I turned towards Lucan and the second year soldier, whose name I believed to be Calvin. They both looked absolutely terrified of me. Smart men. They should be.
“I’ll give you ten seconds to explain before I fucking kill you both,” I snarled.
Lucan began to stutter, but I interjected. “Actually, I changed my mind. There's no excuse for what you did to her.” As soon as the words left my lips, I tapped into the magic from my diamond, shooting pointed blades of ice into the chest of the soldier responsible.
Lucan watched, his mouth agape as the heat from Calvin’s blood melted the icicles embedded in his skin. The substances mixed together and dripped into a flood on the floor.
Calvin reached down, palming at the blades, trying to pull them from his skin. They slipped through his fingers and he fell to his knees, crying out in agony.
I approached the soldier, who didn't dare try to fight back as I pulled my dagger from the sheath around my waist.
“Watch closely. If you try to stop me, you’ll be next,” I threatened the advisor, pointing my blade at him. Little did he know that I wasn't going to spare him, anyways.
I grabbed the top of Calvin's hair, jerking his head back to expose his neck to me. Tears poured from the bastard's eyes. He knew the fate he was about to meet.
“Please,” he begged, still grasping at the melting ice in his chest.
I leaned my face into his, putting emphasis on my words as they rolled off my tongue, “May the gods damn you beyond the veil for what you’ve done.”
I lifted my dagger, angling my wrist to slice through the throat of the man on his knees before me. I dragged the blade slowly, taking my time and making sure to nick the artery on the side of his neck.
Calvin gurgled on his own blood as it filled his mouth. His head dropped forward when I released it, and his eyes sank into his skull as he began to bleed out like a creature being slaughtered for meat.
I wiped the blade on my pants, then pivoted and marched to the door, leaning against it with my arms crossed to watch the man in front of me die.
Lucan didn't dare move a muscle. He held his position next to Calvin, letting the soldier's blood soak through the soles of his shoes. The advisor paled as his prodigy ceased to breathe.
Calvin aimlessly clutched his neck, trying to stop his artery from spurting away the remainder of his life. But he failed, and fell forward onto his face. Dead.
I ground my jaw, then casually tilted my head toward Lucan. Granting him a heinous smirk, I kicked off of the door and strode for him. “Get on your knees,” I demanded, pointing to the ground with the tip of my dagger.
Lucan put his arms up in submission, but I was not here to take pity on him. The fucker was going to die. That was not up for debate.
“Get. On. Your. Knees,” I repeated, this time the advisor doing as I said.
Lucan dropped down, shaking as he cowered before me. “Let me explain, Crown Prince. There is more to this than it seems,” his hollow voice wavered.
I crouched in front of him, passing my dagger between my hands. “First of all, don’t fucking call me that. And is there now? Because from my point of view, it looks like you were trying to kill my girl.” I glared into his eyes, and he looked side to side, trying to avoid my gaze. “Is that true?”
Lucan did not respond with words. His eyes did the talking for him.
“Are you scared?” I taunted, noting how his teeth chattered in his skull. I outstretched my arm, placing one hand on his shoulder. “Don't be scared. I hear death can be quick and painless.” His death wouldn't be, though.
I jammed the tip of my dagger into his throat, not yet using enough pressure to break the skin. “Here's what's going to happen.” I applied a little more pressure to my blade. “You're going to tell me why you tried to kill Maeve, then I'm going to decide how painful of a death you’ll receive.”
Lucan scoffed, finally gathering enough courage to meet my gaze. “If you kill me, your father will never believe you.”
I snickered at his stupidity. “You think I give a shit if he believes me? I know what I saw—what would have happened had I got here a minute later. Whether or not my father believes me is the least of my concerns.” I put more pressure on the dagger, breaking through the skin enough to draw some blood.
Lucan winced, bending his head backwards to avoid the blade. I moved my other hand to the back of his neck, keeping him still.
“What's the point of telling you if you're just going to kill me, anyway?” he countered my request.
“If you tell me what I want to know, I'll make your death alittleless horrific.”
Lucan spit at the ground next to me. “Just askyour girlwhen she wakes up.” He paused, smiling deviously at me. “Ifshe wakes up, that is.”
That comment didn't go over well with me.
