Dammit, you idiot. She can’t be killed without the crystal being corrupted.
He raced for it, his legs wobbly despite the mind fogging elixir taking away her powers. She got there first, hands planted against its glass-like sides as she drew upon its energy. Keaton watched with no small amount of aggravation as her wound was healed, then brought out his scimitar and swung down, aiming for her arms.
He never reached them.
The viper’s hand shot out with lightning speed, her fingers closing around his neck as she lifted him off the ground.
“You tampered with my mind!” she hissed in a shrill voice.
“Welcome to the club,” he choked out, the scimitar and dagger both dropped as he fought to free himself.
“Thought you would be clever, did you? You could have lived like a king. Inssstead you will die like the worthless insssect you are.”
Her fingers clenched hard around his throat, crushing it in her grasp. Keaton clawed at her hand with both of his, his lower body swinging, kicking as he tried desperately to free himself.
But she was too strong, and he could feel his life force being sucked away; drawn out by some other power she was using on him. Blackness crept in from the sides of his vision, and all he could think was that he deserved this. The people fighting for him didn’t, but Keaton did.
He’d failed them.
Just as Keaton felt himself losing consciousness, the viper screeched. The hold on his neck loosened and was gone completely as he dropped to the ground in a heap. Choking and sputtering, Keaton forced himself to his feet so he could offer some kind of defense against a follow-up strike.
One never came.
His vision was hazy, yet he could clearly see Cassia pulling back her halberd, the viper’s blood flinging across the room. On the other side, flanking the dungeon lady was Adriana, her dagger wrenched free from the woman’s ribs, pure rage on her face.
They’d come. They were alive. Whether that meant they’d defeated all the snakekin or not, Keaton didn’t know. Right now, he didn’t care. He needed to make up for his oversight and finish this once and for all.
Lunging for his dagger, he narrowly avoided the swipe of the viper’s tail to grab it. Fingers curled tight around the handle as he drew the blade across his palm until blood beaded there. He clenched the dagger within it, feeling the sting of it biting into his skin. Keaton hissed but kept up until blood began to seep out, dripping from the heel of his palm.
“Don’t you touch that cryssstal, you little—”
She shot toward him, truly like a cobra lashing out from a coiled position. Her arm slammed into his, knocking the dagger free. It clattered to the ground and Keaton scrambled to retrieve it. She was too fast. Her tail curled around his legs, pulling them out from under him. He had only a second to brace before landing on his face.
But Cassia and Adriana gave her no quarter. Halberd and dagger thrashed, swinging and thrusting and plunging. None of it would do any lethal damage until he could get to the crystal, but it was enough to cause the dungeon lady pain.
“Warriorsss, defend me!” she bellowed.
Keaton didn’t wait to see who answered her call. He scooped the dagger off the floor, curled his fingers tight around the handle again, then dove for the crystal, narrowly avoiding a swipe of the viper’s tail.
“No!”
He plunged the bloodied dagger into the crystal, hearing the outer shell crack, the internal structure shattering. He drove it deep, resistance meeting him as the blade tore through the muscle tissue of a beating heart. Behind him, the leader of the snakekin let out a hideous wail.
He thought perhaps one of his companions’ strikes had landed true, but the wail continued. It pierced his eardrums, shattering them until all sound was a muffled, hazy mess. Keaton was forced to drop the dagger and cover his ears just to mitigate some of the agony he was feeling.
Dropping to the ground, blood trickling from between his fingers, he practically writhed. When the sound was over, he felt such an intense wave of relief that he didn’t notice his consciousness being pulled away. His mind was under attack, and by the time Keaton realized, it was too late.
“You could have been my consssort,” she hissed, her fangs bared at him. “Inssstead you will be my ssslave. And your firssst order isss to kill thesssse foolssss.”
His attention was forcibly turned toward his lieutenants. Keaton was trapped, a prisoner of his own mind as he bent to pick up his scimitar. He focused on Adriana first, knowing she wouldn’t lift a hand against him. It would be easy to cut her down.
No!
Something within him thrashed in protest, trying to break the bindings that held him under the viper’s thrall. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t. There had to be something he could do. There had to be—
He advanced on her, scimitar extended in his bleeding hand, more blood trickling down the sides of his face. A rictus grin stretched across his lips, madness threatening to overtake him.
“Lord Keaton…”
“Tell her to beg,” the viper whispered in his ear, her voice smooth as silk.
Keaton struggled against the command, the words coming unbidden.
“Beg for your worthless life,” he sneered, the tip of the scimitar pointed at her throat.
“Look out, my sssslave. The other one isss none too happy.”
He reacted just in time to thrust his arm out and block the halberd strike. Agony flared through him, a snap resounding in the chamber as his arm broke under the pressure. Still he didn’t stop.
“End her,” the viper commanded.
Keaton swung, but Cassia was too fast; too strong. One shift of her halberd and the blade clattered uselessly to the ground, his fingers throbbing where she’d slammed them.
“Snap out of it,” she growled, her face close to his, “or I swear I’ll knock you out and finish this myself.”
“She thinkssss you are weak,” the viper said. “She will turn on you the moment you give her reasssson to.”
Just like Elena. Just like everyone before her. Keaton’s insecurities flared to life and he grit his teeth, glaring at Cassia. In the back of his mind, he knew it wasn’t true. But right now, it seemed like she was betraying him this very moment.
“You’re better than this,” she asserted again, shoving him back with the haft of her halberd.
His scimitar was in range. He could pick it up and slash at her when she inevitably turned to face the dungeon lady. It would be easy to cut her down. Easy, yet his hand trembled as he reached for the blade.
“Keaton, please.”
He felt Adriana’s hand on his shoulder. She was standing so close, despite the fact that he’d nearly tried to kill her.
“This isn’t you.”
It wasn’t him. Even when he’d killed as a profession, it wasn’t him. Everything in him rebelled against it, just like now. He reached out with his mind, pushing back against the enclosure she’d trapped his consciousness within. He thought of Adriana and Cassia, of all the people who now depended on him. He thought of The Labyrinth and the future he could build there.
He latched onto the bonds he’d formed with his lieutenants and held fast, grasping them for all he was worth. And slowly, Keaton felt himself being pulled free. The glass that surrounded his mind shattered, the viper’s influence falling away in a violent storm.
He was free.
And he was fucking pissed.
31
He let out a guttural roar, swiping the scimitar from the ground and lunging at the viper.