Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(67)

Dark masses of stalactites and stalagmites jutted around the dark shape I had seen. The bright embers of flame danced between them like the bars of a cell. A drop of gold, a hiss of steam as it vanished, not fireflies. Molten stone. The unsteady rhythm cast the darkness in an oddly distorted light.

Stepping toward the prison with an unsteady gait, I strangled a gasp in my throat, the huddled mass of a man finally recognizable.

Alojz.

Or rather, what was left of him.

The man huddled behind the stone, his eyes wide in obvious trepidation. The fire and will that had supercharged his soul had been beaten out of him. Not even a whisper remained.

His eyes were sadness and fear now.

Sadness and fear that echoed loudly, right into my soul, echoing a deep warning. A warning of what would happen to me if I defied him.

My heart stopped beating as Alojz attempted to move his broken body into an uncomfortable crouch, a dead arm dragging on the ground beside him.

“Say hello, Alojz,” Sain taunted, his voice a dangerous whisper that I jerked at, the movement thankfully missed by Sain.

Alojz looked at me, his eyes wide in an understanding that terrified me, his bloodshot eyes crying an identical crimson. He opened his swollen jaw with a gasp, his teeth and tongue missing from the void. He gasped and spluttered as he looked at me, his eyes as red as the deep crimson splotches of his own blood that covered his clothes.

“Wonderful,” Sain said with a clap of his hands, finally leaving my side to circle around the prison.

I had hoped to calm at the distance, but my anxiety grew. Alojz’s mutilated face held me captive.

“What do you think, my darling Ovailia?”

“Beautiful,” I repeated.

Sain’s sigh of pleasure was loud in my ears as he rushed back to my side. I almost expected him to touch me, to pull me closer, but he stayed an arm’s distance away, my magic pulling away from me in an attempt to reach him.

The emotion, along with the lust, was disgusting, but now it was more. It was a disturbing need that was made more twisted as I faced what he could easily create of me.

No, I realized with a start, what he could create of us all.

He was the blood-soaked king, and this was his reign.

“Indeed. If you think this is beautiful, you should have heard his screams as I ripped him apart. As I twisted the bones in his arm and burned his tongue from his mouth.”

I shivered, fear rippling up my spine, burning into my bones in a powerful surge that I was having trouble containing. I could still feel the lust for his power, still feel my magic pull toward him, but now, even my magic was afraid.

Afraid of the idea that was cementing itself inside of me.

I had destroyed the pekelny. I could destroy him.

I didn’t need to follow power. I had that power within me.

The power to destroy him. The power to take control.

And he knew it if the fear that was clouding his eyes were any indication.

Forcing myself to stand still, I smiled, my focus calm, though my heart rate had picked up on something dangerous. The way he was posturing, his hand strong on my elbow, didn’t help.

“After being at the receiving end of such torture for years,” Sain began, his voice a dangerous hiss as he pulled me closer, “it was a delight to find I could still have joy in the gift of giving it to another. That I could come up with new and amazing ways to make someone hurt, to make their devotion change.” Sain pulled me into him, his lips inches from mine, his eyes the only thing I could see.

I gasped, losing my breath as the warning in his words dripped clearly, his threat tearing through me.

He knew something.

“You will have them all on their knees.” I kept my voice low, feigned longing dripping off me in liquid lust as I focused on the deep green of his eyes. Pursing my lips, I ran the side of my finger down his cheek, wiping away some of the still damp blood that was attempting to congeal there. “No one will dare defy you after you reveal what you are capable of.”

“Even you, Ovailia.” His grip on my waist increased with a violent jolt, shoving me against him as a dangerous flash came to his eyes. The creature beside us whimpered in fear of the monster who had unfurled inches from me. “Would you dare defy me?”

“Never, Sain.” My heart beat so fast I could barely hear the words over the thunder, sure the lust I was taunting him with was unrecognizable. “I am not the devil. You are my king.”

He didn’t move, didn’t look away. His eyes remained locked with mine as his hot breath ran over my lips.

My heart pounded against my ribs.

“I will destroy your devil, Ovailia.”

“There is no devil to destroy, only hell.”

He smiled, content with my flattery. Releasing me, he stepped away, and my chest ached with a sigh of release that I wouldn’t give him, not yet.

“A hell that everyone will soon see. Then I will show them the power that lies before them, and no one will dare cross me.” Turning toward me, he smiled gently, lifting his hand to press against my jaw, his thumb against my cheek.

I expected the volatile pressure of his anger, but it was simply a gentle flutter of skin against mine.

The disgusting lust increased under my skin, my magic swimming to meet his with eager energy.

“Don’t worry.” Sain kept his voice low, the deep, sultry notes affecting me like warm milk lulling me into a stupor as I fought the need to melt with the deep need that was threatening to drown me. “You will see this hell. You will help me kill the devils before us. I know it. I have seen it … my queen.”