I beheaded a guard that turned on me, finally having noticed that I wasn’t on their side.
Only I frowned to find that these turned to ash, depriving me of the blood I craved.
Not again. Fuck this shit.
Although not all of the guards turned to ash, some indeed bled.
That only confused things further, but I decided it didn’t matter.
Right now, my job was tokill. If my enemies bled, that was just a bonus.
I painted the kitchen an ashy red, staining the walls so thoroughly that no one would ever be able to use this space again without tasting carnage in their mouths for days.
Another three guards attempted to take me down in unison, but the confines of the kitchen area were too small to evade my wings. It was almost pathetically easy to slice down my enemies. I stepped over the growing pile of bodies as more mindlessly attacked.
All of them are under that damned spell.
I should have felt sympathy for guards that likely had no other choice, but I couldn’t know for sure who was a mind-controlled friend or a foe.
All I could strive for right now was the survival of Layla and all those she cared about.
What I need to do is kill Iston.
I distinguished his chant coming from behind the cupboards.
My lips stretched over my face in a feral grin.
You can hide, but a good hunter always finds his prey.
The coward was hiding like a fledgling.
I prowled forward and stabbed my wings through the finely crafted wooden cabinetry.
A scream sounded, only to be cut off when I sliced again.
And again.
Blood seeped out from underneath the woodwork, pleasing my dark cravings.
I struck once more, flinging sprinters and split cabinet boards all over the kitchen.
And revealing Iston inside.
His fingers twitched, a physiological response to a sudden and painful death as his brain sent signals to his body to flee.
Good fucking riddance.
That done, I turned to find Netiri, but only ash and dead bodies remained—minus the last guard that Sorin was currently skewering with his own knife.
While the screams had stopped, a rumbling noise still made me feel like the walls were about to come tumbling down.
That was when I realized that the palace was shaking.
And that force I had felt coming from outside wasn’t part of the spell.
It was what the spell had been trying to conceal.
“What the fuck is happening?” I muttered, surveying the room for answers.
