Chapter 34: Chapter 34: DO YOUR WORST

VALORIA WILDEROSE

Crushing fear grips me as her cold, heartless eyes meet mine with sharp vengeance that steals my breath. The tables have suddenly flipped.

Azrael barks out loud laughter, hand on his belly and forehead simultaneously as he cackles with riveting enjoyment.

He saw it coming, didn’t he?

He knew I wouldn’t choose his way; he knew I’d chicken out like a fool—settle for a punishment, thinking I could handle whatever it is as long as my hands stayed clean of another soul.

And that’s the real reason he has this game set up in the first place. For me to fall right into his trap. He wants me to choose between my life or hers.

I should have known. I should have seen this coming from a mile away.

I grind my teeth and clench my fists with bitterness once I realize how easily I’ve fallen for it, just in time for his laughter to die.

He rubs the moisture from his eyes.

“One wants the other freed while the other wants her head lopped off. The question is, whose request will I listen to now?” he muses aloud, pretending to actually ponder it.

He could do both if he wanted to… and that’s the fucking problem.

I’m pushed to a wall, forced to think faster than I ever have in my life. I refuse to die if I can help it and to have my hands stained by anyone’s blood.

“I t-take it ba-back. I will p-play!” I say desperately before it’s too late and he decides.

His gaze watches me with interest and his smile widens.

“C-Cut off h-her right arm,” I say after hesitating.

“Now we’re getting somewhere!” he exclaims, applauding me while I swallow bile. “Cut her arm off? A second ago you didn’t want anyone harmed. Why should I listen to your request rather than hers after you rejected the opportunity to choose?”

He directs the question at me, dangling my life right in front of my eyes. I panic.

“I-I… I—”

“Speak clearly. Take your time.”

I pause again, taking a deep breath to form the words.

“You said it yourself—I w-was wronged. I should get the right to choose.”

“And because you were wronged, you believe it’s your right to request an arm from her. You want to hurt her for that reason?” he pokes and prods further, drawing close until our bodies are an inch apart.

He wants me to say it; admit I’m hurting another person like every other selfish, greedy wolf out there when he’s the reason why.

He wants to ruin me wholly. Her life or mine.

Cutting off her arm is the only brutal thing I can think of that could possibly satiate him while keeping us both alive.

Yet knowing that doesn’t get rid of the feeling of guilt and disgust sloshing around inside me.

I don’t respond, turning my face away. He chuckles lowly in response.

“Eros.” A single word to his Beta and it happens swiftly.

He moves like a shadow, raising a machete that cleanly slices her entire right arm off. Her horrified screech of agony follows just as the blood spurts out of her.

“AAAAARGH!!”

I shiver, turning away, clasping a hand over my mouth so I don’t vomit, holding the tremor that reverberates through my body while she cries out in pain and the guilt eats me alive.

I had to do this. It was either this or dying. I had no choice. Yet knowing doesn’t make the feeling go away.

The image of her arm hitting the floor will be seared into my memory forever. The sound of it—wet and heavy—echoes in my skull.

“What else should I do to her for having wronged you?” Azrael asks again.

I turn to look at him, horrified. “I al-already ga-ve an answer.”

“Wrong again, Valoria.” He shakes his head with a disappointed look in his eyes.

Dread engulfs me as he raises his hand toward Eros again. He lifts his weapon high above an already distressed Ivana, ready to strike—until I reach out desperately and grab ahold of him… Azrael.

“Wait… stop it…” I plead before they can cut into her again. “I pla-played your game j-just as y-ou wanted!”

“I didn’t say it ends with just one answer. Why are you surprised? You wanted the choice to decide ten seconds ago.”

“No! T-This isn’t wh-what I wanted. This w-as never a ga-game in the first pla-ce. A ga-me has rules. No matter wh-at answers I give y-you, it will always b-be wrong until it’s ent-ter-taining enough for y-you. You’re not playing fair.”

“This isn’t about fairness. This… this is about power and pain and what happens when you think you’re smart enough to avoid both.” He smirks, giving the signal to Eros again.

“N-No, pl-please, no!”

This time my plea does nothing.

Eros slashes into her other arm, cutting her again and drawing another agonizing scream—another ear-shattering cry that chips a fraction of my sanity away and will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Blood pools beneath her, spreading like a dark river across the pristine throne room floor. Her wails turn to whimpers, then to silence as shock takes hold of her body.

Every fight in me fades instantly. My legs grow weak and I fall flat on my butt, sitting on the floor—breathless, traumatized.

I tried to save her. I tried to play by what I thought were the rules. And still, she’s mutilated because of me.

Because I wasn’t cruel enough. Because I wasn’t him.

“Now, for the penalty of failing to give me something worth my time,” he looks at me again.

I expect to cower. I expect to beg like I always have—like I did my entire life with my family, with Ronan, with everyone who held power over me.

But something inside me snaps.

“Do. Your. Worst.” I hold his gaze with a vicious, burning flame—my words stable and firm for some reason.

He smiles, but without enjoyment; fragments of his broken soul peek at me for the first time through his blue eyes.

Perhaps if I had seen them minutes ago I would be moved, believing he really is a man hurt by the world. But no—the world didn’t hurt him.

He was always fragmented.

A damaged devil.

And I refuse to let him break me the same way.

“You will be demoted for a day—less than a maid and even a slave,” he announces, holding my gaze before looking away entirely. “Take her away and work her till she begs for death.”

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