Page 109 of Madness of Her Mages

Malvolia stepped aside, motioning to me. “Shirina, go ahead.”

Drae stepped closer to me, placing a protective hand on my shoulder, infusing me with strength. I had no idea how I would’ve survived the journey into the tower, or Malvolia’s mad court, without my mates.

I looked into Felicity’s bloodshot eyes, knowing that my mates and I could’ve easily been chained to that wall instead. Her eyes held no malice, only a plea for help. I knew she didn’t deserve my pity, but I felt a stab of regret that things had turned out this way for her, even if it was of her own doing.

“Were you intending on harming Queen Malvolia in order to secure the throne?” I asked, my siren voice ringing through the cramped cell while I did my best to put all dark thoughts of Marius from my mind.

“No,” she blurted. “Never.”

I nodded. “Will you help me refine my blue magic skills?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed.

“You won’t try to seek vengeance on me or the queen?” I pressed.

Her eyes watered with tears. “No!”

“What about my mates or my nieces?” I demanded.

She shook her head. “We won’t seek vengeance.” Her voice broke as a tear slipped down her cheek. “I swear.”

Malvolia arched a brow. “Even if after you train Shirina you are banished to your estate forever?”

Felicity looked to me.

“Answer her,” I commanded.

“We won’t seek retribution,” she cried out, her bottom lip quavering. “We swear.”

I gave Geoffery and Steffan dark looks. “Do you also swear you won’t enact vengeance on Malvolia, the rest of my family, or me?”

“We swear,” they answered in unison.

Tears spilled over Steffan’s eyes. “We just want to go home, and we promise we’ll never bother you again.”

I gave Malvolia a cool look while trying again not to let thoughts of Marius distract me.A dark cell. Fucking bitch.“Satisfied, Aunt?”

“Satisfied?” Malvolia snorted, black fog oozing from her pores as she gave me a look that would’ve made a lesser witch run for cover. “After the cousin I trusted has been deceiving me for years?” Her voice rose and cracked as she turned to Felicity with a snarl. “The only reason you’re not dead is because of Shirina. She asked me to spare you.”

Felicity fell back onto the bench, more tears spilling over her eyes as she looked up at me like a starving mongrel begging for scraps. “Thank you, Shirina.”

They seem sincere,Drae said through thought.

I know,I answered, emotion tightening a ball of twine in my chest.

“Any other questions you wish me to ask?” I asked my aunt while trying my hardest not to let her see this hatred burning inside me.A fucking dark cell.

“No.” She scowled down at Felicity and her mates as if they weren’t fit to lick the grime on the bottom of her boots. “That will be all.”

Felicity clasped her hands in a prayer pose, her desperate gaze shifting from me to Malvolia. “Will we be released?”

“Perhaps,” Malvolia drawled before taking my arm. “Let’s go, Niece.”

I reluctantly walked alongside her, my feet struggling for purchase on the slick floor. Malvolia laced her arm through mine as if we were the closest of companions, all while I fought the urge to force her to jump off the top of the tower. We greeted Blaze in the hallway, and he confirmed my fears with a sympathetic nod. Marius’s moans echoed throughout the corridor, lapping at my heels like the flames of hell, reverberating in my mind and in my memories.

And my aunt didn’t show the slightest signs of remorse, her features an impenetrable shell.

Flora, is it you? You smell like her.

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