Spurred on by the words, however, Benn’s touch lowered, skimming down my belly. My throat tightened, my mouth went dry. My heartbeat was a wild, caged thing, trying to pound its way free.
The horde king lunged forward against the chains, that dark growl rising again. Those eyes promised pain. His expression had morphed into barely leashed rage. That was when I saw his tail flick. Benn’s leg was only a short distance away. He would—
Benn’s touch registered between my legs and a feral thing within me rose. Reacting on instinct, my belly churning in disgust, I lashed out, throwing my elbow back and reaching around to try to rake my nails against whatever skin I could find. A sound escaped me, one I’d never heard before.
“Ahh,” came Benn’s startled cry. My nails scraped against his brow and I went for his eye, but it closed quickly. Still, I gouged my nails deep, wanting to leave a mark,needingto. “Fucking bitch!”
The heat of his body retreated away from my back and that was a reward in itself. The explosive crack of his hand against my cheekbone whipped my face to the side. Dizzy, disoriented, I fell to the floor.
I felt the pointed tip of his heavy boot connecting with my ribs and I wheezed, curling myself into a ball on the icy ground.
Though my ears were ringing, I still heard the roar. The horde king’s roar, because it shook the whole room.
When I lifted my head, I saw the horde king’s tail had wrapped around Benn’s leg like a vise. Benn’s gaze was panicked as Rowin pulled him away from me, as he fell against the stone, his head hitting the ground hard.
In that moment, Benn looked like a child in all his fear, panicked and out of control and flailing, as the horde king pulled him closer and closer, reeling him in. Benn lashed out with his booted feet but none connected.
“No,” I whispered when I saw Benn’s hand flash. The dagger shone in the low torchlight and I saw him stab straight through the horde king’s tail, right in the middle of it.
Rowin didn’t make a sound but his tail released Benn in an instant, going limp, as blood began to bubble from the wound.
Benn scrambled to his feet, snagging his dagger back out from his tail in the process, as if afraid Rowin would be able to take it. He backed away from us both. I shivered on the ground, tears beginning to well up in my eyes. Benn would kill me for this. There was no way around it.
“Benn,” came a ragged voice. “What’s going on?”
I recognized Jacques’ voice but I didn’t look at him. It took me a moment to realize he’d entered the room when he heard the horde king roar, that he’d witnessed everything afterwards.
“Don’t touch her,” Benn grated and I assumed that Jacques had tried to approach me, to help me up. “Let the horde king have his whore.”
A deep sound reverberated in Rowin’s throat. I felt it vibrate through even me.
“When I kill you,vekkiri, I will smile as you scream.”
The words were soft—like a caress from a lover—but I heard how deadly they were, dripping from the horde king’s lips like venom.
Rowin continued, “And after you are dead, I will forget you, as insignificant as you are to me. A thing in my way. You’ll be just another body littering this tomb.”
I heard Benn’s rough breaths as he tried to regain his composure. His ego was bruised. He’d be in a dangerous mood once he left.
“Mina,” came Jacques’ voice.
“I said leave her!” came Benn’s shout. “If you lay a hand on her, then you will join her here.”
Jacques made a sharp exhale through his nostrils.
“Go,” came Benn’s command. “Now.”
A tense silence came but at the end of it, I heard Jacques’ footsteps retreat. The splashing of water came next. I saw Benn standing at the workbench, where we’d found broken vials of glass and aged parchment, remnants of the Ghertun. There was a basin of water I hadn’t noticed and I saw Benn wash his hands in it, cleaning off the blood from his knuckles. The horde king’s blood from when he’d struck him.
When he was done, I heard the basin scrape off the bench. A moment later, I gasped, the air stolen from my lungs when the icy coldness of the water dumped over my body. It slid across my skin and soaked my hair.
The chains rattled again, as if the horde king was trying to break free from them. I shivered violently, curling deeper into myself, trying to save my warmth, though the water leeched it from me.
“There, Dakkari,” Benn said. Gone was the mocking humor in his voice. In its place was disgust. He scooped down to snatch my torn dress from the floor, taking it with him. “I even cleaned her up for you.”
A moment later, the light from the torch left and the sound of the creaking door sealed me inside with the horde king. Darkness was all I saw, save for a little sliver of light underneath the door, where I saw shadows of footsteps moving.
“Mina, come to me,” came the horde king’s voice, in a deep, husky tone that left no room for argument. “Now.”
