Page 56 of A Kingdom of Lies

The sting of Erix’s eyes itched across my skin. I stilled, unable to take another step, feeling like I had only moments before, locked within the cage – absolutely powerless.

“Hello,” Erix growled, lifting one of his swords and pointing it towards me, “little bird.”

CHAPTER 19

“I was just beginning to like that nickname,” I snarled, heart thudding in my ears. “Now not so much.”

It wasn’t exactly red I saw, but my vision tinted, hyper focusing on the man before me.

Duncan stepped aside as I strode past him. My legs seemed to move without command, fuelled by the sudden urge to close in on Erix and cause him pain. However, even with the pounding fury that overwhelmed me, I could still recognise a sliver of sadness coiled beneath it; it was nothing more than an ember, fighting to keep warm during a wild storm, never having a chance to catch.

“It is one of the reasons I used it,” Erix replied, lowering his weapon slightly. It sounded nothing like him. “When I call you little bird, your eyes narrow and lines wrinkle beside your nose. Your discomfort made me feel a sense of… excitement.”

His voice had warped, deepening in pitch and catching as if a snake was twisted in his throat. Doran Oakstorm – that was what I heard.

“You should have never come here.”

Erix lifted his arms, raising both swords with them. His posture was that of an offered embrace, all whilst blood dripped from the steel’s points. “I could not leave you.”

“Why don’t we cut the shit and get to the point where you tell me what it is you want?”

There was something forced about his posture, the way his shoulders were pulled back as though held up by a string. It wasn’t the only disturbing feature. Besides the splattering of human blood washing from his face in the rain, it was the faint dark lines surrounding his unblinking eyes that caught my attention. Veins full of ink, spewing and spreading across his once beautiful face.

“Is it not obvious?” Erix cocked his head, silver eyes now a dark storm cloud. “I wantyou, Robin.”

“Do you want me, or does Doran?”

A sadistic smile spread across Erix’s face, confirming my suspicions.

“Unfortunately,” Duncan interrupted, his narrowed stare not once leaving Erix as though he would pounce at any given moment, “Robin is going nowhere tonight. At least, nowhere with you.”

“You allow this” – Erix spared Duncan a glance, one riddled with disgust – “scum to speak on your behalf? Does it not feel like yesterday that I came in and saved you from a party of Hunters, and here you are putting yourself before one.”

“Look around you, Erix. Look what Doran has made you do.” It was impossible to know if I stood in a puddle of blood or rain. One of the Hunters groaned, skin pale and eyes closed, grasping onto the slippery edge of life and death.

“This is all me.” Erix swept his eyes across the pile of bodies before settling them back on Duncan. “What I am to do with that one… well, that is a command too sweet to refuse.”

I stepped in Duncan’s way, not thinking about the consequences. Magic crackled around my splayed fingers, the wind picking up, casting the rain in directions like a barrage of cold needles. “Leave, Erix. Scurry back to your master, and I’ll let you live.”

“No.” Erix’s sword lifted.

“Growing fond of me, are you?” Duncan whispered from behind me.

I refused to answer, refused to do anything but look at Erix and watch his every move. We’d trained together enough for me to know his movements. In a sense, I was ready. However, I wouldn’t be the first person to attack.

I would finish it though.

Erix snapped his attention to Duncan, spinning the twin blades without much thought. “Little bird, step away from the Hunter so we can go home–”

I snapped, breaking at the use of the nickname. “You don’t get to call me that anymore, Erix.”

My fury was no longer contained, as though the nickname alone encouraged it to claim its freedom. I didn’t flinch as the rain turned to hail. The frozen beads slammed into my head, my shoulders, stinging across my exposed skin, but the pain was hardly an echo in comparison to what stormed within me.

“I know that you are not in control of yourself,” I shouted over the gale, sharpening the rain into arrows of ice with my will. “Doran has you under his control and you are simply following his command. You’re as much a victim as everyone else he has hurt, killed. But I’m not leaving with you. Nor are you going to hurt anyone else.”

Erix sighed, lips tugging down into a frown. “Do you not miss my company?”

“I miss the Erix I knew, but he died alongside my father.”

---