Page 24 of MidKnight
I just shook my head. “Thank you for caring so much for Avia.”
“I do. I really do,” his words became choked with emotion.
I had to turn away before I was overcome myself. Instead, I forced my mind to focus on the person who’d caused all this heartache. The monster who’d come into my home and ripped it apart.
I flexed my fingers as I descended to the dungeon. I hoped Quinn hadn’t beaten him too badly. I desperately needed to unleash my fury.
Abbas was strung up on chains and suspended from the ceiling like a puppet. His face and chest were a mottled black and blue and a single line of blood trailed down his chest.
The walls and ceiling of his cell were a moldy, damp stone and it looked like Quinn had positioned the asshole to ensure that brackish filth dripped down on the prisoner.
“Are we in the chamber below the cesspit?” I asked.
Yes. The latrines all dump just above us.
Got it. I’ll keep my face back as I hit him. Can he be lowered a little, so I don’t have to strain?
Anything for you, Dove.Quinn quirked a grin and used a lever on the wall to lower Abbas, who moaned, looking worse for the wear.
“Has he talked yet?” I asked before balling up my fist.
I hadn’t gotten around to asking,Quinn leaned back against the wall, casually.
Why not?
He hurt you.A shadow flashed in Quinn’s eyes. The kind of darkness that occurs when storm clouds turn black, just before they unleash their fury. His look made my heart jump, but not in fear. I’d never seen this side of Quinn before. This violent anger. But, clearly, it was a part of him. A spy master’s hands were always stained.
I took a step closer to Quinn, letting the crackling force of his anger buzz along my skin. It was like static electricity. It set my nerves alight. He was darkness. And he was mine.
I sarding love you.I kissed his lips lightly before I turned back toward the prisoner and pulled my elbow back for a right hook.
I swung and connected. I didn’t even feel the pain leaching up my arm because the sense of satisfaction was so intense. My hit made Abbas swing on his chains and I had to back up so he wouldn’t knock me down when he swung back toward me.
“What are you?” I asked the scum licker.
Abbas merely smiled, then let his head shift to a boar’s, complete with tusks. The dungeons allowed shifting. Because what the prisoners didn’t know was that their chains would shift with them.
I grinned at Abbas when he realized he couldn’t reach me. I took a moment to enjoy his frustration before I turned to Quinn.
Think he’s a fairy?I asked Quinn.
Possible. Phouka are known to shapeshift. But dragons and phouka aren’t known to work together.
Abbas changed his head to a black-horned dragon’s head.
I was so emotionally wrung out, I didn’t really process the threat. Too much had happened too quickly.
My only thought on seeing the dragon was this: death might be a nice change.
I didn’t have time to think more than that before Quinn had eliminated the threat. He swung his sword and sliced off a bit of the dragon’s nose.
Abbas roared and his head changed to human form once more. His human nose bled, a tiny sliver at the end removed.
I continued my conversation with Quinn as if we hadn’t nearly been roasted alive.
Phouka come from Gitmore.Gitmore was the onecountry in the seven kingdoms that truly hated Evaness. The country was Sedara’s northern neighbor and we’d been in a feud with them for ages. Over something stupid, I was sure. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that they might have sent a phouka to my doorstep.
Quinn didn’t agree.They’ve withdrawn since the last Fire War. They have that huge haunted desert between them and the sea. And it would have taken a shiteload of magic to convince all those servants from Cheryn that this bastard was Abbas.
