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“Look w-we didn’t know who you were,” Alexi stammered, his words tumbling out in a desperate rush. “If we had, we never—”

I silenced him with a glare, slowly pointing the dagger toward him.

“You never would havewhat? Never would have drugged me? Bound me? Violated me in the most heinous ways imaginable?” I shook my head, a mirthless smile playing at the corners of my mouth. “No, I don’t think so. Men like you only understand one language.”

I took a step forward, turning my focus to Clayson.

“And that language is pain.”

The dagger slipped from my fingers as I said the words, flying through the air before they could stop it. Clayson’s scream filled the room as the blade tore through his flesh, lodging itself into his shoulder.

Crimson trickled from the wound, staining his elegant tunic as he hissed through clenched teeth.

Behind me, a dark chuckle rolled from Andrues’s throat.

“I suggest you start praying to your Gods for forgiveness. You will be meeting them tonight,” Andrues said, fear clawing at the men’s features in response to the promise.

I strode toward Clayson, relishing the anguish twisting his face as I gripped the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. A fresh gush of blood spilled from the wound as he let out a strangled cry, his body trembling.

Alexi’s chair scraped against the floor as he shot to his feet, his face ashen. “Please! We will do anything. If you let us go we will give you anything.”

My head tilted to the side as I looked at Alexi while wiping the dagger clean on Clayson’s tunic. “I like it when you beg. Do it again.”

“Please,” Alexi whimpered, falling to his knees.

They were truly pathetic.

Already begging before I had even begun.

I would truly never understand how they were seen as the stronger sex when they reeked of fear at the slightest threat of pain. They would not last a day as a woman in this world.

Alexi’s body trembled as I stepped around the desk toward him, his eyes wide with terror.

“Please,” he pleaded again, his voice cracking. “I’ll do anything. Just let me go.”

I circled around him, letting my fingers trail across his shoulders. He flinched at my touch.

“Anything?” I purred, leaning close to his ear. “Would you take his place? Suffer in his stead?”

Alexi’s mouth opened and closed, words failing him as he glanced at Clayson who was gritting his teeth, trying to stem the blood flowing from his wound.

“I thought not,” I scoffed, straightening my back and rolling my shoulders. “Loyalty among scum like you only goes so far.” I leaned against the corner of the desk, one hand wrapping around the edge as Alexi pushed from his knees back into his chair. “You know, I’ve always wondered what drives men like you. Is it power? Greed?” I tapped the dagger against my chin. “Or perhaps it is simply the thrill of dominating those you see as weak.”

I let out a long dramatic sigh, pushing from the desk and letting the anticipation build as Clayson’s eyes darted around the room, desperately seeking an escape. But there was none. Andrues guarded the only exit, his face an impassive mask.

“You know, I thought a lot about this moment—how I would torture you,” I said, walking to the fireplace crackling in the corner and picking up the metal poker, dipping it into the flames. “But I realize now, sitting here with you . . . you aren’t worth my energy, my time.”

The metal tip of the instrument grew hot against the flames, glowing as the fire kissed its surface and Alexi’s eyes widened as I turned to him.

“So, I will not torture you, which is a small mercy, if you ask me. But I will kill you, painfully.”

In three steps, I was across the room. And in the next breath, the hot metal was ripping through Alexi’s abdomen, skewering him to the chair as a violent scream erupted from his lungs.

Clayson ran for the door and I whirled around to stop him. My fingers snatched the collar of his tunic and yanked him back against me as Andrues stepped in front of the opening, a low snarl slipping from his mouth.

“I told you that you would never see my true face again,” I hissed, the sharp edge of my blade digging into Clayson’s throat as I pressed my lips against his ear and dropped my voice to a whisper. “You should have made sure I never left that room alive.”

A gurgle sounded as my blade tore into his neck and cut through skin. Blood splattered onto Andrues’s face but he did not flinch, did not move to wipe it off as crimson flowed onto my hands still wrapped around the blade at Clayson’s throat.