Fallen Angel Reclaimed: The Complete Series by Lacey Carter Andersen
4
Caine glared at the Fate.She was no longer just a tiny, filthy thing; instead, she was a bloody, filthy thing. Every day since she’d helped Sharen’s demon-scum escape, he’d dragged her out into his throne room and watched as his guard beat her senseless.
Not only did she help a traitor, she allowed one of the Immortals to escape my reach.And both crimes deserved punishment… a lifetime of punishment.
Yet still, when the Fate looked at him, her bright green eyes were filled with defiance.
Will nothing break her?
She spit blood onto his polished floor and lifted her head. Her back was in shreds from his guard’s whip. Her clothes had long ago fallen to pieces around her, and yet, when she opened her mouth, he knew only insolence would spout from her lips.
“Did you get off yet, Caine?”
He didn’t need to send his dark magic swirling. His guard automatically whipped her again, over and over again until he heard a sob explode from her throat.
“Enough,” Caine called, punctuating the command with a swipe of his hand.
She’s not useful to me unconscious.
His guard stopped and stepped back, whip still in hand.
“Today is not just about your punishment,” Caine said.
She didn’t lift her head. “Yeah, it’s about you masturbating in that fucking black shadow of yours.”
His teeth ground together. “Today you will tell me how to take The God Finder from Surcy’s demon.”
He watched the rapid rise and fall of her blood soaked chest. “I have a feeling today I’ll be bleeding in my cell, like every day.”
Why must we play these games? You cannot lie, and I will get the truth from you.
He glanced up at the pale blue wisps that had gathered on the ceiling of his throne room. With the slightest gesture of his hand, the souls lowered. He neither brought them to the bright swirling hole that represented the angel-realm, nor the dark hole that represented the demon-realm. Instead, he moved them to hang above the Soul Destroyer.
Before he took the throne from the Immortal Ten, it was rarely used. A soul had to be completely unredeemable and far too dangerous to be allowed an afterlife, to be thrown into the Soul Destroyer. The place was reserved for the absolute worst beings.
He’d heard the Immortals whisper that overuse of it could throw off the balance of the realms, so he’d withheld himself. And yet, lately he had more and more difficulty not using it. When he saw a soul that was strong, confident, and capable… but would never bend to his will, he imagined what they would be like as a demon. Just another soldier in the war against me.
It was easier to flick them into the Soul Destroyer. When the world didn’t crumble around him, he began to accept something: the Immortal Ten may have lied about the consequences of using it too much.
And if they did, there’s nothing to hold me back now.
So, when he brought the soul of a man to hoover above The Soul Destroyer, he watched the Fate’s gaze move to it. The soul flowed with goodness, with strength. This man was capable of amazing things. He would never obey Caine.
He smiled. “Tell me how to get the God Finder from the druid.”
The Fate struggled to climb to her feet. Her legs and arms visibly shook. She slipped in her blood, falling several times, but at last stood. “I won’t keep helping you.”
His smile widened. “You don’t have a choice.”
Turning to the soul, he made a decision there and then. He would destroy it. What did it matter? And then he’d destroy another and another, however many it took to get the Fate to obey him.
No more threats, Fate. You’ll learn I’m a man without limits.
Moving his hand, he watched in satisfaction as the soul lowered closer and closer. The man began to scream as the blackness licked at him, tearing tiny pieces from him that would never exist again.
Caine closed his eyes, listening to the sound grow louder and more desperate.
“Stop it,” he heard the Fate shout.
“Tell me what I wish to know,” he whispered.
“And you’ll save him?”
“Perhaps not him. But the next one… maybe.”
Caine lowered the man even more and his blood-curdling screams were like music to his ears.
His guard shouted.
Frowning, Caine opened his eyes to see the Fate was racing across the room. Caine opened his mouth to give an order, to do anything, but it was too late.
She slammed into the soul, shoving it free of the Soul Destroyer. To his shock, she fell into the gaping black hole. She disappeared without a sound, leaving nothing behind.
“No!” he rose from his throne and scrambled as close to the dangerous hole as he dared.
The Fate was gone.
Had a living being ever been destroyed?
His pulse raced. Now, he would no longer know the future. He wouldn’t know where the angel and her demons would go next and he wouldn’t know how to steal the God Finder.
And what will happen in this world without one of the Fates? The thought made his head feel light.
Something within him whispered that there would be consequences.
Balling his hands into fists, he strode back to his throne. No! The Fate was not essential to his plan. She was nothing more than a tool. Sometimes tools broke and had to be thrown away. Her destruction meant nothing to him. And he might not know how to take the God Finder, but—
His smile returned. The easiest answer was that he could simply torture the druid. Everyone had a breaking point. And he would make it his goal to discover the traitor’s.
I haven’t lost all my precious tools… there is always Surcy.He’d look forward to another late night visit of forcing himself into her mind and pulling out her secrets.
He hummed to himself as he continued judging the souls.
