Hell Bent

Epilogue

I had waited. Long enough that no one was following me to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong. Something destructive.

But now it was night, and darkness was exactly what I needed.

It wasn’t hard to walk into the facility. I could cast Sleep without using so much magic Terric would know what I was doing.

So I did.

I could cast Scatter to interfere with the cameras.

So I did.

And then I walked through the high-security facility, counted the doors until I reached the one I wanted.

Locks are easy to pick.

Then I was inside. With her.

Brandy lay in her bed, eyes open, but not seeing this world. They kept her heavily medicated. They said it helped her remain calm.

And they needed her calm, because they needed her alive.

So we could bargain with Eli. So we could bargain with his masters.

But there was no bargaining with monsters. I should know. I was one.

I stepped over to her bed, my boots loud in the hollowness of the room.

She didn’t see me. Didn’t hear me.

That was fine. She wasn’t who I had come here for. She was simply a way to get what I wanted.

And I wanted revenge.

I sat on the bed next to her, studied her face, her hair, her lips. She could have been pretty, if there was any sense of humanity looking out from her eyes.

But she was a shell, cored out and emptied by madness many long years ago.

I understood madness too.

I brushed her hair away from her face, then leaned so I was directly in her line of vision even though she didn’t see me.

I put my hand over her mouth.

Death can be painful, or . . . sweet. I didn’t need her death, not just yet. But I wanted her pain.

I reached out with Death magic, letting it cover her. I drank down an ounce of her life.

Brandy’s body arched and she screamed.

“Do you feel that, Eli?” I asked, keeping eye contact with Brandy as she trembled. “Do you feel her agony?” I drank more of her life down, Death magic twisting her nerves, catching fire beneath her skin.

The monster inside me liked it.

I liked it too.

“Do you understand what I can do to her?

“Yes, of course you know,” I said as fear set her heart beating faster. But this was not her fear; she was too far gone to know fear.

This was Eli’s fear.

And that was the fear I wanted.

His sudden cold knowledge of what I could do to the other half of his soul shone through her empty eyes.

“You know what I can do to her, because you killed just like this. Killed Joshua, killed Dessa, killed Victor. You killed people I loved. With no shred of remorse.

“But you did not think about who you left behind, injured.”

I drew the magic away from her, and her body went limp. She was sweating hard from the absence of pain. But her eyes were still open. And they were filled with Eli’s terror. With his knowledge, his attention.

“You have left me injured, Eli. A very bad mistake. I am the wrong man to hurt.”

I let the monster forward, which was not hard, as it took up so much room in me now. I smiled as his terror turned to panic. Desperation.

“I am going to destroy you, Collins. I am going to make you writhe. Consider this your invitation to start running. Away from me, or toward me, it doesn’t matter. Because I am going to make the remainder of your life agony.” I smiled at the pleasure I would gain from that. “And then I will make you beg for death until I am tired of hearing you scream.”

I placed my palm flat over Brandy’s eyes.

Death comes for us all. Sometimes when we least expect it. Sometimes at our bidding.

I sent pain twisting through her again, knowing Eli felt it. Knowing how it tormented him. Knowing how helpless it made him feel. Then pulled my hand away so he could see me. So he could see exactly what I was doing.

I was surprised to see a second awareness in her eyes. For just a moment, it was Brandy looking at me. Please, she mouthed. Kill me.

I hesitated. She was begging for mercy. For relief from the tortured life she had been living. But I hadn’t come here to show her mercy. Only to make Eli hurt.

Then Brandy was gone, and it was Eli looking through her eyes again. Panicked. Begging me not to kill her.

“You know where to find me,” I said to him.

I placed my fingers against her chest and drew a glyph there. I stared into Eli’s pleading eyes, wanting to see his pain.

Magic filled the invisible line I traced, crushing her heart.

Tighter. Tighter.

Until there was no beat left. Until she was cold and dead. Until even Eli’s hating eyes were gone.

Brandy’s ghost stepped free of her body and threw her arms wide, head tipped back, smiling as if she had taken her first deep breath in many, many years.

I waited for her to see me. Judge me.

She touched the side of my cheek with cold, cold fingers. Thank you, she mouthed.

Then she was gone.

Revenge, mercy. Tonight they were the same.

I left the room. Left the building. Strode away into the darkness of night.

I flicked my fingers and canceled the Scatter spell and Sleep spell. No one would know I had been there. No one would see the glyph I had drawn. No one would remember.

Only Eli.

Everything was just how it had been only moments before.

Except everything had changed.

This was my war now.