Page 9 of Merciless Is My Crown

“Don’t hold back on my account, love.” I kissed her clammy cheek. “I’ll gladly become a monster so long as you don’t leave me in this hideous world alone. Use your magic to drive every drop of that fucker’s tainted power out of you. Every last drop, do you understand?”

Her body twisted and thrashed. All I could do was try to keep her from falling onto the floor as Bexley sent wave after wave of green, healing magic over her body. “Come on, Anaria, fight. Fucking fight. You’ve never given up before; don’t you dare give up now. Get every last bit of Corvus’s poison out of you.” Her face strained, teeth ground together.

And finally, a faint, black-tinted shadow curled between us, the reeking odor sending Simon stumbling back, Bexley retching on the floor. I covered my face in the crook of my elbow but kept one hand on Anaria as she drove the last of Corvus’s foulness out.

The only problem…the shadow took on a life of its own.

Like the darkness was fucking…alive.

I’d never seen anything so horrifying as that creeping curl of black turning this way and that, searching for…I didn’t know what. “Fuck, don’t let it touch me,” Bexley whined, down on all fours, getting ready to scuttle away.

“Keep healing her or I’ll slice your head from your shoulders,” I growled, keeping an eye on that black shadow while I searched blindly for my sword. “Don’t you fucking stop until I tell you to.”

Anaria went limp as the dark shadow coalesced into a single, recognizable form, reminding me of a Soul Reaper, and that’s when I knew…that’s exactly what this thing was. “Fucking hell, did that come out of her?” Simon hissed, eyes wide with fear as I finally yanked my sword free.

The Reaper hovered over Anaria, a hissing apparition I debated swinging my sword straight through to see what happened. “Can we destroy it?” I hissed.

“Not unless steel can kill shadow and mist.” Bexley groaned.

“Only magic will destroy them.” He tried to crawl away before I caught him by his hair and dragged him back, his fingers clawing grooves into the floor. “And not the sort I have. Let me go, please. I don’t want to end up a vessel for one of those things.”

“Shut the fuck up, Bexley,” Simon and I hissed at the same time.

“Keep healing her,” I ordered. “You don’t stop until I tell you to.”

Rage built and built, until I couldn’t hold my fury in check. I would not allow Bexley to fail. I would not allow Anaria to die. She would walk out of here on her own two feet, alive and whole, toward the future she fucking deserved.

I would settle for nothing less.

My sword clattered to the floor when I spread my arms wide and grinned at the Reaper.

“You want to infect someone, you soul sucking bastard? I’m right fucking here. Come and get me.”

5

ANARIA

Iopened my eyes to find a Soul Reaper hovering above me through a haze of beautiful golden light, the ghoulish monster weaving back and forth, all its attention focused on whatever was to my right.

Gods, the horrid thing was so fucking close.

Worse, it wasn’t looking at me.

I managed to slide my eyes sideways. The Reaper stared straight at Tavion, and though the creature’s face was nothing but shadow, I swore its expression turned ravenous. Not a surprise since Tavion was covered in still-healing wounds. A hundred little doorways where this horror could get inside his skin.

I didn’t stop to think.

I pulled up a swell of magic and shredded the Reaper apart.

Then collapsed onto my back, writhing on a bed of agony while Tavion shouted for someone to keep going. My legs were on fire, flames licking up my legs, searing my flesh to charred ash. I tried to scrape away the fire, to stop the hurting, but Tavion captured my hands.

“That’s only Bexley’s healing magic, Anaria,” he counseled gently before his head whipped away. “Don’t hurt her or I’ll fucking stab you in the heart, you coward.”

I could only absorb bits and pieces through the blur of pain. A male with golden eyes. A cracked, stained ceiling overhead. The overwhelming stench of rot in the air.

Pain, pain, pain.

But Tavion was here. He was here; the Reaper hadn’t gotten him after all.

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