“Go.” She whispered. Smiling.
He didn’t want to. Nymiria was up in their tower, in the bed that they shared, and though she wasn’t alone, he did not want to be gone when she woke up. He wanted to stay.
“You'd have to kill me first, you bitch.” He promised.
Camalia only smirked at him, her blue eyes moving to the ornament once again. With one harsh tug, she ripped it from his chest and curled it into the palm of her hand. “I can arrange that, I suppose. But it would certainly put a damper on this lovely evening.”
Aziel's ears began to vibrate. The burning in his spine was making it harder to keep standing. If he pushed against her and her power for much longer, he feared that he just might die from the amount of pain that coursed through his body. But with the image of Nymiria in his mind, he dug his feet into the ground and clenched his teeth around a pained cry. They continued to stare at one another, locked in a test of might, until the sound of boots clicking against the tile floor made Camalia's eyes flicker towards the path that'd been cleared in the center of the room. She let out a huff of a laugh, rolling her eyes when she looked at the man standing in a swirl of shadows.
"You think you can frighten me with your little magic tricks, Demetrios?"
Trio smiled back at her as he climbed the stairs, stopping as soon as he reached Aziel's side. "I don't think anything can scare a witch like you. You're the ugliest creature I've ever seen in my life."
"Aziel has never complained." Camalia turned to Aziel then, running her finger along the sharp line of his jaw.
The shadow wielder folded his arms over his chest, looking at her with a type of judgement that finally made her squirm. "Are you sure?" Trio asked. "Because he told me that it takes everything in him not to vomit right in your face. He says it smells like hell—that your cunt reeks of brimstone and sulfur."
The queen looked around the throne room at all of her patrons, at her loyal subjects, but all of them were silent. Not even the guards dared to move a single inch in her defense. "You are quite repulsive, yourself. The gall you have to believe that you could defeat me with your…" Her index finger flicked to the shadows hissing wildly at Trio's shoulders. "Parlor tricks."
"Maybe not. But, I have been talking to averypowerful witch that told me how to reverse those runes you carved into us." There was a lilt to Trio's voice that made Aziel want to smile. His friend sounded joyous—toojoyous—as he slipped his own knife from his thigh. With one swipe of his blade, Aziel felt the pain in his back ignite with the burn of a thousand stars.
His vision turned white, ears ringing, and stomach contracting sharply as the pain seized every muscle in his body. He fell to his knees immediately, crying out with each wave of fire that pulsed through him. He couldn't hear Trio's chanting, nor could he hear Camalia begging for the shadow wielder to stop. She tried her best to fight against the shadows that were now like a wall between them, her fists bouncing off of them as she screamed.
"What the fuck was that?" Aziel snarled. The moment Trio placed a handful of herbs onto Aziel's back and began packing them into the wounds, the latter let out a howl of pain that mimicked the cry of a banshee. The herbs did nothing to help his pain, but Trio continued his chanting, eyes focused on the black substance that was oozing out of Aziel's spine.
"The Rune Witch told me what I needed to do to help you." Trio was breathless, casting a worried glance in Camalia's direction. "She said there is a chance that it might not last—that the magic used on you could return depending on how strong the spell is, so you need to make thisquick."
Everything was loud. Every inch of him was paralyzed. He could do nothing, but let it hurt.
Even when silence did come, the hurt in Aziel's body still screamed just as loudly as before. But with each moment that passed, he could feel the muscles and tendons that'd been ripped open by Trio's knife start to knit themselves back together.
"What do you need me to do?" Trio asked, kneeling down just enough to hear Aziel's panted commands.
The God of Mortem looked between Camalia and the subjects that filled the throne room before his eyes flickered to the door. "Barricade every entrance. And stay out of the way," He started, a weak smile twitching at the corner of his lips. "Let me do what I do best."
Aziel didn't need to clarify.
Anyone who had seen Aziel work, knewwhat that meant. He was good at killing people, as The God of Mortem wouldbe, but his favorite part of the job was torturing the people who deserved it. And,gods, these peopledeservedit.
Chapter 35
Nymiria awoke to the sound of screaming, her eyes flying open and searching the room before she realized that it was her own screams that echoed through her surroundings and that the pain she'd felt during her rune reversal had returned with a vengeance—taking root in her and claiming her to the point that she felt like she couldn't move. She stared at the wall in front of her, lips frozen around a silent scream, as she sank her nails into the mattress. They punctured through the fabric, pressing into the stuffing.
"It's alright," Desi whispered. "You're going to be alright." She lightly stroked Nymiria's hair out of her face, brow furrowed as she looked from the young goddess to the witch that worked over her. "We're finishing thisnow, Nym. You're going to have your power back completelyand you are going to get your revenge."
The wordrevengecaught her attention, her eyes flashing a dangerous shade of silver as her mind flickered with the image of Dorid forcing her onto the mattress. Every thought became a different memory—him hitting her, his fingers tightening around her neck, all of the men he let touch her, every compromising position he believed she could handle—it was all there. And with each second that passed with her trapped in the loop of nightmares, she felt the anger inside of her swell so large that it consumed her pain.
Her eyes flickered to the God Stone still perched upon Aziel's altar, the hand that had ripped through the mattress now lifting and curling until her index finger pointed at the stone. Desi's eyes followed, her mouth parting for just amoment before snapping it shut again. She jumped to her feet from her place beside the bed and scurried across the room to grab it, practically throwing the stone at Nymiria as she went.
"What is she doing?" Phyona asked in between chants, her hands prodding and pushing the thick, black sludge from Nymiria's back.
Desi couldn't look away from what she was seeing—how Nymiria used every ounce of her strength to reach for the blade she'd stuffed under the pillow that morning. Once her fingers curled around the metal, she dragged it back towards herself, lifting it and swiftly dragging it across her palm.
She didn't know what she was doing. It was as if she had no control over her extremities at all.
She could see Desi and Phyona talking to one another, she could feel the little witch's hands on her, but she could hear nothing other than the chanting of prayers going through her mind. Some of them were her own, from years ago when she was just a lost child running through a forest, bloodied and beaten, while her mate chased her. The other prayers were a flurry of thousands of unknown voices. Each of them calling to her, each of them pleading for her strength.
"Do it now."A voice whispered."Do it now while the blood is hot."
