Page 12 of Dynasty of the Wicked (The Wicked Princess #1)

12

Zhi Ruo could barely breathe, her mind coming to a stuttering halt. The soldiers behind Wyer peeked over his shoulder to get a better look at them, and she could hear them murmuring to themselves. Feng Mian tightened his hold on her hips, but this time it wasn’t sensual or possessive, but protective . She could feel his whole body tense, a wild gleam entering his eyes. He would fight, she was sure, the instant Wyer got near.

Wyer stormed toward her, his lips curled back into a snarl. “I said, what the fuck are you doing?”

The other soldiers filled the room, swords drawing. Apparently, they also didn’t trust Feng Mian, because they pointed their weapons at him while Wyer stopped a foot away, his body quaking in barely repressed rage. She could tell he wanted to reach forward and yank her off Feng Mian’s lap, but he wasn’t foolish enough to get close to him.

“Get up,” he snapped, staring at her. “ Now .”

Zhi Ruo couldn’t move. She clutched the front of Feng Mian’s shirt, her arms trembling. Wyer’s face was growing redder, his eyes bulging, and the blue veins on his neck standing out against his pale flesh.

When she didn’t move, Wyer raised his hand and a green light emanated from his fingers, a crackling sound filling the space. He shot the light at her, and it slammed into her shoulder, hurling her off Feng Mian’s lap and falling against a stack of dusty boxes. Fiery pain throbbed over her body and she screamed, rolling on the floor and clutching the wound. She could hear Feng Mian shout something, and the scuffle of a fight, and the shimmying of swords being unsheathed, but her vision was dark with pain.

Wyer grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her to her feet. “You fucking whore ,” he seethed, shaking her like a doll. She could barely blink up at him, the pain so intense. He grabbed her face and turned her head so she had no choice but to stare into his hateful blue eyes. “ You fucking whore ,” he repeated. “I should have known you would have fucked the first man you could. You Huo heathens have no morals whatsoever. You are my war prize. Mine !”

He slapped her and she fell to the floor again, an iron taste filling her mouth. She didn’t have time to process the pain because Wyer jammed his fingers through her hair and yanked her up to her knees.

“You are mine!” he roared. “How dare you fuck that beast? How dare you?—”

“Let me go!” she screamed, raking her fingernails over his hands.

He hissed in pain and kicked her with his metal-toed boots. She hurtled backwards again, knocking into a pile of empty wooden shelves. Her chain whipped back with the motion and struck her across the face. Blood gushed from the wound and sprayed down her nose.

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Feng Mian shouted, and she finally noticed the soldiers holding him down, wrestling to keep him in place. They all had their swords drawn and pointed to his neck, but he lashed at them nonetheless, trying in vain to reach her.

Zhi Ruo pushed herself on shaking legs, but something hard crashed into her stomach again, and she was knocked off her feet. Pain like she had never experienced wracked through her body, sending fire through her veins. It was some sort of magic, she knew that, but it was made worse since she couldn’t see what was happening. Her flesh seemed to burn even though there was no fire. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing would come out, and she couldn’t stop shaking silently, her body on the verge of bursting into flames.

The instant Wyer touched her, the magic wore off. She groaned and blinked, her gaze unfocused. He hauled her to her feet and her head slumped low as he dragged her out of the shed. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her limbs heavy.

She had to get to Feng Mian, a small part of her mind told her. But she could barely process what was happening.

Wyer tossed her to the ground and she collapsed onto a slush of ice, snow, and mud. The cold shocked her system and she gasped, her trembling hands pushing against the cold, hard-packed snow beneath the layer of sludge. It seeped into her dress, drenching her knees and half her body. She breathed in the smell of death, decay, smoke, and burned flesh that pervaded the air. He had dragged her to the center of the village they had captured. More than half of the houses were burned to crisps. Ash and snow fluttered with the wind.

Zhi Ruo turned to Wyer. He was screaming orders to people, and she couldn’t understand a thing he was saying, his words coming out in quick succession, so fast that it was hard to grasp the foreign words, and his arms violently flinging in one direction then the next.

“—right now,” Wyer seethed.

Two soldiers towed Feng Mian a few feet away from them, each holding one of his arms, with their swords drawn in their free hands. He struggled against them, but there was little he could do when they shoved him down on his knees and pressed their blades against his neck.

Wyer stooped down until he was at Zhi Ruo’s level. There was a manic light in his eyes as he spoke next. “You and I will marry right now,” he said, nearly purring out the words. He gripped her face tightly with his hands, his nails digging into her cheeks. “And I’ll fuck you in front of your lover. Maybe I’ll even kill him afterwards. How does that sound?”

All the color drained from her face.

“You finally seem to be understanding,” Wyer said with a laugh, shoving her away from him as he straightened. He wiped his hands together, as if he had touched filth, and peered down at her in disgust. “I would have preferred to wait until we arrived at a different location, but it seems you’re eager to marry and fuck something . You would stoop so low as to love that ?” He gestured to Feng Mian, who had gone awfully still, his expression betraying the rage he must have felt. “That is the best you could do? A blind, hideous, cursed thing like him?”

Zhi Ruo pushed herself to her feet, her body swaying. “S-Stop! I won’t marry you. I’ll never?—”

He struck her across the face and she crashed to the ground in a heartbeat. Feng Mian shouted something, and she blinked at the snow. She could feel Wyer kicking her again, her body instinctively curling in on itself, but her thoughts strayed elsewhere—somewhere where this wasn’t happening.

She was reminded of when she was a child. Her mother had died, and instead of comforting her, she had been all alone. Waiting for someone to come to her. Waiting for someone to love her. Waiting … waiting, and waiting.

No one ever came.

No one rescued her.

No one told her it would be okay.

And here she was in the same situation. Dying inside, miserable, stuck somewhere she didn’t want to be. Would she wait for Feng Mian to do something? But she knew, deep down, that there was nothing he could do. How could he help her when he was starved, emaciated, exhausted, mentally drained, and his magic and body bound? There was nothing he could do for her.

Something swirled in the depths of her body, warming her flesh and singeing her bones. Ready to burst, to wreak havoc.

An anger she had never felt before surged to the surface.

Every hit, every kick, every insult thrown at her fueled her rage.

She was reminded of her time in Father’s vicious court. The looks everyone gave her. The sneers. The laughs behind her backs. The eye rolls whenever she spoke.

Like she was nothing— and they’d made her believe it too .

All her pent up emotions rose within her. She grabbed Wyer’s foot before it could connect to her face and shoved it back. “Get away from me!” she screamed, blood and spittle dappling across the snow in front of her. He reeled back, his balance lost and his face wracked with anger. She pushed herself to her feet in that single moment of surprise. “I will never marry you! Never !”

“I have bestowed upon you so many rights that most men would never give you, particularly as a prisoner of war,” he snarled, his hand glowing green once more. “I could have had my entire army rape you! I could have done so much worse to you, you Huo whore. Are you not grateful? Are you not pleased?!”

“You are a monster,” Zhi Ruo snapped, blood dribbling down her cheek as she spoke. She was aware of the dull throbbing throughout her whole body. Her ribs, stomach, legs, face—everything hurt from Wyer’s kicks and jabs and magic attacks. More proof that he was a villain. “You wish for me to be grateful toward my tormentor? You, who keeps me imprisoned? You are a fool to think I would harbor any positive emotions for you!”

He flicked his wrist and a wave of green magic blasted her way. She dove to the side, barely missing the attack as it crashed into a pile of snow and exploded in a mass of greenish energy. Wyer ran to her, and she scrambled up to her feet, flinging snow at him as she did.

“Get away!” Her voice came out shrill as he clamped his hand on her bicep. She struggled against him while he slapped her again. “Get away!”

He slapped her across the face, hard, and magic burned its way through her flesh, tiny welts forming along her skin in seconds. The pain and shock sent her stumbling on wobbly legs. She bucked forward, but Wyer snatched her across the waist roughly.

Just then, Feng Mian roared and broke through the soldiers holding onto him. He managed to disarm one of the soldiers in a split second, jam his sword into the other’s neck, and kill the second in one fluid motion.

“Get him!” Wyer shouted, holding Zhi Ruo tightly. He yanked her hair back until her head slammed into his chest, and held her body against his. He leaned forward, seething into her ear. “I will kill your lover right here, but first I’ll let him watch as I marry you, then fu?—”

Zhi Ruo stopped listening to his threats and could barely feel his rough hands on her, not even when he shoved her to the ground, yanking her head back so she could hear him hiss cruel words at her. Her mind drew a blank as she watched soldiers fill the space, as they tackled Feng Mian, as his blood splattered across the snow and he was beaten.

He shouted for her, desperate and full of rage—he wanted her free, for them to stop hurting her, for Wyer to go to hell. He kept cursing them all. But she could barely hear any of it, as if there was a barrier between her and the rest of the world. She didn’t even notice when Wyer slapped her, when she crashed to the ground, and when he was on top of her.

Something dark rippled in the back of her mind, whirling within her like a pool of black. Rippling further, surging, and freezing her flesh. It was the only thing she could focus on, the dark depths of evil that began to fester within her, growing bigger, and darker, and more lethal .

All at once, she screamed. Loud, guttural, feral —all of her pent up emotions released in her scream. Her frustration, her animosity, her weakness, her uselessness, her complacency, and most of all, and worst of all, her rage that had been building her whole life. It broke through her flesh, and bones, and skin, erupting into the world in a sea of black.

She continued to scream, shoving Wyer away from her. He flew back as purple shadows ripped from her skin, attacking everyone nearby. A whirlwind of black and violet magic escaped from her body, whipping around her like a whirlwind. She yelled, striking a nearby soldier, his neck snapping with a sickening crack.

She didn’t care. She raised her hand and more shadows erupted from the ground. Cracks formed along the earth and vines of evil shadows and magic lashed out, belting the soldiers and yanking them down.

Her whole world became swamped in darkness. She thrashed against it, letting more shadows bleed into the snowy white environment. Letting her magic corrupt and destroy everything in her path. She didn’t care anymore about anything. She was vengeance itself— powerful, fatal, and unforgiving.

She wanted the world to burn and bleed the same way she had her whole life. She wanted to relish this feeling—the raw power that leaked from her, the strength to destroy that ran through her veins. It was exhilarating, tantalizing, intoxicating.

“Princess! Princess !”

Zhi Ruo raised her hand, sending wave after wave of dark magic to consume everything around her.

“ Princess !”

Another blast of magic to her left, then her right. She could hear the screams of the soldiers. The devouring of flesh as she corrupted them with her magic. She savored it, knowing that she was causing them so much pain. Especially after the weeks of agony she had endured by their hands.

“Zhi Ruo!” Feng Mian was suddenly in front of her, his hands on her shoulders. He shook her gently. He was saying something, his pretty mouth parting, but the words didn’t reach her. He looked … terrified, but she wasn’t sure why.

She reached forward and touched his cheek. Shadows welled over her flesh, flicking out in every direction; they warped around Feng Mian, seeming to understand that he wasn’t her target. Blood and purple bruises littered his beautiful face.

Zhi Ruo took his face in her hands. “I love you,” she murmured, her magic continuing to run amok behind her, beside her, and everywhere else. It didn’t matter anymore, she decided.

His eyes widened, the silver appearing all the more vivid against the backsplash of black and purple shadows.

“Snap out of it!” he shouted, shaking her. “You’ll kill yourself like this!”

It didn’t matter. She wasn’t sure if she told him that or not, but she released him. Her life truly didn’t matter; it was better this way, for her to take this entire camp down with her. If she would die anyway, she’d rather take all her enemies with her.

She pulled away from him, walking in the sea of black, her gaze skating over everything to seek Wyer, but she couldn’t find him.

Feng Mian grabbed her hand. “Stop! Zhi Ruo !”

He continued to shout at her, screaming something, but his words didn’t reach her. She couldn’t understand why he appeared so panicked. Wasn’t this good? Wasn’t this what he wanted? For her to unleash her magic and free them?

Oh, his bindings .

Zhi Ruo grabbed the cuffs on his wrists and all at once, her shadows wrapped around them, cracking the metal with a giant burst. There , she thought, letting go of his hands. Now he was free.

But he continued to yell at her, even as his own magic pulsed in his flesh, even as the veins in his hands darkened with black. Finally, he took her face in his hands, and her flesh burned where he touched. She struggled against him, confused. Why was he hurting her? Didn’t he want this?

He pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed the top of her head gently—so ever gently, such a contrast to the chaos around them. For a moment, in the quiet, it was a glorious feeling—the feeling of his protective grip, the magic within her racing at the rhythm of his heart, seeming to recognize him, seeming to sing for him—and then she felt it. All of her magic began draining. The great power she had amassed was quickly dying off—going to him .

She tried pulling away, but he held her tight. Then, her body started convulsing. She threw her head back, mouth open to scream, but nothing came out.

More darkness ebbed in the corner of her vision, but whether it was her magic, his magic, or her consciousness fading, she didn’t know.

Right when she thought she would burst into shadows herself, Feng Mian brushed another kiss on her head. “You are the light of my dark, dark world. There’s no need for you to succumb to my curse.”