Page 94 of The Dark Lord's Guide to Dating

The wind and rain battered the windows. Part of me hoped Kazimir would stay away until dawn. Another part of me wanted him to walk through that door right this second.

I hated that part of me most of all.

40

SEND A MESSAGE (PREFERABLY ONE THAT BLEEDS)

KAZIMIR

Moonlight filtered through the ancient pines while I circled the spy, mud squelching beneath my boots. The forest stank of damp leaves and rot. Behind me, Thorne waited, his measured breaths hinting at the violence on his mind.

High above us, my Skyspire Citadel hovered against a backdrop of churning clouds. I pictured Arabella up there, halfway furious and maybe halfway something else. I vaguely wondered if she sensed the uproar below, or if she even cared right now, given how I’d left things between us. I shoved the thought aside—she had enough reasons to hate me. No point adding this one.

I halted in front of the spy, who was on his knees in the mud, blood oozing from a jagged cut at his temple. My soldiers had delivered his introduction with a mace. An unrefined but effective approach.

“I’m on a tight schedule,” I told him, rolling my shoulders to ease the ache in my runes. “So let’s skip the part where I pretend you won’t suffer.”

I tapped into the dominion rune carved along my throat. A wave of scorching pain bit into my neck. Familiar, unpleasant, but undeniably effective. My voice dropped to a dark pitch.

“Tell me everything,” I said, letting power flood every syllable. “Who sent you to spy on my citadel?”

He jerked, eyes glazing over as the dominion hooks sank into his mind. When he spoke, his voice turned flat, mechanical. “King Auremar wants a map of your defenses, especially the lightning bridges. So he can identify weaknesses.”

I circled behind him, each step slurping in the mud. “And Auremar’s next move?”

His body shuddered. Dark rivulets of sweat and blood dripped from his brow. “He plans to retrieve… the Evenfall girl.”

Red fury spiked in my chest. I clamped my hand around his jaw. “She is Lady Arabella Blackrose. My wife.”

He managed a pathetic, quivering nod. “Y-yes, my lord,” he stammered.

Thunder growled overhead, a throaty rumble that matched my mood. I shoved him away, and he flopped forward. So far, he’d told me nothing that changed the game, but a warning needed to be delivered.

I activated another rune along my ribs, letting the fiery burn wash through my old scars. Dark magic sparked under my skin, coiling, ready to be unleashed.

“Open your mouth,” I commanded.

He obeyed, displaying rotted teeth and a tongue that trembled. I pressed my thumb to his forehead, channeling a trickle of shadow. Where my flesh touched his, darkness spread beneath his skin, a slow, creeping stain. Tendrils of it curled down and wrapped themselves inside his mouth.

“You will return to King Auremar with my message,” I murmured, sliding dominion into each word. “Three days after you deliver it, you’ll forget everything about this citadel—me,this encounter, your mission. But you’ll wake screaming at night, convinced shadows devour you from the inside. That terror will plague you until the day you die.”

His body convulsed. Blood trickled from his nostrils, and his eyes rolled back until only the whites showed. The magic lodged deeper than any knife, a poison in his veins.

Satisfied, I grabbed his shirt collar and yanked him upright. He swayed like a puppet with loose strings, eyes empty, waiting for final instructions.

“Go,” I said.

He turned, stumbling down the narrow path into the trees, leaving a trail of footprints in the mud. There were plenty of ways to kill your enemies, but a slower unraveling drove the message home, and I had a particular taste for letting the nightmares do my work.

Thorne slid up beside me. A grin sliced across his scarred face. It was the kind of smile that could curdle a demon’s blood. “Do we follow him, my lord?”

“Yes,” I told him. “But bring only enough men to make a statement, not enough to spark all-out war.”

Thorne nodded, grin unwavering. Then he vanished back into the shadows.

I tipped my head skyward, gazing toward Skyspire. Above the clouds, lightning crackled around the fortress’s spires. I wanted to be up there with Arabella. The tension between us was far more consuming than any thought of war. But I had to clean up this mess first.

My arm throbbed where the runes glowed, heat still thrumming against bone. I started down the path after Thorne. A message needed sending, and I intended to send it in blood.

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