It was one of Adrik’s daggers. Like the ones he’d used to kill the others during my husband’s fucked-up games.
“I think it’s about time we woke him up, don’t you?” Necros said, his green gaze melting into cruel pools of black. “I’ll ask him the questions myself before I kill him.”
Those blades would cause irreparable damage, the magic in them meant to wound immortals permanently.
Necros must have seen the knowledge in my face, the very real fear that he could kill Adrik, because he swirled the knife around in his hand and lowered it toward Adrik’s leg. “I’ll ask you one final time, Valora. Who is he?”
The guard beside me growled, startling me from my shock.
He stood and ran for my husband, his spear pointed forward and flames erupting from it. Necros dropped the knife and easily disarmed the male with a flick of his hand.
“I should have killed you yesterday.” My husband raised his hand, lifting the guard from the floor with a magical hold around the male’s neck. “Nobody dares to defy me. I’m the power here, and each and every one of you needs to remember that. My wife is merely a vessel whose riches I will plunder and control until the day I kill her.”
“Leave him alone,” I demanded, pushing my way to my feet.
Necros ignored me, squeezing the noose of energy tighter, causing the guard to choke and sputter, his eyes bulging in his skull.
“Enough! I shouted. I’d claimed the guard as mine yesterday, and no one threatened what was mine. That included this male I didn’t know. Adrik. Zaya. All of Graystall. The innocents of Caluçon. And anyone else I decided to protect. “Release him.”
The bastard ignored me, his lips curling as the guard turned blue.
Flames rippled across my flesh, down my arms and legs, destroying my gown and singeing the air with rising heat.
I focused on the faces of all the other guards in the room, found their souls within, and flooded their bodies with my power, incinerating them to ash. The energy coiled through the room, the palace, the grounds, searching and seething, desiring anyone and everyone who had wronged me.
The attendees at our wedding.
The males who raped Zaya.
The members of society who sat by and watched my d
egradation and destruction.
Anyone and everyone with loyalties to my husband.
I found them all. Wrapped them in my vise. Squeezed.
“Valora!” Necros grabbed my shoulders. “Stop.”
Oh, but I’d only just begun. I smiled at him, noted his immunity to my flames, and continued my destruction of everything he held dear.
His kingdom.
His palace.
All the monsters. The loyalists. The blackened spirits who littered this realm.
The tendrils of my flames twisted and turned, wrapping around my husband’s limbs to keep him in place, to force him to watch my glory. A newfound strength surged through my body, one born of pride and relief. Because my husband no longer had control. He would bow to me now.
And I forced him to, sending him to his knees with a blow of power.
I shot a lightning bolt from my left hand, latching onto his precious throne, and threw it out the windows of the throne room. The stained glass bubbled and boiled in its wake, forming a mucky, brown-colored substance that flowed over the stone walls.
It was time.
Necros would die here today. Whether by my hand or Adrik’s.
I felt my lover stirring as my husband broke the energy binding his ankles and wrists. His own gifts were coming to the forefront, his fury over the devastation I’d caused fueling his steps toward me.