Page 140 of The Fallen Fae King

He should draw the whip further back and use more wrist action. I am almost tempted to tell him.

Still, the silver on the end burns, while the third hit slices through my skin.

I lick over my lips at the sensation of blood trickling down my spine. My neck becomes damp with sweat.

I imagine flying in my bat form in the cool night sky.

Swish — crack.

The pale moonlight shimmers on my wings.

Swish — crack.

This land of gold is spread beneath me, while my bat riders proudly cling to my back.

Swish — crack.

Painfully, I turn my neck and glance over my shoulder to meet Taran’s eye.

He hesitates with the whip poised over his shoulder.

“You truly have no idea how to break me, do you?” My eyes shine with amusement, despite the pain. “Dragons have no clue. Look at the amateurish way you’re holding the whip. If you want to shred through my skin with each blow, you need to change your wrist action. By the Shadow Devils, stop playing with me. Harder.”

Taran stares at me. “You’re a psycho.”

“Is this news to you?”

“The savage isn’t wrong,” Maximinus’ calls from behind the bars of the cell. “But then, how could you break someone who has already been raised by the tender hand of Nebet, as an apprentice of the Scarlet Temple? You’re still young, An. You believe that you understand the dark methods in our realms, but you were sheltered by Vicious. Your Guild is not the only one who likes to play twisted games.”

Taran blushes, dropping the whip to the floor. “I am trying⁠—”

“My pretty assassin, you have been trying for two weeks,” Maximinus interrupts, sharply. “Your usual techniques won’t work with this one. Get out.”

I slowly smile as Taran’s head snaps up at the humiliation of being ordered out of his own dungeon.

“Run along.” I drop my hands, hiding the hiss of pain at the stretch on my welts, before turning around. “It appears that the adults are about to have a talk.”

I arch my brow, making a shooing motion with my hands.

Taran glances between Maximinus and me in outrage, before he snatches up the whip and storms out of the cell, slamming and locking the door behind him.

I chuckle, as I listen to the sound of his footsteps as he runs, hopefully to cry in the arms of his Omega about his humiliation in a nest overrun with my faithful beetles.

Then I turn my steady stare on Aurelius’ uncle — the dragon who I have been determined to kill for my friend’s sake since I was young.

To my surprise, Maximinus doesn’t threaten me but instead, smiles. “Since the adults are now talking, what would you like me to have fetched for you? It’s cold. How about a blanket? Water? Food? Blood?”

“Nothing in life is free,” I reply. “What would all that cost me?”

He looks surprised, as if he expected me to be easy to trick. “Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Sweet vampire, how about seeing it this way?” Maximinus moves closer to the bars. “It comes with an offer. You’re the top assassin in the realms, and I have a secret core of workers in this court who are loyal to me, including assassins. You must have figured out that the intention is for you to die in this dungeon. I am offering a way out of here for you right now. You simply need to make an oath to work for me.”

Rage swallows me. My shadows lash out, flapping around me.

I straighten with a grimace, feeling every burning welt now like my back has been lit on fire.