“I don’t want to watch this,” I said, a note of vehemence in my tone. You are all sick!
“You think you have a choice?” Necros’s lips curled into a menacing smile, and the two guards pushed me back, closer to Gareth. The acrid air of death was suffocating this close, blood mixing with urine and feces. Fuck, his bodily functions were no longer in his control.
Necros flicked his fingers, and Gareth’s toes started to separate from his body. His fingers were next. My husband was taking him apart piece by piece. His magic destroying the demon until there was nothing left.
I can’t...
Gareth’s hands severed at the wrist, sending me running. I formed a fist and sent it flying into the face of the guard holding me and sprinted from the room.
My heels clacked against the marble floor as I forced myself back to the only place I felt safe in this whole palace.
My quarters.
Tears streamed down my face as I went, my resolve slipping into a puddle at my feet.
I couldn’t do this anymore.
I didn’t want to feel.
I just wanted to drift through everything happening to me in a bubble of no emotion.
When I reached my bedroom, I found two guards already pulling Zaya from my bed. How they beat me back, I didn’t know. But I flung myself toward her, screaming.
No!
Adrik’s soul wrapped around my own, halting me midstep.
How?
Why?
“Let me go!” I screamed, and the guards looked at me as if I’d gone mad.
You need to calm down, Valora. We can still do this. Necros was just putting on a show; that’s all. And we both know Gareth deserved what happened to him. This is all part of your husband’s penchant for games.
“Release me!” I demanded again, and the guards stepped back from me with their brows furrowed.
Then they dropped Zaya to fall to their knees.
A dark shadow loomed behind me, blocking the doorway.
I knew who it was even though I still couldn’t move.
My husband.
He stepped around me, his eyes still fully black, and his fury exuded from every pore in his body.
“Why is she still here?” he demanded, looking at Zaya. “I thought she was taken care of with her parents?”
My blood ran cold. Her parents?
“Sorry, My Lord. I’ll follow up to find out why it wasn’t done.” The guard who spoke blurred in my vision, my mind failing to process what was happening.
“Good. Now leave us. And take that thing with you,” he ordered.
That thing was my best friend.
The only one in this palace I could trust.