Page 91 of The War of Wings
Her expression hardened, her jaw square as she turned for the door. “Take me to him.”
Chapter 36
Petra
Malosym’s life would soon be over.
At my hand.
I wasn’t going to think about it. I wouldn’t think about what it felt like for Cal to lead me to the dungeon. I wouldn’t think about how I could tell he knew something was off. And I definitely wouldn’t think about the look on his face when I left him at the top of the stone stairs, telling him this was something I needed to do alone. I couldn't think about that.
The dungeon was mostly empty, only a few cells occupied with men who called out and jeered as I walked past. At the very end of the corridor, behind two guards and an iron door with a single barred window, was Malosym.
“Thank you,” I nodded to the guards. “You’re dismissed.”
The two men, both almost as tall as Cal, exchanged a glance. “Your Majesty, wouldn’t you like our protection?”
“I won’t need it,” I answered quickly, and if they wanted to argue, they didn’t show it. They simply lowered their heads and walked off, leaving Malosym to me.
Bile surged up my throat at the smell of blood and sweat and damp stone that permeated the air. The only light in the cell came from the torches flickering in the corridor, barely illuminating the form waiting for me. There was no glowing blue light. No monster made of shadows. No darkness incarnate. Just a man chained to a wooden chair, a trail of dried blood crusted from beneath his nose to his chin.
He looked like nothing more than a human. He looked like Castemont.
“My darling Petra,” he murmured with a lazy smirk. My jaw was tight as I stepped further into the room, staring down my nose at him as I circled his chair. I could just see the silhouette of his hands hanging chained behind his back, blood dripping from his fingertips to a puddle on the floor. “I hoped you liked my little show tonight. Just a taste of what’s to come. But your Myrin boys seemed to have bested me,” he remarked, his head lolling to the side as I returned to stand before him. “What a lovely sight to see the brothers together again. I’ll have to take that little issue up with Tyrak, I suppose. Didn’t follow my orders.”
“You’re weak,” I finally said.
“As are you.”
“My powers are not as easily depleted as yours are, it seems.”
“And yet, hundreds of lives were still lost.”
I wouldn’t let him stoke my fury so hot that I killed him before I received the answers I needed. “Here’s how this is going to work,” I started, clasping my hands behind my back. “I’m going to ask questions, and you’re going to answer them. If you don’t, I have no problem showing you how much stronger I am than you right now.”
His smirk deepened. A challenge. “I’ve survived things far worse than anything you could do to my physical body.”
“Doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.”
“Why don’t you just kill me and be done with it?” he asked, and the squint of his eyes and cock of his head told me he knew why I wouldn’t. Not yet.
“Death is the kindest thing I could do for you right now. You should’ve killed me when you had the chance.”
“Maybe so. But do you know the agony one feels before they take a life?”
I raised a brow. “I highly doubt you felt anything akin to agony before killing any of the people I loved.”
“No. But what about the agony Cal felt when I tasked him with killing you? Do you know the pain it caused him? Do you know how much power I was able to siphon from him alone?”
Pain. Emotional pain.Fuck.The manipulation, the deceit…
I steeled my spine, my lip curling as hatred pulsed through me. “Why did the Occulti in Eserene appear to be human?” This was something I suspected the answer to. But I wanted to hear it from him.
Malosym sucked his teeth, surveying me in the dim light. “You look like your mother when you’re angry, do you know that?”
“Why did the Occulti in Eserene appear to be human?” I repeated.
Silence was his only response, that infuriating fucking smirk on his face.
