The darkness continued to obscure any trace of Mara or the creature who was speaking.
Instead, her eyes burned from trying to create something for her to focus on in the abysmal blackness. All they provided were peculiar stinging dots of light that chased each other around.
Until an eerie red light appeared. It spread out to form a giant demonic beast before her. One that made her antsy with anticipation. This wasn’t just any monster.
It was a Malachai.
The red and black on his skin swirled together and would have been pretty had he not oozed such an unnatural aura of evil and misery. There was never any mistaking such a creature. For they were torture and suffering.
Everything about him screamed ultimate torment and pain. The kind that crawled through the night seeking victims. That turned best friend against best friend. Father against son. Brother against brother. He fed on such turmoil and treachery. It was mother’s milk and he lapped it up like a starving kitten.
Had flesh still covered her body, it would be crawling from being this close to his ilk. As it was, she shivered in revulsion. As any normal person would. She had no choice, as his evil permeated the air around her.
Ironic, really. Most assumed Xuri to be this type of destructive creature. Her own father had denounced him as such and forbidden her to be near him.
Yet Xuri, for all his temper and moods, didn’t even begin to compare to this. He was actually quite mellow so long as no one crossed him.
The Malachai skidded across the floor to tower over her with eyes that glowed.
“Bet you’ve scared many a felon into church.”
His golden eyes flashed red in the dark, letting her know that he didn’t appreciate her humor. “Are you not afraid, chit?”
Not really. Hard to frighten someone who couldn’t feel pain and whose significant other was a psychopomp immune to preternatural bullies. So … “Been to hell already. Not much more you can do.”
He made a noise that might have been a snort. Or indigestion. Hard to tell, really. “Do you not know who I am?”
“Adarian Malachai.”
“Then you know to fear me.”
Now it was her turn to scoff. “Pish to the posh on that. I don’t believe in catering to male egos. Figure yours is large enough already. Why make it grow larger?”
A blast of hot air blew against her, plastering her gown to her straw body. It was so fierce, it caused her to stagger back against the damp stone.
“I could rip you to shreds!”
And she wouldn’t feel it. He was missing the point. She wasn’t human. She lacked the physical sensation of others. Hence the whole straw-body nightmare that made up her existence and why she really didn’t care if he did end her. At least that would put her out of her misery and end this epic horror once and for all. Because, honestly, she was so tired of living like this that eternal death was beginning to look good to her.
Most of all, she was sick of creatures like Adarian, Benjamin, and her father using her for a pawn in their sick games and for their sick goals.
In spite of her current form, she was human, not a trophy or a prize.
Or a means to an end.
When would someone see her as a person with feelings? As someone to be loved and not used?
Was it really too much to ask that one person, somewhere, just once, cherish her?
All her life, everyone around her had done nothing save shove her and threaten her if she didn’t please them or do what they told her. Be a lady. Be silent, etc. Her father had spent her entire childhood beating her every time she questioned him or didn’t do exactly what he wanted.
Her mother had never allowed her an ounce of breathing room.Sit properly. Say nothing. Be a good little piece of eye candy to catch a good husband.And all that training had culminated in Benjamin’s insane ultimatum—marry me or die.
She was done with it and with being pushed around and disregarded.
“Do you have a real point for your visit or is your ego so fragile that you have an innate need to build it up by preying on a pathetic human creature you’re keeping in a cage like some pet bird you’ve dragged home?”
Hoping to God that someone finally put her out of her never-ending misery, she lifted her chin defiantly and glared at him.
