“I bet ye think about sticking me with that thing every night, daenae ye?” the man asked, as if they were having the most casual conversation in the entire world.
“I had considered it,” Kaden gritted out.
“I tried to do this the nice way, despite how mean ye were to me men after all those kind years of hospitality that I gave ye.”
“Kind years of—” Kaden had to catch himself because he couldn’t process the words that were leaving the arrogant prick’s mouth.
He spoke as if he owned the whole world. No doubt, that was exactly what he thought.
There was no point in speaking with evil. It could not be reasoned with. It could not be understood.
Kaden had once thought that if he got answers, or if he could understand why the things that had happened to him had happened, he would be able to have something close to closure, if it was at all possible. Something that might help stop the nightmares if he could make any sense of anything.
Standing here now, seeing this man who didn’t even reach his eyes, he knew that the only thing he needed was to have the man’s blood on his hands.
“I’ve heard all about the name ye have been making for yerself. I wonder if people would think that ye were so mighty and terrifying if they knew the way ye screamed. How easy it is to make ye beg with enough pain.” The man laughed. “Hell, all I have to do is bring me hounds into the room,and ye might just wet yerself.”
Kaden’s left eye twitched. He wasn’t that boy anymore. He would never allow himself to be a victim ever again.
It would have been easy to allow himself to be scared of the man and the words that he was using as a weapon. The man in front of him wanted him to be embarassed of his younger self and the things that were thrust upon him.
But standing here, taller than he had ever thought possible in comparison to the massive shadow that plagued his nightmares every single night, he was embarrassed that this man was attempting to belittle the child in him.
Well, Kaden was no longer that child.
The corner of his lip tilted up slightly. “Is that the best ye can do?”
The man grinned back, squaring his shoulders as if he were preparing for a fight.
Good.
“Ah, so the pup’s finally realized that he has fangs? But does he ken how to use them?”
Only one way to find out.
Kaden was done speaking. He had waited for this moment long enough.
He tilted his head from one side to the other, letting the joints crack until he was more comfortable, and then rolled his shoulders back. He drew his sword and nodded toward the ground in front of him in challenge. The look he gave the man very much said,Come on, unless ye’re scared.
The older man snarled and lunged at him, no doubt accustomed to having his bulk and sudden rage break the concentration or stance of any person that he might be fighting with.
Kaden expected the familiar battle rage to fill him. He expected to feel that strange, overly focused fluidity take control of his limbs. He expected muscle memory to drive him forward. Instead, everything looked hazy.
Everything was moving in slow motion as the old bastard came at him, their swords clashing, until they were nothing more than a blur of movement and the clang of steel hitting steel, taking notches from the blades as they tried their best to kill one another.
For a short moment, Kaden forgot the world around him as ugly memories flashed through his mind. He was nothing more than every lash of the whip, every bite of canine teeth into his skin, every bruise and sleepless night, every ache of stiff joints, and everything else that had been done to him back when time seemed never-ending.
Usually in battle, his arm would start to tire and grow heavy, but he could have done this forever. Each strike of his blade against the man’s was payback for a sliver of what had been done to him.
He refused to call the monster by name, even in his own head, because no part of him was human, so why should Kaden treat him like anything other than the beast he was? Sickness and shadow and nothing more.
Kaden would win this. There was no other outcome.
The door to the small cabin banged open, and a small body stumbled out of it at the same time Maggie came running around the bend. There was no sign of Peter following behind her.
There were too many things happening all at once for Kaden to keep track of. He couldn’t do that and defend himself at the same time. He needed to finish this.
But that was Emily in the doorway.
