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Luce passed his bloodied knife to Cam and stared down at Calvin.
“This will only hurt for a minute.”
My hand flew to my mouth as Cam sliced into the cartilage of Calvin’s left ear. He fought to keep his composure, but within seconds his face crumpled, and he began to scream.
It was over within seconds. The result was that the majority of his ear was no longer attached. His bottom lobe became covered in blood, the upper portion nothing but an abnormally shaped lump. Cam held Luce’s knife in one hand and a blob of flesh in the other.
I felt marginally bad for Calvin, simply because I had no clue who he was. For him to be sent out on this search, though, he’d had to have proven himself somehow.
Cam tossed his blob down just as Luce stepped forward and crouched. Both of their faces had traces of amusement. It was so at odds with all they’d just done that I couldn’t help but be intrigued.
Calvin sat on the ground, moaning loudly, shoulders shaking and holding a hand to the side of his head.
Luce grabbed his jaw and forced him to look in his eyes, placing a hand over his mouth to muffle his moans.
“Your hearing in that ear may be sort of fucked, but sooner or later you’ll hear better in the other one. That’s precisely why you’re going to give your Cardinal this message word for word. You’ve only got one chance to get this right, so pay close attention.”
He brought his mouth to the ear that wasn’t gushing blood and spoke each of his next words with purposeful articulation.
“Tell your Cardinal, and I can’t stress this last part enough. It’s the most important thing you need to remember,” Luce implored. “Tell your Cardinal, the Savages said he can go fuck himself.”
Luce dropped his hand from Calvin’s mouth and stood.
“Take him right to their doorstep. If any of them try anything, feel free to have some fun.”
The remaining acolytes surged forward, giving me a chance to notice the white masks covering their faces and leviathan amulets draped around their necks. They began to drag Calvin away, his cries of pain trailing behind them.
Cam handed Luce his knife back, and he wiped the bloodied blade on his shirt before repocketing
it. I studied the floor, taking in the mess and smell that came with bloodshed as Tim’s lifeless body continued to twitch.
“I’m not cleaning this up,” Bella exclaimed.
Luce and Cam looked over, their eyes resting on me for a few seconds, both void of any noticeable emotion.
“Don’t want you to. I want you to do me a favor and take her outside for a few minutes,” Luce said.
“Come on, Star.” She reached around Ice and grabbed my hand, tugging me off the steps.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The sun rested high in the sky, its malevolent eye unblinking. Heat wrapped around our limbs like a hot-blooded serpent. The contrast between inside and outside was incomparable. It was like going from a freezer to an oven.
I brought a hand up to shade my eyes, dragging my gaze from left to right. Everything looked just as it had from the upper window, only two times larger.
There was a hint of stench in the air, one that reminded me of death and burning bodies.
“What did you do to my brother?”
I glanced over at Bella and saw a smile on her face.
“That wasn’t normal for him?” I still didn’t know what exactly had just happened, but I was even more curious now.
Bella scoffed and looped her arm through mine, leading me to the right.
“The being a cocky asshole and casual killing thing, that’s all Luce. I cannot tell you the number of people he’s occasionally killed or tortured in one week.”
“Okay…”
