Page 183 of Hellbound

His authority sounded more like begging.

The days and nights blurred together.

Ksenia remained on the stone ledge that served as her bed within the dungeon cell. Refusing to eat, drink, or respond.

She had completed her pact with Vornaya. There was no more agony from being separated from Caromir, yet her body still thrummed with her ill-gotten strengths.

The wound from wielding Krahomor had healed over, turning the skin from her fingertips to her elbow a deep black, a lattice of scars.

It served as a reminder of what she had done.

She had killed her own sister, countless others.

Guards and passing attendants skirted around her cell, as if her very presence would bring malevolence to their doors.

“Your sister was worth her weight in gold.”

Ksenia had become so used to hallucinations that Karsan’s voice barely rippled against the ebb and flow of thoughts in her mind.

He now stood before her cell, that same serpentine smile affixed to his face.

Ksenia didn’t move.

“You can still prove your worth like her, Ksenia.” His words were jarringly counter to every fiber of his being.

His impudence to show up and lay claim to her path to salvation was rich.

“You are, after all, Sevrant.” He waited, willing her to react.

She gave him nothing.

The silence stretched, his fingers drumming against the bar in an agitated rhythm.

He was slipping. He had lost control of the masses.

“Look at me.” His command cracked through the cell like a whip but was pitifully meaningless to her.

She still didn’t move.

He needed her more than she needed him.

A sound escaped him—half laugh, half snarl.

“You think this silence is power?” His voice clambered higher. “You think refusing to speak makes you stronger than me?”

He has no idea how to fix Radegast, nor what to do with Krahomor.

Nothing.

It’s only a matter of time before he’s dethroned.

He slammed his palm against the bars. “I could kill you! But I’m offering you a chance to live.”

Then drawn and quartered by his own men.

“So, kill me.” Ksenia pushed herself up slowly. Her eyes pierced his. “I can taste your fear.”

She spat at his feet. It hit the stone between the bars with a wet sound.