33

Malice

“ Poor Malice . It must be so terrible to discover you’re not the only creature in this world who can plan ahead.”

My lip curls back in a snarl as I gaze up at Slaine’s haughty expression, a wave of murderous rage cresting in my veins that rolls off my skin in heated waves, thickening the air with a swirling red vapor that reflects the fury in my eyes.

The other five soul pieces are spread around the clearing, each of them restrained similarly to me. There are at least three soldiers to every demon, holding them to the ground and keeping them from making a sound—and I know I will soon lose the right to speak as well. So I better make the most of it.

“Go fuck yourself and die,” I say, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground at his feet.

Slaine’s smirk widens as he raises a hand in the air, bringing it down in a devastating blow to my temple that has my brain rattling and stars sparking behind my eyes. A warm stream of blood pours from the fresh gash on my head, coating the side of my neck in dark blue fluid and staining my armor.

I blink against the fog coating my vision, trying to discern what Slaine is saying but unable to hear past the violent ringing in my ears.

“.... should have known. You’ve always been a traitorous brat.”

“What was that?” I ask, trying to speak past my swollen, throbbing tongue. “You’ve always been an inadequate, spineless worm?” I raise my head with a taunting grin of my own, laughing despite the pain the action brings. “I’m glad to hear you finally admit it. Acceptance is the first step toward personal growth.”

Slaine’s mouth presses into a thin white line as he clenches his fist at his side, the hatred swirling in his milky eyes powerful enough to set the forest alight. “Even in the face of certain death, you find the energy to be the most irksome demon in this realm. It’s truly astounding.”

“I aim to impress.”

Instead of the anger I expect, Slaine’s mouth tips in a small smile, and he gestures toward someone—or some thing —hiding in the shadows over his shoulder. “Come out, Zairn. There’s no need to keep the lovebirds apart any longer.”

Dread hardens in the pit of my stomach as Zairn steps out of the dark, but it’s not the sight of his lipless snarl that has me so terrified—it’s the beautiful woman he has clutched in his arms.

“ Dagny !”

Her name enters the air in a thunderous roar, vibrating through the sky and shaking the ground beneath my knees with the weight of desperation and despair it holds. I fight against the two soldiers holding me in place, helpless to break free of their hold but needing to try anyway. “Dagny! What have you done to her!”

My vision tunnels as I take in her closed eyes and pale lips, the way her body drapes limply over Zairn’s forearms, and I think the worst. No. No, she can’t be dead. She can’t be.

“NO!” I roar, lunging to the side and attempting to sink my teeth into the soldier on my left, but he shifts out of the way just in time, and my jaws clamp down on nothing but air. A frustrated scream builds in the base of my chest as the sound of Slaine’s laughter makes its way to my ears, exploding from my open mouth in a thunderous roar that rivals the pain and anger boiling beneath my skin.

“You think you’re so clever, but you’re just predictable, ” Slaine says, his mouth widening in a simpering sneer. “I always knew you would turn on me. As soon as I saw the way you looked at that one—” He gestures toward Dagny. “I knew it was over. I realized you would go back on our deal, and that I needed to have a backup plan in place.”

He gazes toward my mate, and his eyes flash with a desire that has my blood boiling. “I don’t think you or I really believed the extraordinary power she possessed. I think you were just as shocked as I was when she tore down the castle like it was made of paper.” A gentle chuckle shakes his chest, but it doesn’t match the demented gleam in his smile. “Remarkable, isn’t she? I understand now why you went to such lengths to keep her for yourself.”

His head turns back toward me, his smile never wavering. “You didn’t plan for her to destroy the palace, did you? You thought she would just make a nice little distraction so you all could flee… You didn’t mean for me to witness the full extent of her power—you couldn’t have. It wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Does it matter?” I growl, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground. “It happened.”

“Oh, it matters a great deal, Malice.” His eyes gleam. “If your precious mate hadn’t destroyed my fucking castle, I likely wouldn’t have used every last one of my resources to track you lot down. Not right away, at least. You would have had more time and likely could have beaten me.” His lip juts out in a mock pout as he crouches in front of me, his misty eyes swirling with amusement. “Poor, poor Malice. You were so close. So close, ” he whispers, his smile threatening to split his face in two. “But you were just a little too slow. A little too distracted. And now, the object of your affection has become your death sentence.”

Slaine stands, staring down his hooked nose with a sneer. “I knew you couldn’t resist the opportunity to play white knight and save the girl.” He gestures toward Dagny with a cold laugh. “And I knew, eventually, you would lead me right to Abaddon’s heart, and I could end all of you once and for all—no contingencies this time.”

Slaine turns his back on me and walks over to Zairn. Pleasure rolls off his shoulders in heated waves as Zairn places Dagny into his arms, and he wastes no time pulling her limp body into his chest, burying his face in her neck and taking a deep inhale of her scent. The demon king stands there for several excruciating minutes, admiring the gentle twitch of her eyelids and the luminous energy coursing just beneath the surface of her skin. “So much power,” he whispers, his voice shuddering with awe. “I never expected her to be so useful. What she did to my castle was impressive in and of itself, but then the arachnyx horde… how she was able to control them… I’ve never witnessed such strength.” He lifts his head, his eyes finding mine across the distance. “She’ll make a great little soldier for me—when she’s not lying on her back.”

Rage flares in my chest, so violent and powerful that it threatens to shatter my rib cage, to tear open my skin and cleave the ground beneath my knees. But it’s not my power that surges through the air—it’s hers.

The ice quakes, rumbling and splitting underfoot as it crumbles beneath the raw, swirling magic flooding from Dagny’s veins. The blow causes Slaine to teeter off balance, and he’s so focused on keeping himself upright, he doesn’t notice Dagny’s eyes flying open, beaming with an ethereal silver light.

Slaine loosens his grip on Dagny the slightest bit, and she uses the opportunity to free her arm, snapping it out to the side and using every bit of momentum to send her fist sailing to the side of Slaine’s head. He sees her attack coming out of the corner of his eye, and with one swift movement, snatches her wrist midair, stopping it just before it makes contact—but it doesn’t matter.

While he’s distracted, Dagny rears back, then swings her head forward with a demonic screech that has the hair at the back of my neck rising. Her forehead connects with Slaine’s nose with a sickening crack, and he stumbles back, allowing Dagny’s body to fall to the ground as an anguished scream pours from his throat.

“ My fucking nose! She broke my fucking nose!” He reaches up, pinching his nostrils in an attempt to stave off the flow of dark fluid coursing down his face, but it does no good. “ Fuck! ”

Throwing his hand to his side, he whirls around, spewing droplets of blood across the clearing as he turns his murderous gaze onto Dagny. “ You… I’m going to fucking kill you. ”

He stalks toward her slumped form, his palms curling around her shoulders and lifting her from the ground before she has time to call on her magic again. “You fucking little brat. I’ll make you pay for this,” he hisses, nodding for one of his soldiers to come over and hold her.

As soon as his hands are free, Slaine rears back, his lip curled in a vicious snarl as he sends his fist straight into Dagny’s jaw. The blow conveys all the rage running through his system, powerful enough to send her body flying across the clearing and into the nearest welwig trunk. The back of her head smashes into the bark with a horrifying crack, sending wood splintering through the air as she slumps to the ice in a limp heap. Right on top of where the heart is buried.

“ Dagny! ” I scream, the joints in my shoulders popping out of place as I fight against the soldiers, desperate to get to my mate. “ Dagny!”

“Dagny! Dagnyyyy! Oh gods, not Dagny!” Slaine mocks, clapping his palms to his cheeks with a gasp. “This is terrible!”

All at once, his expression morphs to one of cool indifference, his hands dropping to his sides as he gives up the act. His cruel white eyes flick toward Dagny, inspecting the awkward angle of her broken limbs. “Poor little dear. I suppose she wasn’t as sturdy as I thought… oh well.” He shrugs, turning his back to me as he stalks toward Dagny, his shoulders shuddering in anticipation as he closes the distance between him and his prey.

Dagny raises her head the slightest bit, her eyes flickering between brown and silver as she fights to remain conscious. She braces a hand against the cracked ice, attempting to push to a stand as Slaine’s laugh echoes through the air, mocking her effort.

He stops a few inches away from her shuddering body, his eyes wide and glinting with a cruel light as he watches her crash back to the ground. “Maybe you’re not as useful as I thought,” he murmurs, bringing a finger to his lips. “Maybe you are just a weak little human. Maybe I should have just killed you the moment I saw you, instead of going through all this effort to use you.”

Dagny narrows her eyes on his hateful expression, her skin glowing with a weak silver light as she attempts to draw more magic from the earth. “I am not weak, ” she snarls, her voice raw but forceful. “ You are. At least when I fight, I have the courage to face my enemy head-on. You… You’re a coward. A disgusting coward who can only win when he cheats and lies and backstabs. You’re no king,” she spits. “You’re hardly a man. And I would rather die than be used by a spineless worm like you.”

Slaine’s jaw tightens, and though he doesn’t show it, I know her words struck a nerve. “I’m tired of this game. I’m tired of listening to you draw breath. Zairn?”

“With pleasure,” he simpers, shuffling over to Dagny with a large, curved blade held tightly in his palm. He hands it to Slaine, who weighs the weapon before ultimately tossing it to the ground with a huff. “No. I want to do it with my hands. I want to feel the life drain out of this wretched whore.”

“As you wish,” Zairn mutters, retreating to the shadows where his soul-crazed pet is waiting, snarling and snapping with anticipation.

I watch, helpless, as Slaine widens his stance, curling and uncurling his fist as he stares down at Dagny with a bloodthirsty sheen in his smile. “You’re about to get your wish, little human. I’m going to carve your heart from your chest, and then I’m going to watch you die. And when I’m done, I’ll kill off your mates one by one, until you’re all just a pile of rotting corpses for the arachnyxes to feed on.”

He raises his arm high above his head, his claws elongating and sharpening to fine points as he curls his fingers inward, preparing to deliver a blow directly to the center of Dagny’s chest. In a last-ditch effort, Dagny attempts to blast Slaine back with a wave of her power, but all she manages to conjure is a small gust of wind, enough to rustle the ends of his hair and nothing more.

“How sad,” he whispers, his grin spreading into a manic smile. “How very, very sad.” He turns his head over his shoulder, shooting me a taunting wink as he prepares to deliver the killing blow. “Say goodbye, Malice and friends.”

Years ago, I heard a story about one of the creatures that lives in the human realm—one with a survival instinct so strong, it would chew its own limbs off to get free of a trap. Even though the poor animal would inevitably die from its injuries, it didn’t care—all that mattered were those few moments of life that followed, the brief solace of freedom. I remember how shocked I was at the time, how I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. To be so singularly minded in one aspect, to willingly defy the fates in such a way, to damn the consequences for a few more minutes of survival… It was astonishing. Miraculous.

I look up, and my eyes find Dagny’s across the distance, that simple glance filling my veins with waves of charged electricity and adding kindling to the fire blazing across my skin.

And suddenly, I understand.

A thunderous roar explodes in the base of my stomach, billowing up my throat and erupting from my open mouth as I press forward, fighting through the searing, all-consuming agony spreading from my shoulder blades. My claws extend, piercing deep into the ice for added leverage as I lunge one last time, muscle and tendon shredding as I yank against the powerful force, the pain filling my ears with an intense ringing and causing my vision to tunnel, then disappear entirely. A cacophony of squelches, pops, and splatters rings out through the silence, causing my stomach to flip and my vision to shatter as agony spreads through my body, consuming me and clearing my mind of any thought other than that growing, devastating flame.

And then, my wings—my beautiful, wonderful, powerful wings—are ripped from my body.

It’s a pain I could have never imagined, an agony so excruciating, it ripples to the tips of my fingers and toes, bathing every inch of my body in boiling acid and searing the flesh from my bones. But it doesn’t matter.

Before darkness consumes me, I lunge across the distance, watching Slaine’s fist come down on Dagny in slow motion. Just before he makes contact, I slip through the space between them, curling my body around Dagny’s and shielding her from the devastating attack.

A squelch breaks the air, followed by Dagny’s horrified gasp, and she gazes up with wide eyes, her lips moving with no sound coming out.

Gods, she’s so beautiful. So utterly, indescribably magnificent…

The blood drains from her face as she reaches up, cupping her palms around my face with her lips still forming those wordless sounds.

“Wildfire…” The rest of my sentence is cut off by the rattling cough that explodes from my throat, filling my mouth with a warm, metallic liquid that flows past my lips and dribbles down my chin.

“Malice,” Dagny chokes, her eyes focused on the space where my heart should be. “Your chest…”

I blink slowly, not understanding why she sounds so afraid. I tip my chin downward, surprised to find a gaping, fist-sized hole that wasn’t there a minute ago. “Huh…” I shrug, picking my head back up with a small chuckle that causes more blood to flow down my chin. “It’s not as bad as it looks…”

Another weak cough rattles between my ribs, and blood splatters across Dagny’s face, coating her pretty skin and getting in her eyes. “Oh shit… my bad…”

I go to say something else, but before I can get one more word out, Slaine wraps his hands around my shoulders and yanks me off Dagny, an irritated growl rumbling deep in his throat.

He throws me to the ground and crouches by my head, his eyes narrowed in a hateful glare. “I was going to kill you after her, but I suppose it makes no difference if you’re first.”

I gaze deep into Slaine’s eyes, amusement blooming in the pit of my stomach. And then, suddenly, I can’t hold it in any longer.

Slaine jerks back, his mouth pulling into a deep frown as the sounds of my laughter peel through the air. “The fuck is so funny? You’re going to die, demon. Do you not realize that?”

I place my hand on my stomach, my eyes squinting closed as more laughter howls from my open mouth.

“The fuck are you so happy about?”

With a chuckle still rumbling in my chest, I open my eyes, staring deep into Slaine’s soul as I raise a trembling fist, uncurling my fingers one by one—revealing the small, golden, still beating heart in the center of my palm.

“ This is.”