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Slash.
For the next thirty minutes, Mari interrogated him. Every time he refused an answer, he got cut. Every time he lied, he got cut. Every time he tried to disappear inside his little brain, he got cut.
My eyes went between Mari and Dominic as she sliced and diced her mark, because as beautiful as it was to watch her in her element, the real beauty was in the way Dominic watched her. Not like she was some new puzzle he needed to put together or some animal at a zoo, but like he really saw her. Like he finally understood who the Mari right in front of him was, not the girl he knew before.
Seeing that, I had actual hope for them. I didn’t know why it mattered to me, but Mari deserved all the love she could get, and there was no doubt in my mind that Dominic loved her. He just had to get over himself and love her the way she needed to be loved.
Fiercely, recklessly, without fail.
It wasn’t what people in the underground cared about, but it was what she needed. A foundation to hold her steady, a family to keep her grounded and give her something to fight for. People to fight for her, not because she ruled them, but because they wanted to. Because they loved her. We could be that for her.
None of us were good men, but I had no doubt we would be Mari’s monsters if she let us. We would be good when she needed us to be, and when she needed us to be bad, we would be downright awful in her name.
Every queen needed knights; Mari’s were just darker than normal.
By the time Porter gave up, he was soaked with blood and listing in his seat, but he still hadn’t given us an answer. I was almost impressed with the little twerp.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” he whined when Mari cut him again. Her cuts were all smooth, all methodical. She never once cut too deep, even when he goaded her. She showed more patience than I would’ve had in the same situation.
It was interesting watching Mari’s darkness come out. I’d known it was there; I’d even seen glimpses of it, but having a front-row seat to the control she had over it was beyond my wildest dreams. Mari kept herself on a leash so tight, there was no way it could escape. I wondered if Dominic saw it the same way I did, how she made it work for her and not the other way around. It showed a lot of restraint on her part that she didn’t have to have.
She tsked at Porter. “You do. You’re just worried that I’m going to kill you when I find out. News flash, that’s already the plan. Tell me what you know.”
“Why should I if you’re just going to kill me?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll make your death very painful.” Mari leaned in close, dragging the knife across his skin. “I can keep you alive for days. Weeks. Months. Barely enough to eat, barely enough water to wet your throat. I’ll skin you, burn you, pull out every nail and hair on your body. I’ll make you wish for death. Does that answer your question?”
I’d never seen a man turn that shade of green so fast. Only quick thinking kept Mari and me from getting covered in vomit as the nerves finally got to Porter.
Torture a man for thirty minutes, nothing. Promise to make him hairless, and he barfs.
Side-eyeing him, because vomit was something I did not suffer well, I dug back into the computer while Dominic threw one of Porter’s coats over the pile. Gross.
“Why did you join with Cash?” Mari asked again. This time, he answered.
“Because he was offering me money, and I needed it. Things haven’t been going well.”
“I’m shocked,” Dominic deadpanned with a look around the room.
“You got into bed with Cash because you couldn’t afford your lifestyle. That’s what you’re going with?” Mari didn’t seem to believe him. I couldn’t say I did either. Not when he had ten million in the bank.
“It’s true.”
“No, it isn’t. Not fully,” I said, clicking deeper into his email. As expected, nothing was protected. No encryption, no passwords. Moron. “He did it because Cash promised him your throne.”
There was a pregnant pause as Mari read the email thread once, twice, three times. Then she tipped her head back and laughed.
If I’d thought she was incredible before, nothing beat the sound of her laughter. She seemed like someone who hadn’t had enough of it. Even Porter looked a little awestruck.
“You think you can wrest the city from me and keep it?” she asked when she finally calmed down. Her eyes were glittering with tears of mirth even as she sneered at him. “You want to be king that badly, Porter?”
“I-I just think I could do a good job,” he stammered.
“Anyone would be better than that Marcosa bitch,” I quoted, anger making everything a little hazy. I’d always had an anger-management problem, but the mercs had burned it out of me. It’d been a long time since I’d felt that mad. I didn’t hate it. “Bold words for someone who can’t even protect his intel.”
Mari leaned in close, making sure Porter understood every word was true. “You wouldn’t last a day being me and not just because Cash would kill you the moment you became less than useful. The others would see you as a threat. They’d hunt you down like prey and rip you apart with their teeth. You should thank me for saving you from that fate.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I knew that, but I did it anyway. I got greedy. I’m so sorry.”
