Your Uncle’s My Husband Now Back Off Ex (Nyla and Clark) novel Chapter 536

I never expected to come back to this place.

To the caves.

The tunnels where I had nearly lost my life. Where Natalia had birthed a child that came out too small and too soon. Where we suffered at the hands of a monster that was supposed to be dead.

When I watched Natalia push the Winter King’s head under the surface of those waters, I never expected to see him again. Or the waters, for that matter. That dark green pool of brine and steam had haunted my dreams, but I thought it would forever stay that way. As a dream.

But now I was back. Surrounded by the steam that seemed to erode my insides with each moment I was here.

And the glee with which I arranged my ritual!

I had propped Ellen’s body up against one of the stone pillars. Her head was permanently bent to one side now as rigor mortis set in, but that didn’t matter. I had made sure her eyes were focused on my artwork. On the ritual that would change the world.

All it would take was one simple ritual. One body, arranged just so. And then I could enter hell, meet my Lord in his true physical form, and accept my inheritance.

I would become more powerful than the Winter King had ever been. I would do the things he had never been able to do. I would bring death and destruction upon the world, and from its ashes, we would build a new empire. One built on flesh and bone with rivers of blood flowing across the land.

Beautiful.

I didn’t know how to do it at first, but the Lord showed me the way. He held my hands, so to speak. Guided my fingers through

the work.

I began by dismembering Isaac’s body. The rot made it easier for the knife to cut through the layers of flesh and muscle. It was the bone that was the most difficult part, but with swift, strong twists, I finally managed to pop the sockets apart.

Then came the arrangement.

East, south, north, west. Hands and feet pointing in the cardinal directions.

I placed the head in the center, although I wasn’t quite done with that part yet.

“The final piece will come later,” the Lord whispered, his voice echoing through the cavernous chamber. It seemed to mingle with the sound of fetid water dripping on black stone. “For now, focus on the arrangement.”

He showed me how to make the painting of blood next. I slit open Isaac’s torso and dug my hand into the well of blood, but it was too congealed to spread. No matter. I had another body at my disposal.

Ellen didn’t seem to mind as I opened her next and took her blood. If she’d been alive to witness it, I knew she would have approved. How could one not? How could someone look upon this artwork and find it anything but beautiful?

I spread her blood across the rough stone floors. The Lord guided my hand in broad strokes and swirls. The shapes made no sense, and yet, at the same time, they made perfect sense. Like an abstract art piece that only the painter could understand.

When it came time to arrange the organs, I began cutting into Isaac’s torso. I pulled his heart out first. It was thick and heavy, but smaller than I’d pictured. I supposed I’d always thought of hearts as being bigger than this. More… significant.

But this was just a palm–sized hunk of muscle. No bigger than the rare steaks I’d eaten many times.

This isn’t right…

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I froze, still holding Isaac’s heart in my hands.

You don’t want to do this, Andrei…

I was alone, but the voice came from everywhere. And yet…. nowhere. Within me? I looked around, confused. I swore I’d heard that voice before… A long time ago, maybe. Or perhaps not that long at all.

My wolf…?

Whatever it was, it was gone as swiftly as it had come. The Lord rushed up behind me with a chill wind that made the torches on the wall flicker and the steam above the water billow in my direction, filling my senses with the familiar burn of the sulphur.

“Do not hesitate, Chosen One.”

Right. The ritual.

I laid out Isaac’s organs in a splendid arrangement. Heart, kidneys, liver, small intestine, large intestine. All placed between the cardinal directions, right on top of the swirls of blood.

It was nearly complete.

“Now,” the Lord said, “it is time for the final piece. Sever your pinky finger. Place it in the imposter’s mouth. And enter the portal.”

That voice echoed in my mind once more. You don’t want to do this…..

But the knife was already hovering above my finger.

I sliced through the delicate bones with one swift movement. The pain made my jaw clench, but it was far away by now. A dull ache, nothing compared to the pain I would inflict on the world once the Lord gave me my inheritance.

Crouching, I pried Isaac’s jaws open and placed the finger on his tongue. My hands shook, but I didn’t stop. I closed his lips

around it.

“ANDREI!”

I turned at the sound of Damon’s voice. He came skidding into the chamber, eyes widening when he saw the scene before him. His brother crouching in the center of a pentagram. The steam billowing faster now, the scent of sulphur and embers burning

his nose.

I stood slowly. “You’re too late, Damon.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What needs to be done. This is my destiny.”

I turned away, watching as the waters began to swirl. Slow at first, then faster, steam rising so thick I could hardly see through it. It burned my eyes, but I moved toward it. I kicked off my shoes, then stripped down my pants, my shirt. Lastly, my underwear.

“Andrei! What are you doing?!”

I ignored Damon. I had to. The portal was opening; red lights began to swirl around the perimeter of the pool. They rose into the air like embers from a fire that had been burning long before we were ever here.

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