Page 18 of What Whispers in the Dark
Then, it tightened. Pressing phantom fingertips into the arteries and constricting his airway until the borders of his mind blurred. He forced his gaze over his shoulder to find?—
Nothing.
There was no mistaking it, though. That possessive, cold presencewasthere. He would never err that touch. Never lived a day without feeling it haunting his steps. Hungry for his attention. Preventing him from tearing his eyes away.Claiminghim as she had mere hours before.
Garrik slammed his eyes shut and ordered his shadows to form. If he could not force the invisible hands away, he would create them. Then, devour them whole.
Twisting in the darkness’ grip, Garrik swung his blade, but the figure was quick on his scheme. Staring into those eyes made of shadows, devoid of any light, maybe he imagined it, but a mixture of desire and hunger swirled.Shegrinned in the same way she did in her bedchamber.
He did not flinch. Did not quiver or balk as silver rings glistened in the moonlight when he sought security from his sword by crushing it in his grip.
For a moment, he did not breathe. Garrik clenched his jaw so tight he thought it might seal into place. But he was not moving. Was not fighting. Allowing the demons of his mind to slither in?—
I’ve missed you, p?—
Steel whistled as it sliced the midnight air.
Like Firekeeper-filled-hellwould he yield to her again tonight.
If his skin was not a perfect mirror of the icy depths of an eternal winter, then perhaps the metal of his blade would gleam an angry crimson hue, but it remained frigid. His movements were a relentless rhythm that echoed through the annulus into the surrounding trees. Each strike exacting deliberate, controlled chaos that she perfectly evaded.
Kill her. Fuckingkillher.Make his pain go away. Anything—anything.
Garrik’s eyes—his infernal, abyss-like eyes—darkened, masking the annulus in a grayscale. Teeth cut like shattered glass formed in his mouth, and the skin of his face sharpened as his veins branched into tracks of black ink.
His Smokeshadows must have felt it. That unconquerable animalistic rage. Noticed his slipping of control as if he truly could not decipher if those tendrils were real or not.
An enemy to be annihilated. In one moment, his serpent was taunting him, dodging every attempt at running her through, and the next … his sword plunged deep, deep,deeperinto her skull—spine and heart—clear to the entrails before he ripped it out through the entire length of her body.
With that final strike, he stared at the way darkness curled in the torchlight.
The whorls dissipated across the grass as Garrik imagined the gut-wrecking pops were bones snapping. Imagined the squelch of blood beneath his boots as he walked to her lifeless two halves on the ground. In those eyes made of shadows, he pictured them entirely inanimate as he would, if given the chance, tower over her corpse and rip out her heart before she hit the ground. But instead, it was only shadow. Swirling theirfinal remains into the night sky until they were nothing but a memory.
If only she were a memory.
He was not certain how he was still standing, still conscious. Every limb and muscle had turned sluggish, utterly exhausted and aching, but Garrik managed to sheath his swords.
Part of him was not there as he scooped up his tunic from a fallen tree. Perhaps the part of him that never returned after he left her starsdamned bedchamber. Perhaps the part that pulled himself out of his unwanted releases and blood staining her sheets before he dawned from those chains that enslaved him to her bed when his magic returned.
And now, as his hand fell to his thigh and he tilted his face to the stars searching for an answer they would deny, all he could think was he deserved …this.Every part of it. Foreverythinghe had done.
Make me forget,Garrik closed his burning eyes and silently pleaded. For one fleeting moment.Make me forget, please.
The stars did not answer.
He was afoolto hope they would. Monsters did not deserve mercy. Certainly not him. Not with the endless bloodstained faces that haunted him every time his eyes closed. Those sins he could never pay for. His fate was sealed for endless torment by the voices of ten thousand upon ten thousand demanding justice through the hands of a viper.
Please.A tear swept down his face.Make me forget her, if only for a second.
Again, they did not answer.
Garrik’s hands curled into fists at his sides. He would have trembled if his body were not wound so tight.
The only thing thatwouldanswer his shame and misery slithered through the trees.
Oh, pet,sounding kingdoms away, that cruel, infernal voice snickered. Mingling with the ringing in his ears and slicing like talons down his spine.You can never forget me and what we share. Iownyou.
An icy chill cloaked his body, deep into the depths of his soul. Immense pain spread through his abdomen like daggered hands were clawing into him. It spread through his freezing body like a wildfire. A constant burn that never warmed him and would turn his lungs to ash the moment he screamed.
