“I'm sorry, but I've already made a deal with Kid. And you know how I am about deals.”
“Please,” Treycore whined, his chin quivering, his eyes watering.
Vera's jaw clenched. She gripped her hand around the blaggovite's neck and squeezed. Its tail whipped through the air. A slit opened at the tip of its head, and a screech, like a child crying in the night, filled the room.
“Don't you see?” she said, raising her voice to combat the blaggovite's scream. “This is all I've wanted…to see you experience the pain of losing the one you love. Just like I did.”
Her grip around the blaggovite's neck tightened. It screeched even louder.
She lowered it to Kid’s head. It slithered off her arm and coiled around his neck.
“No!” Treycore wailed.
The immortal serpent tightened around Kid’s neck, just as Mika had done with the whip.
Kid closed his eyes like he was drifting off to sleep. His face trembled and shook before he unleashed a shaky scream.
“You must know what it’s like,” Vera told Treycore, "the horror of being tortured by your own vicious memories…the horror of having to relive every dark moment…every fear, until you die. What horrors do you think a boy like Kid has lived that could be so cruel…so painful?”
