Decade | | Azriel

19

It took a few leaps for Rhys to winnow them all the way across Prythian to the Spring Court, to Hal's manor. It hadn't changed much, which was what she expected. She didn't think change was a thing the Spring Court would ever willingly undergo.

It was pretty, but it was vile.

Hal's manor was pristine, the gardens outside still maintained and lovely and the inside still spotless and immaculately decorated. It was all the same, like it had been frozen in time waiting for her return.

Hal had never married anyone else. Rhys had promised to come back and rip him to shreds if he hurt another female the way he had hurt Kyla. Apparently, he couldn't have a wife without inflicting that sort of violence on her, so he never married. Kyla was grateful for that.

Rhys hung back a few steps, letting her take the lead as he walked with all the effortless grace of the most powerful High Lord in history. Kyla wondered if he was excited to see Hal die, because she was getting the distinct impression that he wanted to see him dead at least half as much as she did.

Hal froze when he saw her, and his face paled when he saw Rhys standing dutifully behind her. Despite the dagger she held, he still saw Rhys as the bigger threat.

"You've finally decided to kill me, Rhysand?" Hal asked, and from the sound of his voice Kyla knew he had been expecting this for a long time. He had been expecting Rhys to kill him. She almost smiled.

"Me? No, I'm just here for the show," Rhys replied, lips curved up into a smirk as he leaned back against a wall with his hands tucked into his pocket. "It was never me who you had to answer to."

Hal let out a laugh of disbelief, his eyes going to Kyla.

"Oh, honey, come on," he crooned, as if this whole thing was suddenly more amusing than it was scary, "you don't want to hurt me. You loved me, didn't you?"

"I did love you," she replied, her voice so soft in sweet in the way she always used to speak to him. "I loved you so much, Hal. And what did you do with that love?"

"You needed it," he said, taking a step closer despite the weapon she held with deadly intent. He thought he could talk her down. "Someone had to teach you to be a proper lady. There was no other way you'd learn."

"Why do you think you had any right to decide what I needed to be?" she asked, head cocked to the side. "Because you bought me from my parents? Because you tricked me into forgetting what you were?"

"Kyla," he murmured, taking another step closer, "put that little dagger down. We both know I had your best interests in mind. Put it down and stay here with me and we can still live our lives as we planned to before he got into your head and ruined everything."

She closed the rest of the distance between them and he let her, a satisfied smile on his face as if he believed he had talked her into staying with him that easily. She supposed that was why he bought her from her parents when she was so young. It was far easier to manipulate sixteen year old girl than a female who had lived to see over a century.

Her palm ghosted over his cheek, soft and docile.

"I've thought about you almost every day since I last saw you," she muttered, and he smiled even wider.

"I knew you missed me," he said, "my sweet girl."

"I thought about how much I hated you," she clarified, a smile spreading across her own face now as she lashed out with the blade. She cut a deep gash across his chest and he staggered back, eyes wide with shock.

"You bitch," he hissed, clutching his chest in pain. "I gave you everything."

"Do you know how many times I wished I was dead because of you?" she asked, prowling closer as he stumbled back. He knew he couldn't run. He was losing too much blood too fast. "I decided it would be easier to wish you were dead than it was to wish I was."

"Have you forgotten the sway I hold with the High Lord?" Hal brought up, a desperate attempt to save his own life. "He'll hunt you down and kill you if you kill me."

"Do you think I wouldn't kill him too if he tried?" Kyla mused as she backed him into a wall. "Do you think I would even hesitate?"

"Do you see what the Night Court has turned you into? That vile place has made you a monster," he made another shot at trying to manipulate her. "Come back home. I'll fix you."

"Funny how I'm a monster for doing even a small ounce of what you did to me," she remarked, "I wonder what that makes you."

She lashed out again then, cutting across his chest again, the deep slashes forming an X. She went for his face after that, slicing so deeply through his cheek that it split open completely. She slashed his eyes next, and then his throat. His blood sprayed out at her and she relished in it. Her final move took her back to that X she had formed. The two lines crossed over his heart, and she stabbed the dagger there.

Covered in his blood, Kyla somehow felt cleaner than she had in years.

She pulled the dagger out of his body and wiped both sides clean on the fabric of her dress as she turned to Rhys. He was grinning.

"I'd have cut his cock off too," he commented, and she laughed. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so freely, so genuinely.

"I wish I had thought of that," she said, "you should have suggested it to me sooner. Such a shame."

"Any other business you'd like to take care of or would you like to return home now?" Rhys asked, pushing off the wall and strolling over to her. He kicked Hal's body on his way.

"We can go now," Kyla answered with a shrug, "this was all I needed here."

"Do you want me to take care of the body?" he offered, and she smiled once more.

"No," she dismissed, "leave him to rot."