Page 12 of What did you do?

The old tree creaked in protest.

Aurelius moved closer to her while they continued to talk.

My face hardened, now with pure fury.

She had left me.

She had left me when she hadn’t really wanted to. That meant someoneelsewas pulling her puppet strings, and that wasn’t going to work for me. It wasn’t going to work out very well for them either. I knew who it was. I just needed to see if there was anyone else to add to the list.

The Seelie and the Unseelie queens had always been on the verge of a war, and I was afraid this human had probably doomed us all—unknowingly. Iknewshe wasn’t aware of all there was to the Seelie queen, or she wouldn’t have been packing a bag as a human to join her right now.

The only thing that might have saved her and gotten her away from them safely was our bond. Funny how much she fought against it, when it was probably the only thing that wouldkeep her alive in Seelie. If she thought being a human was unsafe in my realm, she was in for a shock.

She definitely received some of my powers when we bonded, though how much or why was unclear. My mother and I had never heard of such a thing happening. Typically the bonded receives some of the Smoke Slayer’s powers once the marriage ceremony is completed, but I’ve watched the smoke cascade from her soft skin enough times to know that wasn’t the case with her. Through the bond, I can feel her emotions. They are watered down and faint, but they are there. She feels mine, too, when I’m not keeping them in check, even though she thinks they are her own.

This will be fun.

A tight grin lifted one side of my mouth.

The golden shit tried to hug her. She recoiled, likely repulsed by his sunshine glow, then they watched as the charcoal smoke caressed her skin.

I shuddered, feeling my smoke dance across her skin. She liked the feel of it. It reminded her of me.

“Fucking stars,” I growled.

Aurelius finally left the room to collect something from her kitchen. She shuffled frantically through another box, stuffing odds and ends into her bag in his absence, checking every so often if he had returned before hurriedly placing more odd-shaped items in the bag.

For the first time since she left me, I smiled so wide I could feel something crack open in my chest.

I couldn’t wait to play with my little hellhound. I couldn’twaitto see the look on her face when she realized I wasn’t dead, and Iespeciallycouldn’t wait until I punished her for leaving me.

I told her she would never, ever be free from me, and I fucking meant it. Whether she had killed me or not, I would have returned to haunt her—and that’s exactly what I planned to do.

5

PRESENT DAY

Caly

The moment we came through on the other side of the portal to Seelie, we were greeted by a beautiful woman with warm brown skin and an orange-tipped sword that matched the color of her shoulder-length curls.

Stepping out from the ring of mushrooms, I nearly hurled all over the vibrant green grass, still unused to the dizzying sensation of passing through portals.

“You okay?—”

Eli’s words were cut off when the guard pressed the large sword flush against his neck.

My pulse picked up seeing a blade at my best friend’s throat.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

I took a step toward them, ready to remove the blade from Eli’s throat and turn it on her.

Eli rolled his eyes and held up his palm to wave me off.

“Mia, you know who I am. I helped train you,” Eli grumbled.

The woman smiled. “Proof. Hurry up, my shift is almost over,” she barked at him as if he weren’t the Seelie prince.

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