Forest of Lies

Chapter 22-Dear Darling Demon

⚠️This chapter has heavy descriptions of dead bodies and sexual content. Please be advised. Also, as this is a dark fantasy book I must clarify, the sexual activity concerned in this chapter is consensual.💀 As in my author's note, Nyx's mentality towards sex can be both for her pleasure and for ulterior motives. She does not love Evander. She is using him for her own gains. Having sex with him, to her, is merely a bonus.

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"Ah, there you are mate," King Evander drawls, standing up from the large desk once I enter the room. The Axe pulls the door shut, the flowing pink fabric of Amira's gown leaving my sight as the paneled oak wood closes behind me. "Allow me to show you something my dear."

I merely nod my head slightly. Taking slow steps along the carpeted floor, glancing at the shelves lining the four walls. Books of every size, color, and shape stacked neatly, one by one. The walls are deep forest green, oil black wood trimming the top edges. The trim carved with leaves, etched with images of deer chased by packs of starving wolves.

A large map hangs behind the blue shirted king. Tan trousers hugging his strong legs. Boots dark as a deep blackened bruise. I take the hand extended out to me as I approach. His hold tightening just enough for me to look up into his tired face. Even without Amira's subtle message, I know he is scared and furious. The way his eyes are almost black. The muscle in his jaw continuing to pulse in a steady rhythm.

"I am sad to say that we learned nothing else of use from your, attacker," King Evander bites out the last word as if the very sound of it vexes him. "But I hope this will put your mind at rest."

He guides me over to a set of arched glass windows to the left of the desk. Here he pushes them outwards, out onto a stone balcony overlooking the castle, the courtyard, and city below. I allow him to take me out onto the balcony, and from there to see the three corpses on the far tower above the courtyard gate. Two men and a woman hanging from their nailed hands on wooden crosses. Crucified. A punishment for capital offenses, slaves, and spies.

The man on the right and the woman on the left were given the Blood Eagle before their crucifixions. Flesh from their bodies hangs down in rotting blood crusted strips. Crows peck at their ribs, the bones pulled back to resemble an unfurled eagle's wings. With how dry their blood is, the state of their flesh, these two bodies have been here for nearly two weeks.

I look to the middle corpse. A body distinctive and familiar. The red tattered cloak blowing in the wind from its shoulders. Blood dripping down from sockets empty of eyes. The jaw gaping open in a silent scream. Burn marks ring the body's wrists. The scalp cut clean off, leaving a mass of bleeding skin and white bone to be picked clean by another swarm of crows.

"I see the prisoner has been dealt with," I supply, pulling my hand from the king before walking to balcony's stone railing. Hands falling down onto the smooth rocky surface. The cold I do not feel. Even as it travels from the balcony, through my fingers, and up into my chest, I cannot feel anything but smoldering rage.

Not at the dead assassin. No, I am furious for the humans strung up on those crosses. Their bodies bent and broken. This is my reminder of what this city does to humans. I have not seen the horrors within the homes my kind is kept in. But I know the stories, I have witnessed the snippets of it from dark alleys and crowded markets. The treatment given to tithers on the annual collection day at the Counting House.

"But what of the other two, they seem to have been there awhile."

"You would be right," Evander answers, stepping up behind me. One hand falling onto my shoulder, the warmth of his skin seeping into the material of my dress. It scalds my skin like a brand. "Those two were traitors. Spies masquerading as late tithers sent by the Bear Clans and their witches."