Page 65 of Court of Lies and Deceit

It worked.

Overconfidence will kill you faster than any blade.

Not that these people are dead. Just unconscious. But still. The insane levels of confidence I forced them to feel made them sloppy and arrogant, which ultimately led to their downfall.

A scream shatters through the air.

I turn to find Draven pinning the team leader, the one who told us to crawl earlier, to the stone wall across the room. Isera and I exchange a glance before starting in that direction.

“Last time I’m asking nicely,” Draven says. “Give me the key.”

“Fuck you,” the team leader snarls back. “You filthy dragon shifter whore of a?—”

Draven snaps the guy’s wrist.

Another scream rips from his chest.

Stopping halfway across the room, I summon my magic and shove it at the guy. Latching on to that violet flame of pain, I blow it into a raging inferno.

His scream turns into a cry of pure agony. It’s so loud that his voice breaks halfway through. And he shakes violently against the wall.

Draven turns his head and glances at me over his shoulder. I give him an unapologetic shrug. He tilts his head to the side in a half nod, approval lining his features. Then he turns back to the Unseelie fae.

“The key,” he commands.

The guy sobs and gasps in breaths through the intense levels of pain that I’m forcing him to feel. Draven digs his fingers into the guy’s broken wrist, and another world-ending scream of pain tears from his throat.

“Okay, okay,” he blurts out.

“No,” I say before Draven can reply.

The Unseelie fae snaps his gaze to me, and a flash of fear pushes out the pain in his eyes for a second. I quickly release my grip on his pain and latch on to that fear instead. Something terrifyingly vicious awakens in my chest as I flash him a ruthless smile while I start to increase his fear.

Glancing at me over his shoulder again, Draven arches an eyebrow in silent question.

“Let him go,” I say, still continuing to increase the guy’s fear.

Draven doesn’t even hesitate. He immediately releases his grip on his captive.

The Unseelie fae lets out a whine as his now broken wrist falls back down to his side, and his eyes are filled with fear as he juststands there, staring at me. I keep increasing his fear until he is shaking against the wall. Then I cast a discreet glance at the audience.

Everyone seated in this section is watching our confrontation with bated breath. The ones who were standing up appear almost frozen as they stare intently down at us while the ones who were still sitting down have all leaned forward in their seats. As if they want to get as close as possible.

I let a smirk curl my lips.

They wanted a show.

I’ll give them a show.

With my magic still turning the team leader into a trembling mess, I lock hard eyes on him.

“Crawl up to me and surrender your key, and I’ll consider not maiming you too badly,” I order, echoing his own words from earlier, with a mocking smirk on my lips.

He immediately drops to his knees.

A gasp rips through the audience above us. Apparently, this isn’t something the team leader for the Yellow Faction would normally do. But with me manipulating his emotions, he doesn’t exactly have free will anymore.

Whines of pain escape his lips as he crawls across the sand on his broken wrist. Once he reaches me, he sits back on his knees and reaches into his yellow fighting leathers to get the key. His undamaged hand shakes so badly that he almost drops it.

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