Curled Horns

35. Sawing

Hongjoong's voice had a drawl to it. Both the split in his tongue as well as his accent hinted at him usually not being used to speaking the demon language. But he mastered it without fail.

"What are you for the prince?" Hongjoong switched over to Mingi's second leg. He brutally removed it from its squirming position to pin it down. Mingi hiccuped in pain.

The truth sounded like his best bet. Not that they would have mercy on him if they heard of his relationship with Yunho, but pixies were excellent liars. They would see right through him and their wrath would be gruesome.

"I'm his lover," Mingi whispered. His body strained against his bindings when both pixies retreated to eye their work. He couldn't break free.

Hongjoong nodded satisfiedly and pulled a chair closer. He sat down, but not on the seating flat, but on the backrest. His heavy boots rested on the chair that didn't tip over since he didn't weigh much.

From above, he looked down on Mingi. The servant felt entirely too exposed under those piercing eyes. A split tongue appeared behind sharp teeth when Hongjoong smirked at him deviously.

"His lover, huh. So you're a filthy nobleman despite your horns?"

Mingi frantically shook his head. His skull roughly fell back against the table plate. It hurt, the reminder of his recently trimmed horns still throbbing in some places, but he couldn't find the confidence to mind.

"No! I'm his servant but we fell for each other."

Mingi didn't like the taunting grin on Hongjoong's lips. The pixie glanced at his companion who leaned against a wall somewhere above Mingi's head. He was still armed and tense to draw his weapons in case Mingi could muster the strength to fight back. As San had said, they were a perfectly accustomed duo. No wonder all those demons had fallen under their combined might.

"A prince who fell in love with his servant," Hongjoong echoed with a giggle. The other pixie gave a scoff as well. The hurt digging into Mingi's heart barely ached through his dread. Clueless about the fun they had, Mingi grit his teeth as he thumbed on his restraints.

Once their joke was over, Hongjoong returned to glaring at Mingi's quivering form.

"What did you do before that? Before coming to the palace and becoming the prince's property?"

"I harvested carrots," Mingi whispered. Each answer sounded worse than before. He just waited to be stabbed clean through his exposed chest. The strain of their elongated conversation made him nauseous and his guts hurt with the need to throw up. He just waited that his fate would turn out even worse because he displeased them.

Instead of hacking Mingi's head off, however, Hongjoong cursed in a language that wasn't theirs. His mother tongue curled in his mouth like the artful craft of black magic. A forbidden language, one that hadn't been taught to the demons in school despite the countries being so close and bound to each other by a treaty.

"He's not our target group, Wooyoung," the pixie hissed. His claws rubbed his forehead in distress. Gulping, Mingi watched his predicament. It sounded as if he wasn't in immediate danger. After all, the pixies must have been after Yunho when they broke into his chambers and then changed their mind after they had spotted Mingi in his bed.

"But you want him, don't you?" The other man behind Mingi replied. Mingi worried his lip with his teeth. He didn't dare pique up even when Wooyoung had just turned the sole ray of hope into ashes.

Hongjoong dropped his hand, eyes sharpening again.

"I do."

"In that case, nothing keeps you. We'll have to figure out what to do with him anyway." Wooyoung shrugged it off as he left the room for a moment. Alone with Hongjoong, Mingi scrutinised him with wide eyes. The pixie sighed, as if dealing with Mingi was a hassle suddenly.

"Ever ate something relating to pixies in the palace?"

"I only drank tea with some pixie dust in it..."

Hongjoong sighed as he sprung down from his chair. When Wooyoung handed him his horrible horn saw, Mingi's body locked up. Petrified, he stared at the cruel weapon. Hongjoong held it so casually, so unimpressed between his claws. Its delicately swirling ornaments and leaf-shaped decorations seemed like a wicked joke.

"Not good enough. But I don't care, not today. Usually I wouldn't do this to somebody like you, who holds no account to the cruelties towards our race, but... Your horns are just too gorgeous for me to let you go."

Mingi't throat tightened as if strung by a thread.

"W-Why?" He sobbed, desperate to make him talk more and reconsider. If Mingi had no worth for them, why take his horns off? Mingi's horns were so thick and heavy, he wouldn't survive their loss. Especially not trapped in some building where nobody would find him for days. He would bleed out within minutes, much faster than San with his slender horns.

"I take revenge only on those who took our wings, who slaughtered our people to turn them into food. Those with the skyward horns and power. Not the poor ones in your race that get suppressed as well, you don't even have access to those luxuries. We aren't unjust, but I am a collector. You will have to be a sacrifice for the forgiveness of your race, lamb."

When Hongjoong positioned himself at the upper end of the table to run his fingers along Mingi's horns, the servant shivered pitifully. His heart jumped and stuttered in his chest. He feared the pain, death, the long minutes it would take for both to transition into each other. He didn't want to lose his horns.

"No, please," Mingi begged. His wrists pulled on his bindings desperately, rattling the wood beneath him. He couldn't break free, only chafing his skin raw when he continued trying.

Wooyoung bunched up a piece of cloth he found in a corner of the room. He jammed it between Mingi's teeth for him to bite down on and to stifle him. Gagging around the grimy taste, Mingi helplessly twisted his shoulders on the table.

"I'll be quick. Not all of you have died under my fingers," Hongjoong promised as if that would excuse the maniac glint in his eyes. Not a sliver of hesitation passed them as he circled his shoulder once. Mingi felt the blade of the saw hovering over his horns as Hongjoong picked out the perfect spot to dig into. When Mingi weakly turned his head away, Hongjoong clicked his tongue.

The pixie had just swung his leg over to sit on Mingi's chest and hold him in place with his thighs instead when a harsh knock sounded on the door.

For a moment, icy silence spread in the room. Wooyoung and Hongjoong stared at each other with narrow eyes. Tense, the pixies's body that had to be around half the size of Mingi's tightened up.

"Another checkup?" Wooyoung's lips formed without a sound passing them. Hongjoong tensely looked back at Mingi, his knuckles whitening under his already pale skin.

"Distract them," Hongjoong instructed quietly "I won't miss out on this."

The blade bit into Mingi's horns when he dug it in, planning to saw away secretly. Violently, Mingi threw himself against the grip Hongjoong had on him. Sharp pain worse than he had ever felt brought tears to his eyes and had him yell coarsely into the gag. It was unlike anything he could describe, just the anguish of having a zagged weapon dug into the most sensitive part of his body.

Before Wooyoung could sneak out through the backdoor to cause a distraction, the crash of splintering wood sounded. Mingi yelped around his gag when the bone saw slid from him and splattered blood over his chest. Perplexed, Hongjoong glanced over his shoulder, disbelieving that something had penetrated their magical barriers.

A fiery creature hovered in front of the window. Mingi saw flames licking at its fur. As he tried to make out its position, he noticed the lifted claw a tad too late.

The wooden wall of the house buckled when it got sliced to bits. As if through paper, the claws ripped a massive hole into the wall that exposed the living area to the street outside. Fire licked on burst beams, spreading inside with its unstoppable hunger.

Towering on Ave's back behind the agitated Ignizoth, sat Yunho. And the determination in his eyes chilled Mingi's blood in his veins.

The pixies didn't waste a second to get into fighting position. Now that the two groups met, it was everything or nothing.