Heart of Venom

there, and started to dig, widening the trench.

For several seconds, the only sounds were the steady scrape-scrape-scrape of Sophia’s shovel stabbing into the earth and the soft squish-squish-squish of the bodies, mag-gots, and more under her feet.

But it apparently wasn’t enough that Sophia had already been shot and kicked and was now wading through death. Grimes and Hazel decided to torture her with their Fire magic too.

The two siblings reached for their power, and flames

sparked to life on their fingertips, dancing back and forth like molten-lava butterflies in the soft summer breeze. Their magic moved in perfect harmony, the flames undulating in time and even burning at the same intensity. Then, together, they threw their magic forward. Sophia’s hands tightened around the shovel, and she stopped digging, knowing what was coming next, but she didn’t hunker down or try to move out of the way. Instead, she stood there straight and tall as two balls of elemental Fire raced through the air and exploded into the bank, one on either side of her.

The scorching heat from the twin blasts blew back into Sophia, knocking her down onto the bodies again. I could feel the intensity of the elemental Fire all the way over where we were in the woods, and I could imagine how excruciating it must have been for her to be so close to it.

But once again, Sophia slowly picked herself up and staggered back onto her feet. The skin on her face, neck, hands, and arms had reddened from the blast, although

I couldn’t tell if it was only temporary from the heat or if her skin had been that badly burned.

But maybe the worst part was that the shifting cadavers beneath her feet actually ignited—at least, their clothes did. Oily smoke boiled up from the torn, bloody fabrics that were still clinging to the rotten limbs, adding to the horrible stench in the air.

Sophia glared over her shoulder at her two tormenters.

Hazel cackled and threw another ball of her Fire magic into the bank close to the dwarf, the flames exploding and washing over even more of the corpses. More wretched smoke bubbled up around her, until it hung over the pit like the foulest sort of fog. After another moment, Sophia turned around and went back to her digging, the flames of Hazel’s magic licking at her and the dead all around her.The men who’d come to watch hooted with delight through the whole horrible thing. A few even stuck their revolvers up into the air and fired off some shots. The sharp cracks rattled around the clearing, punctuating the men’s mocking laughter. Hazel played to the crowd, holding her long off-white skirt out to one side and elegantly bowing to the men before sending little bursts of Fire straight into Sophia’s back. Not enough to kill the dwarf but more than enough to hurt her. Grimes tipped his white fedora back from his forehead, as though he wanted an even better view. Then he simply stood there and watched the whole thing, his lips curved up into a small, sinister smile.

The searing heat from the elemental Fire. The foul, rotten stench from the swollen, bloated bodies. The acrid aroma of burned flesh. The bugs humming through the air, hungry for whatever blood and bones they could find.

Hazel preening. The men jeering. Grimes grinning.

And Sophia in the middle of it all, dressed up like a pretty, if stained, porcelain doll, as though she should be having tea in some summer garden instead of digging a mass grave.

It was one of the most disturbing things, one of the most sickening things, one of the cruelest forms of torture that I’d ever seen—and there wasn’t a damn thing that I could do about it.

More than once, I started forward, determined to slash my way to Sophia, no matter how suicidal that would be.

But every single time, Owen put his hand on my arm and kept me from giving in to my murderous rage. Even though I wanted nothing more than to leap out of the trees and cut down every single person I saw, I couldn’t.

There were just too many men between her and me, not to mention Grimes and Hazel and their damned Fire power. They’d cut me down with their guns and magic before I could even get close to Sophia, much less rescue her.

Besides, I had Owen and Warren to think about too.

They’d come with me of their own accord, but I was still responsible for them. I might be okay risking my life but not theirs.

So I crouched there in the woods, and I watched the torture of someone I loved.

More than that, I memorized it—every gleeful yell, every crackle, pop, and sizzle of dead, smoking flesh, every foul smell that oozed through the air, every hiss of pain that escaped Sophia’s burned, blistered lips.

Oh, yes, I watched, and I memorized every single black deed, every horrible thing, every bit of agony that Sophia was enduring. One by one, I embraced all of the sadistic terrors and the cold, black, unending rage that went along with them.

“What do you want to do, Gin?” Owen asked.

Hazel sent another blast of Fire magic into Sophia’s back, causing Grimes and the rest of the men to howl with laughter again. The force of it made the dwarf clutch the shovel and hunch over in pain, but after a few seconds, she straightened back up and started digging again.

“The second that there’s an opening, we rescue Sophia and get her the hell out of here. And while we’re at it, we take these bastards out along the way,” I said, my voice dripping with all the venom in my heart. “Every last one of them. No survivors—and absolutely no mercy.”

Chapter Seventeen

Eventually, Hazel grew tired of her gruesome game and quit throwing her Fire magic at Sophia. The bodies continued to smolder, though, and I didn’t see how Sophia kept from retching at the gruesome graveyard stench —or breaking down entirely.

“We’ve got some business to attend to back at camp.

You five, stay here and watch her,” Grimes ordered some of his men. “She’s a clever thing. Don’t let her out of your sight, and don’t go near her, no matter what. She’s killed more than one man with a shovel.”

Sophia spun the shovel around in her hands and gave the men on the bank a dark, toothy grin. More than one shuddered and looked away from her. Nobody wanted his skull bashed in, and they especially didn’t want to end up in the pit with all of the other bodies. But the men did as Grimes ordered, drawing their guns and lining up on the dirt bank opposite her, making sure to keep well away from the edge of the pit.

Sophia studied them, considering her options, looking for any sign of weakness, just like I would have. But the men had the high ground and the guns, and she knew it.

So Sophia shrugged and went back to her digging, stabbing the shovel into the black earth, then swinging the dirt away in sharp, vicious arcs. I wondered if she was imagining that the earth was Grimes and Hazel. I would have been.

“Good,” Grimes said in a pleased voice. “You’ve decided to behave. You see? We’re making progress already.

I’ll be back just as soon as I can, darling. Then we’ll have a nice dinner and talk about our future here together.”

Sophia kept her back to Grimes so he couldn’t see the disgust on her face, and she kept right on digging, as if she hadn’t even heard him.

But she wasn’t the only one who didn’t like his words.

Jealousy pinched Hazel’s face, and she gave her brother an incredulous look. A few flames sparked on her fingertips, further hinting at her anger, but Hazel quickly curled her hand into a tight fist, smothering the Fire before anyone else noticed it. It seemed that Hazel didn’t like it that Grimes was planning to devote so much of his time and attention to Sophia. I imagined that Hazel enjoyed playing queen of the mountain, given that I hadn’t seen another woman in the entire camp.

Ever the gentleman, Grimes held out his arm to his sister. Hazel took it and shot Sophia a triumphant