Page 166 of Dark Haven Omegaverse

My voice shook but my eyes were full of fire as I glared at her.

“Is that why you sent your adviser and warden? So they could kill me?”

She chuckled as if this was some giant joke, not my fate.

“Or help it along,” she countered. She was so fucking nonchalant that I wanted to lash out. I’ve never been more hurt and betrayed in my life.

“I won’t die for you, Hel. I have a life and I’ve worked hard for it,” I bit out.

She would not take it all from me without a fucking fight. I knew five mates who would fight beside me.

“Death wouldn’t be the end for you,” she said as if that would change anything. “That I can promise you.”

“That’s supposed to help? What, I’m just going to have to live eternity as a fucking demon in your realm or a lost soul?!”

“You wouldn’t be a demon and you wouldn’t be a soul, you’d be something new,” she said.

The way she spoke was like I was missing the point, and I wanted to punch the Queen of Helheim in the fucking face.

“No. I meant what I said. I won’t do it.”

She leaned forward and glared at me. “You can try to outrun fate, Harlow, but it never works. Your fate has been sealed from the moment I chose you. Mine was sealed when I was damned to this godsforsaken realm.”

She hated Helheim and the gods. It rang true in every word she spoke.

“Then choose someone else,” I screamed. Anger was making my voice shake, and I hated that I was letting her see how much this was breaking me. She didn’t deserve to know any of my vulnerability. “Why give me mates and this life just to take it away?”

She shifted in her hair chair as she regarded me, tucking her long, black hair over her shoulder.

“You all serve your purpose for me.”

For me.The words hit me square in the chest, stealing my breath.

This woman was not a leader, but a fucking narcissist. She couldn’t see past whatever fantasy she’d concocted to realize we were real fucking people.

“You think everyone in this world is just here to serve you, to be used in some fucked-up game that you’re creating.”

I was grinding my teeth so hard my jaw ached. It was all I could do to not lash out and get myself killed.

“I didn’t start this war or the rebellion, Harlow. This is how it was meant to be. There’s only so much I can do from this realm.”

“I don’t believe that for a fucking second! You have shown your powers more than once,” I argued.

“Believe what you will,” she said absently, picking at some nonexistent lint on her arm before leveling me with an unamused look. “You can choose to cry, fight, and whine, but at the end of the day you know what you have to do. You have your answers now, Harlow. Leave me.”

She waved her hand as if to dismiss me, and the air wavered until I was back in the courtyard.

“Harlow? Are you okay?”

Layne was beside me, her pretty face twisted in a worried expression since I wasn’t answering her question. She moved in front of me, tucking my hair behind my ears as she tried to study me to figure out what was going on.

I couldn’t form the words, only tears, which wasn’t helping her panic.

“Is this some kind of psychotic break? Do I need to get a nurse?”

That was enough to make me laugh, though it sounded strangled. There was no way to put into words what I was feeling, the panic and fear choking me.

Hel was right about one thing. I had my answers now, and I really fucking wish I didn’t.

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