Page 139 of Legendary

“Dad, I don’t understand.”

He nodded to no one but himself and patted the spot beside him. I sat down, placing my hands on my knees. “I told you I would tell you everything.”

“You did.”

He let out a shaky breath; I’d never seen Maurice Cassial this nervous in my entire life. “This is the only promise to her I’ve ever broken, but I think it’s time this story was told.” He shifted and turned his body slightly, so he was looking at me. A tear slid down his cheek, and he placed one of his hands over mine. My heart was beating rapidly in my chest, hardly prepared for all the things I should have known years ago. “Nicholas, I think it’s time we talked about your mother.”

ELISE

She screamed over and over again—music to my ears. It was my favorite song, and I wished that it would never have to end. This kind of music was my favorite, but the fact that this was coming from a blonde bitch who thought she could get away with her shit was even better. Isabel was bleeding from her mouth, nose, and from where each of her fingers were supposed to be before they’d been removed. She had been spewing hateful words the entire hour and half we’d been here, and I was nauseated by it. When Natalia asked for my assistance, I happily obliged. The High Priestess didn’t let her hurtful words dent her regality; perhaps her pain was on the inside. I wouldn’t know much about that since feelings were the most overrated thing in the fucking realms.

I’d honed Dani’s torture skills, so why not a High Priestess? She was doing well on her own as I leaned back against the wall, watching as Isabel writhed on the ground, pain shooting through her body as Natalia sent her own dash of poison into her system. Her veins protrudedfrom her arms, and I nearly thought they were going to pop out when she stopped. Natalia turned around, her long dress flowing around her ankles. There were specks of blood on the fabric, but she hardly noticed. I could hear Isabel’s shallow breaths from where I stood, and she gathered her strength and picked herself up only to fall again. She coughed towards the ground, blood splattering against the floor of wherever the fuck we were.

Zane had brought me here and the circumstances were too good to try and ask questions. “You are quite a natural at this,” I complimented. “I would say cut her up a bit more, but hey, this is your show.”

Natalia raised an arched eyebrow at me. “You can take over if you’d like. I don’t know if I can stomach this any longer.”

“She fucked you over, therefore, she deserves an immense amount of pain. I don’t make the rules, nor do I follow them, but you get the point.” I glanced over at Zane, who was still fucking here. If he wasn’t her bodyguard, I would think he was a stalker, with the way he nearly hovered over her in the weirdest fucking way possible.

Natalia laughed, nodding her head. “Well put, but it’s been quite a while. I don’t know how much more of this to throw at her.”

I gave her an emotionless expression. “You do it until she’s dead.”

“I would think living with the pain of what she did and all the physical scars I’ve given her would be enough.” Natalia looked over her shoulder as Isabel wiped blood from her nose.

I snorted. “Right. She isn’t remorseful, so let's get that through your big brain. She would snap your neck if you let her get close.”

Natalia hummed. “She deserves the worst kind of treatment, but she also didn’t have the best role models to help her choose a different path. Markus, Lilith, they both set the plans for her.”

I barked out a laugh. “Fucking hell, please don’t tell me you plan to let her go to some Enchanter rehabilitation classes or something. Different path, my ass. It’s death or nothing. She’s an attention seeking little twat who had some bad parenting, but that doesn’t mean anything. Dani was subjected to Lilith’s version of love, and so was I—we both turned out just fine.”

I heard Zane scoff but ignored it. The fact that he was showing any sort of personality was a little intriguing. I wanted Natalia to get on with this shit so I could get back to Beetee and make sure she was still okay. This whole caring for another person nonsense was exhausting, and I would rather go back to the days of me, myself and I.

“I guess you are right. We don’t have to end up on the paths of our caregivers.” I let a fleeting memory pass my mind but didn’t give it any time or effort. I wouldn’t be going down that road anytime soon. No fuckingthank you.

I groaned. “Ugh, fine. Give her one more good throttle and then I’ll end this for you.”

Natalia gave me a dutiful nod and sauntered over to Isabel, who swiped at her with her right hand, one that only had two fingers left on it. It was comical to watch. Natalia sent an electric blue cord of magic around Isabel’s neck, yanking it down and sending her flying to her knees.

“All this torture will do nothing for your pathetic little conscience. We both know you can’t muster up the strength to just kill me,” Isabel taunted, blood pouring from her mouth. Natalia brought one of Isabel’s arms up and started to bend it backwards at an unnatural angle, until a few of her bones started protruding. Natalia held onto the rope of magic, yanking Isabel’s head back so she could watch.

Natalia let go of her arm, but not before grabbing one of the bones and ripping it out. Isabel screamed so loudly; I swore my ears could have been bleeding. “You have a very bad habit of thinking little of me.” Natalia plunged the bone into Isabel’s side, making sure it was nice and snug into her skin. The High Priestess swayed a little as she hustled over to me. “You’ll handle it?”

I rolled my eyes but nodded. Natalia gave me an appreciative smile and walked past me, taking my place against the wall. Zane eyed both of us but remained at his post. I licked my lips as I made my way over to Isabel, her weak body shaking from all that she’d endured. She caught sight of me and spit in my direction, the blood-soaked liquid landing right near my shoe. “Lilith will come for you, and so will Dimitri since your little monster bitch ruined his plans. Your useless angels will watch this entire place rot!”

I bent my knees, squatting so I could be in front of her. “It’s such a shame Lilith would never come for you. You want to know why, you traitorous shit?”

She stared back at me with her blue eyes, waiting. “It’s because she never cared about you. If Dani was such a pawn, so were you. Now you can go and tell your dead mom about all the shitty things you’ve done. Oh wait, probably not since you’ll be going straight to Hell, so I guess in that case, say hi to Markus for us.” I uncurled my tail, floating it toward her face so I could shove it down her throat, choking her with the venom. It would come out of her eyes and ears, and I would silently wish I could capture the moment forever.

I stopped mid-kill when she said words I didn’t think would come from her mouth. “He misses you.” I reared back and opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I looked over my shoulder to where Natalia watched,her honey-colored eyes were focused on us, but I knew she couldn’t hear anything. I was a bit stunned, but I shook my head. I knew she wasn’t talking about Markus or Dimitri, and I knew she wasn’t just spewing nonsense to try to get under my skin. The way she looked at me told me she knew so much more than I anticipated.

I didn’t care. It didn’t fucking matter.

“The feeling isn’t mutual.” Instead of giving her a fast death full of venom, I’d make this slow and bleed her out. I kicked my foot up, knocking her right in the center of her face. She was thrown backwards and I scrambled on top of her, grazing my hand over the bone sticking out of her side. I wrapped my hand around it and yanked it out. I crawled up her body and placed the bone in her mouth. I loved the screams, but I needed to concentrate. “Watch and learn, your highness!” I shouted at Natalia, not looking at her. I tilted my head down at Isabel whose teeth were clamped around her own bone. “Now, where should we start?”