Page 43 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘For fuck’s sake,’ he hissed, pressing one hand against my shoulder to keep me upright against the wall. Then his brow furrowed, looking down at his metal hand covered in bright red blood where he’d touched me.
He went rigid, eyes dropping to my arms.
‘Fuck,’ he tugged the cravat from his neck, the stitches popping, but he gave little care as he tore my sleeve to see the wound. Pain I’d forgotten about in the aftermath of everything else.
Deep gouges wept blood over my forearms. Too much blood. Gideon’s fingers slipped against my skin as he worked quickly. Tearing the fabric into long strips as he bound my forearms with it, the white cloth turning red too quickly.
‘He – Hale changed,’ were the only words I could get out as another set of demonic screeches came from the room beyond, making me flinch. The smoke-filled hallway suddenly ominously empty.
‘They sold their souls,’ was Gideon’s terse answer. Of course. I’d forgotten that. Sworn themselves to the mad king. Sworn their soul too. Emrys had told me that.
Emrys.I needed to say his name. Needed to call him back.
My lips parted only for a roaring rumble to come from the crumbling Council room, as unnatural screams filled the air. I pressed back against the wall, the wishing stone fluttering wildly.
‘What is that?’ I demanded.
‘Emrys,’ Gideon answered with short annoyance.
Then I felt it. The brush of Emrys’s magic but different. Sharper, almost wild in its movements across my skin. Colder than before. Consuming.
As it had been in that pit, rising within Emrys. Shadows leaked into the hall, only these were not made of fire smoke,they were like tendrils of ink spreading across a page. The same ones that had guided us through the fire.
Darkness bled from the chamber doorway, or what remained of it. As if one of the ancient Old Gods had been awoken, dragging his dark cloak across the sky to summon the night. Only the creature at its centre wasn’t a fable, a story or an old malicious god.
No – it was Emrys, bathed in that strange white ethereal light to match the glow of the wishing stone around my neck. The darkness curling around his limbs as if it was an extension of himself.
His shirt was torn, face splattered with blood, but his eyes were pitch-black, darkness spreading beneath his skin like vines. He strode towards us, that strange shadow slipping from him like a cloak as it faded from his pale skin once more. I didn’t move. Couldn’t, as an awful trembling consumed my body.
‘If you’re quite finished making aspectacle!’ Gideon barked with all the authority of a perturbed housekeeper. ‘She’s hurt.’
Emrys didn’t falter in his path to me. A barely contained wildness to his movements. The demanding, probing touch of his magic made the pain recede enough to breathe.
His cool palm cupped my throat, fingers stained black with the evidence of his summoning. He was here. The relief made me droop. A sob escaped my lips. Fingers curling into the ruined remains of his shirt. Every breath I gulped down lined with the sharp scent of beasam bark, every one taking that ache away from my lungs.
‘Kat.’ His hands captured my face, forcing my hair back to see me, but I could only shake my head.
‘He lied,’ I gasped, chest too tight, tasting nothing but my own tears. ‘He lied.’
‘Hale changed,’ Gideon offered quietly, wiping his bloody hands on his trousers. ‘We need to come up with a fucking plan to get out of here.’
He lied. A voice in my head mocked. Like a shard digging into my chest. Nothing could stop it burrowing deeper. Not even the strength of Emrys’s hold as he held me to his chest, as my blood soaked into his shirt. His lips pressed against my temple, my panicked breaths brushing his throat still marked with that darkness that lingered within him.
‘They’re here!’ a voice cried through the thick smoke. The dishevelled dusty form of Finneaus shouting down the hallway as he appeared mere feet before us.
Footsteps rumbled in the distance. What remained of the Council hunters looking for us, but I cared for none of it. Didn’t hear the curse slipping from Gideon’s lips or the lethal cold of Emrys’s magic as I pushed from his arms with ruthless strength.
Feral wild fury tore through me as I barrelled straight for Finneaus. He didn’t have a moment to react as I slammed the full force of my body into his. Knocking him to the ground.
‘Lying, vicious bastard!’ I screamed, pinning him beneath me, a horrid crack as my fist smashed into his face with all my strength. Two sharp blows. Something white and bloody skidding across the dusty marble with the force.
His teeth.
He screamed and twisted like a trapped fish beneath me as my nails tore through the skin of his cheeks like paper. I roared into his face. Going for his eyes.
‘Kat!’ Emrys’s arms circled my middle, lifting me easily. My hands curled into fists, Finnaeus’ blood sticky between my fingers. He scrambled backwards, palms slipping in his own blood as it dribbled from his shocked, parted lips.
‘Norac!’ The feral scream clawed its way up my throat.
