Page 46 of Of Flames and Crows

“I doubt I’d get it up for you,” he spat.

The blonde blinked at his words.

The air left his lungs the next instant as the force holding him prisoner flung him across the cell. Pain bloomed on his spine and across the back of his skull when he struck the wall hard. He thought he heard a rib snap.

Roman slumped to the ground, his legs tingling. Nausea churned his stomach as numbness gave way to pain. He shook his head dazedly.

Strike one for the demon.

Hysterical laughter choked his throat at that insane thought.

The blonde’s voice reached him through the ringing in his ears.

“You have quite the smart mouth on you, kid,” she said dispassionately. “Let’s see how long you can keep it up for when I sink my claws into your core.”

The cell door opened. A pair of blurry figures appeared. Cruel hands grabbed him by his arms and dragged him out of his prison.

Roman thought he heard the other Fire Magic users shout out his name as his knees scraped painfully across the uneven ground. His vision swam when he tried to make sense of where they were taking him. Stairs appeared, an endless flight of steps that bruised his shins. A door danced into view moments later.

It opened to reveal some kind of lab.

Movement captured his gaze as hands lifted him and dumped him roughly on a table. He barely noted the cold metal kissing his skin and the leather straps biting into his wrists and ankles as he stared at the body being wheeled away on a gurney.

It was Laura.

The witch’s body was contorted in violent contractions that had bent her spine, limbs, and even her jaw at impossible angles. Strange red lines were fading from her skin and her clawed fingers and toes were slowly relaxing.

A whimper left Roman when he saw her familiar where the latter’s corpse was being disposed of in a bag. The dog was burned beyond recognition, his carcass all but a few scraps of blackened flesh and tendons clinging to charred bones.

Someone came inside the room. Roman’s head spun as he turned it a fraction. A handsome man with fair hair and a lab coat stormed over to the blonde where she stood watching him with a callous expression.

“What are you doing, Barquiel?!” The stranger glanced at Roman, his gaze as cold and as unfeeling as the blonde’s. “Oscar said we aren’t to touch him until we’ve located his familiar. There’s no point going for his core right now. He’s too weak and he’ll die without giving us what we want.”

“I’m aware of that, Dietrich.” The blonde’s evil gaze found Roman. “But I can still play with him.”

The guy called Dietrich glared at her before blowing out a frustrated sigh. “Oh, do what you want!” He threw his hands in the air and made for the exit, grumbling all the while. “You’re the only one who can test Vedran’s patience so, but evenhewill be pissed if you rob him of the chance to get his hands on Hellfire Magic!”

The door slammed closed after him.

Roman blinked.Hellfire Magic?!

The blonde approached the table. She leaned down until her face was mere inches from his. His heart contracted with fear as he stared into her crimson pupils and smelled the corruption oozing from her flesh.

She smiled. “Any last words before I rake your internal organs with my nails?”

Roman swallowed. He raised his head.

“Yes,” he whispered a hairbreadth from her lips.

Her pupils dilated and contracted, her interest piqued.

Roman bared his teeth. “Do your worst, demon.”

The blonde’s smile faded. He saw her fingers lengthen into dark talons out the corner of his eye. Then she punched her hand inside his belly in a move that should have been impossible.

Agony roared through Roman as a vile energy squeezed his core. He threw his head back and screamed.

CHAPTER20

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