Page 7 of The Magic of Eternity
“Fuuuuck.”
Never had a shower felt so good in my thirty years. I spotted a dispenser of soap attached to the wall and quickly filled my hands until they overflowed. Then I scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. Until my skin was raw and the wall dispenser was nearly empty. I shampooed my hair and my beard, twice, noting the dark water that circled the drain.Gods, I’d kill for a toothbrush right about now.
Once I’d put enough conditioner in my hair and beard to hopefully keep me feeling more human until the next shower, I slumped back against the wall, sliding down to my ass. The water was starting to cool, but I couldn’t bring myself to get out. Not yet. Water sluiced down my face and torso, and I reveled in the moment. It was cleansing—not just for my body, but my soul. My determination. I hadn’t realized how hopeless I’d begun to feel in the last few days.
Maybe this was their goal. Give me this little slice of normalcy before really fucking me up. Anything less than that would actually surprise me. Slowly, I rose from the shower floor and shut the water off. I dried my body at a snail’s pace, in no hurry to see Laurie’s face again or return to that godsforsaken room. As I wrapped the towel around my waist, I decided right then that if they tried to make me go back in there, I was going to fight like hell. I couldn’t go back.
Heavy footfalls reached my ears, and I paused working the brush I’d found through my hair. Whoever these people were, they were moving fairly swiftly and getting closer.
“It didn’t work then?” Laurie asked as the footsteps fell silent.
“No. Need to get him to the infirmary quickly. He had to be resuscitated twice before we convinced Az to take him down from the post,” a man said grimly.
I heard Laurie hum as if she was thinking. “Very well. Get him to the doctor. Your king will not be pleased if he dies.”
Curiosity got the best of me and I quietly approached the wall that blocked my view of them. The hallway was more crowded than I expected; a handful of guards surrounded a stretcher, all focused forward while one acknowledged her orders. The scent of blood hung in the corridor like a plague, and I scanned the body lying unconscious. Their back was flayed wide open. I’d seen a lot of torture in my life, but I’d never seen someone’s flesh look so mangled. The poor fucker had to be dead and if he wasn’t, he had to be wishing for it.
A guard moved away, and my eyes locked on the injured man’s face.Oh holy fuck. Fuck.I spun back against the wall, pressing a hand to my mouth to keep myself from vomiting.
No. No. That... I didn’t see that right. It can’t be him...
My heart thrashed like an animal caged, and I sucked in a ragged breath, trying to be quiet. Time seemed to crawl, though I knew only a couple of seconds had passed. I gripped the brush in my hand so hard that I could feel the plastic begin to give way. I knew what I’d seen. And I knew what needed to be done.
Tears built up but now was not the time. I knew exactly who the man on the stretcher was, but if I gave him a name in my mind, it would break me. I had to break them first. So he would remain a nameless, faceless being in my mind until I completed my mission.
Four guards. Laurie. The man on the stretcher. Four guards. Kill them. Kill them all. Make them bleed.
In a blink, I was flying past Laurie, jabbing the closest guard in the throat with my fist, before flipping the brush and stabbing as hard as I could directly through the eye. I anticipated the guard on my right so kept hold of the brush, pulling it out with a squelch and a spray of blood as I spun. Ducking low, I kicked my leg out as I twirled, knocking my next target clean off his feet.
I didn’t give him time to get up. Hell, he barely hit the ground and I was diving over him, relieving him of the wicked looking dagger that was attached to his hip. My hands shot out in front of me as I sailed over top of that piece of shit, rolled smoothly, and forcefully twisted, releasing the dagger with all of the power I could summon.
There wasn’t time to wait, and I was moving, chasing the weapon before it sank into the throat of the guard I’d stolen it from. My intention was to snatch it back to end the other two, but they were already on me. One of them was running right for me just as the other attempted a roundhouse kick. My hand snapped out, snatching his foot mid-air, and I grunted as I jerked his ankle in the opposite direction. He rolled with it, doing some sort of wild martial arts move and landing on his feet.
My eyes narrowed. “You guys fucked up.” I sounded like a monster. A beast out for no less than the blood of every being in this castle that meant me or my family harm. The other guard who was coming at me with force finally got within striking distance, and I feigned a punch before clotheslining him with my fucking leg. As soon as he hit the ground, I snaked around his neck, my thighs squeezing his throat tight enough to crush his windpipe.
The towel that had been around my hips was now laying beside me, and I heard the wannabe ninja make a snide comment to the other guy about dying with a flaccid cock on his head, as he grabbed hold of my hair. What a bitch. His arms tried to get around my throat but I raised my shoulders, making it impossible for him to get the right angle. If he wanted to strangle me, he was going to have to try something other than pulling my fucking hair.
The man between my legs was losing the battle when a sharp pain exploded in my side. My jaw clenched as I held in a roar, my gaze landing on the guard who’d stabbed me. My hand shot out, wrapping around his wrist. With a growl, I twisted my hips sharply, and a satisfying crunch met my ears. Releasing the now dead male from my thigh grip, I pulled the knife from my side, earning a punch to the face as the stabber tried to get me to release his wrist.
Grunting, I twisted my body and went for his leg. The knife sliced through his Achilles’ tendon like butter. Scrambling, I got up, grabbed the damp towel, and wrapped it around his neck as he dropped to his knees. His gasps and the feel of his hot blood pooling around my bare feet gave me fucking power. Fuel. Livid, I pulled on either side of the towel, creating an effective garrote. The fibers of the towel protested under the force, but he’d be dead by the time I ripped this towel in half.
His clawing hands fell limply at his sides, and I knew he was done when he slumped forward, his body lax. Still, I pulled harder, needing to know for sure. Because these men, what they’d done... I couldn’t look. I already knew what I’d seen—whoI’d seen on that stretcher...
Rising to my full height with a grimace, I pressed the towel to the wound in my side, glaring like the devil himself at Laurie. “Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Him,” I snarled. My hair fell in front of my face, and I could feel the blood soaking the towel.
She eyed me, her fingers running through his hair. “You’re quite a fighter. Especially for someone of your size.”
“I swear to all the stars in the sky, if you don’t get your hands off of him in the next two seconds, I’ll show you just how fast you can die by these hands, bitch.” I was breathing faster now, likely due to the blood loss.
She laughed. She actually fucking laughed at me. Like we were old friends and this was a joke. “Oh, Cameron. And where do you think you’re going to go? He’s going to the infirmary to be taken care of, and you will be going back to your cell since you’ve just proven you don’t know how to act like a civilized man within the walls of my kingdom!” She screeched the last part, losing her calm.Gods, she’s completely delusional.
“He’s not leaving my sight, and I’m not going back there. Get out of my way,” I warned, taking a step closer and coming to a stop next to the guard who had a shiny dagger protruding from his neck.
“Or what? I could take both of you out faster than you could blink. I still have my magic,” she gloated, smirking like she’d won something. I couldn’t look away as her fingers sank into his dark hair. She had no fucking right!
But she’d given up information earlier, and I planned to exploit that. The towel slipped from my hand and with it, a steady trickle of blood poured from the wound on my side.
“What are you doing?” she asked, the first sign of uncertainty in her tone.
