Page 60 of Magic Betrayed

My lips were numb. My heart was racing. This was not how I’d wanted anyone to find out the truth.

“I told you Kes has unusual magic,” I said, my voice audibly shaking. “And I warned you our secrets were dangerous. Neither of those things has changed.”

Ari looked up from her plate. She glanced at several faces and seemed to realize something was wrong, because she abruptly teleported right into my arms—nearly knocking me over. I somehow kept my feet and held onto her as she buried her face in my shoulder.

“It’s okay, Bug,” I whispered, stroking her hair as I eyed the room, wondering whether I could get us out if I needed to.

My odds weren’t great. Not with an assassin, a professional mercenary, two dragon shifters, a fae prince, and a handful of others watching my every move.

But I took a step back anyway, pivoting to make sure Shane was in my line of sight. “I won’t let any of you hurt Ari,” I said fiercely. “And if you try to stop me, I won’t hold back. I will make youpay.”

“You won’t be alone.” I hadn’t even seen him move, but Rath was suddenly at my side, a glimmer of fae power shimmering at his fingertips.

Shane, too, took a step towards me, his hands held open in a gesture of peace. He then turned to stand at my shoulder, eyeing the rest of the room with an intense, golden glare. “I can protect Ari,” he offered coolly, “if you need your hands free.”

Against all expectations, they weredefendingme. But the pressure still seemed to grow, and the adrenaline hummed in my veins, insisting that I run.

“Raine.”

My panic paused for a moment. I knew it wasn’t magic. Couldn’t be. Shapeshifters had no magic in their voices. But the sound of my name in that deep voice acted on my racing heart like a warm blanket on a cold day—wrapped me up and held me, safe and secure.

Callum moved closer, each step slow and deliberate, his amber gaze holding mine. “No one here is going to hurt you, or Ari,” he said. “I promised I would keep you all safe, and I’m not going to take that back or change my mind, no matter who stands in my way.”

“You might,” I threw back at him. “You might if you knew the truth.”

“Won’t.”

He was right in front of me. And the look in his eyes, the expression on his face… The compassion I read there was so raw, so deep, that it physically hurt. Made me want to run for entirely different reasons.

“Why not?” I was desperate for him to explain, because I still didn’t understand. “You make no sense, Callum-ro-Deverin. None of this makes any sense.”

“It doesn’t have to make sense,” Kira said, in a noticeably different tone than her previous question. “It’s family. And I’m sorry that I sounded angry. So sorry if you thought I was accusing you of anything. I’m not angry at you, Raine. Never at you. Or at Kes.”

I tried to breathe. Tried to let go of the tension that curled through my chest and constricted my muscles. No one here was going to hurt me, or Ari. And if anyone tried, I was no longer powerless.

Ari whimpered softly and pressed closer, and I shifted her in my arms, not sure how long I could keep holding her. Uncertain of my ability to keep carrying the weight of her safety and her future.

“I’ve got you,” I soothed her quietly, but did I really? How could I make that promise when I’d already failed so many times? And why did she seem to keep believing in me, no matter how often I messed up?

She still trusted me to keep her safe. Logan and Kes trusted me. Not to be perfect, but they trusted me to try, and to keep trying until the last breath left me. At some point, we’d made that choice to trust one another—without evidence and without proof, because it was our only hope of escape.

The people around me now had already shown that they cared. They’d accepted me in spite of my humanity. Given us a home regardless of our ability to repay their kindness. But how many more of my burdens would they be willing to bear? How many more secrets before they turned their backs?

There was no way to know. No way out but forward. And yet… moving forward required a leap in the dark—one I was so very scared to take.

Scared, and exhausted. In over my head. There was no way I could do this next part alone.

I was just going to have to take that leap and pray that it was the right one.

“Okay.” I looked around the room, at the faces that had become so familiar over the past few months. These were Faris’s most trusted staff and the family that had grown up around them. Not related by blood, but family just the same.

“I guess you would have figured it out sooner or later. But… yes. What Ari said is true.” My heart was hammering wildly, but I couldn’t go back now. I needed their help, and that meant telling them the truth.

“Kes’s magic is the reason she was kidnapped. She can… steal magic, I guess. It’s a defensive power, or probably should have been. And it hurts her every time she uses it. But back when she was young, she accidentally found out that it hurt less if she transferred the magic into an object instead of holding it in her body. Like… an electrical ground.”

I heard an audible gasp from Talia’s direction and flinched. She must have already put the pieces together.

“Kes was raised at the Fae Court. Bullied mercilessly for being only half fae. At some point, she used her magic to defend herself, and Elayara realized what had happened. That’s when she started her experiments. Once she discovered the possibilities, she dedicated herself to learning how to mimic Kes’s power.

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