Page 119 of The Blade in the Ashes
“No.” Shaking my head from side to side, I refused to accept this.
It was far easier to rage against myself than to find the peace that she had somehow reached. My useless magic had abandoned me once more. It had come to the surface so briefly when I pushed away Caldrius only to flee from my grasp once more when I needed it.
And I loathed it for doing that.
I loathed myself for not being able to find it because I was so tired of being so fucking powerless.
“Just let her go! I’m the one he wants! Let her go!” The words slurred together, muddied by my tears.
George’s skin tore under my nails, blood seeping over my fingers, as I desperately tried to break free of his grasp. He hissed at me, but didn’t release me.
In the end, none of my screams or pleas worked.
None of it stopped that man from wrapping his meaty fingers around Nessira’s chin and pulling.
I didn’t even hear the moment her neck snapped. My own unending bloodcurdling screams drowned out the sound.
And that agony consumed me.
Two days. In just two days' time I had lost two of the only people I could trust. Two friends. Dimitri and Nessira had both died right before my eyes and I'd been helpless to stop either of those atrocities.
So, I screamed. That was all I could do.
“Oh, would you shut up!”
The ground flew towards me, far too fast for me to catch myself, as George threw me down. Before I knew it, his boot was soaring through the air, slamming into my gut. The impact was shocking, locking my body so tightly that I could neither breathe in nor release the air that was trapped inside me.
And then it happened again.
Fingers folded themselves into my hair, tearing at my scalp as they ripped me up.
It was all too much. The sun was so bright it stung my eyes. The movement was so fast it left me nauseous. The physical pain was so consuming that I couldn’t move.
The emotional agony was so sharp that I couldn’t think.
Another friend. I’d lostanotherfriend.
And it was my fault all over again.
Nessira. Dimitri. Lorelai.
Maybe I truly was nothing more than the daughter of Death, cursed to drag anyone who cared for me into the Underworld.
“You’re going to behave now, aren’t you?” George demanded, his face filling my blurred vision.
He was an ugly man. His features were proportional enough—a round chin, rosy cheeks, and tangled brown hair—but his soul shone through his eyes. I could see the evilness that lingered in the depths inside him, and I knew that if I was, indeed, a curse on this land, then I wanted him to be another person who would suffer me.
I spat in his face.
I had enough sense to close my eyes before his fist connected with my cheek, but my ears still rang out as the world rocked underneath me. Tears fell instantly, their salty flow merging with the blood that dripped from my lip.
Once wasn’t enough, though. Once was never enough for men like these.
Once, I had thought that the Dragon was the worst villain in this world, but I’d been wrong.
Him. Hyrax. George.
They were all the same deep down. They were all insecure creatures that needed to cause another soul pain to feel important about themselves.
