Page 34 of Labyrinth of Broken Vows
“How did she get into the Catacombs of Midnight?” I asked coldly, my eyes narrowing at him. “No one gets in there without someone guiding them.”
Valak flinched, but he didn’t answer. His silence was the confirmation I needed.
My eyes darkened, and I crouched before him, my face now level with his, the fury in me barely contained. “She couldn’t have done it alone, could she? No... she needed help. Someone with access.”
Valek’s face paled. I leaned in, my voice a deadly whisper. “It’s in your quadrant, isn’t it? That’s how she found it. Because you led her there. You betrayed me.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but the lie died on his tongue. I saw it in his eyes. The guilt. The fear. The fake show he’s been putting on, the bullshit.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t figure it out?” I said, my voice dripping with venom. “You let her take it. You gave her the power to control the maze, to block me from Brielle. And now you think you can walk away from this?”
His eyes widened in terror, his lips trembling. “I didn’t... I didn’t know she’d—”
I moved faster than he could react. My hand shot out, a blade of cold steel finding its way into his gut. His eyes bulged, shock spreading across his face as blood began to pool at the wound.
“I trusted you,” I whispered in his ear as he gasped for air. “But you betrayed me. You helped that wretched bitch, and now... you’re going to die for it.”
His hands clutched at the wound, but it was too late. His breath hitched, gurgling in his throat as he looked at me, desperate.
“I know everything now, Valak. You thought you could hide this? Hide your treachery? You handed her the Vessel. You gave her control of the maze. But I’ll take it back. I’ll tear her apart, and I’ll burn your quadrant to the ground if I have to.”
With one last twist of the blade, his body went limp, his final breath escaping his lips as his eyes stared, wide and lifeless, into the abyss. I let him slump in a heap, wiping the blood from my hand on his tunic. He had been a pawn in a much larger game, but he had been foolish enough to think he could play me.
Brielle.
Nyria wouldn’t stop. Not until she had torn her from me. But she didn’t realize she had already lost. I will reclaim the maze. I will destroy the Vessel. And I will make Nyria pay in the most brutal, agonizing way possible.
I stood over Valak’s lifeless body, my pulse still thrumming with the satisfaction of his final gasp. Blood pooled beneath him, the last of his loyalty drained from the hole I carved into him.I felt nothing. The betrayal ran deeper than any blade, and for that, he paid the price.
"Th-This is madness," Henry's voice trembled from his cage, cutting through the thick silence. He was practically shaking the bars in desperation, his eyes wide with fear. "You've killed him. Killed her too. All of this for nothing. Let me out of here, damn it!"
I didn't move at first. I just stared at Valak’s corpse, my jaw clenched. Slowly, I turned to face Henry, my gaze cold and empty, watching the fool rattle his cage as if I might be moved by his pitiful display.
“Killed her?” I echoed with a low, dangerous chuckle as I closed the distance between us. “You think you know what’s happened? You think you understand anything?”
He swallowed, his hands tightening around the bars. “You lost her, You’re losing control, look at you! You’ve lost,Your Majesty. She’s probably dead now. You—”
I slammed my fist against the bars, the sound reverberating through the chamber, silencing him mid-sentence. His breath hitched, fear flooding his eyes. I could see him calculating—wondering how far he could push me before I’d finally snap his neck.
“Lost?” I growled, my voice low, venomous. “Says the dog in the cage?”
His breaths come in shallow, uneven gasps, fear twisting his features. The fear I wanted. The only reason he was still drawing breath in this miserable cage was because I hadn’t taken it from him yet. I was saving him; no, saving his last breath—for her.
I circled him slowly, watching the pitiful creature tremble, barely able to lift his eyes to meet mine. “You’re still alive, Henry, because I allow it,” I said, my voice a low, dangerous growl. "But don't mistake that for kindness. When this is over, when she stands before us, you’ll see just how meaningless yourlife has always been. She will see you like this," I murmured, leaning in closer, my tone almost mocking. "Weak. Helpless. And she’ll know what I know: you’re nothing."
Henry’s breath hitched, and I felt the grin creeping up my face. "She will choose me, Henry," I continued, letting the words settle over him like the weight of a guillotine about to drop.
"What if she doesn’t? What if she choses me, her husband stolen from her by the monster of the maze?"
I paused, enjoying the agony playing in his eyes. "Husband? You mean her abuser, her tormentor? Is that what you were trying to say? Let me be clear whether she chooses you or not you won’t be leaving here alive Henry. If that means she gets to drag your corpse out those doors then so be it."
His lip quivered, his grip on the bars of his cage tightening on the bars, as if clinging to some last thread of hope. But I’d already severed it. I crouched down to meet his eye level, my voice a cold, venomous whisper.
“Do you know why you’re still breathing, Henry? it’s because I want you to feel it. To understand that when she chooses me, your life is over. Everything you were, everything you thought you could be to her, the control you had over her…dies here, with you.”
Any spark of resistance dimmed from his eyes, leaving only the hollow emptiness I wanted to see.
“I will not let you die as a man," I said softly, my smile fading into something far crueler. "I will let you die as the failure you’ve always been. And in those final moments, as life slips from your worthless body, I want you to remember one thing: You were never more than a placeholder.”
