Strange Magics 1.5: When the Stars Align- a M/F Demisexual/ Transgender romance

9- Vengeance

HESTIEL—

Everything I had done my entire life to thwart my father's evil. Every broken, sobbing child I soothed through nightmares that would make a grown man weep. Every innocent soul torn apart by a tyrant that never should have been given power, much less the ultimate power of life and death over countless lives. Every single time I was beaten and broken down. Every time I was forced to stand back and let evil pass by unaccosted.

All of it culminated in my father's death at my hands. To rid the world of his filth and hopefully, dark gods willing, send him directly to the hell realms.

But this moment... gods, something about this moment here, now, was so much more vindicating.

The Monster. The nightmare I had fought since I knew what vile thoughts hid behind his eyes and that tainted his very skin with his evil. The Defiler. The great evil my father had loved to threaten me and my family with.

Torn up. Bleeding, bruised, broken at my feet.

Sent here all but wrapped up in a bow by the people meant to be my enemy. Those who King Groban had swore hated us simply for being El'kahrian.

And yet they had sent me such a gorgeous present.

With one move of a finger, I called Dew over to me. With a few words, he was stepping back, his eyes uncertain but his obedience unyielding. He left the room without a look back, off to gather those together that would celebrate this moment with me.

"I have waited a long time for this," I whispered, studying the pathetic, sniveling specimen before me and fighting every instinct that told me to leap forward, grab one of my guards' swords, and end his life with one silent, brutal strike.

That was far too merciful for this creature, and I would not give him the satisfaction of a quick, painless death not matter how much his filth being even near me had the skin all across my body crawling with disgust.

"You bitch!" the Monster growled, spitting blood from a rotting mouth as he tried to stand, though with his hands bound behind his back he was unable to barely move without falling to one side or another, much less put his feet beneath him. "You'll not sit long on the throne of your father, whore. You're too weak to hold onto the throne of El'kahr. You'll lose control and I'll be back in power and back raping every tiny fucking chi—"

The hit was sudden and brutal, slapping the Monster's head back. Blood spewed, and his head lolled as if he was a puppet with broken strings.

"Your foul tongue will not taint her majesty's ears, Monster," Dayl growled, his gloved fist clenching and unclenching as Butcger whimpered at his feet.

I nodded at Dayl to assure him of my approval, then turned and faced the group gathered around the door. A few of them had heaving chests, as if they had run the entire way from wherever they had been. Cecilia looked as if she was going to be sick, her eyes fixed on mine so she would not have to face the creature on the ground at my back. And Dew's glance was fleeting before he was through the doors, retreating from what was to come.

It did not matter if he disagreed with what was going to happen, or if he would have preferred these evil men meet clean, swift ends. It was not his burden to bear, the pain and degradation each of these men and women had faced at the hands of this man, and he knew that. He knew that, and though he did not agree with how I chose to handle it, he respected my decision nonetheless, and took himself away from the situation that would likely make him ill.

When Butcger was finally able to glance up from Dayl's hit, his eyes lighting on the half dozen people I had summoned to my side, the already pallid color of his skin paled alarmingly quickly.

Six children— four men, two women— were all that had chosen to stay with me and be by my side after I was able to, one way or another, tear them from the Monster's grasp. Whether it was bribing a traveling merchant to sneak into his castle and steal as many children as he could, forming a small band of mercenaries to do the same, or some other way I thought up through the years to steal from his what he thought was his to own. A few, like Gaston, had simply been given up as too old and too worn to please him anymore. There were a dozen or more ways I had been left to try to lessen the burden of the Monster's atrocities.

Each survivor I was able to bring to safety was given a choice— stay with me, under my protection, and learn a trade. Whatever their hearts desired, whether it be in the stables, the kitchen, the library, or as a soldier or guard. Or I found them a home. Depending on their age, a husband or wife they could make a home with if that was what they wanted. Three survivors were scattered throughout El'kahr, married to a duke, a count, and a merchant who could buy both the duke and the count if she so chose.

I made sure any I could find had the safety, happiness, and security they had been lacking up to that moment.

Six had chosen to stay with me.

Cecilia, who was one of my closest friends and one of two handmaids I kept always at my side.

Tori, who had chosen to live her life as a man as much as she could, her hair shorn and her breasts bound, but her womanhood still a part of her she refused to give up. She had trained under the castle guard and served as one of my personal contingent.

Kayle, whose help in the kitchen had ensured Dew had someone to take over for him when he chose to retire.

Derin and Keir, whose minds were so well fitted to the libraries I was trying to revive back from a time of neglect under my father's rule.

And Gaston, who had very quickly married the castle hedgewitch Nobil and spent his days aiding her in her duties.

Each was deeply scarred, but each had moved past the horrors inflicted on them by a man who deserved to die so slowly and painfully that he begged for death.

Each bearing with them the promise that someday, I would allow them this moment.

This time for the children they had been to earn the vengeance they had screamed for when they had been helpless, afraid, and alone beneath his cruel hands.

They were silent for minutes as they all stared down at him. I could see varying degrees of terror, disgust, horror, excitement, and rage as I glanced around at the six.

The permission needed no words, but I wanted to make sure Butcger knew. I wanted to ensure he was aware that these six beautiful people, the ones who had survived and thrived through the savagery he had inflicted on them, were fully in control of when they finally decided to give him the mercy of death.

His life was no longer in my hands.

"I want you to know, Butcger," I whispered, crouching down to his level and making sure his eyes met mine before I smiled. I put every ounce of venom I felt for the man into my words and tone as I spoke. "Denbar the Cruel lasted for nearly five weeks. I honestly did not know someone could last that long without so many body parts. And when they skinned his flesh from the muscle underneath... you would think that would end a life, even if just from the pain, much less the massive amounts of blood loss. But no... he still lived to endure more, even after that."

I kept my tone conversational as I stood and shook out my skirts, brushing them of invisible dirt, cocking my head back at the men and women behind me "I think Gaston's wife gave him something to keep him alive. But he did end up dying, eventually. It took a long time. A lot of blood. And so very much screaming. They like to take turns and they do not like to give their monsters the relief of sleep, so it is lucky these walls are so thick because a queen needs to get her beauty sleep."

I turned my back, nodding at Cecilia, Derin, Keir, Kayle, Gaston, and Tori, who each bowed or curtsied in return. Only a few steps from the door that led to the upper levels and Butcger's words stopped me mid-stride.

"I'll fucking kill you for this, Hestiel! You hear me! I'll—"

The sound of flesh on flesh had me turning to see Gaston straightening from a punch, and then they worked together to drag him to his feet and I could not see him ag all through the wall of their bodies.

"Have fun, Butcger! Try not to die too quickly and ruin their fun!"