Cade smirks but I know him well enough to know he’s embarrassed to be here. He never did like to lose.
“How many more chances will they give you, Cade? How many chances until your time runs out?” I kneel before him so we’re eye level.
He turns his head to avoid my gaze.
“You betrayed me,” I whisper. “My mother, who was nothing but wonderful to you?—”
“Do you still not get it?” Cade whips his head and we’re so close our noses nearly brush. But I don’t back away. “Your mother kept her lineage,yourlineage, a secret?—”
“To protect me!”
“To protect herself.” Cade shakes his head, a smile dancing on his lips. “She only wanted to prolong her life, Elora. Not yours. If she told you about your Dyrsjel magick, you could have protected yourself that night. Could have saved her. But she didn’t. So, who is to blame? Me or her?”
My knuckles tighten and I reach for my daggers.
Only to remember they aren’t there. Taken from me the night Cade took me to Valebridge.
Cade takes notice right away and laughs. Sorin steps forward and reaches for my arm but I swat him away.
No more running.
“So, what?” Cade says through a laugh. “Are you going to kill me, unarmed and tied up like an animal?”
He continues to laugh, and all of the rage I’ve let fester the past few weeks comes rushing to the surface. The scars around my wrists begin to burn. Images of the Enchantresses in their cells, their bodies weak and violated. I bite my tongue, calming the sea of rage storming inside of me. Steadying it. Reassuring it.
Won’t be long now, susi.
Show him what it means to betray a Dyrsjel.
Show him what it means to betray a Leigh.
Sorin’s lips brush against my ear, silencing the voices in my head. He crouches behind me, his warmth encompasses me and my knuckles relax slightly. “As far as I’m concerned, your word is law, love,” he says against the shell of my ear. “So, say it and consider it done.”
A shiver runs down my spine not just at his words, but what he’s offering. To take Cade’s life so I don’t have to. I turn to him and say nothing but for whatever reason he knows what I need to do. He nods before stepping away.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Cade says, gritting his teeth. The door creaks faintly beneath his words. “You’re practically an animal yourself these days.”
My fist collides with his jaw with a sickening crunch. I shake my hand at my side, ignoring the pain in my knuckles. He spits out a pool of blood onto the floor and the sight of it has my stomach churning. He opens his mouth so I lunge for him again.
No more talking.
My nails dig into the flesh of his chin, and when he tries to pull away, it only encourages me to dig them further. “I have thought of little else since the moment I was locked in that cell.” Blood begins to trickle down his chin.
You have teeth, little susi, use them.
“I have gone over this moment a million times and then a million more. All the ways I could make you suffer. All the ways I could make you bleed.” Cade squirms beneath my grip. “Or burn.” The air in his lungs flutters, in and out. In and out. All the weeks lying dormant, my magick is eager now and doesn’t hesitate as I command the air to turn to fire.
“So do it,” he screams. His face reddens, his eyes bulging. He tries to wriggle again but everytime he moves, the ivy around him tightens. “Kill me and get it over with.” His hazel eyes find mine, and despite the pain he must be in, he steadies himself.
Always something to prove.
The flames snuff out as my magick retreats, leaving Cade gasping before me. Low growls fill the space raising the hairs on the back of my neck. Leaning closer, I brush a piece of fallen hair from his forehead. I smile when he flinches, a disturbing satisfaction to see a man who has hurt me fall before me.
“I’m not going to kill you, Cade.”
His eyes widen as four shadows encompass the both of us.
“Buttheyare.” Smiling, I tilt my head as the wolves’ flank my sides. I drop his chin and spin on my heels to head straight for the door.
