Page 159 of Hidden Kingdoms
Grabbing hold of his jaw, I dug my fingers into the disgusting sweaty skin, holding back a grimace as I calmly explained. “No,I’mgoing to kill you, Egbert.”
I shoved him away, straightening and wiping my hands on my trousers, before picking a blade from the selection laid out for me.
A symphony of screams reverberated through the room before they landed on me. Each shrill sound soaking into me like little drops of pure satisfaction as I slowly dragged the knifedown his arm. Watching his skin split open under its sleek movements.
For a moment, the flesh beneath my blade glowed. The edges blackened as it burned, and magik rushed to flood me, flowing through the skin that no longer held the physical evidence of the pain it had been subjected to.
Stepping back and blinking the image away until it was nothing but a freshly sliced wound on an alarmingly pale body, I pressed a finger over one of my own blades strapped to my side, letting the sharp pain ground me as I breathed deeply, inhaling the tang of blood in the air.
I was here.
Not there.
As I rubbed my own warm blood between my fingers, the door behind me clicked open, and light footsteps padded my way. I didn’t miss the fraction of hope that lit Egg’s pain-addled eyes as he watched our visitor while shuddering from the ministrations of my blade.
Little did he know I was the kinder of the two of us.
Blair reached my side, eyes scanning Egbert with disinterest before they flicked down to my finger now creating its own—much smaller—scarlet pool on the floor.
“Come to join in?” I asked, looking down at her as Egbert whimpered.
“No. Has he said anything useful?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, knowing she would be more than happy to speed this along and get me the answers he was clutching to, but I preferred the hands-on approach in the beginning. And I was just getting started.
“Nothing yet, but we have time.”
“I doubt he has anything truly of use for us.”
“I don’t know that for certain. And this,” I gestured towards Eggy boy’s face. “Is just to warm him up.”
“Is he not the same one who was found in an alleyway with a fistful of horsehair?”
I couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped—nor did Egbert’s flinch go unnoticed. “The very same. Bet you didn’t know you were famous, ay Egg?”
“He’s the one who’s going to provide you with answers.” Blair raised her brow at me in an uncharacteristic gesture that had my grin widening.
“So, what do you suggest then? We let him go?” I scoffed.
“What… me?” he stammered, the eye not swollen shut flicking between us in confusion. The smidge of hope lighting it one I didn’t appreciate.
My annoyance ratcheted up a degree as I stared at him incredulously. “No, obviously not you.” I waved at his battered face before turning to Blair once more.
“But—”
“Quiet now,” I said, picking up a knife no wider than my little finger and plunging it into the wet, slimy tongue that my magik wrenched from his mouth. His answering scream was a little garbled, but at least he wouldn’t be interrupting again any time soon. With a sigh, I realised I had used the blade I had planned of gifting to Goldie, and there was no fucking way I’d be giving it to her now.
I turned back to Blair with a plan to get a new one made, maybe with a nice golden hilt.
“We need the name of whoever supplied him with Flaming Sun, because it's more than likely they also supplied the asshole who broke into the palace. I seriously doubt there are many dealers who have the connections to get hold of it, I just need a name.”
The hilt may have been a little heavy—which I realised too late—as a high-pitch squeal sounded from behind me. I turned in time to see its weight tip to one side, slicing open half histongue before it clanged onto the floor. Blood splashed down his hairy chest, chin coated in red as his tongue flapped around like a fish that had flung itself onto the shore.
“Really,” I muttered as I stepped forward, squinting at the fleshy pink appendage. Egg’s eyes rolled back, head tipping and he gurgled as blood filled his mouth.
That wouldn’t do. I yanked his head forward by his hair so he wouldn’t drown in his own blood—not yet at least. I’d have to reattach his tongue; he’d need it when it was time to spill his guts of his nasty little secrets.
Energy floated towards the flapping flesh, and I allowed it to piece itself back together.
