What was happening?
Finn’s gaze snapped back to the ring. What does it do? Why is Cedric reacting like this? And more importantly—could I pry it off Darius’s hand? With the way his body currently felt, all signs pointed to no. And that was frustrating.
Darius watched Cedric’s reaction, satisfaction lighting his expression. He turned the ring slowly on his finger, almost idly, like he was admiring a well-crafted sword. “Strange, isn’t it? How something so small can wield so much power over you.” His eyes gleamed with something dangerous. “You feel it, don’t you?”
Cedric’s throat bobbed.
“Your body remembers,” Darius observed, tilting his head. “Even if you don’t. A little blood, a little magic, and there you have it—the power to create a monster.”
Finn’s stomach lurched. The bile burned his tongue.
No.
He turned to Cedric, searching his face, trying to understand. But Cedric was staring at the ring like he was about to be sick.
Gwenna, however, had no patience for Darius and his theatrics. “What the hell are you talking about?” she snapped. “What monster? What does that thing do?”
Darius laughed, delighted, as if she’d set him up perfectly. “Oh, come now. You still don’t get it?” His gaze flicked back to Cedric, and his expression turned cruel. “I made him.”
“What?” Gwenna’s voice was sharp, incredulous. “You?—?”
“I cursed him,” Darius said simply, like he was discussing the weather. “I turned him into a beast, made him a creature of nightmares. And the best part?” He let out a short laugh, tilting his head. “He never even knew.”
Cedric’s entire body shook. Finn felt the force of his trembling, heard the ragged way he sucked in air. “You…” Cedric’s voice cracked. “You did this to me?”
Darius spread his arms. “Of course I did! Who else could have orchestrated such a brilliant plan?” His grin stretched wide, teeth flashing like a predator’s. “The beloved prince—transformed into a beast. The kingdom, thrown into chaos. And me? Rising to power, ready to save them all.”
Finn felt sick. Cedric had never known. Through all the years of suffering, through every agonizing transformation, through all the nights spent alone—he had never known.
Gwenna shook with fury, and before Finn could so much as breathe, she lunged. “You absolute bastard?—”
Darius tightened his hand into a fist, the ring flaring with light. Cedric collapsed. His knees slammed into the dirt, his breath ripping out of him in a hoarse, guttural sound.
Gwenna pulled up short, her mouth parting in a small, horrified O before she clamped it shut.
The breath rushed from Finn’s lungs. His body screamed at him to move, to fight, but all he could do was watch. Somehow, he stayed standing—even as every muscle and bone protested.
Cedric convulsed.
His hands hit the ground like something inside him had just snapped. His back arched, his body seizing in violent, unrelenting spasms. A tremor wracked through him, stealing the breath from his lungs.
“Cedric!” Gwenna’s voice cracked.
Finn hit his knees beside the downed prince, reaching out, desperate to stop whatever this was. But Cedric only shook, his wild eyes fixed on Darius.
And Darius? King Raging Ego just watched. Watched. Like this was entertainment. Like Cedric’s suffering was a game.
“What are you doing to him?!” Finn’s voice ripped from his throat, raw with fury—but a sick part of him already knew.
“Stop it!” Gwenna’s scream was edged with panic. Her hands curled into fists, trembling with helpless rage.
Darius ignored them all. His gaze never left Cedric, fixated.
Cedric screamed. The sound split the world in two. Finn had heard battle cries. The wails of the dying. The broken sobs of men past saving. But this…
This was agony in its purest form.
A soul being unmade. Worse than any torture the Duke of Poor Life Choices had visited upon Finn.
