Page 110 of Hunt Me

“What… what is this you speak of?” Belzar questioned, snapping out of his momentary lapse.

“Your sister and my beloved friend, Belzara, is dead,” Matilda managed to say, every word feeling like a stab to the chest.

“How has this fate befallen her?” he asked, dropping into a nearby chair that nearly toppled over from his weight.

“We were ambushed.”

“Ambushed? By whom?”

“Traitors who paid with their lives.”

Belzar fell silent, and Matilda waited patiently for him to react. She didn’t have to wait long. He jolted up and threw the chair he was sitting in across the room. It splintered against the wall, raining pieces of wood onto the grimy floor. With speed she didn’t know he possessed, Belzar lunged at her and smashed his fists on the table she sat at, splitting it down the center. No further actions of violence were taken on his part due to the blade her betrothed had pressed into his throat.

“You will cease behaving like an animal, or there will be dire consequences for your insolence,” Luka warned seconds away from spilling the orc’s blood.

Belzar’s lips curled into a snarl.

“I do not fear you, bloodsucker.”

“Belzar!” Matilda snapped, praying he’d apologize and beg for mercy. “Watch your tongue! Do you not value your life?”

“My life is worthless now. Where is she, huntress? I want to see her.”

“You do not wish to see her. Not like that.”

“Are you so cruel that you will not honor my simple request? Twice you’ve taken her from me.”

“And she was better off for it,” Matilda quipped.

“Better off dead?”

“No, better off getting away from you.”

The orc scoffed.

“This tavern was her life!” he bellowed.

“This tavern was her prison!” she shouted, standing to meet her opposition. “She loathed working at this dump. She had dreams and aspirations of her own, but you chipped away at her self-esteem and made her feel worthless. You wanted her under your thumb so you could laze about drinking and fucking while touting the tavern’s success as your own!

“You are jealous of Belzara because you know, despite your efforts, in her final moments, she achieved more in her life than your own wretched existence. She lies to rest in the royal mausoleum upon a bed of white satin and roses in a dress befitting of a queen. A crown of diamonds that makes the stars tremble with envy lay on her head, and you don’t fucking deserve it, Belzar. You do not deserve to witness her in peace when all you caused her was pain!”

Matilda turned her back, not wanting him to see her cry, and waved for one of the guards. He approached with a chest and dropped it on the table before the orc.

“What is this?” he asked skeptically.

“This is your restitution—30,000 gold coins—for Belzara.”

Belzar’s boisterous laughter rattled the dust-covered windows.

“Do you think so lowly of me that I’d fall for your trickery again?”

“It’s not trickery. You may count it if you like.”

She faced him again when the room fell silent.

“This will not suffice.”

Luka’s patience had nearly waned as he envisioned himself shoving the dagger into the orc’s bulging neck a thousand times over.