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The realization slammed into me, and I doubled over, puking on the concrete. Remy cursed and jumped aside.
Holy shit. I really killed him. I beat him to death with my bare hands. Griffin taunted me to throw me off my game, and I let him get to me. Only I didn’t lose the fight. He did. And his life.
“Is he dead?” Remy called out.
“He’s still breathing,” someone answered. “He needs a hospital. Like now.”
I spat and wiped my hand over my mouth, a tiny ember of hope suddenly burning. He was still alive. Maybe there was a chance he’d survive…
The warehouse crumbled away,returning to the cell in the Underworld as Karn watched me with those terrifying eyes, full of something sinister and dreadful.
“Well, well…” He scratched his chin with the tip of his talon. “You were a killer even before becoming a raven and long before Fane’s bite.”
They’d rushed Griffin to the hospital and dropped him off on the curb. He had a concussion, severe internal bleeding, and a mess of other injuries. I visited him in the hospital and begged him to wake up. I didn’t want to be a killer.
Three days later, he died.
And I became a killer.
“I’ve never had so much fun using the Verity stone on someone before. You haven’t given up the Infernal Sol yet, but you’ve offered so many delicious things.” The demon lord licked the tears off my cheeks with his forked tongue, and I jerked away from his revolting touch. “Let’s continue. I’m having too much fun to stop now.”
I wasn’t sure what would kill me first—the demon lord consuming my soul or having to relive the horrors of my past.
ChapterThirty-Five
My lids feltlike thousand-pound weights when I tried to open them, and barely more than a sliver of the cell appeared between the thin slits. The cold concrete pressed into my body as I curled on the ground in a ball, shaking. Sweat and the coppery hint of blood filled the air.
After hours of torture, Karn needed a break and ripped the stone off me. He lowered the chains until I dropped to the floor but kept the manacles fastened around my wrists and ankles. My eyes burned from the emotional pain my past had dredged up. I’d buried most of those memories in a cage I never wanted to unlock.
They still haunted me every night but having to face them out in the open and in front of Karn left me raw and vulnerable. No one had seen the horrors living deep inside of me—except Fane, and that wasn’t by choice. Karn, though, watched them all with a grin. I wouldn’t be surprised if he memorized the worst ones so he could replay them in his head later. He probably got off on shit like that.
The tattoo on my neck tingled, and I rested my hand over the swirling black lines. As much as the demon shifter irritated me, I wouldn’t mind seeing him right now.
Something stirred in the room, and I pulled my knees tighter to my chest. If a demon slithered in here to torment me, I wasn’t sure I had the strength to fight back, not after Karn’s torture.
A warm, callused hand touched my cheek. “Teague.”
Recognizing that voice, my head angled up, and Fane kneeled on the ground next to me. “What are you doing here?” A guard hadn’t let him in, and no chains bound his wrists. He appeared perfectly unruffled in his heather gray Henley and faded jeans. Those dark strands of hair fell across his forehead in perfect messy waves, framing his eyes. “You’re not really here. I’m hallucinating.”
“No, I’m not here, but you’re not hallucinating.” He searched the cell and beyond the bars into the hall where the dingy yellow bulb swayed from the low ceiling. “I’ve been trying to find you.”
I lifted one of my arms to wave, jingling the chains. “Well, here I am.” He had to be a delusion cooked up by my tired mind. There was no way he’d be able to project himself into the cell to find me. It was too good to be true. “Glad you could join me.”
The small muscles in his face tightened, hardening every facet so he looked like a bronze statue. “I heard you screaming.” Fane’s hand lightly ran down my leg to the knife wound.
“Karn’s a demon. He likes torture.” I rotated onto my back to stare up at him. Damn. He looked so real. “He’ll be back soon. I’m not as easy to break as he expected.”
“Of course you’re not.” Fane’s lips thinned as he studied me, my haunted gaze reflecting in his. “I’m going to get you out. Just hold on.”
I flipped him off. “I don’t need you to rescue me, Maverick. I can get out of this all by myself.”
He snorted, fighting back a wry smile. “Just don’t die on me, Teague.”
“Right.” I curled onto my side again as tremors rippled over my body. “Wouldn’t want to ruin your chances of getting the amulet.”
“That’s not what—” He shook his head and dragged his hand through his hair. “Just don’t die. I’m coming.”
Footsteps echoed, scattering my hallucination of Fane, and a guard appeared with a tray. The clank of metal resonated as he unlocked the cell and strode in, dropping the tray of food at my feet.
