I wasn’t going to fight about this naïveté thing, yet again. I opted out of the conversation and kept walking alongside this more-than-slightly insane king.
He wandered through the stronghold, blathering here and there about things, telling me about the different people in different cages, taking sadistic pleasure in biting or cutting or stabbing some of them.
The blood all flowed down the small drains below them, some a drip, some at a trickle. All of it just looked like what remained of Savion’s sanity flowing away.
He stopped us on the balcony overlooking the fountain in the front.
“This here is my joy. My biggest and best decorating idea ever. All the blood we used to waste during executions and tortures… it was a shame. I was delighted when one of my researchers finally came up with a way to keep things chilled. It’s been a boon, and we can save as much blood as possible.”
I wanted to vomit again. This was an egregious and unnecessary display of power.
Not to mention just plain gross.
I stared at the two stained glass windows, not answering.
Savion’s gaze joined mine as he stepped closer.
It felt…icky. He stood so close, almost intimately close to me. His expression warped to confused, and he stepped back.
He’d also felt the icky sensation.
Interesting.
Shaking it off, he looked up at the windows. “Those assholes. I’ve tried to have those windows broken out, but there is magic holding them there that’s like no other. It’s powerful, and I hate those windows. The bastard brother kings.”
I reached out with my power to see what he meant, how they could be unlike any other magic.
The touch was familiar. Comfortable.
The same magic that the Spine and Scar had given to me, Roran, Rilen, and Dorian.
The magic I had infused us with.
I was confused.
Savion cleared his throat, jerking me back to the now, and pointed to the doors below. “Did you know that in order to reach those doors from the outside, you have to pass through the Arch of Life?”
I shook my head. “What’s that?”
He chuckled. “That’s right. The arch was destroyed before the Spine rose. The Arch of Life will test the innermost you. People have gone mad because of it.”
“Including you?”
Shit.Oh, shit.
I had just poked a monster, never mind a bear.
Even the guards all through the hall stepped back when I uttered the words.
Swiveling his head slowly, his blue-green changeable eyes were gone and were overwhelmed by red. Deadly red.
“You rotten little cunt!” He stepped into me, and I backed up. “I spare your friends. I spare your lover. I spare yourlife. And thisis how you choose to treat me? Calling me insane? Insulting me in my own home?” Each word brought him a step closer to me.
I kept backing up until I hit the wall behind me at the top of the stairs.
Savion was terrifying in his madness.
I swallowed hard. I couldn’t say a thing—I was paralyzed and knew anything else would piss him off more.
