Page 267 of Alchemised
She huddled in the freezing water. Another chimaera had attacked Sebastian and Luc. The size of it, it had to be part bear. Luc’s strength was flagging.
The chimaera was huge, mostly mammal but with longer, reptilian jaws and skin so thick, their weapons glanced off. It screamed like a human.
She tried to focus, biting down on her lip, bracing herself to pull out the knife.
Fingers dug into her braided hair, and Helena was abruptly dragged up until her toes barely touched the ground.
Basilius Blackthorne peered at her, teeth bared in a grin, bloodstains from mouth to chin.
He ate his wife and children with those teeth …
“The Eternal Flame has a necromancer, I see.” His voice was raw and rasping.
She tried to stab the arm gripping her, but he batted her hand away with a blow so hard, her left hand nearly went numb. Her knife hit the water with a splash.
She grabbed for his wrist.
Her fingers grazed his skin, her resonance lashing out.
But Kaine had always warned her: Once the Undying knew what she was, they’d be wary.
Before her resonance could connect, he wrenched her hand off, fingers closing around the knuckles of her left hand, squeezing and twisting. His grip was like iron, and her bones broke like twigs.
Helena screamed. The knife in her chest shifted, painful pressure growing inside her lungs.
Blackthorne looked at her shattered hand expectantly and then laughed. “Forgot, you won’t regenerate.”
His gaze turned to her right hand, eyeing the awkward way she had the knife braced. “I think this one is already broken, but let’s make sure.”
With unexpected gentleness, he pulled it away from the knife hilt and snapped her wrist. Black spots of pain danced in her eyes as another strangled scream burst out of her.
“I should keep you alive,” he said as he pulled the knife from her chest very slowly, savouring the glide of the blade.
Helena was in so much pain that her mind kept flickering over into Soren’s, seeking an escape.
He was mobbed by necrothralls. The chimaeras were dead, but there were too many necrothralls, dozens of them, shoving him down into the water, tearing him apart. His leg twisted as teeth bit down, tearing out the tendon behind his knee.
He was still fighting. His weapon was gone, but he had a knife. Penny was screaming behind him, but Alister held her back. Soren kept stabbing, tearing, clawing his way through, following her instruction not to stop fighting even as he was ripped apart. Dead fingers scrabbled across his face, finding his remaining eye. His jaw was torn down, his throat left gaping.
Helena jerked reflexively each time a little more of him was ripped away, but the pain was all with Helena. She couldn’t feel her fingers; there was just a beacon of agony radiating up her arms.
A warm gush of blood ran down the side of her body.
She thought Basilius would stab her again, but he dropped the knife into the water. He touched her side, fingers light across the wound. Her raw nerves screamed in protest.
His fingers traced along the slit between her ribs, and without warning he shoved two of them into it. Helena screamed as her skin tore wider. The bones bowed as he forced his fingers inside the wound, slick with her blood.
“Did you know, my favourite things are wounds,” he said, the words breathless. “Wetter, hotter, and tighter than anything else.”
Helena’s legs thrashed, her broken hands scrabbling to push him away, the ruined bones grinding, but it was no use. She screamed and screamed but no one noticed, bashing her head against his chest until he gripped her by the throat with his free hand, his thumb shoving hard against her trachea until she stilled. Her lungs seized, spasming.
“Yes, just like that,” he said with an approving groan. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you die. You’ll still be alive when I hand you over. Bennet is going to love you.”
Her consciousness had frayed to its outermost limit. Her vision blurred. She couldn’t even breathe to scream anymore.
She was only half aware as Soren was ripped from her mind, his body washed downriver, the connection unravelling like blood in the water.
“One more scream. You do it beauti—”
