ZINA
After Modrich’s departure, Zina waited still in the room, her thoughts now occupied with Seraph. She knew it was absolutely wrong and heartless of her to threaten Daemon in the manner she had instructed Seraph to do.
But between grief and the determination to put everything in its rightful place, Zina was forced to make the hard choice which was a hard pill to swallow.
Now, she was betting everything on the hour of noon. Once it was twelve, everything would finally be put to rest. And as for where that would leave her—for all her ability to see the future—she didn’t know.
That was the thing about the gods. They had a funny way of making her see the future of the greater good, while leaving her own fate in a blind spot. But death whispered to her... beckoning on her, asking her to join Brynn, her poor child who shut her eyes against the world before she could live.
Footsteps approached her, and the weight of her blindfold pressed against her eyes. By her calculations, if everything went well then Seraph should be very well on her way back. But she knew the footsteps didn’t belong to Seraph, but to another.
Rowan...probably accompanied by Rose.
Even without seeing the ti, she could feel noon drawing closer and closer, probably re minutes away by that ti.
The door to her prison was opened harshly, and those footsteps agitatedly reached her.
"Do you think this is fun?" Rowan gritted, probably seething after seeing how Modrich WolfKnight bolted from the manor in fear and hate of Zina whom he had terd as ’unhinged’.
Zina faced the direction of his voice. "Are you that disappointed that our marriage failed?" She drawled, simply because she needed to waste more of their ti.
The more seconds she saved, the more ti she borrowed for Seraph. Not to ntion that Zina highly doubted how much Daemon would actually listen to the threat she had delivered using the girl. He might very well still trace back the Cave Manor without waiting for the golden ti, and that would spoil Zina’s plans for sure if she wasn’t careful.
"I see we went easy on you," Rowan said with a mad chuckle, "but not anymore. Now, I shall show you just how unhinged my ans can be."
Zina smirked. "You think you went easy on ?" She said in an airy voice, "I was kidnapped from my ho, lost my child, went through nine of your hellish Nirvana torture, got stripped of my dignity, was shown my poor mother captured by your people for thirty plus years and yet you think you went easy on ?"
Zina heard it before it happened. His fingers gripped her neck, slamming her body against the wall. "I will show you hell worse than that!" He growled, "I will show you that there can be hell worse than that!"
Zina laughed out loud, her body vibrating from the act even as breathing beca harder for her. "Are you not curious, Rowan? How is it possible that you never truly broke yet you and your master managed to awaken the Deford?"
Zina felt him still, the hold on her neck loosening. Even without seeing the expression on his face, she could easily imagine the confusion laced on it as he mulled deeply about the strange events that were now happening.
"In this ga that started from the ti you kidnapped ,"’Zina continued, knowing she now had a firm grip on his doubts and minute fears, "who do you think is the Master Puppeteer, and who do you think is the Puppet?"
The grip on her neck tightened again. "I do admit sothing has gone wrong beyond our expectations," he gritted, "but if you think this little derailnt is enough to thwart decades of planning then you’ve got it wrong."
Then next thing, his breath was right by her ear—hot and disgusting at the sa ti as he whispered. "The deford bound North will swallow the place you called ho whole. As for that husband of yours, while I shall personally prefer to rip his throat out, when I am done with you, you will be the one to take his life with your own hands."
Zina tilted her head up as his coldly delivered words settled like venom in her veins. Then she too, gripped him by the neck lightly only to bring her lips by his ears.
Then she whispered to h, "Guess what’s the first mistake you, your Master, and your Seven Witch Seers made the first ti you decided that I will be the tool you will use to bring this world under your feets?"
She felt him smile audaciously... the sa seeping into his words as he asked, "Pray tell, what mistake is that? Not that I am curious, but it’s afterall in the nature of a dying woman to say her last words before her death."
Zina smiled as well, while the ribbon of her blindfold cloth waved in the air, tickling her neck. "It is underestimating the woman who gave birth to , and the two gifts she gave the first ti I graced the world."
He slightly stiffened under his touch. After all for all his bravado, even Rowan knew that sothing was terribly wrong from the first ti they realized that they hadn’t managed to ta her—a surely strange phenonon considering it was key to awakening they deford.
That alone was a fundantal error in their foundation. And no shaky foundation could stand. Attempting to torture her again in a bid to rectify that error and successfully break her was the act of a dying man grasping at straws.
When he remained silent, Zina chuckled. "You’re wondering what those two gifts are, right? It’s my ability to see the future... and part of the Pack Runes she left in my body."
Rowan tore back from her hold, and Zina heard Rose take a step forward after being silent for so long.
"What do you an by that?" Rowan asked in a strained voice. "You an to tell that the pack runes of the Screars Pack is inside of you?" He asked in a voice that held both disbelief and incredulity at the sa ti.
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