Page 105 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

She shoved her power down, tightening her grip on the daggers as she stalked forward. To the Hunter she said, “Get him on his knees.”

Tessa didn’t know what he did, but a moment later, Arlo was screaming in pain as he sank to the floor.

“Stretch out his right arm,” she said.

Again the male screamed as some phantom power yanked him forward on his hands, pulling his arm straight. Tessa was sure it had dislocated his shoulder.

She lowered to a crouch once more, slamming a dagger straight through his hand and into the floor.

His screams were a symphony she wished she could add to a playlist. She hummed along as she used the other dagger to severhis fingers from his hand, one by one. When she was done, she smiled sweetly at the male whose face was a pale mess of tears and drool as he continued to whimper before her.

“Wh-why?” he stuttered.

“Because you touched me as if you had the right to,” she answered plainly. “So I assumed I had the right to take from you too.” He whimpered when she twirled the bloody dagger in her hand, drops of blood splattering. “You looked at me like you had the right to do so as well. Shall I take your eyes next?”

“Pl-please don’t!” he wailed.

“And when the Fae ask the same of you, do you stop?”

His only answer was another sob.

“How many young have you fathered within these walls?”

When he didn’t answer, she yanked the dagger from his hand and drove it into his shoulder. Gods, his screams did something to her. Made her feel alive.

“They don’t tell us,” he wailed. “They call us when we’re needed.”

“And today?”

“I have an appointment tonight,” he blubbered.

Tessa only hummed, yanking the dagger free again to another agonized wail. “Who?”

“I don’t know!” he cried. “I swear it.”

“But you would have come and found me, right?”

His answer was several shallow sobs.

This time she sank her dagger into his side. “Right?” she pressed. “And don’t lie to me, Arlo. I’ll cut out your tongue.”

“Yes,” he said on another sob.

“To take from me.”

He didn’t verbally answer, but he nodded several times.

Then there was only gurgling as she slashed her daggers across his throat, one after the other.

The male fell face-down to the floor, blood spilling and pooling around her bare feet. She frowned as she looked down at the daggers in her hands, unsure of where to store them. Shrugging, she bent and wiped the blades on the male’s clothing, humming to herself. Then she sent them to a pocket realm before she moved to retrieve her sword still impaled in Darius’s corpse. She did the same with the sword, bloody footprints marking her path.

When she was done, she turned to Brecken. “Should we go?”

He was staring at her, his mouth agape. “Tessa…”

She only smiled, her entire being buzzing from the adrenaline of taking.

Of being the most powerful.

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