Page 48 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
As if hearing my inner thoughts, Maez stepped to my side and dropped her mouth to my ear. “Come on, Briar; show me your thorns.”
When Evres shot forward, hands out like he wanted to strangle me, I ducked under his arms and kicked out the back of his leg. It was a move I’d watched Calla perfect over hundreds and hundreds of hours while I practiced the waltz and the dainty way to sip tea. Bitterness roiled in me that I’d once been so thoroughly declawed.Not anymore. Sweet Moon, it felt good when my fist collided with the side of Evres’s head. Even the pain of my knuckles lit me up inside.
“You bitch!” Evres shouted as if shocked by the audacity I had to defend myself. He scrambled to his feet, launching to attack me again.
Maez could’ve easily stepped in, but she didn’t. This wasmykill and we both knew it.
I’d once coached myself to remain calm around Evres, to not provoke him. Calm no longer existed in me, only bright, burning fire.
No more hiding behind my title, and Calla, and Maez. I will fight my own battles.
Evres grabbed a fistful of my dress and yanked me toward him. “You’re nothing but a pretty little whore, Briar Marriel,” he hissed. “You’re no solider. You don’t even know how to use that dagger.”
His other hand fisted in my hair yanking it to the point of pain. My eyes watered as I held his hateful stare.
“Maybe I don’t,” I rasped, tightening my grip on the dagger. “Will you help me practice?”
I drove the blade up into his chest with all my might, the blade so sharp it slid into his belly like slicing through warm butter. Evres gasped and staggered backward, his eyes bugged as he held a hand to his bleeding gut. A glorious, dark satisfaction zipped through me at the shock on his face. I shot forward, not giving him another second to contemplate what I’d done before I stabbed him again.
And again.
Andagain.
Chest, shoulder, arm, cheek. I tore him apart with my blade, the blood driving me to a frenzy, spurred on by the look of utter disbelief in his eyes as if even as I ended him, he couldn’t quite believe I had the courage to plunge a knife into him. I smiled wickedly.Yes, me. The pretty, little whore. I am your executioner.
I grabbed him by his bloody cheeks, prying open his limp mouth. With my blade I delved beyond his teeth and cut out his tongue, the one he had once forced into my mouth. Blood sprayedas I threw the wet piece of flesh across the room, and it hit the wall with a sickening splat. Never would it touch me again.
Evres’s eyes rolled back, his body limp, but I didn’t stop. I screamed, releasing my fury on him, punishing him for everything I was put through, for everything he wanted to do to me, for every way I was made to feel lesser than, weak, meek, pathetic.
It wasn’t until Maez’s powerful arms hauled me off him that I dropped the blade. I tried to struggle against her, but she whirled me and pinned me to the wall, her mouth instantly finding mine. Her burning kiss was so all-encompassing that everything else flew to the back of my mind. She kissed me like my blood-splattered lips alone sustained her. She consumed me, her body pushing into mine, her mouth working over me until all my rage had simmered into lust.
When she pulled away, her eyes were filled with pride as she said, “I knew you were hiding under there, my vicious Briar. My mate.”
Heat bloomed in my belly at her claiming words.
She clicked her fingers and Evres and all the blood coating the floor disappeared, though I remained slick with gore.
“What have you done with him?”
She grinned. “Sent him back to Nero with a little note from us.” She winked. “Nero is losing heirs faster than he can name them.”
Maez turned toward the door.
“What now?” I asked and she paused, her hand hovering above the handle.
“Now you bathe and then you sleep,” she said but neither did she move.
“And if I don’t want to sleep?”
“Oh, I like this new you,” she crooned, stalking back toward me. “Or should I say, the real you?” She studied me. “I could make you feel so, so good, Princess,” she promised, but then her eyes darkened. “But this isn’t what you want.”
“What I want is for people to stop telling me what I want,” I snapped, finding my voice again. Each time I did it, it became easier. I hadn’t come this far for her to push me away again. I wouldn’t let her.
I grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her lips to mine. She moved instantly, her mouth crashing into me as she hoisted me up, grabbing my ass as I wrapped my legs around her lean waist.
She tasted of copper and rust, Evres’s hot blood still dripping from my hair and clothes as I clung to her. Maez carried me backward, dropping me onto the mattress, uncaring as we soaked the sheets crimson. Swiftly she stripped me until I was bare before her.
“I told you before, mate. You look good in nothing but the blood of your enemies.” My chest heaved as her hungry eyes took me in. “Gods, I missed this body.” She studied every inch of me as she unbuttoned her shirt, letting it fall open.
