Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked, #1)(91)

A slight tug of warning stayed my tongue. Which was odd considering I very much wanted him to magic us away from the danger. But it was also highly convenient that I only had his word about the invisible mercenaries. Envy had succeeded in one thing; he’d created doubt.

“How does that work, exactly?”

“Put simply, you travel through dimensions with me, and are deposited at a place of my choosing.”

“You said I had to agree to it . . . does that happen each time?”

“Once you give permission, it is eternal.”

Despite the danger closing in, there was still that nagging feeling I couldn’t ignore. I’d rather take my chances with mercenaries than make an eternal bargain. “And what else?”

He hesitated now. Which worried me. “Essentially it feels like you’re being incinerated while we shift time and space. It doesn’t last more than a second or two.”

I stared at him. Fire and witches mixed as well as demons and angels. It was settled. I’d try my luck with the assassins. “There has to be—”

“Run, Emilia!”

He whipped around, and landed a hard kick into what could only be an Umbra demon. I didn’t see it go flying, but I heard a strange sound. If it was incorporeal, I wasn’t sure how Wrath had made contact with it. He lashed out at another, and another. It was only when they collapsed that I understood the anomaly. Wrath’s demon dagger severed their heads. Maybe holding the weapon allowed him to strike them, too.

As they died, they lost their invisibility. I wanted to run, but couldn’t seem to move. I stared at the pale faces with deep black circles around their sunken eyes, and teeth carved to tiny points that pulled back from rotting black gums. They looked like corpses and smelled much the same.

I couldn’t decide if not knowing their true faces was better or worse.

“Take the horns and leave!” Wrath dodged forward, struck, heads rolled. He was violence made flesh. Watching him attack and maim demon after demon, I imagined he was invincible. He’d strike, parry, kick, and then heads would roll. Body parts went flying. Dark blood splattered. There was nothing that could stop him.

Envy emerged from the deepest part of the shadows, his eyes glittering like emeralds. “Seize him.”

He snapped his fingers once, and I just made out the shadowy forms of the Umbra demons as they swarmed in like a hive of vicious wasps. Wrath fought, thrashed, and managed to take out a few more, but it was no use. Even something as mighty as the demon of war couldn’t hold back the tide of invisible bodies that kept coming for him. Not unless he unleashed his full magic.

Strangely enough, not one of them so much as breathed in my direction.

Eventually they held Wrath in place. His power rumbled, rolled through the tunnels, but Envy only laughed as rocks rained down. I managed to dodge out of the way as a large piece crashed where I’d been standing a second before.

“Go on. Use all of that might, brother. You’ll bury your witch.” The grumbling deep within the earth ceased. Envy cut a glance my way, smiling. “Don’t worry. It still has nothing to do with his feelings, pet. You are a means to an end. Isn’t that right, brother?”

“If you do this, you’ll be damning yourself, too.” Even held down, surrounded by enemies, Wrath didn’t look cowed. “Is that what you really want?”

“Maybe I like being damned.” Envy flicked imaginary dirt from his lapels. “Maybe you ought to remember what it’s like, dear brother. To have something you covet taken away. Pity you didn’t remember that I, too, am something to be feared. Allow me to remind you.”

If it wasn’t for the sickening wet thwack and Wrath’s muffled groan, I might not have known something—aside from being surrounded by invisible mercenary demons—was wrong. I watched in silent horror as Envy’s dagger sank deep into Wrath’s groin, and he dragged it across his body, opening him from hip to hip. Guts spilled out as Wrath hunched over, his eyes wide.

“Go,” he coughed. Blood splattered across his lips.

I stared, unblinking. I think I screamed.

Sounds around me were replaced with a high-pitched keening noise in my head. My face got hot, then cold. Wrath’s entire abdomen was flayed open. One second he was standing, fighting, and then . . . then . . . there was so much blood. I fell to my knees and retched.

Envy laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls. “I’ve been wanting to do that for an age, brother. I cannot tell you how good it feels, watching you bleed out.” He glanced over at me, his upper lip curling. “Watch closely, pet. This is how I treat family. Imagine what being my enemy is like. Do not think I’ve forgiven what you and your grandmother did to me.”

He twisted the dagger and Wrath coughed dark-colored blood. I forced myself to watch, to stand. I couldn’t fall to pieces yet. The Umbra demons holding on to the demon of war must have let go; Wrath slid to the ground, staring down at the brutality of his injury.

Envy lifted his blade again, but I couldn’t bear it.

“Stop!” I choked on a scream as Envy ignored my pleas and stabbed him once more for good measure. He stepped back to survey the damage. Wrath struggled to look in my direction, but couldn’t quite make it. He never struggled. I didn’t think it was in his nature.

“Please . . . Emilia. I—” He gasped; the sound raspy and labored. He was dying. Truly dying.