Page 16 of A Requiem of Fire and Ice

“Do you have any ideas?” I ask Typha. “Did Dad aggravate King Ragan?”

She doesn’t respond. It’s what I expected, but being alone with my thoughts isn’t doing anything except causing more questions than answers.

Dad will know what to do. The Commander of the Crystal Guards will know what to do. Until he sees us, then will he question where Mother has gone?

A sharp pain blindsides me. Stopping in my tracks, I drag my hand down my face to wipe away the grief. I can’t cry over her death now. Not when we are still out in the open, and I have Typha to protect. After I get her to safety, I can cry then. Until then, I must hold it together and push through the gut-wrenching sadness.

“Did you hear that?” Typha touches my shoulder as she overlooks the next street and hears the sounds of strangled whimpering.

I press my lips together before creeping to the end of the street. Peering down the street, I spot a woman lying on the road. My teeth grind, and my upper lip curls into a sneer at her clothes torn from her body. A fire elemny crawls over the top of her with a dagger to her throat.

I step out when Typha grips my arm and pulls me back. “What are you doing? We need to get to Elden Keep and find Dad!”

I point urgently at the woman being raped and say, “I’m not fucking leaving her! This is wrong.”

Like mother, Typha crosses her arms over her chest, lifts her chin, and declares, “I’m not going.”

“Then stay here,” I spit and step onto the street.

My feet sound hollow and almost fleeting. I keep my eyes on the fire elemny as he grips the woman’s hair and rips at it while he thrusts in and out of her.

I grip my dagger tightly. Iron laces through my fingertips, and my hand trembles with rage. As I step into the light of the streetlamp above me, the fire elemny stops what he’s doing and stares at me through narrow, suspicious eyes. The woman sags into the pavement, and her distraught face floods with relief when she sees me there.

“Men. You think you can take fucking everything and face no consequences,” I seethe.

He pulls out of her, shoves her away, and rises. As the woman scrambles to her feet, his focus shifts to her, giving me an opening. I throw the dagger at him until I can taste the flesh rip through his throat. He stumbles back, hands reaching for his neck. With a roll of my shoulder, I move toward him.

“Thank you.” The woman rises and wraps her arms around her naked body until they cover her chest. Her watchful pink eyes settle on me as I stand over the man. He struggles for breath.

“Don’t,” I say. “For I was too late to save you.” A smile touches my lips, though it’s strained as I add, “Head to the Nova Hotel if you like. There’s a hidden tunnel that goes to Elden Keep. You should be safe there.”

The woman shakes her head. “I need to find my husband. He was at work when this happened.”

“Then stay safe.”

She lowers her gaze to the fire elemny. He’s still struggling to breathe. From his weakened state, he can’t even produce a flame. That, or he has nothing on him to light the fuse.

“He’s still alive.”

A sinister grin appears on my face. “I know. I made sure of it. This pathetic excuse of an elemny does not deserve a quick death.” Removing the dagger from his throat, I drag my finger across the crimson soaking on the blade. “Slow torture is my specialty. By the end, he will wish for death.”

The woman leaves me be, and when she’s covered in shadows, I crouch beside the fire elemny. The blade of my dagger taps between his legs until the fabric parts and exposes a worthless, shrivelled dick. He whimpers through gargled, choking breaths as I rest the flat of the blade between his balls and shaft. “There’s not really much to cut off, is there?” I let out a breathy laugh. “I mean, I’m doing you a fucking service, right?”

He cries through broken lungs as I flick the blade up. His dick cuts away from his body. Blood squirts out and soaks into his pants.

“You see, the pain you are going through now, that woman would have gone through the same when you touched her.” I rest the blade underneath his balls. He chokes on the blood swelling in his throat when I flick the blade until another piece of flesh falls away. “Once upon a time, my dad tortured a man for a decade. Since you’re my first victim—well, you aren’t a victim—I give it five minutes before you die. So, I'd better make the most of it, shall I?”

His voice cracks as I flail him. Body parts rip away from him until he’s a bloody mess down there. The fingers that once gripped her hair are soaked in the snow, dismembered. His tongue has split until he chokes on it.

He lasted less than three minutes. Yet, in those three minutes, it satisfied some of the hunger within me. Enough to realise I have overstayed my welcome and should locate Typha before she wonders what has happened to me.

As I round the corner, Typha’s eyes widen, and her hands cover her mouth in horror at the blood dripping from my hands. “Is that…?”

I shake my head. “It’s not mine.”

“What did you do?”

“Eraminia a favour.” I nudge my head towards the Winter Nova Hotel. “Let’s go before anyone else enters through that street.”