“You won’t be killing anyone,” Death growled. “Definitely not my son-in-law.”
“You fucking asshole!” she roared. Her face was red, and I could even sense the anger that radiated off her soul without calling on Pandora’s magic inside of me to do it. “I worked decades to gain your trust so that I could betray you all! I had you in the palm of my hand!” she laughed maniacally. “You had no idea! How does it feel for the legendary soul eater to be outsmarted by a shadow demon?”
“You’re right, we didn’t know,” Joel stated, hurt behind his eyes. Bane had taken him under her wing, so to speak, when he first joined the council. Aside from me, she’d been the one he was closest to. “But you betrayed us.”
“Youknewwhat Penny Bones was doing to my daughter!” Death stood, his hands slamming on the table, making it vibrate underneath my fingertips. The whites of his eyes bled into black.
Bane laughed at him in the most condescending way. “I didn’t know she was yours. I never even met the prophetic baby of dark magic.” Her eyes slid to my mate’s, who tensed beside me. Reed moved even closer to her other side. “I only knew Dark Veil’s plan to bring her up to wield dark magic for us all and bring a new era of demons. I only knew she was failing our expectations, so she was put through conditioning to bring her magic out.”
“You knew!”Death roared, and his aura turned black. “She was innocent!”
I’d never seen him so pissed off.
Vengeance snaked through him. I sensed the need for it in all of us.
“I didn’t know she was yours,” she denied smugly. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you shit. She was supposed to be a new type of demon, but she was utterly disappointing.”
My magic exploded, and a bolt of my power struck dangerously close to her, shutting her up as her eyes found mine.
“SSStop!” Sabine hissed. “She isss my kill. Did you two forget? She got my friend killed.”
Death and I shared a heated glance before he sat back down.
Pandora’s hand found mine and squeezed, and I exhaled a breath. I was barely restraining myself. “I apologize.”
“Me too,” Death murmured. “But please, make it hurt.”
“Make her suffer,” I bit out.
“Breathe,” Pandora whispered, stroking her thumb over my hand. “This is Sabine’s right to kill her. She will make sure justice is served.”
“Death’s daughter isss right.” Sabine's voice slithered through the air, cold and venomous, and her forked tongue flicked out.
“I didn’t just tell Sybil about your agent, I killed that bitch myself,” Bane laughed at Sabine. “Do you want to hear about how I stabbed her with my shadows until she died?”
“I’d rather not.” Sabine’s thirst for vengeance skyrocketed. She stepped forward and slowly lifted her hand—extending her hand toward Bane.
Bane didn’t have time to flinch or scream.
The moment Sabine’s fingertip grazed the bridge of Bane’s nose, her venom struck. Her magic seeped into Bane and squeezed the life out of her with merciless intent.
I’d only heard of her taking lives this way, but I’d never seen it in person.
Bane’s skin tightened, clinging to the sharp ridges of her bones, turning ashen and thin like parchment left in the sun. Her veins had even vanished, leaving behind only a brittle network of gray web beneath the surface. Her cheeks hollowed out, sinking into the contours of her skull. Her lips cracked and peeled away, revealing teeth clenched in silent agony.
“Fates, the pain coming off her is fucking insane,” Dex muttered.
“Good,” Death said. “She deserves every bit of it.”
“Do not feed off it,” Sabine instructed Dex.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he assured her.
Bane’s eyes—burning with cruelty— flickered at Death before they softened,liquefied, and collapsed inward. They oozed down her gaunt cheeks before vanishing into the shadows of her sockets.
Everyone grew impossibly still, and the air filled with the heavy scent of decay.
Bane’s body could no longer hold itself upright.
