Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(86)

Maybe I would end her in the pits just like all of these fools.

Ovailia didn’t turn to look at me. Her hand shifted to rub against my leg, her magic swelling. “Is that why you are laughing?” Her voice was dark molasses, sweet and dangerous. It drifted across the tense anticipation in the air like candy, swirling over everything.

I sighed, pulling long strands of her hair gently before running my fingers over the top of her head.

She shivered, her magic quivering alongside, and my smile grew.

“Among many things.” My voice was even lower now, something Ovailia didn’t seem to mind. Damek, however, stepped closer to us, away from the door he was supposed to be guarding, his fear unabashed as he tried to pick up as much of the conversation as he could.

With one sharp look, I caught him in the act, sending him scuttling back toward the entrance to our little alcove, his shoulders hunched and shivering.

I would have to punish him for that little trick later. Maybe let him and Ovailia battle it out in a pit of their own.

The women in the pits had given me something to chew on.

“Did you see the look on her face?” I whispered into Ovailia’s ear, meeting the glare of the woman below me, the hatred fading a bit due to the look I fixed her with.

“Hers?” Ovailia asked, her voice shaking a bit as I leaned down toward her, pressing my cheek against hers, our conversation hidden from prying ears.

“Yes. Did you see the hatred?”

Ovailia shivered as my magic pressed against her, searching for hers. I let it flow, feeling her unease. The emotion was so strong I could taste it. Delicious.

“I saw the darkness in her eyes,” Ovailia answered, her uncertainty fading as she pushed strength into her voice. The stoicism that I loved bled into me as she lifted her hand, brushing it against my forearm, her magic sparking pleasantly against my skin. With that one touch, my magic reacted, attempting to connect with hers as she attempted to connect with me. It took all my will to keep my magic restrained. “She wanted to kill you. Do you want to kill her?”

“I want to kill them all,” I answered as a roar encompassed the crowd, the sound loud enough that I jerked.

With my cheek still pressed against Ovailia’s, I glanced toward the pit, my heart a thunder of hope that perhaps this would be the start. But no, it was just two scrawny teenage boys dressed in blood-soaked clothes that I knew didn’t originally belong to them.

They looked at me with the same defiance the woman had. Their hands pressed against their hearts in a salute before they bowed, the motion rehearsed as they turned, shaking in preparation for death.

“I will kill them all,” I declared, my voice a snake as I smiled. The eagerness for what was to come flourishing.

“Will you?” Ovailia whispered, turning her head toward me as the words grazed across my cheek in hot breath and soft lips.

Heart racing in both need and disgust, I pulled away from her, looking her full in the face as my temper howled under my skin. “Don’t question me,” I snapped. She flinched, the reaction fueling my authority more. “I don’t need bottom feeders, Ovi. You either follow me, or I dispose of you. Don’t you like your spine where it is, inside your pretty little back?” I ran my finger up the appendage in question, tracing over the fine silk of her shirt.

She jerked, attempting to move away from the threat, from the look in my eyes. But I held her against me, letting my magic shoot into the bones of her back in tiny shots of pain.

“I keep telling you not to unleash the hell inside of me, Ovailia. Why must you keep defying me?” I kept my voice low, the deep, sultry notes affecting her the way I knew they would. The woman melted beneath me in fear, in need. “Do you want to see hell?”

“I want to see the end, Sain.” She smiled, the grin long and menacing as it stretched over her face.

An end, I could give her. An end of a blood red blade as it intersected with her neck.

My own smile stretched, fueled by the sight my magic had given me which was playing on repeat.

“I want to give that to you, Ovailia. I can end this once and for all. We can end this once and for all,” I continued. The words were a lie, bitter and gross in my mouth. I knew I didn’t mean it, and I was certain she knew it, too. We would not do anything.

It didn’t matter, however. She smiled, anyway, drowning in the power I taunted her with. The power she had wanted since the very beginning.

“Then let’s end this,” she said, her voice full of lust and need, her magic pressing against me again in that disgusting desire. I let it twist over me, my own spreading to join hers, my heart betraying me with the contact.

“Let’s.” I was drowning in her proximity, desperate to connect to her, to feel her.

I considered slapping myself back to my senses; I would have if it weren’t for the roar that went up from the crowd, the noise signaling the end of yet another battle.

I didn’t even glance toward the stands to congratulate the winner. I was pretty certain what I would find down there, anyway. I could already smell the blood. And sure enough, the boys were covered in it. But they were both still standing, very much alive. They were both staring at me.

Staring just like everyone else.

“It’s time,” I announced, a sneer twisting over my lips as excitement invaded me.

My sight wasn’t far behind, pushing against me in need, but I thrust it away, letting my deeper magic flare, bringing it to the ready. I had already seen what was about to happen; I didn’t need another recap. I did, however, need to be ready for a fight.