Page 26 of Malicent (Seven Devils #1)

Cage

HER ABILITY TO KEEP ME out of her mind without a countering attack is impressive. Unfortunately for her, I know a few tricks to slip past even the most ironclad minds. One of the most effective is using something personal, something tied to memory.

A single thread is all it takes. If I dangle it just long enough, a small seam will open into a mind.

One weakness, and that wall crumbles. I picture the stuffed bunny she used to carry as a child—the one she gave to me.

The moment a hint of recognition flickers in her eyes, I seize it.

I grasp the thread, yanking it hard, and channel my magic into her mind with lightning speed.

A sharp thud echoes in my chest, my heart hammering against my ribs.

My knees weaken, forcing me to grip the edge of the table to steady myself.

Kalix is speaking beside me, but his voice is distant.

My gaze is held captive by hers, and before I can resist, I am dragged under. Air abandons me as I am submerged.

The world dissolves. Kalix. Iris. The lab. Gone. Everything disintegrates as I am unwillingly pulled into something vast and unknown. I sink deep into the abyss of her consciousness, a place I was never meant to go.

When I finally blink, the atrium is gone.

A desolate landscape stretches before me. Black sludge clings under my boots, each step met with a sickening sound of suction. The air is thick with acrid smoke that curls in dense coils, and my throat burns as I instinctively cough, but then I see them.

The ground, once a field, is now nothing but scorched earth. The grass has since been reduced to ash. And beyond, through the shifting veil of smoke—bodies. Thousands of them.

I narrow my eyes, focusing past the haze. A vast sea of corpses are sprawled across the battlefield in the armor of their country and the blood of their defeat.

A figure moves. She saunters toward me, slow and unhurried. Her hips sway with grace. A deep, menacing laugh drifts through the air—rich, oily, and laced with something inhuman. As she steps closer, my stomach twists.

Millicent. Not as I know her. She’s clad in black-scaled armor, the dark plating gleams like the hide of predator. And her eyes—

Twin voids stare back at me, a bottomless abyss that threatens to consume everything underneath her gaze.

“Do you not know how to bow?”

The command thrums through the air, thick with power, pressing against me like unseen hands.

My knees falter as the force almost buckles them beneath me, but I resist. A wide, devilish smile stretches across her face, pulling her features too tight, too sharp.

It isn’t a smile of amusement. It’s hunger.

A predator savoring the moment before the kill.

Then…she moves.

Too fast.

A blur of motion, and a jolt of force slams into my shoulder. My body crumbles beneath it. My knees crash into the ground as the impact rattles me to my core.

“Now, how did you get in here?” She tilts her head, the motion is jarring, disjointed, as though her body barely remembers how to mimic human movement. “Have you come home?” Blood slicks her mouth, dripping in slow rivulets down her neck.

“Home?” My voice is hoarse and unsteady. “What is this place? Millicent, I didn’t try to pry into your mind. I want to leave. It was all just—”

I don’t get to finish.

Her hand shoots out, fingers clamping around my jaw. Sharp nails pierce my skin, pressing deep enough to draw blood. She snarls, “Seems we are both stuck, but I see you now.” Her grip tightens, her voice slithering over me like a curse. “ Hidden from thee you have been, little sheep. Little lamb.”

The smile returns, spreading too far, stretching up her cheeks, distorting her face into something monstrous. “You are stronger,” she muses, her tone thick with amusement. “Good. You will need your strength.”

Her fingers lengthen. The nails sharpen into wicked points and plunge deeper as pain erupts, hot, searing.

One claw punctures the soft flesh inside my cheek, ripping the thin membrane of my mouth.

My lips part in a silent scream, but no sound escapes.

She lifts me effortlessly, toying with me like a cat playing with its food.

I hang there, suspended in her grasp, choking from the blood pooling in my mouth.

“There is nothing you can do to stop what is done.” Her voice lowers to a purr, “What is done has already happened.”

My pulse pounds, erratic—the world tilts.

“Get stronger.”

“Live deliciously.”

Her hand tightens, and then—

She throws me.

The void swallows me whole. I plummet, disoriented, weightless. The darkness stretches endlessly below me, the world above shrinking until all that remains is the echo of her voice.

“Get out.”

I slam back into my body violently, the force of it ripping me away from Millicent’s mind like a drowning man being wrenched from the depths.

The moment I return, my stomach revolts. Doubling over, I retch onto the floor, my entire body convulsing as the remnants of my dinner splatters onto the stone. Kalix curses, barely dodging the mess in time. “Gods, watch it!” He stumbles back, shaking his boot as if that’ll save him.

Iris rushes to my side, her hands warm and steady against my back. “Cage, you okay?”

I nod, sucking in deep, ragged breaths, trying to cool the fire in my lungs. The world tilts around me, disoriented and wrong, but I shove the nausea down. Iris straightens, her sharp gaze flicking between me and Millicent. “You weren’t supposed to attack.”

Her words slice through the air, but I barely register them. Millicent stands frozen, staring blankly ahead before she finally draws in a slow breath. Her eyes flicker as she blinks back to herself, becoming lucid.

She looks at me. Confusion. Something unsettled lingers in her expression, something that throws me off.

“Millicent,” Iris says again, more firmly this time, taking a cautious step toward her.

Millicent exhales, rolling her shoulders as though shaking off invisible hands. “I think he got past my wall.” Her voice is steady, but I see a flicker of unease in the way her fingers curl into fists. “What did you see?”

She is worried. Not just that I got in, but that I saw something I shouldn’t have. That realization twists something deep in my gut. She didn’t know I got in? She’s trained, skilled; she should have felt it. No witch leaves their mind unguarded without knowing. Yet, she’s completely unaware.

Which means …

I don’t know what the hell I just walked into.

“She didn’t attack me,” I say, my voice gruff, still trying to piece it together myself. “It may have been her subconscious.” They’re empty words, but I have nothing else to offer.

Iris exhales, some of the tension leaving her frame. She turns back to Millicent, her voice softer now as if handling something fragile. “Are you okay?”

Millicent watches me carefully. Calculating.

“Yes, I’m fine.” The answer is too quick. Too rehearsed. She turns the ring on her thumb, the only tell that she’s rattled beneath her collected facade. “I was unaware he got in. I’m not sure what happened. Did you see anything?”

She’s analyzing me. Waiting. Her apprehension confirms my suspicion that she has deeply guarded secrets. I don’t know what I saw. One thing is certain—Millicent doesn’t want me to know.

“A battlefield,” I say shortly. “Covered in bodies. And you.”

Her fingers still around the ring for half a second. Then, she forces an exhale, tilting her head slightly. “I’ve never been in a war,” she muses, her voice light, distant. “My subconscious, you say? Maybe that was it.”

The words are a deflection.

Kalix, who has been blessedly quiet for once, finally huffs a laugh. “That is a brutal subconscious. You need some sunshine or something, you little rain cloud.” His teasing grin breaks the tension as he strides toward the exit. “I’ll grab some cleaning supplies and water.”

As he moves past me, I push off the table and call after him, my voice hoarse.

“My puke. Let me help.”

He snorts. “Nah, you earned this one.” I shake my head, following him out. Whatever happened in Millicent’s mind, I’ll figure it out later.

For now, I just need to steady my own.