Page 29 of The Queen's Serpent

Santiago stands wearily, a frightening smirk crossing his lips as he moves towards me. “Be careful what you wish for, girl. The devil is always listening and ready to take your soul.”

I would laugh, except this particular devil has already taken my soul, and destroyed parts of me that I didn’t even think were left to be devastated. I have nothing left to lose except my life, and right now, that no longer means much to me, especially if I can deprive him of having me.

Chapter sixteen

Diego

“The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really matteredto me was that she was alive.”

Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

Istare down at the man on his knees at my feet, his head sagging low on his neck, blood pouring from a gash on the side of his head, and trickling into his already swollen-shut eye. His nose oozes more blood, no doubt shattered from one of my fists, and the pained groan escaping his damaged lips is music to my fucking ears.More, cause more damage,the monster inside of me rages.

One of his arms hangs limply at his side, from where I dislocated his shoulder and snapped his forearm, along with all of the fingers on his left hand. His heavy breathing, due in part to the stab wound in his other shoulder, is getting on my nerves. He’s still refusing to give me the information that I need, even though he knows there is no way that he’s escaping this compound with his life.

My arm flies out and meets the side of his battered face, forcing it to slam to the side. More blood splatters across my stone floors, and I’m pretty sure that’s a tooth that just fell out. “Tell me which family sent you,” I demand.

Impertinent silence greets my demand and has me stalking around him with my blade. How I long to fucking gut this piece of shit, from his miserable throat to his groin, and watch allof his guts spill across my floor. That way, I can strangle his worthless neck with them.

Someone bravely and stupidly sent him here to die on a mission to murder me. A mission that,thank fuck, we were able to intercept before he killed more than one of my men. The thought that he could have actually gotten to me, or worse, to Issy, makes my blood boil, and my vision only seesred. The only thing that can calm me now is to see all of his blood spilled, and send his severed fucking head back to who sent him.

“You will die here, make no mistake about that,coño sucio. The only question is how long it will take before you get to meet your maker, and how many pieces of you will be missing by then.”

I slide forward and cut through the cartilage of this ear, as his screams rent the air around us. My men stand against the walls, watching and waiting for their own turns to rip pieces off this asshole who thought he could slip in under our defenses, and try to attack us. No, not just attack us, but murder me.

“You… cannot… escape your fate… forever…serpent. They… are coming,“ his words hiss out in a pained groan.

I grasp onto his other ear, ready and willing to give it the same treatment, but noise at the entrance to the den has my eyes tearing away from the man before me, and meeting a pair of terrified sapphire eyes, her loud gasp the only sound in the room. I watch as she takes in the scene before her. Blood splattered on the floor and walls, splashes of crimson along my carpets, desk, and priceless art. My cream linen shirt sticks to my chest, with rivulets of blood sliding down my neck and forearms. It’s a gruesome scene, especially for a pampered princess to walk into.

The man’s head tilts to the side, and a sinister chuckle leaves his busted lips. “She will… die too, but not before they make you watch… her scream for mercy.”

I slam my clenched fist into the back of his head, making him slump forward, and his face hit the stone floor with a thud. My eyes remain on the vision before me as she trembles, her arms wrapping tightly around herself, as if she could ward off the evil in the room.

“Did you require something,Princesa?“ I inquire nonchalantly, my voice even, as if I didn’t have a man beaten almost to death and bleeding on my floor.She has to get used to the sight if she will be your queen.

Her mouth opens and closes, blue eyes so wide that I almost don’t see any of the white.Come on, Issy, show me what you’re made of. Show me you can handle this life at my side.

I know it’s utterly unreasonable of me to want her to walk into a room filled with blood, and a half-dead man, and be able to get past what she sees. This is not the world that she was raised in, despite her grandmother being a bloodthirsty bitch. It is, unfortunately, the world she will have to become accustomed to, as my wife, and the mother of my children.

She seems to come to some of her senses, her head slightly shaking as if waking from a fog, and I watch with my breath held as she takes a step forward and another, her glare never wavering from mine, and her head held high. Her arms unlace from around her waist and instead become clenched hands at her side.That’s it, baby, show me the vicious feline asleep within you.

“What is going on here, Diego? Who is this man?” Her upper lip curls with disgust as she appraises my appearance.That’s it, my broken doll, show me that fire you hide deep inside of yourself.

“This doesn’t concern you, Issy. If you don’t require anything, get the fuck out,” I growl through clenched teeth.

“Doesn’t concern me?” She splutters with rage, a pink flush starting at her delectable neck, still marked with my fingerprintsand rising to her cheeks. “I’m a goddamnprisonerhere! Everything concerns me! Did this man come to save me? Is that why you are torturing him?”

She moves further into the room, her shrill voice bouncing off the stone walls, and her fear long forgotten. Her bare toes make contact with the blood splatter on the floor, and a momentary expression of disgust and horror crosses her features, but she doesn’t step back.She. Doesn’t. Step. Back.

“You are mistaken, my pretty doll. No one has come to save you. No onewillcome to save you, and do you know why that is, Issy?“ I take a few steps forward towards her, my bloody fingers grabbing onto her chin and squeezing. She doesn’t answer, but I feel the slight tremble in her body, and the lump she swallows in her throat. I lean forward until my lips are pressed close to her ear. “They will never find you, Issy. You have disappeared from this earth unless I choose to change that.”

Her hands wrap around my wrist, trying to pry my hold away as her nails dig into my flesh. Before I can say another word, a loud, gruff noise sounds from the man behind me. “You stole the Stratford princess?” His laughter gets louder before he chokes on the blood in his mouth. “You’re as much of a dead man as I am,puto.”

I watch the impact of his words on Issy’s face; her eyes widen, and a haggard breath leaves her lips. I drop my grip and move away from her. This fucking guy is really getting on my last nerve, and my patience is at an end. If he isn’t going to give me any answers, then his time is up, and he has a one-way ticket to meet the devil.

I move forward and grab a fistful of his hair, wrenching his head back, lifting him off the ground slightly, and then slamming him back down with a hard shove. The impact makes him fall to his ass. “Who sent you? This is your last chance to tell me before I cut you apart, piece by fucking piece.” I motion to mymen, and two of them move forward, one with a machete in his hands.

“Fuuucck you,” he slurs, his body slumped in on itself. Anticipation for more bloodshed, and glee at the prospect of more violence fills me, and has adrenaline racing through my limbs.

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