Page 168 of Their Blood Rite

Both alive and both fucking gone.

Everything in the forest goes silent. The Unseelie return to the earth, lakes and skies, following their queen into the darkness she flees into.

I stare at the soil. At the earth that stole my prize. My fingers furl into fists, and the ground below shakes as it feels my anger.

The Unseelie have fled, leaving behind nothing but the dead.

Two feet stop before me. The sword's tip drips red from where it cut Neve’s hand, helping her escape.

I look up to see Shaw holding the sword. He’s panting hard and bleeding from various cuts but stone-faced and fierce as he watches me.

Slowly, I stand. Heat flushes through my body, and every muscle is rigid. He grips his sword harder but holds his ground, never looking away as I return to my feet.

He’s all I see at the end of a tunnel of rage. He’s all I smell. All I taste.

I growl, filled with a deep need to make him pay for freeing her.

For standing aside as I died for them, over and over and over and over again.

Chapter 29

‘You let her go.’

‘You were using blood magic too much. I had to, to save your soul.’

My eyes narrow as I lean closer. ‘What soul?’ I hiss. ‘You will find no soul here.’

He surveys me, panting and unsure. ‘Witch,’ he says. ‘With a thirst for blood.’ His eyebrows raise. ‘You shouldn’t exist. It’s not possible.’ He steps closer. I have to tilt my head back to keep him in my sight. I refuse to step back. ‘You’re like us. Something else, trapped in a vessel.’

I step closer.

‘If I were you,' I warn. 'I would run. I would hide. And I would pray I don’t find you.’

‘I’m not running from you, Pixie.’ He steps closer still. ‘Never.’

My fingers wrap around his throat, and I feel his bones crunch beneath my grip. Yet, he doesn’t fight me off. He doesn’t struggle.

‘You resurrected the Blood Queen. And then you stop me from killing her.’

‘You were losing yourself. Blood magic is dark. Too much and-’

‘You took me from my coven. You all took your turn and fucked me. You used me. Betrayed me.’

‘Yes,’ he replies.

‘I’m going to kill you.’

He holds his hand up as Dorian and Archie approach. They stop.

‘When you were inside me, when you kissed me, you knew I would end up in that circle, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘When she said my death and the destruction of the bloodline that cursed you would free you, you were going to kill me.’

‘No.’

‘Liar.’

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