All the while, Julen doesn’t faint. He doesn’t die. He continues to thrash and wail as he’s sliced down the front. Augustus resumes his journey along his uncle’s inner thighs all the way to his feet before finally drawing back.
For a moment, nothing happens. The very room seems to hold its breath as if in anticipation. If it weren’t for the butchered dick, I would almost believe Augustus hadn’t actually cut him, but then I see the thin, red line appear. A perfect path from brow to big toe. Brightening. Sharpening. Coming into vivid focus. All at once, thin crimson ribbons rise to the surface. Each grows thicker. Flowing faster. Spilling and running. Pooling beneath Julen. Flowing along the notches in the table to soak into the base.
Not the greatest death I’ve ever witnessed, but I accept it. I begin to rise when Bernard ambles stiffly around to my side ofthe altar. Tiny, black flecks of charred flesh scatter beneath his tentative steps as he takes his place.
Together, the brothers each raise their hands and sink ten fingers each into the folds. The flesh is drawn back across Julen’s chest. It’s peeled from his face. Where it gets stuck, Augustus carefully carves it free. I watch them remove each inch with meticulous and careful motion with Julen never once losing consciousness.
“What are you doing?”
I nearly wet myself. The commanding boom thunders down my spine from somewhere high above me. A commanding force of rage that has me leaping to my feet and spinning to face the voice.
My heart sinks into my gut at the sight.
Veyn … and Lenora. Both stand before the hole, peering down into my horrified expression.
But it’s the red in the demon’s eyes, the curl of his lips over serrated fangs that has cold sweat breaking across my skin.
“What have you done?”
Chapter Forty-One
Lenora
Ragedoesnotcoverthe raw inferno coming off Veyn.
There is a wild indignation and … fear in his eyes that has my hands tightening around my midsection. Bits of loose stone scatter beneath my heels with my careful step back.
Below, Marcus has gone very still.
He’s the only one. The two gingerly peeling the flesh off Julen Duval haven’t glanced up once. They never stop. Neither has Julen Duval. He’s no more than a shuddering pile of broken bones and pulsing veins.
The final two standing off to one side watching the spectacle turn their attentions up to us, their expressions unreadable.
“You will stop this. Now!” Veyn commands.
Augustus and Bernard resume their work without faltering once. But I don’t think he was talking to them.
“You cannot tell us what to do, brother,” the gray creature with the chains hisses. “We have been given an offering.”
Both Veyn and I glance in Marcus’s direction. It doesn’t take much thought to realize he’s responsible.
“You will stop,” Veyn assures them with a warning that sends a chill along my spine to prickle around the tight knot at the base. “Or I will end both of you.”
I try not to shift as the pressure builds. As it encircles my thighs, making the muscles ache. I want, desperately, to sit.
I begged Veyn to leave me on the bed when he’d gone rigid and muttered that something was wrong, but he refused to leave me alone. I was plucked up and carted through the mirror world so quickly, I hadn’t even had a chance to look at anything.
Now, we stand over the chamber below the house, watching … whatever this is while I do my best not to simply sink to the floor and scream.
“You’re welcome to try,” the gray creature taunts. “But we both know that you no longer hold any power over us.”
The flayed remains of Julen Duval are rolled off the dais with a final jerk of his flesh being torn off his back. He strikes the floor beneath it with a splat that resonates. He’s a near replica of the demon with no flesh, which seems to be what the intention was when Augustus and Bernard take the freshly skinned length of perfectly trimmed skin to the demon waiting huddled nearby.
“Dain, don’t you dare,” Veyn snarls as his … brother takes the offering and pulls it on as if it were a coat.
A violent spike of agony rips through me. A force that nearly takes my knees out from beneath me and would have if Veyn hadn’t caught me. His arms gather me close as I cry out into his chest.
“Lenora!”
