Page 85 of Wake the Dream

“Try me.”

Yelena leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “Would you have listened? Probably not. You were so wrapped up in your own miseries that you didn’t want to hear mine. I found a way to fix this. For both of us.”

“Don’t pin any of your actions on me,” Illaria said softly.

Kieran wisely kept his comments to himself.

For one heart-stopping moment, the three of them stared at each other in silence, dust falling to the ground like snow.

Ilaria turned her head, looking straight ahead instead of toward Yelena. Then turned her back to her sister. “I’m not going to fight you.”

Kieran watched Yelena scoff. “What do you mean, you aren’t going to fight me? I never wanted to fight. Obviously.”

Butterflies swarmed his stomach, warning him of rough waters ahead. His heart gave a lurch.

“I haven’t seen you for a week. You left me no note, no warning on what you had planned. You allowed me to panic and freak and worry about you...when you were here. Trying to kill me.”

Yelena jumped to her feet. “I never tried to kill you!”

“Baby, we don’t have enough strength to take her down if you piss her off,” Kieran said, struggling to swallow past the sudden lump in his throat.

“We’re not going to take her down. Not today, at least. I have so many more questions for her.”

Yelena eyed the two of them and electricity surged through Kieran’s body, warming his blood. Her eyebrows lifted. “Illaria, do you really expect me to believe you’re taking orders from this guy? Seriously?Thisis the guy you’ve chosen?”

It was Illaria’s turn to step in front of him, Kieran noted with some surprise, her tiny body becoming a shield. “We’re going to give you a ten-minute head start. Stop what you’re doing and get out of Hedgehill Marsh.”

“Illaria, get serious—”

“I’m deadly serious, Yelena. This isn’t a game you’re playing. This is people’s lives and safety. You’ve murdered innocents to fuel your pet projects.”

Yelena’s cheeks brightened and her eyes went flat. “You know nothing.”

“Because you aren’t the person I thought you were. My sister would have never done something like this. Never. Whoever you are, you can go back to the Hell you crawled from. I will never help you take over the town. If that’s even your true intent.”

The air began to surge around them like the roiling waves of an angry ocean. Kieran lifted his gaze to the treetops to see them bending, bowing. Ready to crack.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Yelena snapped.

“You know I can’t hurt you. But I can sure give you a scare before you do anything stupid. Looks like my powers have been right here the whole time. I just needed a new way to access them.”

“You’re making a big mistake—”

Illaria cut her sister off for a second time, and Kieran found himself torn between pride and fear at the look on Yelena’s face. “Sue me. Now you better run, because I’m coming for you. And I don’t plan on losing. I’m going to throw you and Mom back through that tear in the veil and close it on your asses for good. No coming back. Guess I’m not done with playing the hero here.”

The wind around them coalesced into a single jettison of air, pelting forward and slamming the bench back into the tree trunk. Yelena stood her ground with her head hung low, clucking her tongue in an eerily similar fashion to Oona.

“I won’t tell you about your mistake again. If you don’t come with me now, Illaria, this is it. This is war.”

“Then excuse me while I polish my armor.”

A funnel of air appeared in Illaria’s palm and she sent it flying. The tornado grew in strength and size until it toppled the nearest tree, pulling the pine out by its roots and launching it halfway across Crow Point. “If this world is crawling with monsters, then I’ll be here to kill them,” Illaria screamed to be heard over the roaring of her air magic. “This is my town, Yelena. You remember that.”

With ebony wings bursting from her back, the dark-haired Fae took to the skies. The beautiful, dangerous dark to his girl’s light.

It wasn’t until he glanced down that he noticed Illaria had grabbed his hand. Keeping him rooted to her in the midst of the chaos from the wind.

“Do you think you might want to...” He trailed off as Illaria stared after her sister’s rapidly retreating figure.

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