Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(93)

I tried to hide the shake, tried to hide the emotion, but Damek heard, anyway, his eyes a thin line as he turned to face me, the lapse in judgment unmissed.

“I’m not the only one who’s playing with him, it seems.” Eyes narrowing in warning, he stood before me, even though, this time, he did not recoil.

The twist in my stomach intensified.

“I don’t like having to constantly remind you of your role with me, Damek,” I hissed, my voice a hard line as I pushed the emotion away, spitting his name out like acid. “You do what I say. You listen to what I ask.”

“No offense, my lady”—his words were as hard as my own, his eyes digging into me as he took a step closer—”but I am your father’s guard, not yours.”

Damek’s smile was wide and greasy as he moved away, Sain dragged behind him on a tow of magic. His voice was loud as he howled in what I assumed was genuine pain. That was, until he looked up at me, his eyes wide and strong even as he cried.

Tension bound me as my magic stretched to him, as his eyes locked me in place, the words he had said before echoing through me with the force of a drum. “Trust me!”

Sain’s sobs returned as we turned the corner, his body joining the panic again as we moved through the wide hall that led to my father’s quarters. The hall was as destroyed and disheveled as it had been for the last few months. Ilyan’s former belongings were thrown about, piled in ripped and broken heaps of rubbish, smears of blood and who knew what else splattered over them. It was all foreshadowing what I was really walking into.

As I entered my father’s quarters, the destruction from before was gone. The sterile space was even more frightening after the hall we had left, because here, everything was in its place, everything the way he liked it—from the perfectly made bed to the tables covered with trinkets collected from his kills to the little girl who cried in a pool of blood.

My heart seized at the image, this one unfamiliar for the perfection he always demanded.

The child looked up at me as we entered, her eyes wide and full of confusion and betrayal, her life meaning little more than the rags she wore. The shards of fabric were drenched in the bright color I was convinced was her own.

The reality of what I had walked into became frighteningly clear.

Sain’s sobs silenced as the tense weight of fear moved over both of us, Damek continuing to drag him over the floor behind him, as if he had forgotten he was there.

“Master!” Damek yelled as he ran into the room, his pride seeping off him. “I found her lurking in the halls.”

“Wonderful,” Edmund’s voice resonated from the bathroom where the sound of running water seeped from behind the wide door, the dark crack of the entry looming.

The door behind me closed with a snap, the guards who leaned against each wall shifting their placement as if on orders. The broad man who had been so kind to me the other day inconspicuously stepped before the door we had come in through. His face was grim as his eyes met mine, his lips a tight line.

With my own lips pursed in frustration, the frantic pace of my heart increased until the water from the bathroom stopped, and my father emerged from behind the door like a shadow, his hands still wet.

“Wonderful,” he repeated as he extended his hands out, letting little Míra dry them off while his eyes focused on me, digging into me.

I cowered. I shivered, and I fought the need to step away, fought the need to run. The intensity of his stare grew with each beat of my heart that passed, each low draw of air.

He smiled, patting Míra on the head roughly, her back arching painfully at the pressure. A small sob seeped from her as she fell to the ground, her body folding into itself. He didn’t even seem to notice; he just looked at me, his steps slow and calculated as he moved toward me, a wide smile spreading over his face.

In the hall, Sain had smiled at me, but his was not like this. Sain’s smile was in power within the game I was in no doubt he understood. Edmund’s was in eagerness for what he was about to do, for the blood he was about to spill. It was a look I hadn’t seen directed at me for hundreds of years. My back ached with the memory, my heart tensing with apprehension so intense I had forgotten such an emotion was possible.

“I’m surprised to see you, Ovailia,” Edmund cooed, his voice low and deep, the rumble of it infecting me. “I thought for sure you would have defected back to your brother after your failure.”

“Father,” I gasped, unable to hide the shake in my voice anymore, unable to keep the fear at bay. “I would never do that. You are my master. I am loyal only to you.”

As I said the words, I stepped closer to him in feeble desperation. However, even as I said them, I was no longer convinced they were true. I was no longer convinced I would give my life up to this man.

Sain’s sobs grew louder as I cowered before my father, the words “pet” and “servant” resounding in my ears.

Edmund’s face fell, his focus falling on the imp for the first time. His eyes narrowed in an anger that trickled through the room like poison, Míra and Damek stepping away in preparation.

“I’ll be good,” Sain sobbed as Edmund came to a stop inches from me. “A good pet.”

“I see you brought Sain back.” He didn’t even look at Sain, only at me, the back of his fingers running down my bare arm, leaving trails like ice against my skin.