Page 59 of Heartless Enemy

He flicked a glance from the stairs to the water beyond the wall, and panic pulsed across his features again. “The moat. How are we supposed to get across the moat?”

“I can create a bridge. So wait for us down there on the grass.”

This was a risky move. As soon as he was down on solid ground, he might decide to make a run for it while I waited for Eve to come back. But given that he couldn’t cross the moat on his own, I gambled on the fact that he would stay put and wait for us.

Derek nodded and then hiked his brown robe up so that he could climb onto the windowsill. After an audible swallow, he scooted out and carefully moved his weight onto the metal. It held, which I already knew it would.

Once he was outside, he looked back at me with that same worried expression. Though this time, I was pretty sure that I could see some regret in his blue eyes as well.

“I think your friend needs help,” he said. “I heard them say…” Clearing his throat, he glanced down the steps. “Just check on her. I’ll wait down at the bottom.”

Dread washed over me like freezing water. But before I could demand to know what he had heard them say, he started down the stairs.

While keeping the grip on my magic so that the steps would remain in place, I quickly moved over to the door of the pantry and silently edged it open enough for me to peer out through the small gap.

My heart stopped.

Eve was dancing.

Half-naked.

She was still wearing her pants and boots, but her shirt lay discarded on the white marble floor, leaving her in only her black brassiere. And only a few steps away, ten men were watching her with hungry eyes as she swayed her hips.

I was half a second away from summoning a brutal attack when I remembered that the healer was still making his way down the steps. If I released that magic now, he would plummet to the ground.

Rage roared through my body, making my head pound, as I darted back to the window and leaned out. It took everything I had not to scream at him to hurry the fuck up. To his credit, though, he was practically running down the steps already.

My heart thrashed wildly in my chest, and I curled my fingers on the windowsill, as I waited for Derek to close the final distance to the ground.

There had been a strange expression on Eve’s features. Even if she had done that willingly, it would have been impossible to miss the irritation that would’ve flickered across her face. But now, she had just looked blissful and… horny.

And there was only one thing that could have that effect on her.

Emotion magic.

I ground my teeth and flexed my fingers.

By all hell, I fucking hated emotion mages.

The moment Derek reached the ground, I released the grip on my magic and let the steps fade out. Rebuilding them would take even more time, but I needed my magic so that I could slaughter the fucking assholes who were making Eve dance half-naked for them.

Darting back over to the door, I scanned the living room again. The best solution would be to set up a metal sheet under the floor and then have ten simultaneous spikes shoot up and kill them all in one fell swoop. But that would also take time.

Eve drew her hands over her hips and then up her bare stomach before sliding them over her tits. The bastards chuckled and leered.

Everything inside me went silent as the madness surged, begging to be let loose and paint the whole room with blood. But Eve was still in there too. So I kept a firm grip on the final threads of my sanity and instead touched my palms together.

Setting up a sheet would be too time-consuming, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take one more second of watching Eve like that.

A sharp metal pole shot out from the wall to their left.

Cries of alarm erupted throughout the room. But it was already too late to block it.

The metal pole speared through several heads, killing the men instantly. But because they weren’t sitting in a straight line, not everyone received a fatal blow. The sharp front of the pole cut through the eyes of three men, and slashed the back of one guy’s head since he had been leaning forward in his seat instead. The other six toppled to the ground with a massive hole in their heads.

I kicked the door open and stormed into the room while letting the pole fade out.

The surviving four men screamed in pain, their cries echoing between the white stone walls.

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