“This was a good place to be a bad boy,” Marcus said. He knelt by Valen, who was pathetically trying to crawl forward. “But it’s a good place formeto be a bad boy, too. No one’s going to hear you scream out here.”
“You’re fighting on behalf of some wench who swore herself to me before she even met you,” Valen hissed. “I was the one she pledged herself to at our Choosing before the King’s Contest even began. She swore to Neva, the Phantom Doe of Shadow and the goddess of time, to be my mate forever, and she turned her back on that promise. Don’t forget, she wasminefirst.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Marcus spat. “No one is going to love her like I do, no one is going to understand her like I do, no one is going tofuck herlike I do. You are a pathetic shitstain on the underside of her shoe, and I’m having a blast removing it.”
Valen’s fingernails could be heard as he drew them across the concrete. Marcus dragged him by his feet several paces awayfrom us, and the magic in the air increased as my Air magic felt Valen be lifted into the air by Marcus’ telekinesis, hanging him upside down.
Metal scraped as Marcus lifted a discarded metal pipe off the ground. Valen began to whimper. He was breaking already? How disappointing. He acted like such a big badass while he was on the streets murdering young women, but he sure turned into an overgrown crybaby when it was time to pick on someone his own size. I waslovingthat Marcus was torturing this bastard. I wanted to experience it again and again.
“You know, I was never very good at baseball. I always missed when it was my turn at bat,” Marcus said, and the pipe whooshed as he twirled it in circles beside him. “But I don’t see how Ican’thit a home run with a target this big.”
Marcus slammed the pipe into Valen’s arm, and I rejoiced as it broke on impact. Valen didn’t even have time to cry out before Marcus broke the other one. Marcus swung the pipe as hard as he could, breaking bones Valen probably didn’t even know he had, beating the absolute shit out of him.
I was merciless. This sicko had made so many poor girls feel exactly like this— terrified, helpless and in unimaginable pain— before he’d taken their lives and humiliated their remains after. I had no sympathy. In fact, this was the most fun I’d had in a long time.
Marcus had busted Valen’s skull open by the time he tossed the pipe to the side. I’d heard his head crack on the last hit. Blood dripped onto the ground like rain, and Valen gave a groan of suffering, though he didn’t perish.
Valen was like a cockroach— hard to kill. No wonder people like him never died and continued to roam the earth poisoning society with their shadow. At least we could have fun watching him suffer. It would’ve been boring and dull to give this fucker the easy way out, and he didn’t deserve a single ounce of mercy.
“Daddy’s thirsty for blood,” Marcus sang. “You know, Kallie taught me a lot about swords, though I’ve never used one before. Luckily, I happen to carry her sword with me in case she ever needs it, and it’sher bladethat’s going to sever you apart. Isn’t that poetic justice?”
The ringing sound of metal echoed throughout the air like a holy call as Marcus summoned Kallie’s sword from his stash. “Let’s see what your heart looks like, because I don’t think you have one.”
Metal sank into flesh, and Valen let out another howl. Bones cracked again, and I realized Marcus was cutting Valen open from the back, down the length of his spine.
I was impressed. Something like this would’ve grossed Marcus out even yesterday, caused him to vomit or cringe away. What Valen had done to Kallie had changed him, and there was no turning back from the evil he’d become.
Marcus nearly sounded disappointed. “Huh, your heart’s not black. Color me surprised.”
Marcus’ fingers cracked as he crushed his hand into a fist, and I heard Valen’s ribs buckle. The Dollmaker could barely utter a moan at this point. If he didn’t die soon, he would any minute now.
We didn’t have to wait long. Valen gave a dying moan, but Marcus cast a spell so strong I felt his Death magic ripple through the alleyway. It was like Marcus had shoved Valen’s spirit back into his body. Marcus wasn’t giving this fucker the satisfaction of death just yet.
“You’re not going anywhere unless I say you are,” Marcus hissed. There was the uncork of a bottle— a potion that Marcus carried, most likely— and a sizzling sound as Marcus poured it all over Valen’s wounds. Valen cried out this time, his yowls high-pitched and louder than they had ever been before as the acid ate away at the open flesh.
“Burn alive,” Marcus hissed, and the potion vial smashed against the ground as Valen continued to cry.
“Please,” Valen pleaded. “Please, kill me.”
“Oh, you’re gonnabeg, like a little bitch?” Marcus asked in a phony tone of concern. “Let me ask you a question. How many of those girls begged for their lives before you killed them? Did you ever care? No? Guess I don’t give a shit, either.”
Marcus stuck Kallie’s sword into Valen’s side and yelled, “Where are her wings?!”
“In a place… you’ll never find,” Valen rasped.
“Tell me!” Marcus demanded.
Valen gave a withering gasp. “Go… to… hell.”
“Oh, Iwill,” Marcus replied, and he gave another twisted laugh. “In fact, I’m going to be quite comfortable there, but I willneverlet you roam its halls.”
The roar of hatred that emitted from Marcus was so terrifying, it almost mademecower. A powerful dark magical resonance, one that made my Elf magic marvel at how immense it was, ricocheted through the alleyway like a bolt of lightning. It made the earth quake and I stumbled forward, unable to catch my balance as I fell to the ground.
As I fell, I passed through some sort of spirit energy. Something materialized before me. I observed the soul that I knew had to be Valen’s, giving a tortured wail as Marcus’ magic held him in place, preventing him from escaping to the afterlife.
Then, in one exceptional magical burst, Valen’s soul burst into ash. It exploded into an array of dust, coating me in his soul’s energy. I wiped it off quickly, feeling disgusted, as the rest of his ether dissolved into the air.
Just before he’d died, Marcus had ripped Valen’s soul out of his body and destroyed it. Valen would never go to the afterlife now, to any heaven or hell that would have him. He’d never reincarnate, and all of his past lives were gone. Marcus hadeffectively erased him from existence, as if he’d never been here at all.
