Selene wheezed, tasting blood in her mouth. "That child would have been a curseon our bloodline. I was cutting out the rot before it spread."
Slap.
The second slap was harder than the first. Selene's head snapped to the side."
"That child is my grandchild," Maravelle bent down until her face was close to Selene's bruised cheek. "If that child dies because of you, you will beg for death, and it will not come. I will keep you alive. I will feed you just enough so you will stay alive and feel every moment of what is coming."
Maravelle straightened.
"When Thornak leaves that room," she said coldly, "if he walks out of that room a father who has lost his firstborn — he will not come to you as a King. He will come to you as a monster. He will strip the skin from your soul, and I will be the one holding the lamp so he doesn't miss a single inch of your agony."
Selene began to shake, the reality of what she had done finally sinking in.
