"If you’ve heard of the rumors, you would’ve also heard about what I did to those n that kidnapped ," Daphne said. She took one step back when Eugene took one step forward, making sure that the distance between them didn’t change one bit. Her eyes darted to the side, wondering if she could escape."As well as the third man at Frostholm."
"I heard," Eugene said with a nod, just as expected. However, what he followed up with wasn’t sothing Daphne had considered prior. "I saw too. You’ve really done a number to that man’s face. What was his na again?" He tapped a finger against his chin. "Right, Bram."
Shock washed over her like a silent wave, rendering her speechless and immobile. mories and forgotten images that had been tossed to the back of her mind resurfaced. She could still see in her mind’s eye how Bram writhed in pain. The cruelty and violence he inflicted on herself and Maisie. The anger that had crossed his eyes and the blood that had flooded out of his body when he was brutally impaled when Atticus finally found her.
"That’s not possible," Daphne said out, her voice all choked up. "You were imprisoned. How could you have seen what I’ve done when you were in the dungeons?"
"I didn’t see what you did to Broc and Clive," Eugene clarified. "However, I was no longer in the dungeons when you and your little entourage got to Frostholm, was I? How could I have missed such a spectacular show?"
"You only knew of my magic from rumors," Daphne said, her voice barely even above a murmur. "You said so yourself."
She was afraid — though she wasn’t too sure why — that there would be other participants nearby that could overhear their conversation. She didn’t want them to know that she had magic― not yet. It was a nice ace to keep up her sleeve.
Yet, she was also hopeful that there was indeed soone nearby that would be able to help her out of this situation. Daphne didn’t wish to be alone with this man for another second more.
"Therefore," Daphne continued to say, "you are lying. You couldn’t have seen ."
"I didn’t see it happen." Eugene’s lips curved into a crooked smile. "But your lovely husband didn’t do too good of a job with the cleanup. It’s not hard to stumble upon the pincushion of a dead body that was left in the basent of the tavern. Careless of him."
Daphne gulped, swallowing the bile in her throat. Silently, she cursed Atticus a thousand tis in her head for not properly disposing of Bram’s body. If a different — normal — citizen had co across it, it would’ve definitely given them so undue stress.
"But I know through my years in Vramid that King Atticus isn’t too talented with pyromancy," Eugene said. He began to walk, circling around Daphne while maintaining the distance that she had set between them. "Bram’s face had been grilled until it was well done, though. It was no re slight heat that had caused that burn."
His eyes practically sparkled when he finally stopped in his steps. He took large steps towards Daphne, suddenly grasping her wrist without warning. Daphne yelped in surprise, her body jolting. She tried to struggle out of his grip but his hold was like steel― it held her firmly in place.
"It would have to be you," Eugene said, speaking as though he was in great awe, marveling at soone that might as well could’ve been his savior. "The dragoness, the new queen of Vramid, the lady of the flas."
"Let. Go. Of. ," she warned, carefully enunciating every word.
Daphne summoned her powers, finding it extraordinarily easy to bring a wave of heat to her hands. They began to heat up so much that the air around her hands almost seed to vibrate. Slowly, her skin began to take on a deep shade of red. When it got even hotter, her hands turned orange, her palms nearly turning white.
However, this ti, Eugene barely even flinched. He simply t her gaze directly, staring dead into her eyes with the sa smile that hung onto his lips.
"Fooled once, Your Majesty." He sneered. "Would be shaful of if I let you fool a second ti, don’t you think?"
Even though Daphne’s wrist was basically as hot as molten magma, Eugene’s grip felt like a blast of icy chill. The collision of hot and cold caused her arm to feel like it was about to snap in two.
She gasped, not daring to struggle another inch when she felt her skin tear. No matter how much heat she mustered, it seed like Eugene was able to plunge her into the pits of a tundra. Her arms had lost the red hue, quickly cooling down.
Even though it did, Eugene didn’t seem to be backing down. His hands were still cold, so much more than what she could handle. Frost began to creep up her skin, coloring her hands in a sheet of icy white until Daphne hissed in pain due to the frostbite.
"No..." She gasped, horrified. "Please... Wait... Stop!"
"Tap into your fire, Your Majesty," Eugene taunted. The crazed fervor in his eyes looked more like a loyal servant wishing to see their master perform rather than a sadistic murderer finding joy in seeing the fear in their victim’s eyes. "Where was the fire from before?"
Suddenly, a loud chirrup tore through the air as a ball hurtled across Daphne’s head by a re hair’s breadth and collided against Eugene’s face. Even though he had been facing the direction of the incoming object, he wasn’t able to dodge in ti. Just like that, he was knocked back, his hand releasing Daphne’s wrist to clutch and hold his own face.
Daphne stumbled back, gasping in relief. Nonetheless, even though Eugene’s hands no longer clutched onto hers, she could still feel the leftover chill that tingled and spread across her skin. Her hand and a good bit of her forearm had turned numb and even borderline purple due to the cold. She could only hiss in pain, resisting the tears that threatened to slip from her eyes.
Slowly, she tried to concentrate so heat into her hands to heat herself up.
While doing so, Daphne spared a second and looked up to see where Eugene had stumbled to. She was t with the sight of Eugene sprawled on the ground, fighting with a ball of fluff that had stubbornly clutched onto his face.
Even though Daphne had prevented herself from crying from the pain, she didn’t manage to stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks when she realized that the baby griffin hadn’t abandoned her completely despite the way Eugene had treated it.
It even tried to protect her!
A shadow suddenly grew over her, completely shielding her from the light of the sun. She looked up, squinting so that the piercing light of the sun wouldn’t blind her eyes from the way they flared out above the head of the person that caused the shadow. When she finally made out the familiarly stern features, Daphne breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Atticus!"
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