“I can kill him.”
“And that worked so well for you before?” she mocked with a hard laugh. “Especially now that you have a woman, did you say? I’m surprised one can actually stand to look at you.”
His woman. That’s what he’d called Nicola, wasn’t it? He would have to better guard his words, for the human was not his, not in that way, and now, she would never be. She had chosen another male. And Koldo couldn’t really fault her—even though he was still so angry he could tear this cavern apart rock by rock. She would be better off with one of her own kind.
“You should probably say goodbye to her.” Cornelia traced her fingertip along the bars beside her and grinned happily. “He’ll do the most horrendous things to her, and he’ll force you to watch. But you share his blood—maybe you’ll like that, huh?”
Koldo punched the cage so forcefully the reinforced steel bent backward.
Cornelia paled, backed away.
He had been forced to watch such behavior while chained inside Nox’s tent, and he had vomited every time. Had even tried to behead the man the first hundred times he was allowed to walk freely through the camp—and he had always been disciplined for his efforts. He would never—never!—enjoy watching such treatment.
“I protect what’s mine,” he gritted out. “But you protect no one. Did you witness such events when you were with him, huh, Mother? Did the two of you discuss it while you were snuggled in his arms?”
“Shut up!” She changed course, stomping forward. When she reached him, she gripped the very bars he’d harmed and attempted to shake them.
“I bet you did. I bet you were eaten up with jealousy when he turned his attentions to another.”
“You know nothing about me!”
“I know you’re exactly like him, a pretty face hiding rotten bones. And just so you know, I will kill him before he hurts the girl.” He should shut up. He should leave. His temper was overtaking him. If he wasn’t careful, he would erupt. But his feet felt anchored in place. “You’ll help me. Not because you love me, but because you want him to suffer for abandoning you. Isn’t that right?”
She popped her jaw, some of the anger leaving her. “I do want him to suffer.”
“Then tell me. What are his weaknesses?”
“You spent the most time with him. You should know.”
He should, shouldn’t he? But then, to him, Nox had been the pinnacle of strength, an unstoppable force. Koldo had been surprised to deliver the deathblow, especially from a distance.
Should have chosen up close and personal, as I craved.
Then, he should have taken the time to identify all of the remains. But he’d assumed Nox had been burned to ash—had wanted to believe it so badly.
Mistakes, he realized now. He wouldn’t make another.
“Will you help me or not?” he demanded.
Cornelia lifted her chin, haughty despite her circumstances. “I will not.”
“Not even for a human?”
“Oh, I’ll help a human. Any but yours,” she added.
Koldo tried to calm his raging nerves. A thousand times these past few weeks, he could have killed this woman. But he’d never even bruised her.
As a child, he’d only ever wanted her love. Offered freely. And when it was clear he wouldn’t be getting that, offered through bribes. Yet time and time again she had rejected and denied him.
In that moment, peering into her defiant, hate-filled face, his restraint vanished. His control finally snapped. He’d had enough.
For once, she would know the pain he’d experienced at her hands. For once, she would understand the depths of betrayal. For once, she would fear the things Koldo could do to her.
“Let’s see if I can change your mind, shall we?” He withdrew a razor from the air pocket at his side and flashed into the center of the cage—the only way in or out. “I look like my father, even though I despise him. I think it’s only fair that you look like him, too, since you’re clearly still in love with him.”
Her eyes widened, and she backed away from him, as far as she could possibly get. “You wouldn’t dare,” she cried. “My hair has only just begun to grow back.”
Her words merely proved how little she knew about him. “Just like you wouldn’t dare to take my wings?”
She leaned toward the left, then darted to the right, trying to avoid him as he closed in. “You disobeyed me. You had to be disciplined.”
“Not that way.” Koldo flashed to just in front of her and latched on to her upper arms. It was their first contact since he’d carried her out of the depths of hell and brought her here. She was thinner, practically skin and bones, reminding him of Laila. Laila, the very image of Nicola. But that didn’t soften him, either, and wouldn’t stop him. In fact, it made him far angrier.
“Your only goal was to make me suffer,” he said, shaking her. “Why?”
He shouldn’t have asked. He regretted the question immediately, and knew it revealed the hurt he’d never been able to shed.
“I couldn’t allow you to turn out like him,” she said, and all the fight vanished from her. She peered up at him with more of that hatred. “I should have known it was a useless cause.”
I’m nothing like my father! “So you despised him.”
“Yes,” she hissed.
“Yet you slept with him.”
“Yes! All right? Yes. I could tell you he tricked me. I could tell you it was a moment of weakness. What do you want to hear?”
His grip tightened as he gave her another shake. “The truth.”
Utterly calm, she said, “You were a mistake. That’s the truth.”
With her words, she ripped a scab off his heart, and the wound bled into his soul. “You’re right,” he said, wishing he were emotionless. Instead, he was so torn up inside he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to put himself back together. “I was a mistake. And now I’ll show you why.”
He pushed her face-first into the ground, held her down with a knee in the center of her back and, while she screamed and tried to fight her way free, removed every strand of her hair, until he scraped her scalp clean.
The sound of a woman screaming, the sight of her struggling, caused so many terrible memories to rise. But even when he closed his eyes and shook head, the images wouldn’t leave him.
He’d never stopped being the man his father had made him, he realized. And he never would.