Page 101 of Solstice

I caught up with her halfway there. She stopped and turned to face me. “Yes?”

All the terrible things that had happened up to this point rushed through my mind, and most of them were her fault. In fact, if she hadn’t arranged this marriage between Lex and me, Siobhan wouldn’t have noticed me. We would have gone on with our lives, happily oblivious to this warped, twisted reality.

Maybe I was looking for someone to blame, or maybe I had realized that none of this mattered. I knew the consequences of what I was about to do. Hell, my career would likely be over. But I didn’t want it anymore if it came with her strings attached. Making that decision freed me. I raised an eyebrow and took a menacing step toward her.

“What are you doing?” She planted her feet and held firm.

“WhateverIwant for a change.”

She balked, her brows furrowing. “Ivette, what has gotten?—”

“No,” I cut her off, grabbing her elbow so I could back her up against the plaster wall. “No, the time for you to speak is done.”

I twisted her bony arm in my fist, and I stared her in the eyes, allowing my gift to take over, giving myself this moment, this millisecond, to unleash my anger on her.

“I know what you did, Mother,”I told her, picking through her memories, crawling through her mind like a spider in the deep, dark webs of her subconscious.“Why? Tell me why.”

“Ivette, what is happening?”Her voice came out fast and high-pitched, sounding terrified and transfixed. Perhaps it was impulsive to do this now when so many other things were happening, but nothing could have stopped me.

“Tell me,”I bellowed.“Did you cause the breakup with Carter? Did you leak the photos to the press? Did you do this to me?”I squeezed my hand tighter, almost to the point of pinching. Her agony ricocheted up her arm, around her spine, slipping into her brain so I felt it with my own.

She stayed silent for a moment, then muttered a simple,“Yes.”

The memories came next. She’d hired the best people in the business to monitor our computers, our smartphones, all of our tech. She’d made sure, even months after Carter and Miri had left, that we didn’t see each other. When she found out we were back together, when she found out we’d gone to the cabin for Christmas instead of coming home and playing house, that had been the last straw. She had the same people hack our security system, go inside our house, and find the pictures, find anything that could be used against us.

Yeah, she could have leaked the whole thing, and if this were about more than forcing me to do what she wanted for the good of the family, she might have. What point was there to that? The same result could be achieved with minimum collateral damage. If it was just me, if it was just my reputation to repair, I’d been so drama free my whole life, I could take the hit.

My hatred for her boiled in my veins, sending a spike through our connection, into her brain.

“What are you doing to me?”she pleaded again. “What are you? A monster?”

“Ivy,”Lex’s voice cut through all of it, pulling me from my outrage and bringing me back to the present.“X, stop it.”

I let go and stepped back, gasping for air to fill my lungs. My fingers and toes vibrated, my legs wobbly, barely able to hold my weight. My mother wilted before catching herself and pushing herself upright.

“You’re a demon,” she whimpered. “What did you do to me?”

Lex twisted my body around to face him, cupping my cheeks. “X, look at me. Take a breath.” Kit stood just to the right, staring at our mother with her hands over her mouth.

I focused on my fiancé.

“Deep breath in,”he told me,“and a deep breath out.”

I repeated the mantra as he calmed my nerves and all of the rage directed at the one person who’d made my life hell. A practical part of me was already freaking out and worrying about what she’d do to me as a result, but this new vengeful side didn’t care anymore. Even if she did, who would believe her?

Then it hit me, a crushing wave of power so strong it nearly dropped me to my knees. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. The overwhelming strength of Alberich’s foreign magic twisted its way down my spine and into my thighs, turning my body to Jello. Lex’s hands clawed into my forearms.

“Ivy?” Lex said.

I nodded, my heart sinking into my gut. “He’s here.”

The king.

29

Lex

It was a sham marriage.

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