Then, I heard the sound of metal shifting… falling. When I turned around, Aamon had just rolled over the side of the table and stood slowly.
How did the chains come undone?!
With a menacing smile, he took in a staggering breath. “Let’s see how tough you are now, little bird.”
My breath hitched in my chest, and I only had a second to grab theotherblade before he ran at me. I quickly circled the table and ducked just as he launched a fist toward my head. Using my foot, I struck his knee and made him lose his balance as I pulled myself up with the table and raced toward the cell doors.
But before I reached the iron, a hand fisted my hair and pulled back. Then, he slammed my face into the stone wall, and I felt blood trickle down from my nose.
“You’re stillweak,” he hissed in my ear. “I think I’ll take what’s mine this time.”
He reached a hand down to my hip, tugging at my pants and yanking them down. I struggled as hard as I could, trying to feel for my fire, but my anxiety made it ten times as hard.
“Shhh,” he chuckled, pulling my head back and slamming it once more against the stone, causing stars to dance in my vision. “I just want ataste.”
“Fuck you! I’m not your fucking bird anymore!” I reached back and wrapped my hand around his wrist, squeezing my eyes shut as his foot pushed my legs apart. Finally, I found the flame and forced it to blaze into a scorching fire. Just as I heard the sound of his pants shifting around, I spread the heat through my hand until Aamon screamed in pain and yanked his wrist back.
Once he was far enough away, I turned around and stepped out of the pants that had fallen to my feet. There was no point in fixing them now. Instead, I picked up the dagger that had fallen from my hand and gripped its hilt tight enough to turn my knuckles white.
The burn on Aamon’s hand was spreading. It was beginning to cover his arm, and he gaped at me in horror as he continued moving backward.
“I’m not weak, Aamon,” I seethed, making a slow approach. “But you? You arenothing. You will not be remembered. You and every fucking memory of your existence will die in this room, Aamon!”
“Mo-Morrigan,” Aamon stuttered, tripping over his own feet as he tried to retreat.
I could already see the glow in my eyes as his lit up in a bright, orange reflection.
“I can help you! I can tell you where to find?—”
“Stop talking!” I screamed. A burst of air blew through the room and shoved Aamon back the rest of the way, hitting the opposing wall where he slid down to the floor.
“Please, Morrigan,” he continued. “I was following orders.”
I felt them as they left me, but I didn’t even know how I did it. Strings of fiery light seemed to erupt from my body like whips, wrapping around his limbs and holding him down so that he couldn’t move. Wherever my fire touched his skin, small black vines began to spread, searing his body. It looked excruciatingly painful.
Good.
I placed one leg over him, straddling his hips as I lowered myself onto his body. I gripped his hair, yanking it back to angle his head up at me. I wanted to laugh in his face. The man who once looked down on me, forcing my silence, to take whathewanted.What sweet irony this is.
His screams curdled my blood as my hand burned into his scalp, and he clawed at my wrist, leaving scratches behind that I could barely feel in the moment.
“We were prisoners there! All of us! I didn’t have a choice?—”
Before he had the chance to finish his sentence, I shoved the dagger in an upward motion, piercing below his jaw, until it sliced through his tongue. “I said you talk too much, Aamon,” I hissed, pulling it back out and letting my flames wrap themselves around the hilt. They made their slow crawl up the metal until the entire blade was illuminated with fire. “It’s your turn to be silent now.”
I drove the dagger into his throat, and blood spurted out, splattering all over me. But I didn’t turn away. I watched as his burned hands reached up to cover the wound, though they began crumbling into ash and fell apart. He started coughing up blood as his body spasmed.
“I will never mutter your name again. No one will. No one will mourn you, Aamon,” I whispered to him, standing and giving his body a single kick to push him to the ground. Flames enveloped him, and his body convulsed for a couple more seconds before going completely still.
I stared for a couple of minutes, not really knowing how much time had passed. It wasn’t long before his limbs turned to ash, and his entire body crumbled to the floor.
“Well, well, well…” a voice called from the hallway. I looked up to see Malakai stepping through the bars, and he leaned against the door with his arms crossed over his chest. He had a smile on his face as he eyed the puddle of blood, and then the blood that covered my chest, shirt, and legs. “I’d say you handled that quite well. That’s a good look for you, by the way.” He flashed his canines in a cocky smile. “How do you feel? A lot better than just torturing him on a table, I’d bet.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.Why is he here?Or better yet,How did Aamon get out of his chains?“You did that, didn’t you?” I asked him.
He shrugged like it was no big deal that he released a man that absolutely could have ended my life if I hadn’t been training so hard with the two of them. “You underestimate yourself, princess. I watch you while we train. Iseeyour strength.” He pushed off of the door, walking toward me and plucking the blade from my hand. “The real question is, why don’tyou?”
Lifting the blade to his mouth, he licked the blood clean off of it, and his eyes closed as a soft hum vibrated from his throat.
