Page 41 of Demonic Division (The Sundering Duet #1)

41

Kaebl

Pain.

The fire flows from the center of my chest, spreading to my limbs and consuming every last millimeter of flesh in its warpath. My veins sizzle from the heat, scorching the air and framing my silhouette in a dense cloud of vapor, one which conceals the shadows shuddering beneath my skin.

Loss.

I throw my head back, desperate to release a scream that won’t come. I’m trapped in the prison of this broken body once more, forced into silence. Into submission. And this time, I don’t have my other pieces to help me. Worse than anything, though, is the knowledge something has been taken from me. Something more important than my life or any other. More significant than any power I could possibly possess or wield.

Dagny.

Agony flares to life anew at the thought of her beautiful silver-rimmed eyes. The image of her staring up with that light only she possesses. Illuminating the dark, forgotten pieces of me which only she can .

They took her from me.

I slam my fist into the ground, the sound of chains clanking too far away for me to hear. I’m vaguely aware of the matching restraints on my ankles and neck—bolting me to the wall like an animal—but I can’t find it in me to care about the pain they cause. These restraints won’t keep me. They cannot hold me back from her.

I need to find Dagny.

I rail against the chains; pulling and tearing at the iron, at my flesh, all in a desperate attempt to free myself. I would gnaw off my own limbs if I thought I could live through the ordeal. Left with no other options, I find the thought becomes a debate, which morphs into a necessity. I’m just about to enact it when the door creaks open, drawing my attention to the small beam of light spilling across the stone floors.

A pair of clawed feet stalk into the room, each step silent save for the intentional languid scraping of a single claw. I follow the outline up to his face, my lip peeling back in a snarl as I make contact with his menacing red eye.

What have you done ? I demand, rage cresting in my veins at the sight of his insipid smirk. Where are the other pieces?

M refuses to answer. He just continues staring with an eerie, all-knowing smile.

I smash my hand against the floor, digging a deep crevice into the stone as my voice roars into his mind. Let me out of these chains at once, you useless fucking traitor!

“Hmm, I don’t know,” M muses, tapping a clawed finger to his lips. “That wouldn’t be a very traitor-ly thing to do, would it? I mean, the whole point was to get you here, so it would be kind of moronic if I let you go…”

He pretends to toy with the idea for several more seconds, his grin widening with each passing moment, soaking up my misery with glee. “Ah, what the hell? I’m vehemently against animal cruelty, after all.”

M steps forward, reaching toward the chain around my neck in slow motion. But instead of releasing me, his hand snaps to the deep gash on my shoulder, fingertips toying at the semi-healed flesh. Blinding pain sears through me as he pushes his fingers into the wound, hooking his claws deep within my shoulder and shredding the muscle and tendon.

Just when I think I’m going to black out from the pain, M snaps his hand back to his chest, a boisterous laugh peeling from his lips as if none of that happened.

“Oh my goodness, look at me. What a silly thing to do. I can’t just release you, rabid animal that you are.” My blood drips from his fingers as he reaches up, tapping the side of his head with a manic smile. “Ah, well. You can’t blame me for making a few bad decisions. I’ve never been all there, you know?”

I stare him down, my severe expression never faltering as I try to figure out what the hell just happened—what his angle is. Is this why you came here? To taunt me?

He laughs again, the disconcerting sound slithering beneath my skin and sending a chill down my spine. “Oh no, dear Kaebl. I came here to show you something.”

M turns his back and stalks toward the opposite wall, lips pursed as he whistles some cheery, gods-awful tune. The song ends abruptly as he waves a hand in the air, calling forth a beam of light that highlights the infuriating smirk pulling at his mouth.

His head whips toward me as he gestures to the stone wall, a knowing gleam in his menacing red eye. “I present… your beloved. ”

All at once, the stone shudders and fades away like smoke in the breeze—like it was never there in the first place. I stare open-mouthed at the brand-new room that materializes in its absence, my eyes locking onto the small creature huddled in the corner. A human. Dagny.

What did you do to her? I demand, yanking uselessly against my restraints as I bare my teeth at the red-eyed demon. Let her go!

“You’re in no position to be making demands, dear Kaebl,” M sneers, his eye brightening at the sight of my torment. “In fact, you should be begging me for mercy. Pleading for your life for what you did to me.”

I did what was right! I snap. You can’t live like this, M. You don’t realize what it is you’re doing. Kidnapping Dagny? Working with Slaine to take me and the other pieces down? I shake my head as a wave of disgust fills my veins, coloring my vision green. You hate him as much as I, yet you’d throw away all your morals, for what? Tell me, traitor, what did your precious Slaine promise you? I sneer. Power? A kingdom? An army? It must have been good for you to turn on your brothers without thought ? —

“He promised me life !” M roars, turning on me with a vicious snarl. “Power? A kingdom? I just want to live! It is you, our dear lord, who yearns for power. It is you who craves that fucking cursed throne of lies. I just want life! And you wouldn’t fucking let me! None of you would!” He shakes his head, his skin shuddering with the effort to keep his beast at bay. “I was content to live out my life far from you and the other pieces, far from this hellscape you wish to call home. Unlike you, I didn’t need much—only the freedom to follow my wishes and desires. To follow my own path, not be fated to one of your creation. To make a place I could live, free from you and Slaine, and the pages of the past I had no hand in writing. A place where, maybe, I could find peace. Maybe even someday rear a family...” At the last word, his gaze softens, filling with an emotion I’ve never seen before. But in the next second, it's gone. Gone and replaced with the malicious leer and mocking smirk I’m used to.

“But you wouldn’t let me do that, would you?” he snarls. “You just had to try to snuff me out. Now, you’ll deal with the repercussions of your actions. It’s called ‘reciprocity,’ dear Kaebl.”

M waves a hand, and the stone wall rematerializes, cutting Dagny off from me. My chest aches at the loss, but I’m powerless to do anything about it. The more I fight the restraints, the more exhausted I become, like the iron saps the very life from my veins each time I struggle.

Even worse, the more I try, the harder M laughs. “I bet you wish you played things out a little differently, huh?” he asks, voice cloyingly sweet. “Ah, well, you know what they say—hindsight is everything.” He taps his finger against his temple in the same way as earlier, his smile practically splitting his face in two.

I try to lunge toward him, only to be hauled back against the wall by the collar around my neck. My roar echoes into M’s mind as he turns on his heel, waggling his fingers tauntingly over his shoulder as he heads for the door.

“I’ll tell sweet Dagny you said hi,” he murmurs, a smile in his voice. “That is, if she even cares while relishing in our bond.”

With that, he slams the door closed behind him, snuffing out any light that managed to sneak into this hellish space. Despite what I know to be true, I continue to fight against my chains. My eyes lock onto the space Dagny used to be as an awful, splitting pain emanates from my chest.

I want to yell, to cry out to her. To let her know I’m here, and that I’ll get her out of this, one way or another. I need to tell her I’ve realized what she is to me—and that I knew the first day I met her, though I was too scared to admit it.

I hang my head as the energy is sapped from my veins, filled with the horrible realization that my own decisions have led to this situation. My own failings as a king, as a demon, as a man—they caused all of this. And if only I had given in earlier, I might not have been locked in a cell and kept away from the one creature on the earth who can make me whole and bring me to my knees all at once.

Just as I’m about to spiral into despair, the dungeon door crashes open, drawing my attention to the two gray-skinned demons stepping into the room. The first is Slaine, followed by a creature with cloudy white eyes and a snarling, drool-lined mouth. My lip curls in disgust as I take in the thick iron collar wrapped around its bulging neck, and even deeper as I follow the chain to where it rests in Slaine’s scarred hand.

“What’s wrong, Kaebl? Cat got your tongue?”

I strain against my chains, my blood boiling at the insinuation. He knows. He knows I lost that ability when Abbadon was sundered and I became Kaebl. Without a bond, there’s no way for me to communicate.

The beast at his side snarls, and I tear my gaze away from Slaine to glare at the soul-crazed demon. Fucking abomination. I can’t believe he has one of them. Abaddon outlawed their creation eons ago—and for good reason.

“I know what you’re thinking—it’s downright pathetic. But Precious here is just so useful—even if it’s dumb as dirt,” Slaine says, yanking on the thick silver chain until the creature yelps in pain. “A little cruelty is worth it to possess such a weapon. Watch.”

His misty eyes gleam with a menacing light as the pitiful creature at his side scrapes its bloodied claws against the stone floor in an attempt to get at me. When it can’t, it turns its claws onto its own flesh, raking hooked claws down its neck and slicing deep, oozing gouges into the skin. A horrific gurgling sound accompanies the movement, punctuated every other second by a distorted, high-pitched whine that seems to emanate from the demented creature’s slashed throat.

My stomach flips at the sight. Meanwhile, Slaine breaks into a grin, each one of his pointed teeth on display, and his cloudy eyes shine proudly down at his creation. “That’s a good boy… Just a little longer, precious. Then you can have all the fun you want.”

He raises his head, that eerie smile widening as he takes in the wounds along my neck, wrists, and ankles. “It seems you’ve already tried to escape… that just won’t do. We’ll have to teach him some manners, won’t we, boy?”

The creature ceases its clawing, turning its clouded eyes onto my face as it releases another ear-piercing whine. My skin shudders while Slaine breaks into manic laughter, and though I try to look away, I can’t.

“Until I find a way to get rid of M— the petulant brat —I have to uphold my promise not to kill you… but that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you until then,” he whispers, voice brimming with excitement. Slowly, he removes his hand from my wing, steps back, and lets the chain fall from his hand, his breath coming hard and fast with the promise of the horror he’s about to witness.

With a grin, he turns his head to the creature at his side, his lips moving around a single word .

Sic.

Red-hot pain flares to life across my body as the creature descends onto me, tearing flesh from muscle and muscle from bone. My blood pools beneath me, spreading across the stone and staining Slaine’s clawed feet. All the while, his laughter bounces off the prison walls, burrowing beneath my skin and scraping the inside of my skull.

And it hurts, but the pain is nothing compared to the hurt that comes with the knowledge that Dagny is not at my side. That she could be put through the same horrors as me—and it’s all my fucking fault.

Her name rings throughout my mind, echoing with the same intensity as Slaine’s laughter, easing some of the agony coursing through my veins.

Dagny. Dagny. Dagny.

But even that word is overshadowed by a louder one, far more insistent and demanding to be heard. And it says the one word I’ve been fighting against, trying and failing to ignore since the moment she showed up in my throne room.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

And then, even louder than that—possibly the most heart-shattering of all—is the realization of what I know to be true.

She’s gone.

Gone. Gone. Gone.