Severed Souls(166)
Richard’s vision went red.
He turned and with a scream of rage rammed into the woman, catching her completely by surprise. Richard had both hands around her throat before she knew what hit her.
He slammed her up against the wall hard enough for her head and shoulders to break the plaster. Her hands snatched desperately at his wrists. He smashed her head into the wall again before she had a chance to summon her occult abilities. The sound of the powerful blow echoed through the hall. Blood splattered across the whitewashed plaster wall. Stunned, her eyes rolling, she fought to remain conscious. Her face glowed beet-red as she struggled in vain to get air.
Irena’s feet kicked above the floor as Richard pinned her up against the wall, crushing her windpipe.
He was in a blind rage, screaming the whole time. Nothing else mattered to him but choking to death this traitorous woman who had killed Zedd.
As he strangled her, her face went from red to dark red to blue. Her wide eyes bulged. Her limbs hung lifeless, swinging from side to side as he repeatedly bashed her head against the wall.
“Richard, what is it?” Kahlan cried out. “What’s going on?”
He realized that Kahlan had been asking the question over and over. She had been screaming it at him.
He was panting so rapidly he could hardly speak. “She killed Zedd!”
Kahlan’s eyes widened. “What?”
Richard’s lethal focus remained riveted on the woman he was strangling, on her blue skin, her dead eyes staring at him as his big hands shook with the effort of crushing her throat.
“She’s been a traitor among us the whole time—working to sabotage us—to make sure we were captured—to see us all murdered by Dreier.” Richard gritted his teeth in rage. Tears ran down his face. “She killed Zedd!”
With a growl of fury, he slammed her lifeless body up against the wall yet again. He kept choking her, even though he knew she was dead. He wanted to kill her a thousand times over.
His grandfather, the man who had raised him, the best, the smartest, the kindest, the wisest man Richard had ever known, had been murdered in cold blood by this evil, conniving traitor.
Kahlan gently pulled on his arm. “Richard … it’s over.”
He finally dropped her in a lifeless heap, her limbs flopping out to the sides as he stood over her panting.
It was then that he realized Samantha had just come around the corner.
She stood frozen in shock. Her dark eyes were as wide as they would go. Her face stood out white against her black hair.
CHAPTER
83
Frozen in horror, Samantha stared down at her dead mother for a moment. And then she ran toward Richard, screaming, her fists flying.
“What have you done! You monster! What have you done!”
“Samantha,” Kahlan said, trying to pull the young woman back away from Richard, or at least to catch her furiously flying fists, “you don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly well!” she screamed. “He killed my mother! He killed her! I saw it!”
“Samantha!” Richard yelled back. “You don’t understand—”
“I do too understand! I understand that you’ve taken everything from me! I hate you! You killed her! She was all I had left in the world and you killed her! You took her from me! You took everything from me!”
Down the hall, Richard could hear the sound of boots as men raced at a dead run toward the shrill screams.
Nicci ran in around the corner. “What’s going on?”
“Samantha!” Kahlan yelled as she again tried to pull the young woman away. “Listen to us!”
Nicci skidded to a stop when she saw the crumpled body of Irena on the floor. “What happened?”
“Richard killed her!” Samantha screamed.
Cassia reached for the young woman to help Kahlan try to contain her. Samantha jerked away from them, moving back out of reach, her hands fisted at her sides, her teeth clenched, tears streaming down her face.
“Samantha,” Richard said, “you don’t understand. You need to listen to me. I’m so sorry, but your mother was working with Dreier against us the whole time. She murdered Zedd. She helped Dreier capture us so the two of them could—”
“Liar! You’re a liar! You didn’t like her so you killed her! Now you’re just making excuses! She loved us all! You’re a liar!”
“Samantha,” Richard said, trying to find a way to get the young woman to calm down and listen, “your mother killed your aunts to help Dreier—”
“That’s a lie! That’s not true! You’re lying! You’re lying!”
“Samantha, listen to us,” Kahlan put in. “She murdered your father as well. We can show you—”