Burnt Devotion (Imdalind, #5)(50)

Before the question had even left my mouth, he began to smile, the wicked gleam of his greed stretching his face into a maniacal grin that was more sinister than before. Unbidden fear trickled down my spine, though I kept the malice on my face, unwilling to let him see my reaction.

His smile grew until I could see the rows of his white teeth, his eyes flashing red for the briefest of moments as he took a step closer. Then his hand wound around my waist as he pulled me toward him, the tips of his fingers pressing into the base of my spine.

My shirt lifted at the touch, the icy chill of his fingers pressing into my back, rubbing against the painful scars that ran the length of my spine. I would have tried to move away, to stop what was coming, but there wasn’t any point. He controlled me.

Moreover, after so many years, I had come to love what he had done to me—the pockets of poison that he had placed against my spine and the power they gave me when he released it into my blood stream.

His fingers pressed against the raised skin that ignited in memorized flames as his magic surged through them, filling the scar tissue and releasing the toxins enough to ignite within me, to cause the infectious fire to spread quickly.

A hiss of pain and fear seeped through my clenched teeth at the surge of power, his smile growing as he watched me writhe in a mad attempt to fight the venom, as he held me against him as one would a lover. To him, though, it was only control. It was only for a better view to watch me become what he had created.

My head fell back as the pain grew, the Vil? venom and black water seeping into me in an acidic burn.

It was a mixture that he had created just for me, a poisonous concoction he had pooled inside my bones, wrapped in his magic to control, to use me in any way he saw fit. Ilyan had thought it was only a scar, only the cut of a knife that Edmund had carved down my spine, but it was so much more than that.

He released the poison into me as my body became limp in his arms, my eyes staring unfocused at the orchestra of light and sound above us, my mind becoming a numb mass as any scream I might have thought of releasing lodged itself in my throat.

“Of course I want you to get it for me,” he growled, his animalistic voice rumbling in my ear as he pressed his lips against my jaw, the heavy breathing of his anger only increasing the tension in my muscles. “But, if you for one second think that is all I am going to do to you after what you have done today, you are sorely mistaken.”

His words came out like daggers against my skin. Then he shook my limp body violently in his arms before he dropped me, leaving me to crumple to the ground as the caustic poison ran its course. Fire ate away at the soft tissue of my body, leaving me weak and pained as I lay in the ash covered ground, the heat from the earth seeping into me in a slow burn.

My body was in agony from the poison that gripped me, the flames that licked at my body. Pain that would ravage me for hours yet to come. However, if I thought I would be allowed to cower here, waiting for it to leave, I was only expecting more pain.

He towered above me as the deep pants of his voice continued, his already tried patience waiting to snap. “Stand.”

I could have screamed at the order, the pain too much to even fathom. Regardless, I knew I didn’t have a choice.

I cringed and pushed the need to collapse away, pushed the tears and the screams that threatened to break free away, and then pushed myself to standing. Each joint screamed in agony as I straightened myself, my body swaying as I tried to stand before him, the height of my heels only making my attempt more precarious.

“What do you want of me, Father? Name it, and it is yours.” My voice shook through the pain, the irritation I normally had wavering underneath the agony that was making it hard to see straight, to focus on the powerful man I stood before.

His smile returned for only a moment before he moved away from me, leaving me swaying in the ash as the sky ripped apart in light and noise. I didn’t dare move. He hadn’t beckoned me to follow, and approaching him when I wasn’t wanted would only bring more pain.

He strolled back to me with an even wider grin, the limp body of a tortured Vil?, flopping uselessly in his fist.

“Tell me what you have learned, Ovailia.” His voice was soft as he brought the Vil? up to eye height, the creature snarling and lashing about. Edmund looked at it like it was nothing more than a beloved pet, the twisted thing bringing more affection up in the man than any of his children.

My lip curled at the image, my disgust at what I was seeing tensing in my gut.

“You spent several days among them, yes? What did you see?”

His fingers moved over the forehead of the thing while my body swayed before I righted myself, my head snapping to attention as I met his gaze head on. His eyes were ice, the hatred and lack of warmth making me doubt if I had made the right decision, if I should have ever left Ilyan’s side in the first place.

Then the image of Sain in the abbey came back to me, the lie that my atrocious brother had fed for centuries hurting more than the poison that still moved through me. The poison Edmund had filled me with because of my bonding, because I already had Drak magic inside of me. Therefore, I should be able to take it.

Or so he had said.

I couldn’t stop the anger that twisted through me. I didn’t want to. The strength of the emotion was a cooling balm to the fire that still ate away at my bones.

“Ilyan has a burn on his palm from Black Water.” I spoke the words confidently, my chin rising in accomplishment as the hatred in my father’s eyes was replaced by surprise. “He did not have it when I arrived, but it was there when I was dismissed. I think that is how he brought Joclyn back through the T?uha.”