Page 2 of Season Warriors & Wolves

My chest rattled with the shaky breath I drew to laugh one last time. “Oh, Melanthe,” I cooed over the echo of her steps retreating down the corridors. “I’m going to rip you apart without touching one single bit of you.”

Chapter one

White Pawn to E4

Snowlin

My cheek rested on a damp floor, and all I could see between my burning eyelids was a pair of black leather boots that had stomped on my limbs restlessly for what I’d counted to be hours. They were coated with specks of crimson, soaked with blood—my blood.

He kicked my stomach hard and turned me on my back, resting a hard sole right over my neck to cut whatever little flow of air was entering my lungs. “Not fighting anymore?” Renick snarled, pressing harder.

He’d folded his sleeves back to keep the blood from staining his shirt, revealing skin that was no longer marked by our bargain. Where the band of magic had once been, now remained only a strip of mangled and burnt scar tissue. Which part of his soul had he sold to have it removed? Did he have any worth selling?

Though lightheaded, I managed to conjure one of my charming smiles. “Neither did your daughter.”

He hit me again and again, till more blood bubbled in my mouth and the sharp taste of metal grew intense enough that I vomited. “Where is she?” he growled in my face, pinching my jaw hard enough to snap it. “I know you haven’t killed her.”

I kicked my head forward with whatever energy I had left, knocking him back. “You’re right. I haven’t.” Then I hit him over and over, until all my knuckles had broken, my skin chaffed and stained with his blood. Till I felt no need to scream. Till I’d silenced my anger again. I leaned into his ear. “My friend did. Sucked all the air out of her little lungs. I didn’t kill her, but I did watch life leave her body little by little after she told me everything I needed to know about you, Nick dearest. You should have not broken our bargain.” I trailed the back of my hand against his forehead. “How will I see you suffer now? It was going to be so good. You were going to suffer so, so…good.”

There was nothing.

No satisfaction.

Given up, I laid there beside him, feeling life seep out of me from all bleeding corners. I should be thinking of nothing. My mind should be empty.

But it was not.

Hot tears brushed my temples, my vision blurring.

It was not.

All I could see with my eyes open was her. All I could see with my eyes closed was still her.

Bleeding.

Lifeless.

Slain.

Show them hell, she had told me. But what hell would give me her back?

Demir tsked as he entered the room, his mouth curling in distaste at Renick’s twisted remains. “Remember what I told you?” he asked, squatting before me. “Everyone you kill will rot in here with you. And we’ve got to get rid of rotten flesh one way or another. The snakes will have to return.” He cocked his head to the side, studying the fresh bite marks all over me. “We don’t want that, do we?”

“He is not dead,” I croaked right about when Renick groaned and rolled to his side. He shook like a slighted beast, baring his teeth to me. “Why would I kill him when someone else can do it for me?”

The Bruma Commander scrambled to his feet and limped to me, but not fast enough.

“If he dies, who will keep feeding Verglasers mirk root to kill them for me,” I said a moment too late for him to strike me silent.

Demir spun round and pried him off me, gripping his jacket. “What is she talking about?”

Renick’s eyes had gone wide enough to pop out of their sockets. “Nothing. How can you trust a word she says! I told you all of her lies and deceit. She lies again!”

“For about years before I returned to Isjord,” I revealed, pushing myself to my corner. “To make them more powerful and please father. But they die. Quick. And no one knows because he sends them off to die in missions as a disguise.” I turned to him. “Have I missed something, Nick?” Did he really think I needed to weaken my father’s army this much as to let him hurt me more than I needed him to hurt me?

“Lying bitch!” he spat, trying to get to me again. “Olympian scum. She is lying! Always lying.”

Chuckling, I rested my head back on the wall. “Yeah, yeah.”