She told me the story, my vision blackening around the edges with every word as I imagined the fear she must’ve felt. The pain. Her insane bravery in the face of the ghouls.
I was certain she was the only living being toeversurvive a fall into Beggar’s Moat, let alone an attack by the very ghouls for which it’s named.
But there would be time for admiration and wonder later. Right now, I had another mission.
I held her gaze for only a moment longer. Just long enough to make my silent vow.
I will find them, my little thief. And for every bruise, for every welt, for every smudge of dirt they left upon your perfect skin, I will make them suffer athousandunimaginable tortures…
“Rest tonight, Haley. I will return to check on you later.” I reached for her face once more, nothing but a soft brush of my fingertips along her jaw.
She shivered at my touch, but there was a smile there too. Soft. Sweet.
And with that smile held firmly in my mind, I turned on my heel and stalked out of that room.
I marched down the stairs. Searched every level, floor by floor. When the sprawling rooms of the castle turned up empty, when the hallways and basements and dungeons revealed no sign of the men I sought, I moved out to the grounds.
And there, in the Sanctuary, I finally found them.
The two dark fae soldiers and the gargoyle who’d been on my payroll for years, huddled together with a handful of other guards and kitchen staff in the shadowed back corner, cavorting and sharing bottles of bourbon no doubt pilfered from my stash.
Women and booze—popular pastimes among the guards. Pastimes I’d always overlooked, preferring to lure them into the false sense of security one often develops when he believes he’s more clever than his master.
When he believes his master isn’t watching.
I wasalwayswatching. Except for tonight at the wall—a momentary lapse when my attention was needed elsewhere. A lapse they’d taken full advantage of, conspiring to kidnap and torture my beautiful witch.
My vision turned red, but I kept the monster inside me at bay.
For the moment.
“And what are we drinking to this evening, gentlemen?” I stepped out into the courtyard, beaming at them. “I do hope it’s a worthy cause.”
“Sir! We, um… That is to say… Did you need something?” The only guard brave or stupid enough to make eye contact with me squared his shoulders, trying desperately to hide a bottle behind his back.
“No salute tonight?” I taunted. “Well, no matter. This will only take a moment—I won’t keep you.”Alive, I resisted adding. Then, glaring at my head cook, “I’m sure you and the other kitchen staff have work to finish, yes?”
“Of course, sir.” She bowed her head, then gathered up the others, shooing them back inside like a mother hen saving her chicks from the fox.
“Is everything all right, sir?” another guard asked. “Thought you’d still be at the wall, or I would’ve checked in sooner.”
I turned my gaze to him.
Him.
He was in his human form now, drunk and stinking of booze, but there was no mistaking the gargoyle. The bastard who’d taken Haley over the wall and dropped her into Beggar’s Moat.
Clearly, he didn’t know she’d survived her ordeal. Didn’t know I’d learned of his treachery. His final, fatal mistake.
“Actually, no, it isn’t all right. I’d like to talk to you about a few changes we’ll be making to the guard. Staffing…cuts, if you will.” With that, I removed my sword.
He opened his mouth to question me, or perhaps to utter his final words, or voice an objection about the unfairness of it all. His fetid breath curdled my stomach.
So I took his head.
Clean cut, which was better than he deserved, but no less gratifying when the spray of blood gushed from his neck and his wasted body dropped to the ground.
Shocked and confused, a few of the guards dropped their drinks and reached for their weapons, clumsy in their drunkenness. The others stood mutely by, likely trying to decide which side would offer them better odds of survival.
