Too late Kalder realized that somehow his brother’s nerve endings were tied to the surface of the very ground and rocks around him. And every step or movement he made caused his brother more agony. He shuddered at the horror of it all. “Forgive me, Muerig.”
Muerig groaned even louder.
Afraid to move lest he cause his brother even more harm, Kalder held his breath as he considered ways to free him from his prison. Yet every shift in weight drove more agony through Muerig’s body. This was a maniacal lair built by the unholiest of monsters.
Damn the Cimmerian army for their cruelty! They had thought this through far too well. There was nothing to be done that wouldn’t harm his brother more.
And none of it would kill a man who was already dead. So there was no release for Muerig whatsoever.
It was sickening. Tangled weeds had grown through Muerig’s body, planting him to the underside of the ledge over Kalder’s head. Worse were the demonic hands that held him, particularly the one at his throat that tightened any time Kalder moved closer.
“Whose life do you value more?”
Kalder tensed at the sudden question that came from a voiceless, heartless whore. “What?”
“You heard me, mermaid. You traded your life force forCameron’s to get here. Tell me whose life you would trade for your brother’s?”
“Mine.”
Gadreyal laughed before she materialized to hover in the air near Muerig’s perch. Her wings fluttered with the memory of when she’d once been on the side of good.
But that had been aeons ago.
Now, she was a soulless, pitiless creature of absolute evil. “You think we’d make it that easy on you? Nay, little fish. Never. Besides, we already haveyou. What we seek is something a lot more important than your worthless scaly hide.”
Vine materialized at his back. Like the Deruvian monster she was, she wrapped her thorny branches around Kalder and tightened them so that he couldn’t move. They bit deep into his flesh, drawing blood. His arms and legs throbbed even more as he fought against the restraint. He should have known that Vine would be part of this. Her species was grown from the earth. Made up of wood, her sylph ancestors were the worst sort of magical beings once they ceased to be protectors who guarded mankind. Their withered hearts turned black with their Wintering disease and they became predators who preyed on human blood and souls.…
So asking her for mercy was as useful as trying to milk a stump for sustenance. And fighting against her would be more useless still. She had him and there was nothing he could do, except bleed more. Never had he felt more powerless. Or weaker.
And he hated her for it.
This must have been how they’d trapped Muerig. And how they planned to eternally torment him. To tie him here to the groundwith her limbs so that she could feed and he could watch his brother suffer and know that he was the very cause of it.
There was no worse hell to be had.
“Vine! Release him. Now!”
Kalder gasped as he heard Thorn’s thunderous voice cut through the air between them. Even though it was sweltering here, that tone sent a chill over his body.
The ferocity was enough to cause Vine to immediately let go and step back. But only for an instant. Then she recovered herself and gripped him again. “You do not command me, you whelp of a whore!”
Thorn appeared right in front of them with an expression on his face that said she had to be the dumbest creature to ever draw breath to challenge him so. “Oh, foulest bitchington, please… in the mood I’m in, you truly don’t want to press this issue.” He smirked. “Or mayhap you do. Please”—he smiled coldly into her face—“tell me that you do. For you, I would be willing to dine on blood. Consequences be damned.”
His green eyes flared to red.
Vine let go one last time and withdrew. Gadreyal started forward, but Thorn quelled her advance with nothing more than one arched brow. A truly impressive feat.
Even so, the Irin shook her head. “You have no authority here, demon. He belongs to us.”
“There you would be wrong. He’s earned his release. Harm him further and I’ll be glad to take it from your hides.” He passed a cold stare to Vine before he returned that glare to Gadreyal. “Care to press my patience further?”
Gadreyal’s breathing intensified as she landed and stepped close enough to stare up into Thorn’s eyes. “I know not what bizarre relationship you have with our masters or what powers you wield here, but the day will come when my hand will not be stayed so easily.”
“Nor will mine. But remember, Gaddy, when that time comes, I won’t be protecting your back. I’ll be cutting your throat.” He stepped around her to collect Kalder.
Aghast, Kalder couldn’t believe that Thorn was here to liberate him again. The very demon who’d freed him once to serve on Captain Bane’s crew.
The same demon who’d opened his throat to bleed him out so that he could be damned here to this hell and replace Cameron and her brother.
