Page 126 of Broken Shadows

“What!?” she screeches. “No! That’s not possible.” She drags her nails into my forearms and spittle flies with her hurried words. “I hexed him over a century ago. If he wouldn’t love me, then I made sure he couldn’t love anyone.”

I shake my head and tsk. “Unfortunately, your time for scheming and lording power over others has run out.” Some of her hair rips free and she hisses as I twist her head around to face me. “Meet your fucking executioner.”

“No! No, no, no, please! I’ll do anything.”

My shadows circle her torso, tossing her to the stone floor. “That’s fucking obvious. You’re wasting your final breaths; nothing will change my mind.”

Evangeline curls into a trembling ball on her side, urine puddling beneath her. “Please, don’t do this!”

I laugh hollowly. “You’re pathetic.”

Lucifer blurs down the stairs, unforgiving malice in his eyes.

My aunt struggles to her knees and reaches for him. “Help me, Luce!

“She’s fucking psychotic,” Lorcan shouts. “Don’t believe anything out of this whore’s mouth. She made Samuel believe she’s in love with him and used him. Then, under your supposed orders, had me forced into the Shadow Realm for a century because of some made up bullshit that I’m after your throne. All in a sick vengeance because I didn’t love her back. I’m sorry, Dad, but she manipulated you too.”

His clawed hands curl at his sides, but pain burns behind his silver eyes as they flash to Evangeline, tears gathering along his lower lashes. “How could you, Eva? You told my boys that Lorcan was after my throne?”

“No. I-I didn’t do anything! I promise, please believe me,” Evangeline blubbers.

Lucifer’s gaze drops to the floor, and he shakes his head slowly. “I trusted you.”

Evangeline sobs and crawls to him, ugly crocodile tears mixed with snot running down her face. “N-no, please. I would never do anything to h-h-hurt you or your s-sons.”

“How could I ever forgive you, when I’ll never forgive myself,” Lucifer says, slicing into her with words so even and impossibly calm it floods my bloodstream with adrenaline and sends my nervous system into a fight-or-flight frenzy. “You are despicable. I know the truth as I heard every single damming word from your own lips. You believed yourself in love with my son and destroyed him for it. Then you made me believe you loved me, all so you could get close enough to punish him.” Lucifer’s voice deepens, the sound bitterly cold and hollow, devoid of its usual warmth. That’s when I see the devil, the release of that untapped power, come to the surface and, for the first time since meeting Lucifer, I’m afraid.

His eyes blacken to the color of charcoal. “There is only one punishment that will suffice.”

Lorcan chuckles. “Fuck, that's really too bad.”

His father takes a large step towards my great aunt, then whirls in a movement too quick to track. I blink and find Lucifer across the room, growling at a narrow-eyed Samuel as he pins him to the wall with invisible hands.

Right on schedule. I laugh, then drag my stare leisurely toward Evangeline once more. Evangeline cracks open her poisonous mouth, but I've heard quite enough. My death magic surges past her lips and down her throat as my shadows stringing her up by her wrists.

A scream tears from Samuel but is swiftly muted as Lucifer gags him with a shadow.

Out of my peripheral, smoke rises from Lorcan’s hands as he clutches the bars in his fists, an encouraging, growl on his lips. “Fuck yes, Little Witch. End this so we can be rid of her for good.”

I grab her square jaw and glare into her hateful brown eyes, the same shade as my own, then shape every bit of suffering caused by her hand into something malicious and dark. My death magic absorbs the offering greedily, then slowly, achingly so, incinerates her organs one by one. Her skin bubbles with blisters as the heat inside her grows so hot I can feel it kiss my skin from a yard away.

Evangeline’s cries of anguish trickle over me like soft, soothing rain. Her skin incrementally flushes pink, to red, and dark satisfaction curves my lips as my death magic burns her alive from the inside out.

It’s not enough.

I stroll around her immobile form. “You committed countless acts of evil,” I pause, “but it’s all justified because you were doing it out of love,right?”

Evangeline whimpers and chokes on the blood dribbling past her lips.

I will my magic forward, crafting a crown of shadows around her head. I squeeze the band across her brow tighter with each beat of her atrocious heart.

Lorcan’s probing stare warms the side of my face as I cross my arms over my chest and a cruel smile tilts my lips. “How does the weight of the monarchy feel now, Evangeline?”

The resounding crack of bone reverberates through my eardrums and slices through her panicked gurgles. My steps halt as I take in her glazed eyes and slack jaw, tilting my head to examine her neck. I nod as I note the pulse thrumming away beneath her skin. “Oh, good, you’re still alive.”

Lorcan’s hoarse laughter floats across me like a caress.

“Can't have you dying just yet.” I look over at Lucifer and hold his stare. “Dad, toss me your blade?”

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