Page 66 of Magic Hunted
My magic rose, soothing me.Soon. Soon it would be time for pay-back. It would react to my will any way I wanted it to. I could give life, and I could take it away. We had a language now, it and I, and it would always be on my side.
I was a shifter, born from magic. But I was also part Fae. The bridge across two worlds. My magic wasn’t a curse. It was a gift. I’d been gifted with the strength of an animal and magic powerful enough to heal instead of destroy if I wished. Strong enough not to be twisted and corrupted because of magic I couldn’t handle. I’d been gifted mates who were the completion of my mind, body and soul.
Peder’s eyes snapped open and he writhed in the bonds, but the ropes of magic bound him tightly. His lips drew back to reveal clenched teeth. “Let me go and I’ll make your deaths merciful.”
I snorted. I couldn’t help myself. “There’s nothing merciful about you, Peder.”
“Not for you, sewer-rat. I’ll draw yours out the longest when I get my hands on you,” Peder snarled.
Peder’s head snapped sideways when Ashir smashed his fist into the man’s cheek. “Don’t ever address our mate that way again, or I’ll remove every tooth from your head.”
“I’d listen to what Ashir says. I think you’ll find our mate will take particular delight in makingyourdeath linger,” Dias said.
Peder spat blood on the ground. “You’re all very brave for hitting someone bound who can’t fight back.”
My hands formed fists. “Says the man who bound hundreds of people in Titan’s dungeon and tortured them to death for the fun of it.”
Peder smiled at me, the gesture made more macabre with the blood coating his lips. “You’ve no idea how many times I imagined you bound and gagged for my pleasure, sewer-rat. When I take you back to Titan, he’s promised he’ll give you to me when he’s finished with you. He’ll even heal you so I can torture you again and again and again. We’ll have such a good time.”
“Funny, that’s exactly what Sinon said before I turned him to dust,” I said. “Titan is very free with his promises.”
Peder fisted balls of fiery blue magic. He twisted his palms and two bolts of magic shot toward me. I threw out my hands and magic streaked from my palms, encasing the magic in his hands. My magic wrapped around Titan’s, surrounding it in a flash of brilliant green. It flared bright, illuminating Peder’s features in its glow before it disappeared, leaving his empty hand cupping nothing.
His face fell as comprehension dawned. “How…why…”
I stepped toward one of the human men who had made my life a misery. “Now you’re going to answer my questions, Peder. We can do this the easy or the hard way and a big part of me hopes you’ll choose the hard way. How did you know where the elves’ village was and how the hells did you know we’d be here?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Peder sneered. “Pure luck.”
He recovered quickly, I had to give him that, but I was in no mind to suffer him any longer than I had to. I drew my hand back, bringing forth the undercurrent of my magic and shaping it. A handle formed in my palm. I wrapped my hands around it, and a long tail shimmered into existence. I whipped it toward Peder with a satisfying snap. The end curled around his neck. Satisfaction shot through me when his eyes widened and his skin turned a burning red.
“Who told you we would be here?” I shouted. Unlike Peder, I didn’t enjoy torturing people, no matter how despicable they were.
“You should see the look on your face. Priceless. You really don’t know, do you?” Peder wheezed. Even hanging in mid-air with a magical rope around his neck he was an ass.
I tightened the strand, sparks running down the length of the rope. “Tell me.”
Peder’s eyes narrowed. His features scrunched as rage turned his eyes bloodshot. “You shifters are so predictable. So…self-sacrificing. Whenever Titan made you attend a torture session, I always made it extra special for you. The harder I made them scream, the more I made you tremble. You flinched as though you were the one being struck, you know that? Every time. You thought you could hide it. That we wouldn’t see your reaction, but we did. It was a game we played, to see how many times we could draw out their agony just to watch you. Their pain was your fault, Haera. All your fault.”
His words slammed into me with the force of a fist. They knocked the air from my lungs and my whip faded, leaving a red mark around his skin. “No!”
Savvas caught me when my knees sagged. “He’s feeding you lies, Haera, taunting you because it’s the only thing he can do.”
“Am I now?” Peder asked.
I swallowed down my rioting stomach. “He’s not lying.” Peder’s grin grew. “He’s too perverted to deny it. He’s proud of it.”
I knew the cadre intimately. I’d been on the receiving end of their taunts for fifteen years. I knew exactly what they were like. Psychopaths, all three. They didn’t have the capacity for empathy. Everyone was a bug beneath their feet. Something to be trodden on and beaten up for amusement. It was no wonder they were Titan’s favorite. The four of them were cut from the same cloth.
“All those innocent people suffered. All because you wanted a sick thrill,” I croaked. “They were too weak to protect themselves, but you should know I’m not. Not now.”
I’d been powerless before, but not anymore. My magic churned, a force beneath my fingertips that I could shape at will. This was my magic. It was pure. Uncorrupted. Nothing like the magic the cadre wielded like it was their own. I wasn’t that female locked in a dungeon at the cadre’s whim. The tables had turned. This wasn’t the time to forgive, and I had zero remorse.
“You don’t have what it takes, sewer-rat. You never have and you never will,” Peder said, his face hardening.
“That’s right. I’m not like you, thank the gods. I’ll make your death quick if you tell us how you knew we’d be here,” I said, barely restraining the anger pouring through me.
