Eternity of Darkness (Divisa Huntress Book 3) Page 22

  “I don’t eat people,” he said, breaking the silence that had stretched between us. I’d gotten stuck in my head, thinking horrible thoughts about the Ngah’s diet.

  I loosed a breath. “Good to know.”

  “But that doesn’t mean I don’t kill them,” he added in a not-so-nice tone.

  Who was I to judge? I did things that some might frown upon. Hell, most humans were afraid of me because of what I was. “I kill demons,” I replied as if we were having a who-is-badder contest. I had a feeling he would win.

  Although I couldn’t see where his mouth was, I could tell he was smiling. “I guess we have something in common. And yet here we both are. Trapped by the very things we hunt.”

  “Are you a hunter in your world?” I asked, pushing aside the leftover tray of food. I had eaten a good portion of it.

  The Ngah never seemed to blink, his bright green eyes constantly glowing. “More like an assassin.”

  A shred of respect appeared inside me. “I know I probably shouldn’t, but I like you.” I sounded weaker than I would have liked, but already I felt a bit stronger.

  He made a noise through his nose, like a snort. “If you do manage to get me out of here, you might change your mind.”

  Crossing my legs, I remained seated on the floor. “Will you make one promise? I only have a single condition.”

  “And what might that be, demon huntress?”

  “You don’t kill anyone I love.”

  He chuckled, a not so comforting sound, and for a moment, I second-guessed if freeing him was a good idea.

  Before the Ngah had a chance to respond, the dungeon door opened. My stomach clenched. God, had it really already been twenty-four hours? I had been passed out for the majority of it, and the other hours I’d been so sick and lost in my head. Time had been irrelevant. But now…

  The bitch was back, and she would be looking to see if I had made a decision. I fisted the vial in my hand with every intention of tossing the contents in her face. She would not sway me with her bribes and intimidations.

  My demon growled at the threat approaching. Her lofty scent of midnight and lilac hit my senses before my eyes fell upon her. Much like the day before, she wore an elaborate gown, this one such a deep purple that, in the dim lighting of the dungeon, it appeared almost black.

  Disgust churned in me when I realized she hadn’t come alone. Boots clattered down the steps as Soren drew up beside his mother, just a few inches taller than her. The horns on either side of Kali’s head peeked out from silky strands of hair, curling artfully around the queen’s head, the Crown of Darkness nestled between them.

  My eyes landed on Ashor’s brother, and I was unable to look away. Rage simmered in my blood with each passing second as flashes of memories that were difficult to distinguish between real or imagined filled me. My mind was muddled with them, all horrible and violent, most so awful that I had to fight my eyes from clenching shut as if to vanquish them from my sight.

  I hadn’t even realized that I’d moved, that I’d surged to my feet and lunged against the cell bars until I was glaring up at the bastard. “I’ll kill you,” I hissed, my demon roaring inside.

  He hadn’t just tortured me. He had tormented my demon as well, and she wanted revenge, a chance to make him suffer and find pleasure while doing so. Her thirst for violence was strong, so compelling that she burst from me, freeing herself from the leash I kept tight around her.

  “Hello, little demon. I’ve missed you,” Soren greeted, a leering grin on his lips.

  My demon thrashed against the cell, hitting her hand against the bars, kicking them with the heel of her foot as high as the chains would allow. They rattled with my movements, never giving way. It was clear my demon had been unleashed before, and this wasn’t the first time she and Soren had come face-to-face.

  My tongue grazed the sharp and elongated canines that popped out of my gums. “Open this door and face me like the coward you are. Without chains. Without drugging me with your darkness.”

  Soren prowled closer to my cell, his lips curling into a sadistic grin. “You would just love to sink your claws into me.” It was said with a sexual intent that made me want to hurl everything I’d just eaten.

  The queen sat by, enjoying the twisted banter. She encouraged it with her slashing smirk. “Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock,” she clucked like a clock. “Time’s up, dear. I see you still haven’t taken the potion I gave you. Does that mean you have made a decision?”

  My glaring eyes whirled to her, and I snarled, “You know your son is going to come for me.”

  “That is the point,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

  Fuck.

  He would storm the fortress, go up against her entire army for me. She wanted him on her turf, and I just gave the bitch exactly what she wanted.

  Go me.

  “Lucky for you, I’ve come up with another use for you. The vial is unimportant,” the queen said coldly.

  My fingers tightened around the tiny bottle in question. “I have no intention of aiding your plight, regardless of what it is.”

  She ran the tip of her nail along my cell bars as she strolled a few steps to the edge of my cage. “Soren has taken a particular interest in you. As I said before, this baffles me, but then it got me thinking. Imagine his DNA crossed with yours. A half-human, half-demon. The possibility intrigues me.”

  A new set of horrors stirred within me. “My DNA is not a science experiment. Besides, couldn’t you use another Divisa for your curiosity?” Guilt immediately stabbed me as I thought of someone like me suffering Soren’s cruelty.

  “That’s the thing. I’m not interested in your halfling traits but rather the connection you have with my son. It's an ancient power, one not commonly found anymore. Rare indeed.”

  I stilled, leveling her with a steely look. “How does my mating bond have anything to do with my genes?”

  “It attaches itself to your genetic code, in a sense altering it, giving you extra abilities,” the queen explained. There was no denying the excitement that shone in her radiant crimson eyes.

  I went through a mental rundown of the numerous ways Kali could combine my DNA with Soren’s, but only one method stood out. My gaze darted from the cell across from mine to Soren. The satanic demon stared down at the opening of my shirt, torn by his hand, revealing too much skin. I knew desire when I saw it, and even as gross as I looked now, the asshole wanted me. I swallowed. “What you’re suggesting is… wrong. I won’t let Soren anywhere near me.” My refusal was punctuated by the disgust and horror written on my face.

  Her soft chuckle pierced through the roaring that started in my ears. “You should have taken the vial when you had the chance. It’s been too long since Hell had a baby.”

  My stomach churned. I was going to be sick. “He isn’t even human!” I hurled at the queen. Soren was nothing but pure evil, darker than even a demon.

  She waved her hand in the air dismissively. “That matters little to me.”

  I clenched my jaw, my canines digging into my lower gums, drawing blood. But I didn’t give a shit. “What do you want a baby for?” I spat.

  A slash of a smile. “I yearn to be a grandmother.”

  “Bullshit,” I seethed. “You don’t have a maternal bone in your body.”

  “Leave her,” the Ngah commanded in a low, deep growl that almost wasn’t audible, speaking for the first time. I could tell by the expression on the queen’s face that he didn’t normally get involved with her decisions or the methods on how she conducted them.

  The queen’s spine went rigid, and her left eye twitched. Her expression clearly showed her surprised annoyance. “Since when do you concern yourself with others? Do what you do best. Nothing,” she snarled.

  “You’re interrupting my quiet,” he replied, still in the shadows, not even his eyes visible.

  A muscle ticked along the queen’s jaw. “How long have you lived in my cell?”

  The Ngah’s green eyes c
hurned. “You tell me.”

  She snorted. “Don’t tell me this girl has gotten to you.”

  During the exchange between his parents, Soren bore an expression rarely seen on his face. Uncomfortable. Apprehensive. And fearful. He worked hard to conceal them all, and I couldn’t help but think this would work in my favor.

  I turned my attention back to the queen. “If it is really a baby you want, then why not let Ashor and me have a child?” Not that I would ever let my son or daughter anywhere near their grandmother. Not this one. Their maternal grandma might be questionable at times, but at least Kira wouldn’t corrupt them or use them as a weapon. God only fucking knew what plans Kali had in store.

  The queen gave me a slight smile. “My son needs a punishment he can’t forget. What better way than having to stare at the face of a child who should have been his?”

  This whore. Despite having nowhere to go, I thrust against the cell, wildly reaching through the bars toward the queen. My demon had become feral. “I will kill myself before I bear that thing’s child.” For him to get me pregnant, Soren would have to rape me, a task he looked forward to. To be honest, I was surprised he hadn’t already, and truthfully, perhaps he had. Those unconscious bouts in his presence would forever haunt me.

  I didn’t want to entertain such thoughts. Never would I have that demon’s baby. Nothing she could say or do would ever get me to agree to something so hideous.

  And would it stop with just one child? She could demand more from me. To be subjected to Soren raping me again and again…

  It wouldn't just kill me but my mate as well.

  She laughed. “There are ways. I don’t need your permission or cooperation.”

  Part of me wanted to see if this was a bluff or ploy, a way for her to get me compliant. But if it wasn’t… “Ashor will kill you.”

  The curve of her lips grew. “He can try, but I am hoping he comes to his senses.”

  My fingers dug into the glass vial, suddenly remembering it was still in my hand. An escape perhaps? But I didn’t want to run or take the easy way out. Not yet. There was always more than one way to kill a demon. “You’ve already lured him here. Isn’t that enough?”

  Soren, much to my surprise, came close to my cell, running a finger over my cheek. “It’s never enough.”

  My hand dashed through the bars, grabbing a fistful of hair from the back of his head. Idiot. I slammed it into the cell, and as he groaned in pain, a few drops of blood dripped from his parted lips. I shoved the vial into his mouth, bringing the heel of my palm up under his chin.

  The clink of glass breaking in his mouth shot through the suddenly silent prison. “Swallow,” I ordered, smiling as he jerked out of my hold, stumbling into the cell across from mine.

  Spitting out shards of glass onto the floor, he glared at me and hissed, “Bitch.” Swirling liquid oozed over his tongue and dripped to the back of his throat. It was impossible to tell how much of it was also his blood, because the bastard bled black.

  My grin widened. It was a small, tiny, minuscule victory, but fuck if it hadn’t felt good hurting him. My demon craved more. She wanted to drain him of every ounce of his demonic, fucked-up blood.

  The queen cursed. “How very wasteful,” she berated, kicking a fragment of glass with the toe of her heels. “You’ve served your purpose. Now get out of here,” she ordered her son, a look of pure disappointment on her face.

  If Soren wasn’t such a cruel, perverse prick, I might have felt a grain of sympathy for the boy who wanted his mother’s approval. Perhaps the brothers of darkness did have something in common, regardless of how messed up their family was.

  Soren glowered with torture in his soulless eyes, then spat the last remnants of glass and blood from his mouth, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. “You’ll pay for that, bitch—”

  A pair of ghostly hands came out of the darkness behind Soren, clamping down onto his shoulders. Nails grew out from the tips of the Ngah’s fingertips into Soren’s flesh and muscle, rendering the demon motionless. “Hello, son.”

  17

  Soren’s eyes widened, not so much in pain or surprise but true fear. The color in his face vanished, leaving him paler than I’d ever seen.

  “Release him,” the queen shrieked, losing her cool.

  My gaze bounced between Soren, the Ngah, and the queen. Dark flames of fire flickered in the centers of her eyes, and the air thickened with power that made the room an icebox. I could see my breath in front of me as I waited, uncertain what would happen next.

  The green of the Ngah’s eyes flared, his lips curling. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to get my hands on you?” he whispered from behind Soren.

  Soren opened his mouth to say something to the being who fathered him, but the words never made it out.

  Crack.

  It was a sick sound, one I hadn’t been prepared for but knew well. Bones snapping. I still couldn’t comprehend what the fuck just happened. But as Soren’s head lobbed to the side, his eyes blankly staring through me, the reality of what the Ngah had done slammed into me.

  “Holy shit,” I mumbled under my breath. This was a twist of events I didn’t see coming.

  What. The. Actual. Fuck?

  Did he just break his son’s neck?

  Normally that wouldn’t be enough to kill a demon, but I lacked confidence in Soren’s ability to come back. The gleam in the Ngah’s gaze sent a bone-chilling tingle down my spine.

  Soren’s body fell limply to the dirty floor, and the queen’s banshee scream tore through the dungeon, echoing off the stones in a way that amplified her cries of outrage, anger, and maybe a touch of sadness. I wasn’t completely sure the queen could feel true heartbreak.

  I covered my ears and crouched down, sinking against the corner of my cell. I didn’t know how to feel. Joy. Horror. Shock. Relief.

  “What did you do?” Kali shrilled, her hands on either side of her head as she stared at her once lover. Or victim. I was unsure which category the Ngah fit into.

  “What I should have done the second you conceived that abomination.” No remorse laced his voice.

  “He was not an abomination!” she screamed, fisting her hands at her sides. The lit torches that ran down the hallway all extinguished one by one as if she had blown them out like the candles on a birthday cake.

  But this was not a joyous occasion for the Queen of Darkness.

  Was I about to witness a parental argument between the two most ill-fit parents in the universe? Not sure I wanted to be within close vicinity when shit popped off, which, judging by the inflation of magic trembling in the air, was definitely going to happen. I wanted to be as far from the blowout as possible.

  The Ngah’s hands fell to his sides. “Don’t pretend as if you cared for him. He was nothing but a tool in your quest for power. That is your one and only true love.”

  I had to agree with him. Demons weren’t really capable of love, but her pursuit for power was the closest thing.

  The queen recoiled as if the Ngah had physically slapped her. She was putting on one hell of a performance. I wasn’t entirely confident the emotions she displayed were real. More like misplaced. It wasn’t Soren she mourned but what she had planned for him.

  “I will end you if it is the last thing I do,” she sneered.

  “If you could have killed me, you would have done so already,” he replied. And with those parting words, the Ngah slipped back into the shadows, the satisfied glow of his eyes extinguishing.

  I didn’t know what to say or do, so, figuring my best course of action was to remain quiet, I curled into the corner. Perhaps the queen would forget about me in her fit of fury and devastation. The two emotions seemed to battle each other, a tug-of-war, the two volleying back and forth.

  She might be edging toward a mental breakdown. And that couldn’t be good for any of us. Would this send her over the edge?

  The dungeon couldn’t get any darker, and yet it did. The air seemed to van
ish with the growing surge of power, making it difficult to breathe. Tension so thick I felt suffocated by it clung around me, squeezing and squeezing.

  Kali glanced down to where her son had fallen; there were only ashes scattered over the stone floors. She sank to the ground, her silky dress soiled by Soren’s remains as she spread her fingers into the soot as if she could gather him up. She kept her back to the Ngah, refusing to look at him another moment. I couldn’t tell if she was about to break down or burst into flames.

  She did neither but instead threw her hands up into the air over her head, each with a fistful of Soren’s remains. Opening her fingers, she let the dust of her son rain down over her.

  What the fuck?

  A wail left her lips as a gust of wind came barreling down the long corridor, sweeping up Soren’s ashes and carrying him away. To where? I didn’t know.

  The queen might not have said a single word as she left the dungeon, but I still got the message. We were going to pay. The entire world.

  I stayed huddled in my corner, my demon receding within me while I wrapped my head around what happened. Was Soren actually dead? It hadn’t played out as I envisioned in my head countless times, but that was only because he was supposed to have died by my hand.

  “I can’t figure out if you screwed us or did us a favor,” I said, interrupting the constant tapping that came from the Ngah’s cage, like nails rapping on the floor in boredom.

  Without missing a beat, he replied, “I didn’t do it for you. It was a long time coming.”

  I could see where Soren got some of his lack of empathy from. “I’ll say.” It didn’t seem real. Soren was dead. And the queen’s vengeance would be swift and merciless. I was surprised she hadn’t struck me dead on the spot. “Did you really hate him that much?” I asked. My contempt for Soren had been clear for anyone to see, but the Ngah… I knew his hatred for the queen ran deep, decades of being captive building up, and that he believed demons shouldn’t procreate period. Not with any species.

  The tapping finally halted, but he stayed in the dark where he had slunk off to when the queen had gathered her son’s ashes. “I felt nothing for him,” he stated flatly, as if he was talking about what kind of bread he liked. “He was never a son to me.”