Page 2 of Her Dark Promise

Any sympathy I would have had was erased in the blink of an eye, and rage filled me, so familiar and welcome.

What shall you do now, Callie?

Not her. Not now. Get out of my mind! Sometimes her voice felt so real. I’d spent so many nights covering my ears, tryingto talk myself into the truth—she was just another memory haunting this place, and she didn’t have any power over me.

Testy… I thought I taught you better manners.

I didn’t have time to worry about her. I squeezed my eyes shut and cast her from my mind.

That never keeps me away for long, Callie.

Red lined my vision as I concentrated back on the murderers as the man rubbed himself all over her, moaning, “Merrill, you make me so hard when you talk dirty like that.”

She threw her hands around his neck and sloppily kissed him. “You can fuck me after we clean this place out.” She pushed off of him and made her way over to one of my paintings, running her nasty fingers across it.

I knew everyone who lived on the outskirts of my forest. There weren’t many, most were afraid to venture too close, but not her. The old woman, Mariam, in the little house with overgrown brush and a litter of stray animals lingering about. Mariam, who had never harmed a hair on anyone’s head. Who was alive mere hours ago, was now dead.

Violet shadows surged across my skin, the only indication of me having any emotions left at all. I had been numb so long that even the brush of thrill at the thought of punishing them made me feel alive again. Humans had not changed over the last several centuries. Their cruelty had no limits, so why should I be merciful?

Their purpose was to steal, and perhaps I could have let that go, but now I knew too much.

As I moved away from Emilia, she signed one last thing,Make them suffer.

I stared at her for a moment longer than intended. It had been years since she had said anything violent. There was fire in her eyes. We both had grown fond of Mariam. She was nothing to the villages, a cast-off, but not to us.

I nodded and moved away from her, my own temper flared. Adrenaline coursed through my veins at all of the ideas running through my mind of how I was going to punish them for their crimes. It was almost too much to contain. Not only against me, but against every single person that they had robbed and murdered.

Claude went back to stuffing whatever his clammy little hands could find into a bag. He kept looking around as if he was sure that he was being watched. He should have listened to his instincts.

He called out to her over his shoulder, “Merrill, we need to leave. I don’t like this.”

She let out an exasperated huff and yelled, “Can you just do as your told and shut your mouth for once?”

Merrill was an older, short woman with hair that looked as though a comb hadn’t run through it in years. She was putting her dirt-covered hands on everything in her sight.

My ears almost burst as she screeched to the male, “My bag is almost full. Grab that blanket and put whatever you can in there.” She took a moment to look around. “I’m shocked all of this is still here. That no one else has looted it.”

They kept talking as I walked around, tuning out the rest of their conversation. I had already made my decision. They were never leaving this castle alive.

I looked up and found Callum had joined me in looking down at them from the other side of the landing.

He walked over to me, bowed slightly, and said, “Your grace, it looks like we have guests.”

“Indeed. Soon, I’ll go and welcome them.”

“What’s giving you pause?” Those beautiful light brown eyes were looking at me curiously.

I narrowed my eyes, not knowing how to respond. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, that Emilia’s words left me with aslight hesitation. I’d only ever wanted her to be different than me—better. I didn’t want her to see anything, hear anything.

“I take it you have already decided?”

I didn’t bother to glance at him as I replied, “Yes, for what they have done.”

He must not have heard what the female said, otherwise he wouldn’t have been curious about my reasoning. He paused and then asked. “Can I be of any assistance? I could hold your blades and hand them to you when needed.”

I smirked, still looking at the couple, “Don’t try to seduce me right now, little bird, I need to focus.”

He looked down, blushing, and turned to me, bowing, “I will leave you to your guests, your grace. If you should need me for any reason…”

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