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A flare of defiance burned within me. I would get out of this chair. I would get out of this room. Wax. He would be wax beneath my hands in the end, and I would feel no regret as his flesh flowed in melted rivelets.
My hands twisted in the manacles. They seemed unyielding, but still I continued to move and rotate my wrists, pressing against the cuffs until my skin rubbed raw.
Fenyx had turned his attention back to the table on which my uncle's body lay. Now he picked up a set of gleaming, serrated knives. Taking out a small blade, he made an incision, cutting through skin and muscle with the ease of someone who had done this countless times before.
“Now, your brother believes that sort of compulsion will be enough to keep you subdued,” he continued as if there had been no interruption. “Thethreatof pain, you understand. Not pain itself. He seems strangely averse to causing you pain outright. Odd that he feels no such loyalty towards your youngest brother.”
I sat up straighter. “Kaye? What do you mean? What is Arthur doing to him?”
Fenyx ignored me. “But I, on the other hand, do not share your brother’s confidence.” He looked over at me. “Clearly, you are his weakness. And while I concede I find you a desirable woman, I believe trying to control you in order to control Excalibur would be more trouble than it is worth.”
“It would be,” I snarled.
His blue eyes sparkled as if I had said something amusing. “I’m glad we’re in agreement then. Arthur wishes for me to bring you and Excalibur to him a short time from now. Thanks to dear Queen Belisent’s flight, our timeline has been moved up.”
He made another incision and began peeling open my uncle’s chest cavity. “How saddened Arthur will be when I must tell him of how you unexpectedly died here instead. A terrible complication of the bloodwraith Tyre and I were forced to use in order to subdue you.”
He ripped back another segment of flesh, and I shuddered. “But before you faded away from this world, I managed to extract from your essence the power you possessed over Excalibur.” He gestured to a blank spot in one of the rows on his breastplate. “Once I have it equipped, I’ll be the one and only wielder of the blade. The most powerful general Arthur has at his command.”
I laughed, and Fenyx raised his brows.
“Oh, yes,” I said sarcastically. “I’m sure you do all you do for Arthur and his great cause.”
There was a momentary gleam in his eyes. “For now. Your brother is liberal-minded when it comes to my... experiments. He gives me great freedom. The freedom I need to pursue my research. But you’re right, of course. With Excalibur in my hands, I could do much more than win your brother’s war for him. I could cut him down where he stood if I wished. You’ll be dead and gone by then, however, so it’s a moot point where you’re concerned.”
He turned his back to me while he made another cut, then began to write notes onto a piece of parchment.
My body was still shivering from the ordeal it had been through moments before. Yet when I pressed against my manacles again, the harsh iron cutting into my skin, this time, I felt something shift.
The cuff on my left wrist was not as secure as it had been a few minutes ago. Glancing down carefully as Fenyx continued writing, I noticed a hint of rust beneath it where the bolts screwed into the throne.
Reaching my hand carefully downwards, I fished about under the arm of the chair.
My fingers touched it. A rusted screw. Moving my fingers nimbly, I tried to twist.
The screw began to move ever so slowly.
I held my breath. My eyes on Fenyx all the while, I slid my fingers back and forth. Each rotation was painstaking. I felt my skin split and begin to bleed as my wrists pulled against the edge of the cuff.
Still, I would not give up wiggling the screw, twisting it back and forth.
“Thirty minutes.”
I froze.
Fenyx was looking back at me. “That’s how long we’ll have when I remove you from the chair.”
“To dissect me, I suppose?” I said flatly, trying not to give him a glimpse of my fear.
“No, to fuck you.” He was paying no attention to my hand. “You didn’t think I was going to let your beauty simply go to waste, did you? I said I’d make you my wife. Well, that’s what Arthur was expecting. But a wife I’d have to continually compel would be exhausting.”
“And yet you have no qualms compelling me to, what...?”
“Oh, to whatever I please. Have no doubt of that. You’ll be on your knees for me. Then on your back.”
The disgusting threats sent a sheen of sweat breaking out all over my body and the bile rising up my throat.
“But in the end, sharing power with you?” Fenyx shook his handsome head. “No, I don’t think I’d like that very much. Compelling you in our bed would have been my greatest pleasure. But having to compel my wife on the battlefield when I’m certain you’d fight me every step of the way, well, that would simply be a chore.”
