Page 36 of Of Ash and Iron (Flame Cursed Fae #3)
Chapter 36
Kain
S he would have killed him. I am certain.
And fates help me, I stopped her.
I can't pretend any longer that I can make her like me. I can't lie to myself that if she shares my rage, if she abandons herself to desire for revenge, she'll stay with me.
She's a berserker. I've known it has always been within her. She's just found out.
But she's not a murderer.
I knew that the day she put Orgid out. She would never stop punishing herself if she killed her own father, and I would rather she never lived with a single regret than chose to stay here with me.
The certainty of my realization makes me feel sick.
I will lose her. There's no other way.
"You can't keep me in here," the disgusting old fae says as she shoves him into a cell without a blown-apart door.
Now he knows she won't actually kill him, some of his righteous bluster is returning.
It is taking every ounce of control I have not to slip off my glove and turn the pathetic, cruel little weasel to ash.
"Yes, I can."
She doesn't know that I've had him in here for four days already. At some point the Ice Court are going to raise the alarm.
I hear a soft thump. I whirl and see that she has fainted.
A flash of triumph glints in her father's eyes, and he crouches, yanking her to him as he stands.
"Get your fucking hands off her!" I'm in front of him in a heartbeat, but I needn't have bothered. She's already awake. Her fist snaps out at his face at the same time her slack leg snaps up between his thighs.
I wince as he lets out a wail. She pushes him, disgust on her still-dazed face, and he falls backward, ripping her shirt as he goes down.
"You're pathetic," she says, her voice a little muzzy but her venom clear.
She turns her back on him, and I freeze.
"What is that?"
She walks past me out of the cell. I follow her, forcing my feet to move, and the door locks, the magic of Featherblade once again behind her.
"What is what?" she asks.
"That."
I point at the top of her arm, and her pale skin colors. Her hand flies to the mark, and she rubs her fingers over it. Within a second, her shoulder is covered in glistening ice.
"It's nothing."
Skoll makes a noise in the back of his throat, and she flicks an uneasy glance at him.
My stomach clenches so tight I can't breathe properly.
I know what that mark is. And I can guess how she got it.
"It's a burn. I recognize a fucking burn when I see one, princess." I grit out every word through clenched teeth.
I was already at the breaking point. She has been mentally abused by the pathetic excuses for life that she calls a family, and now she is being physically abused here.
My skin heats to a painful level, and I bite hard into my cheek.
"An accident," she says. Her eyes are downcast, her voice small. She just faced off a fucking king, but this has broken her?
"An accident in the shape of an ancient rune?"
She says nothing.
"Who?"
I already know, but I need her to say it. Because the pain I am going to inflict needs to be a hundred percent justified.
"It doesn't matter. It's my fight, not yours. They won that time, and I'll win another. And I don't need it broadcast that they got the best of me."
"Say their fucking names. Tell me who did this to you."
"Inga," she whispers. "Inga used the brand."
Skoll is out of the room ahead of me.
"Kain, wait!" She scoops up a clanging bag and runs after me.
My ears are ringing. My body is clenched so hard that my ribs hurt. I've drawn blood from my cheek.
She punches me on the arm, a flash of cold on my bare skin shocking me enough to stop.
"I said, stop! This is my fight!" Her big blue eyes are wide, her cheeks pink.
"Nobody will ever, ever make you look that ashamed of yourself again. Nobody will ever make you feel worthless or alone, ever again. Do you understand me? Do you understand that whatever you say right now will not stop me from ensuring that those who have fucked with you will regret it for the rest of their sorry lives?"
She stares wordlessly for a second too long.
By the time she's speaking again, I'm gone.