Page 34 of Phantom Flower

His face darkened.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, boy. This isn’t a game. Those men in there are watching every move you make. They’re waiting for any sign that you’re not ready. If you want to take over this empire, you act like it. Or I’ll find someone else who will.”

I stayed slouched in my chair, staring at him. “They were saying the same shit for two hours. Killing the traitors fixes it. Everything else is just stupid noise.”

He pulled a folded piece of paper from his jacket and dropped it on the table in front of me.

“Names. Handle it. Clean as you can.”

Finally. Something I actually enjoyed.

I took the list without another word and left.

The kills were my favorite part of the day.

I handled them one by one in the old warehouse by the docks.

The first guy begged the second I walked in. I broke his knees first, letting the bat do the work while he screamed. Then his arms. Same treatment. I smoked between each break, thinking about Rei the whole time. About how I had climbed through his window the night before, how he had looked dripping wet in that towel, cock hard and leaking while my finger circled that tight little hole he had kept untouched.

God damn.

By the time I finished the last name on the list, both men were bleeding out on the concrete. I cleaned up and decided to swing by Bloodburn the next morning. I had missed a whole day. I wanted to see if my fairy had worn the red flower again.

Imagine my fucking surprise.

I missed one single day because my father needed me in some bullshit meeting, and the next thing I knew, Rei had gotten into a fight. He had punched someone. Gotten himself suspended. Gotten scolded by that spineless principal.

I found Brad in the parking lot after the last bell, trying to look tough with his broken nose taped and two of his idiot friends flanking him. They scattered the second they saw me.

Smart.

Brad tried to run.

I caught him by the back of his jacket and slammed him face-first into the side of his own car.

The metal dented.

“W-wait… fuck, man, what the—”

I spun him around, pinned him with one forearm across his throat, and smiled while he struggled.

“You touched something that belongs to me,” I said calmly.

Brad’s eyes went wide.

Good.

He was starting to understand.

I broke his left arm first.

He screamed.

Then I moved to the right arm next, wrenching it behind his back until it broke.

Then the legs.

One at a time.