“Please,pleasedon’t do this,” Xenia blubbered. “I’ll do whatever you want. I won’t try to run again, I swear.”
Maksym nodded to the second Deathstalker guard, who stepped towards Cael and yanked his right wing out wide.
Alexei swung the sword up over his head, then arced it down through the air.
And sliced Cael’s wing from his body.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
It was the most excruciating pain Cael had ever felt in his centuries-long life.
But somehow, the sound of Xenia’s anguished wail was worse. Like Maksym had shredded his chest open and dragged pointed fingernails over his pulsating heart.
His body compensated for the loss despite the chains supporting him, the quivering muscles in his back and legs releasing with the newly shed weight.
He loosed the breath he’d been holding, the one he’d used to brace himself against the blow. As soon as he’d seen that broadsword in Alexei’s hands, he knew what was coming.
He’d never fly again.
Best not to give in to despair right now or he might just beg Maksym to lock him away in that dungeon for the entirety of his now-useless immortality. He’d worry about it later, once he’d gotten Xenia to safety.
He didn’t dare try to fight, not yet. Didn’t dare show that his power was returning thanks to his and Xenia’s clever antics with the healing suppressant. By morning, he suspected it would be at full capacity.
A pile of loose limbs on the floor, Xenia clung to Maksym’s legs, mutteringpleaseover and over. As if she refused to believe what she’d just seen.
As if she still had a chance to stop it.
“Zee,” Cael muttered, and low moan seeped out of her. He was surprised he was able to speak, able to draw air into his lungs with the fiery pain lancing down his back. “Stop. It’s done.”
Alexei wiped Cael’s blood off the sword with a cloth napkin, then re-sheathed the weapon and passed it to the other guard. Alexei strode towards Cael, all smug satisfaction, and loosened Cael’s chains.
“We warned you. Now who is the mutilated wasteland?” Alexei’s low laughter scraped Cael’s bones, ratcheting his anger. Agony flared through his right side as his muscles tensed.
Alexei leaned in to whisper in Cael’s ear. “She’ll never want you now, cripple. Hope the taste you got earlier was enough.”
Cael whipped his head sideways and sunk hislittlefangs into Alexei’s nose, ripping through one of the Deathstalker’s nostrils. Alexei roared in pain and jerked his head away.
Cael grinned like a fiend though the garish green blood coating his lips.
Screaming a string of curses, Alexei covered his nose, doubled over in pain. He reared upright, his nostril knitting itself back together, and lunged towards Cael.
“Enough!” Maksym shouted, his booming voice rattling both his matte-green wings and Cael’s chains. “Alexei, enough. Take them back downstairs.” He yanked Xenia to her feet. “You will journey to the Temple in Primarvia tomorrow,Sister. If you fail again, I’ll chop off his other wing.”
Maksym shoved Xenia towards Alexei. His bloodstained hands left green streaks along her bare, golden shoulders as she twisted in his grasp.
His fangs popped down. “Keep struggling, little mouse, and we will dose you again.”
Xenia stilled, but Cael scented the anger and anguish pulsating off her in smoky waves. Her emerald eyes shone through the tears flowing down her flushed cheeks. All for him.
She’d never looked more beautiful.
A bittersweet thought, since he was almost certain Alexei was right. He’d seen her admiring glances, not often, but enough for him to know that, despite all the shit she flung his way, she was attracted to him. He could certainly kiss that goodbye.
And the loss of something he wasn’t even allowed to want in the first place was enough to trigger one of his episodes.
But he refused to give in to it. Sweet-talked it in his mind like a jealous, desperate lover. Asked it to hold off just a few more days. He’d fall into that dark embrace once he knew for sure she’d be safe.
He’d rescue her, then let the abyss take him.
