments to steady his breathing. It was done. The bastard certainly wouldn’t be enslaving anyone to beg for him or using them to suck his dick as “payment.” There would always be sick fucks like him in the realm, but at least this one was gone.

He needed to get Éloïse to the physician, and she'd feel better if he seemed calm. She had been frightened enough earlier. Once he felt contained enough, he wiped the majority of the blood on the man’s homespun shirt before he returned to the others.

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