Vade fucking relished the sound of it. He pulled the stringy tendons free from the human’s skull and placed each eye in Ivan’s crushed hands so he could hold them.
Vade panted heavily, smearing sweat with blood as he wiped his face. He stepped back and took in the unrecognizable lump of a person sitting in the chair. What a wonderful canvas the human had made. His painting was complete. Vade grinned from ear to ear.
Every part of Ivan was bloodied except the top of his golden head of hair. His eyes leaked, and his jaw hung so low it nearly touched his chest. His limbs were bent at wrong angles, bones shattered, and the knife wounds to his abdomen spurt maroon. Chunks of muscle lay on the ground at his feet. Vade didn’t remember doing that, but he was impressed with himself for the feat.
But there was still the matter of the part of him that had to make good on his sinister plan. The one that had developed on the walk to Blu’s, turning from Ivan’s death at Vade’s hands to something else.
Ivan was an inch from death when Vade used the last bottle of seidr sana on him. The elixir took much longer to work this time with how much damage had been done.
Over the next half a mark, strained wheezes came out of the mutilated man as he was slowly put back together again—bones popping into place, eyes regenerating, wounds sealing.
Vade had never used the seidr sana before, even on himself. Even when he took a horn to the ribs in a batalin fight, or a beak from an ettheral eagle in the eye. He’d been saving them and wasn’t sure what for, but now he knew. Only, all the bottles were gone, so the merriment was over.
Ivan’s body gained mass like he was filling with air. There was so much blood on him that Vade couldn’t tell if the wounds had finished healing, but the human’s eyes were back to their natural state.
Vade didn’t bother cleaning the blood off himself. His hands were stained in it, much had splattered on his face and clothes, and he cared not.
When Ivan was whole again, the human wheezed out the word, “Congratulations.”
Vade cocked a brow.
“You’ve broken my faith in the gods. And the devils. For I know now that you are the true devil.” Ivan’s eyes were as lifeless as his words. “No one with a conscience could do what you just did to me, and what I assume you plan to keep doing.” His eyes met Vade’s. “You’re the Archdevil,” Ivan said with more conviction than Vade had ever heard anyone declare anything.
“Hmm. I like the sound of that. Maybe they’ll stop calling me Death’s Shadow and call me that instead.”
Ivan laughed. A delirious, accepting laugh of his circumstances.
Vade had one final, unfinished task, so he grabbed his dagger and began carving letters into Ivan’s thigh again. The man still screamed, but they were contained to sounds that only someone who had felt that kind of pain before could make.
It made Vade’s job easier. “I didn’t get to finish the first time,” he said after he’d carved the final letter. He made sure not to cut deep enough that the wound would require a healing elixir. Given time, the word would heal into a beautiful scar.
“Say it,” Vade ordered.
Ivan looked down at his leg, blood dripping down the sides. “Predator,” he whispered.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Predator,” he said with more volume.
“Now you’ll never forget what you are. And you’re going to have a while to remember.”
Ivan’s face twisted in confusion.
Vade walked through the pool of blood and chunks of discarded flesh, stuck his carving dagger back in his belt, returned the paddle and wrench to the weapon wall, and closed the latch. He walked around the room and turned off every trulight except the one by the door.
“What are you doing?” Ivan had the nerve to ask, as if any of his questions had returned positive answers.
The dim room shrouded Vade in the darkness that was, and always would be, a part of him. He stood in the threshold and sent his shadows across the room. When he wiggled his fingers, the tendrils responded and untied Ivan’s restraints.
Though he was free, Ivan didn’t move. The light illuminating his face showed his shock, but more importantly, it revealed a sliver of hope.
Hope Vade couldn’t wait to crush. He lowered his voice when he spoke. “I didn’t heal you to let you go. I healed you so that it will take longer for you to die.”
When Ivan tried to get up, Vade lifted a finger in warning. That was all it took for the human to sit back down.
“You will never eat or drink again. You will never know the sun or another’s touch. I told you my face will be the last thing you see, and I deliver on my promises. But most importantly, you will never hurt Orelia, or any other woman, ever again.”
Ivan’s face had gone moon white. “The devils will punish you for this, fae.”
