A Court of Song and Shadow

Chapter 36

"Velaris--think this through." Azriel tries stopping me as I begin strapping my daggers to various parts of my body. I pretend to stop and think and then I look to Az.

"I thought about it," I say as I lift my pant leg up and strap a smaller knife to my ankle, "I am still going through with it."

"They will report back to your father." He points out.

"Not if I destroy their minds after I am finished with them." I give him a devilish grin and he just crosses his arms, "You cannot stop me."

"I'm not," His shadows waltz around him, "I want to join you."

"Good." Is all I say before I tie my hair back and begin walking out of the door. Azriel follows me silently, and we walk through our shadows and enter hell.

I do not even conceal myself as we enter the sublevels of Hewn City, I allow the residents to see me and Azriel with our shadows trailing behind us. I begin walking to Mor's family's residence--where I knew Keir would not be because he would be with my father and the darkbringers readying for War. I watch as people stop doing what they are doing just to watch us, a grin spreads across my face at the terror in their eyes. I walk in front of the black building that is Mor's current residence.

I grab two of my daggers from their scabbards as I use my full strength to kick the door off its hinges. I find Mor's useless mother sitting in the drawing room--stitching something.

"Get out." I snarl at her, her eyes widen and she does not say anything as she runs out of the manor. My shadows move quickly through the building--alerting me to where Mor's three brothers were--all in one place. I take a deep breath before I enter the dining hall where my shadows told me to go, I turn the corner and do not even give the three blonde males time before I throw daggers into their knees. I use my power to blast all three of them back and I grin as they hit the wall with a crack as some of their bones break at the impact.

They all let out screams that sound like music to my ears.

I hurl three more daggers onto their other knees and they try to stand up, but fail miserably. I laugh at the sight of them struggling to raise themselves--they would not be able to. I struck the daggers in a certain place in their knees so they would not be able to use their legs.

"Hello, dearest cousins." I purr at them, and once they finally realize they are incapable of standing--they sit back against the wall.

"You are going to pay for this." One of them snarls at me and I laugh as I pull up a chair, turn it around, and sit on it. I lean my arms against the back of the chair as I smile at them.

"Remind me of your names again, I find it so hard to remember those names of males beneath me," I look to Azriel who is standing behind me observing everything, "Do you know their names Azriel?"

"Not a clue." He lets a smirk run across his face.

"A shame." I notice one of the males is making a face, "If you are trying to winnow away, it will not work. You see, I dipped those daggers in faebane, so all of your powers are just as useless as the three of you."

They look at each other in trepidation as they take in my words. I slowly get up from my chair and stroll over to them. I crouch down in front of the one in the middle who was the eldest--I never cared to learn their names, I was told when I was younger but they were so irrelevant to my life that I completely forgot. Before he can react, I unsheathe another dagger and plunge it into his thigh as hard as I can. He lets out an earth shattering scream as I twist the dagger in his flesh. He calms his screams into deep, pained breaths and his brothers try backing away from me--but I was not going to touch them yet. I wanted their fear to consume them before I got to work on them.

"You worthless whore--" Before I can even respond to the one brother's taunts, Azriel is there--strangling him.

"Be careful how you speak to her." He says lowly to the choking male. My hearbeat quickens at the pure command in his voice, and I quickly return my focus to the male in front of me. I give him a smile as I reach into my pocket and retrieve the three large nails I had stashed there--the exact same as the one they had nailed into Mor.

"How did you do it?" I ask the three of them, who do not answer, "When you decided to nail a note to your youngest sister, did you use a tool to pierce her skin or--" I cut myself off with a laugh, "It does not matter anyway, I already had my entire plan planned out before I got here. The first idea I thought of was how slow I would stick these nails into your skin."

Azriel slowly releases the male who insulted me and looks over to me as I pick one of the nails from my hand and place it above the male's abdomen--where they nailed the note to Mor. I keep it there over his skin for a moment and then I pierce his skin and slowly push down. He begins screaming and thrashing so much I motion for Azriel to hold his shoudlers as I keep pushing deeper and deeper. The two other brothers try crawling away, but I use my powers to throw them back against the wall. Once the nail is pushed all the way in--I use my powers to push it completely under his skin.

I walk over to Mor's other two brothers and do the exact thing to them. Their screams pierce the part of my soul that is moral and virtous--I just imagine the screaming Mor would have been doing when they did the same thing to her. The image of her laying unconscious in the healing room--completely broken--plays over and over again in my head and I use that to focus my rage on them. The three males sit there, trying to claw the nails out of their abdomen as their skin begins to heal over it. If they wanted to remove the nails from themselves, they would have to cut themselves open in order to do so.

"Would you like to add anything?" I look up at Azriel who just shakes his head.

"You got this one."

I look to the three, now crying, males and I enter their minds as I begin to get to work.

"You three decided to torture and leave your little sister for dead," I continue to make my way through their minds, "She is finally free and she will heal one day, but you three will never heal. I am making sure of that. You will know it was me who did this to you, but you will never be able to tell another single soul about what happened here. If you want those nails to be removed, you will have to cut yourselves open to get them out. Since you are horrid cowards, I doubt you will have the guts to do that." I stand up slowly, "If you ever lay your filthy hands on Mor again, it will be the last thing you ever do."

I slowly take my daggers out of their skin, and place them back in their scabbards. I keep my head held high and shoulders back as I walk away and out of the manor. I feel Azriel's presence behind me but I never look behind me. I feel my breakfast from this morning rising up the back of my throat, I quickly run in an alleyway and throw up. I lean against the side of the building as I take deep breaths.

What did I just do?

I hurl again, and soon Azriel is there holding my hair back as I continue to throw up. The images of Mor's battered body, Rhysand attacking Cassian, Tanwyn's betrayed face, and Mor's brothers all race through my  mind. Azriel is silent as I take the time to collect myself and remind myself that Mor's brothers deserved what I just did to them.

It did not make me feel any better though.

They deserved to rot in hell, but I hated what I just did. I hated that Azriel was there to witness how awful I could be. This repulsive part of me was something I tried to keep buried deep down within me, because this was the rage that my father has within him and I refuse to be like him. I begin feeling even more sick when I realize that what I just did is the same exact thing my father would do to someone.

Azriel crouches down so he is at the same level as me and reaches out his hand.

"Let's go home."