Page 39 of His Dark Delights
My gaze was as cold as the stone beneath my feet as I regarded him, the man who had dared to harm Lilly. “You know why I am here, Gerald,” I replied, my voice low and dangerous. “You have committed an unforgivable crime. You’ve insulted me by damaging something valuable to me.”
He spat at my feet. “You asked for the girl. I made sure she complied.”
“You took liberties that were not yours to take. She is mine!”
Gerald scoffed, his lip curling. “She’s just a farm girl. Nobody. Oh sure, a pretty one, but a hole is a hole.”
My façade of discipline shattered as my hand struck out, knuckles connecting with his jaw. The force of the blow vibrated up my arm, only providing the momentum for me to strike again.
“You will not speak of her. You will not blaspheme her!” Another punch cracked through the dungeon. “Scum like you aren’t worthy to even be in her presence.”
I struck again.
And again. And again.
Rhydan’s hand fell on my shoulder, a silent reminder to show restraint. Not even his support could not quell the tempest of fury within me.
Face black and blue, streaked with rivulets of blood,Gerald glared up with. “Some poor whore is enough for you to beat your own men?”
“You are no man of mine.” I turned to Rhydan, my voice steady yet demanding. “Leave us. This is between me and him.”
Rhydan hesitated, loyalty warring with his sense of honor. But he nodded and backed off. His footsteps faded toward the stairs, leaving me alone with the heap of garbage.
The silence between us was a living thing. The dungeon breathing with dark anticipation. Inhales of frigid air and exhales of damp rot.
“I’ve spent my life in service of the crown,” Gerald barked, an edge of nervousness rising in his tone.
My hand shot out, collaring his throat and slamming him against the wall. “Then consider your service rendered.”
He glared at me, hatred burning in his eyes, but a flicker of despair betrayed the realization that his fate was sealed. The chains rattled, metal clinked on stone, reverberating through the hostile shadows. A sniffle clogged in his throat as I turned away to methodically remove my overcoat and meticulously rolled up my sleeves. Gerald kicked uselessly at the ground, attempting to scamper away like a mouse cornered by a lion.
Prey and predator, confined in the damp earthen walls beneath the palace. Trapped in the dark underbelly of royal opulence and facing down the jaws of a beast. He soiled himself, making the cramped space reek further. Disgusting, weak creature. An embarrassment to the might of Elleslan’s forces.
“You think your innocent little farm girl will wantyou after this?” A last attempt to sway me.
“It doesn’t matter. She’s mine.”
A monster of claws and primal hunger exploded from my chest. The thing of primordial rage flowed outward, seizing hold of my willpower and thrusting me into a world of red and blood and bones. A mask slipped over my expression, stoney resolve and ice-cold determination. Darkness claimed me.
The room echoed with the crunch of bone, the splatter of blood, the whimpers of pain and the sniveling for mercy that wouldn’t come. A baying beast of malice curled through me, twisting my insides and turning me into something unrecognizable. Pure vitriol poured from my lips as I degraded and brutalized the man chained to the wall. Each heavy hit from my blood-smeared knuckles signified another beacon of retribution for the wrong done to Lilly.
Lilly. Lilly. Lilly.
How dare he hurt her. He laid a hand on her. He marred something precious that didn’t belong to him. He would die and I would revel in it.
Crimson dappled the front of my shirt. Ruby droplets splashed across my face with each blow. Perspiration coated my brows, my hair stuck to my forehead with blood and sweat. Red dripped into my eyes and down my chin as my fist crunched and shlicked in the gruesome work of art I sculpted. A spray of viscera accompanied a choked gurgle. Gerald’s legs twitched, his back bowing and his muscles seizing as the life ripped from his body.
A swing and a miss. I stumbled as fatigue weighed my limbs and blood obscured my vision. On my knees, chest heaving, I stared at the butchered cadaver drapedfrom the chains like a macabre curtain of shredded flesh and sinew.
Butchered.
That’s what the people wanted. The Butcher. I could give them that. Except this man hadn’t been a fae. He’d been a soldier within my ranks. That hadn’t mattered when it came to the safety of my Lilly—mine.
Moments, hours, passed before I dragged myself off the floor and turned away, leaving the corpse to rot in the darkness. The dungeon door banged shut behind me, and Rhydan kicked off the opposite wall. He grimaced from one look at me.
“It’s done, then?”
Words were thick on my tongue, rasping up my dry throat. Raw from hours of shouting. He accepted a swift nod as my answer.
