Page 50 of Hell Fae King
“I’m showing him the truth,” Typhos answered simply.
“And what truth is that?” she asked, her fury a whip against my senses. She was angry on Ajax’s behalf. Angry that he was hurting. Angry that she couldn’t fix it. Angry that she didn’t fully understand it or what Typhos meant to do here. “You’re hurting him.”
Typhos frowned. “No, I’m not. His past pain has nothing to do with me. If anything, I’ve helped him.”
“By what?” She flung her arms outward. “By putting him in charge of your little dungeon of horrors?”
Typhos pushed off the door frame, his crossed arms falling to his sides as he stared down at my fiery little mate. “Dungeon of horrors?” he echoed, his brow furrowing. “This sacred space has a very specific purpose, Camillia. One I was in the middle of demonstrating to Ajax. It’s a place where bad souls are punished.”
She scoffed at that. “You mean souls you tricked into accepting a deal—one designed in a manner that favored you, not them. And now you’re punishing them for reneging or failing whatever terms you laid out.”
His lips flattened into a straight line. “Not only is that summary inaccurate, but it’s inadequate as well.”
Cami stepped toward him, her gray eyes flickering with the power of an incoming thunderstorm. “I don’t care if you feel it’s accurate or not. Ajax is suffering. Fix it,” she said through her teeth.
He studied her for a long moment, then went back to leaning against the door frame, his expression bored. “Why don’t you fix it for me?” he suggested. “Use my Source. Siphon my power. And remove the cause of his suffering.”
Typhos,I said into his mind.
Let me teach, Azazel, he returned.
This isn’t teaching.It was pissing her off instead, a fact I was about to add, but he started speaking into my mind before I had the chance.
Just because this isn’t the way you would teach her doesn’t make it the wrong way. It’s simply different. And different methods should be respected.
I sighed.All right. He wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t exactly correct either.
Because Ajax was being ripped open by the display before him, the screams shattering his heart into a million pieces, all while he stood as frozen as Dakota did inside her cell.
Of course, Dakota wasn’t recognizable in this form at all.
And, truthfully, I would have had no idea who the soul inside this creature was had I not been connected to Typhos’s thoughts.
On the outside, she resembled a tattered Unseelie. Wings shredded to ribbons. Hair yanked out in some places, while dirty clumps hung from others. Eyes wild. Dried lips circled in a perpetual scream that couldn’t be heard.
Probably because she no longer had a voice.
A decade in this dungeon was enough to render most fae mindless.
Typhos was excellent at many things; torture was chief among them.
He’d crafted this “reality” in a way that forced Dakota to face all her darkest sins over and over again. To hear the pleas and cries of those who had been killed while she’d helped a monster try to seize a realm. But what couldn’t be seen were the sensations that went with the agonized shouts.
Typhos wasn’t just forcing her to witness it all, but to experience each death as well. To feel their distress. Their fear. Theirhurt.
Every cell in this dungeon was uniquely designed, and this was the personal nightmare he’d manifested for Dakota. One he’d spent ample time crafting because he’d wanted her to suffer more than most.
It was a nightmare he’d visited several times over the last ten years to perfect, something I heard in his mind now.
He’d ensured this soul paid for her sins tenfold.For Ajax, I realized.
And you,Typhos whispered back to me.He’s always meant a lot to you. Therefore, he means a lot to me.
The words were a breath in my mind while his eyes were on Cami.
She looked ready to kill Typhos. Only a minute had passed since we’d arrived. Maybe two. But she’d amassed a hell of a lot of distrust over the last sixty or so seconds. “What game is this?” she demanded. “You force me to watch Ajax suffer while you offer me some sort of deal involving your power? Say you’ll let me use it… but for a price?”
“We’re not negotiating, Camillia De la Croix.”
