Ravaged

Chapter 45

It's early evening when Feng finally lets Gemma Devereux die. He'll pick up her soul sheet and key from Alistair when he returns for Isa in a few days--along with the souls of everyone else who's hurt Sky over the years.

Torturing Gemma has only made him realize just how angry he still is.

He won't be satisfied until he's made every last one of them pay.

Which leads him to the next name on his list. Gemma didn't seem to care about her son anymore than she cared for her daughter, and nothing she told him made Feng believe that Ethan had a hand in what happened to Sky.

Before he reunites them, though, he needs to be sure.

Even if he wasn't involved, the kid may have turned a blind eye to what he knew was going on. That isn't any more acceptable than holding the blades himself.

It doesn't take Feng long to find him. He's also on Raiva, in Eerea's neighboring kingdom of Gynae. When Feng steps out of the smoke, he finds himself deep in a wooded area, standing in front of a cabin that looks to be abandoned.

The scents around it say differently.

Feng snaps his fingers, exchanging his blood-and-gore-soaked clothes for a clean outfit, grinning as he remembers the look on Elliot's face when the boy found Feng torturing Gemma, already covered in her blood.

It was priceless.

Feng just grinned and shooed him away.

Now, dressed in his usual outfit of black trousers and a crisp silk dress shirt--this one creme white and open halfway down his chest--with his Echo jacket comfortably fitted around his shoulders, Feng strides up to the little cabin's door. He thought about dressing himself as a woodsman, but his face is far too pretty for that. No one would buy it.

Feng knocks twice, two quick raps on the rotting wood.

The door doesn't open. Inside, the person Feng can easily sense starts to panic, rustling around gathering things as if preparing to leave--as if Feng can't hear every move he makes.

Someone is after Ethan Devereux, and it has the kid scared.

Interesting.

Feng kicks the door down, striding into the cabin with his hands in his pockets and a calm, slightly lethal look on his face.

He takes in the papers, maps, and books spread out on the floor and furniture. Places are circled, then marked off, as if he's been looking for something. The boy who sends a mournful look at the papers and then bolts for the window looks haggard, his brown curls limp, blue eyes weary. There are lines in his face as if he's been running for a very, very long time.

Feng jumps himself to the window and grabs Ethan by the back of the neck, pulling him back into the room.

"Relax, kid," he drawls. "I just want to talk." He tosses Ethan to the center of the room casually.

Ethan searches the room, obviously panicking and trying to find a way out. Feng tilts his head, wondering who has him so scared.

It's not the gods. If it was them, he would already be dead.

Who then?

If it was his father--again, he'd be dead.

His mother didn't say anything about looking for Ethan.

Someone else, then. Maybe the people Akai and Gemma sent Ethan to after they sent Sky to the institute? Gemma mentioned that they sent him away.

It was to Akai's family, Feng believes.