At least she knew Dez couldn’t go without her. If he did, he’d be stuck at that barrier he needed her magic to destroy. But he needed to find a way around Senka’s trickery, and fast.
“You can’t do that,” he said, his voice deadly calm. A frigid darkness glazed over his features. “She made her choice. You can’t rip it away.”
“Mind your tongue, boy. The last time you spoke out of turn, it didn’t end well for you, or do you not recall?” the demon taunted. Madness churned in her milky eyes. “I know the damage that crown has done. I’ve seen it through your mind’s eye.”
“I didn’t quite hear that. I was too busy planning all the ways to wring your neck, you repugnant, festering scum,” Dez snarled. Blood streamed from his temples. “Emmery is coming with me, and we’re entering the Hollow. We’re done. So move.Aside.” He hissed between his teeth just before the thorns tore through his skin, mangled his shirt, and gore spurted.
The sing-song quality of Senka’s voice shifted to screeching violins. “No.”
As he advanced on her, he stared down at Senka like an ant under his boot. “Do you think I’m scared of you? You think you can intimidate me?” He licked his lips and his razor-edged smile was that of a predator. “That little game you crafted was only a tasting of all my horrors. I’ve bled and endured and suffered. If you think you can break me, you’re afool.”
“I have already broken you.” Senka’s gaze slid to Emmery and she grinned triumphantly.
He bared his teeth at the demon. “If you look at heronemore time, I’ll gouge your eyes out and shove them down your throat.”
“You hold no power over me.” Senka barked a wicked laugh. “I can see your fear. Taste it in the air you breathe. It’s mouthwatering. A delicacy. I have seen the terrors in your dreams, I know what you have lost and how you hide. You will die alone, strangled by those vines wrapped around your heart.” The demon pouted mockingly. “Such a poor, sad, helpless king.”
Without tearing her eyes from Destonne, Senka nodded at the guard that restrained Emmery. The soldier’s blade bit into her throat, enough to nick her flesh and splatter her collar in blood. A tiny feeble sound slipped from her, enough to enrage Dez. While he didn’t look at her, his hardened posture said enough.
“If you harm her, Iwillkill you,” he snarled. “I’ll bring this entire place to the ground until nothing remains but the dust of your bones.”
Senka giggled, delighted by his threat. “I would like to see you try without a lick of magic.”
As if the thorns had taken hold and squeezed all the air from his lungs, he choked, “I’mnotleaving without her.” His fists clenched at his sides. Blood trickled down his fingers and dripped onto the ground. “She is coming with me and we’re going to the Hollow.”
“That is not an option!”
“Youcannothave her,” he spat. His tone grew more feral by the second, as if that beast lingering beneath his careful control now threatened to escape its cage.
Senka stretched up onto her toes, her face so close their noses nearly brushed. “Watch me take her from you,” she whispered. “I have the perfect use for her, don’t you worry. She will provide unending entertainment.”
“Youcan’thave her. She doesn’tbelong to you!” Destonne roared, his eyes flaring wide. The tendons strained in his neck as wildness saturated his gaze. Something primal and guttural and raw.
With a tilt of her head, Senka taunted, “And why is that?”
“She's mine!”
Those two words sucked all the oxygen from the chamber. Emmery’s lips parted as her eyes locked on the bunched muscles in his back. His mangled shirt hung off him and blood covered every exposed inch of skin. She couldn’t process his words orthink past the dagger at her throat as the threat of death loomed closer. Moisture gathered in her eyes, and as she squeezed them shut, a few tears fell.
Dez’s gaze flicked to her and a sweep of vulnerability claimed his features. As if he hadn’t realized what he said until it spilled from his lips. And now that he’d said it, he couldn’t take it back. Couldn’t inhale those words back in from where they lingered in the room.
Senka hooked her claws into Destonne’s cheek and wrenched his attention back to her, recreating the wound Emmery had previously healed.
With a frigid mask of calm, he accepted the pain, took it, held it inside himself, and no doubt turned it into undiluted rage.
“You are a fool to think that,” the demon sang. “She will never be yours.”
Senka nodded to the guard again. With a flick of their wrist, the blade at Emmery’s neck sliced up her cheek. The sharp pain took her by surprise as warm blood welled, dripped from her chin, and soaked her tunic.
Destonne’s chest fell impossibly still.
“I will carve her up until she is an unrecognizable mess of flesh, and you will never see that pretty face again. Don’t test me. The seconds are ticking down, boy.Tick-tock. Tick-tock.” Her head swiveled with her sick song. “The longer you wait, the more she will bleed.”
His voice was cold steel, as Dez said, “I warned you not to hurt her.”
They hadn’t seen Emmery slip him the knife she’d hoarded since the second game. Dez flicked his wrist. The knife descended from his sleeve.
And he struck.