Chapter 105: Disappointing kill test I
A heavy wave of concern settled over Ren’s chest, coiling through her veins like a second heartbeat. She clutched the vials’ container tighter in her hands, praying they would be enough, at least against the lesser ones that hadn’t mutated. But the goblin’s warning echoed through her mind, chilling her to the marrow. A berserk vampire lord... and worse, a giant. That combination alone would be nearly impossible to bring down. Some Giants were as massive as Sunkiath, brutal, ancient, and blood-hungry. If one like that turned its gaze on the golden dragon, drawn to the potency of its blood... no, she couldn’t allow that to happen. She needed a different solution. A deadlier one.
The dungeon air clawed at her throat, rank with rot and something darker, something undead. The sealed vampires in each cell oozed a presence that turned the very air poisonous as if death itself had taken root in the stone walls. It wasn’t like this before.
As they reached one of the cells, Kai’s arm shot in front of her, shielding her instinctively. "Close to me, wife," he ordered, his voice low but tight with urgency.
Ren bit the inside of her lip, hard enough to draw a sting. Being near him was getting unbearable, not because she didn’t want him, but because she wanted him too much. She loved Kai. That truth never wavered. But pretending to be indifferent, keeping this distance between them... it was slowly breaking her. She missed his lips, craved the heat of his wild, hungry kisses, the way he used to hold her like she was the only thing anchoring him to the world. Memories weren’t enough anymore. They never were.
And maybe that hunger, that ache, only sharpened her resolve. If she could prove herself in this war, gain something, win something, maybe she could close that distance again. Maybe she’d finally feel like she deserved him.
"I’ll be fine," she muttered, brushing his arm aside more forcefully than she intended, and stepped past him into the cell behind Agara. Her fingers clenched the box tighter against her chest like it could steady the whirlwind inside her.
"How should we use this?" Arkilla asked, her curiosity bright and crackling in the gloom.
They were supposed to have tested the poison days ago in the arena, measured its effect, and refined their methods. But then Luther had stormed in, tearing through their plans like wildfire. That left only one clear option. Agara and Ren had settled on it fast.
"Arrows," Ren said. "We’ll make it rain."