Page 85 of Fear the Flames
I roughly drop his chin and watch him slump against the chains. My eyes glance toward the ceiling and spy the two loops the chains are threaded through. My gaze follows the thick chains to where they’re locked on the floor.
“Ryder, lower the chains. Cayden, bring the table over,” I command. Two sets of footsteps echo on either side of me, both responding immediately. My ears zone in on the sound of Robick’s heavy breaths.
He’s nervous.
Good.
Now, it’s my turn to enjoy it.
“Which is his sword hand?” Cayden asks in a menacing tone, already catching onto what I want to do. Robick’s throat bobs, another sign of his nerves.
“His right hand.”
Cayden places the table on Robick’s right side and resumes his original position behind me, alongside Ryder. I pivot on my heels to face them, and both sets of eyes flash to me. Ryder’s body is rigid; his hand tightly grips the hilt of his blade. My gaze drifts to Cayden, and the stare he’s giving me resembles death incarnate. It’s the face his enemies would fear seeing and have nightmares of in their next life. No form of salvation or reincarnation would be enough to escape the wrath of Cayden Veles.
“You both have my permission to leave if you wish.”
“I’m not leaving,” Cayden snarls.
“I’m staying,” Ryder matches Cayden’s anger.
I glance between the two of them, making sure they’re set in their decision, but don’t pick up on a shred of doubt between either of them. Turning away, I unsheathe a knife. Its weight in my hand brings me a comfort that I’ve never received from anything else.
When training became too hard,
When I didn’t want to run an extra mile,
When my arms burned from target practice,
When my nightmares made my throat raw from screaming,
I thought of a moment like this.
Standing before my past as the woman who rose from it. I gathered all the broken shards of myself and forged a sword sharp enough to slay any enemy.
My hand closes around Robick’s wrist, pressing his hand into the table. It creaks under pressure. “How many dragons do I have?” I ask. Robick stays quiet, as I suspected he would. “Don’t want to talk?” I lightly glide my knife down his cheek, and he whimpers. “We can count together. The answer is right here,” I drag my blade across the top of his hand. His body shakes as he fights to keep any noises of pain and fear trapped behind his tight lips.
“Queen Elowen asked you a question,” Ryder growls.
Robick barks out a laugh that sounds closer to a sob, “She’s not a queen.”
“She’s more of a ruler than your king will ever be,” Cayden states through clenched teeth.
Robick glares at Cayden with a burning hatred. He opens his mouth to bite back a response, but I press my knife into his thumb and slice it off. Whatever words he was about to bite back are cut off by a guttural scream. I toss his thumb to the floor like one would discard a piece of lint they found on a sweater. Blood trickles out of the gash and coats the wooden table.
“I have five dragons,” I say above his screams. “One.”
I cut off his second finger and revel in his cries that echo in the space around me. “Two.”
I move onto his third finger. “Three.”
The pattern follows until all five fingers are scattered in the pool of blood that’s formed on the floor. My boot connects with the table, kicking it to the side once I’m finished with his hand. I reach out my blood-stained fingers to grasp his chin, smearing his own blood onto his lips. He tries to recoil, but I hold firm.
“Are you working with anyone here?” I demand. Robick sucks in short breaths and tears streak down his face, but he doesn’t answer. I reach over to his hand and press onto the fresh gashes that ooze blood like a waterfall.
“No!” he declares through a deafening scream. “I’m the last one.”
I search his eyes for any sign of a lie but detect nothing other than hatred and pain. He hates that he cracked, and he hates me even more. I suspected we had taken care of the rest of the assassins considering an attempt hasn’t happened in a while. His blood streaks down my face and trickles down my leathers, but I don’t feel the urge to wipe it away.
