Descent (Kissed by Death) - Tara Fuller Page 0,74

Seline whispered, peeking out the window. “They say they want to speak to you, Easton.”

I pulled her away from the window and shoved her behind me, pulling back the curtain to look outside. Torches lit a restless crowd, flickering with the wind of the storm rolling in. Dietrich shoved his way through the unruly group of men and held out his arms when he spotted me in the window. The fact that he was there should have told me how wrong it was all about to go.

“Easton!” he shouted. “Brother! Come out so we can talk. Let’s leave the women out of this.”

I backed away from the window and grabbed the blade my father had left me. The last one he’d crafted before the fever took him. I shoved it into the back of my trousers and looked to Mama. She stood from her seat by the fire, face pale.

“Stay inside, son,” she whispered.

I swallowed the fear clogging my throat and forced it into my belly. I was the man of the house now. Staying inside wasn’t an option. I walked over to Mama and kissed her forehead.

“No worries, Mama,” I said. “I’m just going to see what they want. You know Dietrich. If I don’t go out, he’ll assume I have something to hide. We’re better off if I confront him.”

“Easton?” Seline threw her arms around my neck, and I smoothed my hand over her hair. “Be careful.”

“I will. Wait here.”

It’s exactly what they’d wanted. To get me out of the way. Outnumber me so they could carry out their witch hunt. Back then all it took to be guilty of witchcraft in their eyes was to be capable of something they didn’t understand. They didn’t know how my mother and sisters could have possibly healed people with nothing more than prayer and herbs. And so they became witches. The same people they’d saved killed them for it. And now I was back there. Bound and helpless to watch this nightmare play out before me.

I shut my eyes and focused on the pain. There was plenty to choose from. The bones in my right arm were crushed into a fine powder. The lacerations from Dietrich’s whip burned and throbbed. Blood formed in crisscross patterns that covered my original scars like lattice. Any of it was better than watching him toy with my sisters, drawing out their fear, their pain.

“What’s wrong, Easton?” He laughed. “Don’t you find their fear fascinating? Were my men afraid when you slaughtered them? No…they were brave, weren’t they? I trained them well.”

I spit a mouthful of blood at his feet and glared at him. “They cried like babies. Every one of them.”

He pulled a sword from his belt and shoved it into Ava’s back, twisting, pushing until it popped out the other side, glinting between her ribs. A choked gurgle bubbled in her throat, and her eyes looked back at me, wide and empty, just before she crumpled to the floor at my feet.

“Noooo!” I jerked on the chains, ripping myself apart further and not caring. “You son of a bitch! I’ll ruin you! I won’t rest until I see you burn for an eternity!”

Dietrich laughed, slapping his hands on his knees. Once he’d regained some self-control, he leaned in close. I cringed as his rancid, deathly breath fanned across my face.

“You actually believe you’ll escape this, don’t you?” He cocked his head to the side. “No. I’ve waited too long for this. You’re not going anywhere, old friend. I paid your imp friend an army just to have this time with you.”

His reared his arm back before his fist collided with my jaw in a loud crack. My head hung limp between us, and I wished I could black out. Wished he’d cut my fucking head off and end this for a while. I couldn’t stand the sound of his voice. The smell of him. I felt sick. I crawled into myself, throwing walls up in my mind. Needing to close myself off to it all. I could feel my sanity slipping. Could feel the thin walls between reality and hallucination crumbling. If I lost it here, I’d never get it back.

“Easton!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out Gwen’s voice. It wasn’t real. I didn’t want it to be real. Not here. Not near this devil and his bottomless bag of pain.

“Get away from him!” Gwen’s voice sounded louder, clearer. Too clear.

I lifted my head, using the last bit of energy I