This man offers me my enemies still alive so that I may bring them death. That’s how I know he loves me.
I stagger out of the little room, pushing Kaelis away and walking on my own. Glavstone is a bloody pulp on the floor. Whatever card Kaelis used on him this time makes the last time I saw Glavstone bleeding at the prince’s feet look like mere scratches. Sinew has been detached from bone. Muscle flayed and peeled back like the skin of a ripe fruit.
But, sure enough, he is still breathing.
I grab a letter opener off Glavstone’s desk. It’s shaped like the Oricalis sword, and I hope it was a gift from Ravin. Let the crown he served be his undoing.
“M-mercy,” he rasps.
I bark laughter. After all I endured in silence. After I never begged for mercy.
I crouch next to him.
“Tell me that even as a rat of Eclipse City, I’m stronger than you could ever hope to be.” I drag the point of the tiny dagger down his cheek.
“You…you’re…stronger…” he manages to say.
“Tell me I own you now.”
“I…am your puppet.”
“Tell me your son was a waste, just like his father.”
He twitches. I can see from his eyes that he’s trying to find the strength to lunge for me, but not enough flesh is attached to bone for that. Instead, he clenches his jaw and curls his lips.
“Tell me.” I drag the dagger along his jaw.
“My son was a waste.”
“If only Eza could hear it.” I hum. Glavstone stares at me in murderous agony. “Now, last thing, tell me where Ravin is keeping my sister.”
His eyes widen in shock. I hold his gaze and slowly nod. I hear Kaelis emerging from the bookcase behind me, but the prince doesn’t intervene.
“Don’t forget, you’re my good little puppet now.” I pat his cheek with my other hand.
“Level three.”The deepest level.“Cell five.”The farthest cell.
My hand balls into a quivering fist; my mouth twists into a snarl. I can already imagine what she endured merely by being down there—at that depth, there is no sound, no light.
There’s not enough time in the world to destroy him in all the ways I’ve fantasized.
“I can help you,” he wheezes. “Mercy.”
For a breath, I stare at the pitiful creature before me. “In Halazar, there are only two options: You break, or you die.” With that, I slowly plunge the dagger through his throat.
He opens his mouth, perhaps to plead one final time, perhaps to apologize. But there’s no breath left in him to say either one, and no life left in his eyes.
Chapter 5
I expected killing him to feel better than this. I stare down at him. The man is finally dead.
“How did you know where I was being held?” I ask as I stand, swaying slightly. It’s not as though I was being kept in a normal cell.
“You told me once where he kept you when he forced you to ink.”
Did I?My mind might be hazy from the pain, but I’m fairly certain I never told him. Did he mean Glavstone had told him? After all, the warden was playing both sides.
The last time I’d really given thought to where I was being kept when Glavstone took me from my cell to ink was when Eza put me in that mental prison of his. Kaelis was the one who pulled me from it. I’d heard his voice then. Did he somehow see what I was seeing? Or was I rambling in the real world without realizing it while trapped in my vision?
