‘I’ll be right back,’ he said before he left through the door.
I waved my hand, the shadows rising to close the cell door.I ignored the banging on the door and Torgrin’s swearing as my shadows kept it shut.He soon gave up, and I could hear him shuffling down the corridor with Cillian.
Merrick had recovered his knife and held it in his massive fist.With a scornful look, he shuffled his vast bulk from one foot to the other.
Good.I wanted to fight knife to knife.How perfect that my father’s knife would be the weapon to kill Merrick.The reason I had not let the blood waters of the Red River take my life all those yearsago was because I wanted to find and kill this monster.I wouldn’t need my shadows.I had trained tirelessly for this.
As I stepped towards Merrick, I tightened my fingers around the familiar handle of my father’s knife.
The cell wall exploded, and a chunk of stone toppled onto me.My armour offered some protection from the blast, but the force of it slammed into the side of my head.
An eerie void engulfed me in an instant, leaving me devoid of any sensation.
I didn’t know how long I lost consciousness, but an intense surge of agony pierced through me, accompanied by a series of loud booms that jolted me back into my body.
My vision was blurred, my thoughts scattered.
The rubble covering me slid off as I came to a sitting position.Through the dust that filled the air, I could make out a black-robed body on the floor, only an arm’s length away from me.
I dragged myself towards Merrick, knife still clutched in my hand.It took me a few attempts to turn his heavy body over.His eyes opened slowly, and I was glad to see he was still alive.Death was still mine to give.
I didn’t see the rock in his hand until he smashed it into the side of my already injured head.How many blows to the head could I sustain?My vision blackened around the edges while my mouth filled with the coppery tang of blood.
Refusing to pass out again, I climbed up over him and brought my knife down into his swollen gut.He grunted in pain, his eyes going wide with the realisation that his death was near, and I was going to be the one to deliver it.
‘You were wrong, you know,’ I told him as I twisted the knife slowly, watching the blood ooze from his slack mouth and his facescrew up in agony.He raised feeble hands and tried to shove me off, but I ignored him and leaned forward.
‘Ten years ago, you killed my mother.Ten years ago, you dreamed of the Cursed One.Did you ever think that what you did all those years ago pushed a girl onto the path tobecomingthe Cursed One?If you hadn’t taken her from me, I may not have become this.’
I opened the door a crack, letting the Darkness enjoy this moment too.Merrick’s eyes widened and he tried to speak, but more blood gurgled up from his open mouth, choking off his words.He was watching my grey eyes turn black.
‘I’m going to do everything you feared,’ I whispered to him.‘It’s a shame you won’t be here to see it.’
I released the torrent of rage that had simmered within me for a decade.The explosive release echoed through the air like a hurricane, and the air crackled with intensity as rocks and debris swirled around me.A bitterness lingered on my tongue, a reminder of the years of resentment and frustration.I held his victims’ faces in my mind.The face of my mother as his sword pierced her body.The women he tortured and hanged.Queen Yaris and Princess Hera.Finn.Cillian.
I took the knife out of Merrick’s gut and drove it deep into one of his terrified eyes.I stared into his remaining eye so I could watch the moment he understood that my soulless black eyes were going to be the last thing he would ever see.I didn’t just see the moment he died; I felt it in my body.The weight of accumulated anger lifted off my shoulders – a heavy burden finally relinquished.
My chin dropped to my chest as I breathed a small sob of relief.It was finished.I wiped my knife on his robes and stood.I never had to think of him again.
I stood and the room spun around me.I had trouble finding the door.Had it been one of our people or the Order who set off theexplosion in the castle?I supposed it didn’t matter now.Focused on staying upright, I opened the cell door.
More stone and dust filled the narrow passage.The glint of steel caught my attention.My sword was peeking out through the rubble.I retrieved it and sheathed it on my hip.I would need both hands to get over the rubble blocking my way.Through the dust I could see someone lying at the other end near the exit.Cillian.I scrambled over the rubble until I reached him.
I touched his dust-covered face, and gently brushed his hair aside.‘Cillian?’I whispered.Relief washed over me when he sighed my name.
Across the crumbling dungeon, Torgrin was attempting to open the door.There must have been fallen debris on the other side, preventing him from opening it any further.
‘Tor!’I cried.
His dark head snapped around.‘Caris,’ he said with a sigh of relief.
Another blast reverberated above us, and the stone ceiling split open with a chilling crack.
Terror filled me as I used the Darkness to stop the enormous slabs of falling stone in midair.Stretching my arms above me, I focused my power through the palms of my hands as if I were going to catch the ceiling.The roof had completely caved in above Cillian and me, and it was only my shadows keeping the stone from crushing us.But like a dark, unforgiving nightmare, a long crack appeared above Torgrin.
‘No!’I screamed in horror.Torgrin looked up just as the stone ceiling collapsed.
My trembling arms spread wider, halting the falling rock above Torgrin.I dropped to my knees as the effort became too much, and there was no more room to stand.An entire castle was falling downaround us.My whole body shook with exertion.The shadows were becoming thinner.
