Page 79 of What did you do?

“Fine. Grab the bitch and bring her back with you to fight the Fallen fae. She’ll die before you cross the front forest.” The dark queen opened her palm to let one of the many luna moths that had followed her through the portal land on her hand.

“She is a powerful enemy with deceit in her blood. Don’t you see? Either way, now Saracen has the advantage. Somehow the sneaky whore did it. Let’s say you do manage to find and restore her heart and powers. Who do you think she is going to use them against?” She stepped close to me, dropping the hand with the moth. “The man who is trying to tear down and murder the people she calls family? Or perhaps she will use her powers against one of the Smoke Slayers that is credited with forcing her entire race to die or go into hiding? Yes, that seems promising,” she said with a glare.

“I would harness that tongue of yours,” I stated as black-blue smoke clouded my feet. “Her reciprocation of my love is unneeded. I would never require her to hold the same attachments as myself because it is an impossible feat. I am possessedwith a cruel and bloody love that collapses and suffocates, squeezes and rips until scars and bruises are the only traces left. She is the noose that hangs me, the rope that strangles and chokes at my soul, and no one—not her or anyone—could ever be left as breathless as I am.”

Queen Tenebris’s sharp blue eyes held pain before she closed them. Her raven-black hair was wrapped elaborately around the black crown on her head.

“That is the greatest downfall of a Smoke Slayer—once we feel our soul has chosen, we cannot exist without them in our grasp, no matter how undeserving they are. Believe me, I understand, but our souls are infantile and demonic. Have you learned nothing from what we went through with your father?How could I have not recognized her?” She was shouting now, her own ashy smoke pouring from her in a silent plea. “The Artemi are too powerful to be allowed to return. Unseelie will be the first thing she destroys.”

“You are the one who has left the castle while it’s under attack,” I growled back, frustration bleeding into my words.

“I left to retrieve you! This isexactlywhat Saracen wanted—to distract you while the Fallen take our castle. You’re an idiot, and not the son I raised, if you think for one moment she doesn’t know you are within her walls. With an empty throne and a tired queen, the Unseelie court has never seen a more vulnerable time, and here you are trying to bed the enemy!”

“Return to Unseelie. Tell Dirac to get his father’s army. They have the Ladon. We won’t require such measures against the Fallen, but it will send the desired message. At any rate, his father’s dragon will be heartily fed when he returns,” I said with a grin. That would terrify the Fallen.

My mother looked up, sadness in her eyes. “Mendax, the Fallen have gained control of the Lindwrym.”

“The Lindwrym? How?” I asked.

My skin itched with frustration. I cast a stream of smoke over my mother’s head sharply, breathing only when it cracked into a squirrel eating on a log behind us. With a small clap, it was consumed entirely by the black cloud.

I needed to kill something. Now.

“They have grown more powerful since you have been gone,” she whispered. “We think they are under new leadership.” She didn’t need to say who she thought could be behind it.

“Return to Unseelie. Do exactly as Dirac tells you, and for star’s sake, listen to his instructions if your powers are needed.” I turned to face the unsightly gold castle, only a speck in the distance. “I will return to Unseelie tonight. Caly will be safer in the Seelie realm, at least until I can find her heart.” Even as thewords poured from my mouth, fury and pain rippled through me at the thought of leaving her here.

“Listen to me, you must find her heart and destroy it before she gets ahold of it and receives her powers, or I promise you, my son, she will ruin every piece of you there is left,” Queen Tenebris bit out with a stiff jaw.

“She already has.”

We nodded goodbye. Mother stepped into the ring of mushrooms and disappeared with a puff of smoke, and I started the walk back to the Seelie’s castle, killing every living thing that presented itself to me.

The thought of adding any amount of distance to what I already felt from my bonded made the splintery crumb of a soul I had ache. I couldn’t risk her death in Unseelie. If it was as bad as Mother made it out to be, Caly couldn’t be there without her powers. Still, I couldn’t bear to leave her here…unprotected. The goose bumps on my skin prickled with the need to violently slaughter something and release a fragment of the rage that burdened me.

Aurelius.

My pace quickened. I didn’t bother to shadow back, hoping the walk would make some of my impulsiveness ebb a bit. I didn’t care who saw me. It was vital that I feel his life slipping away under the force of my calloused hands. I needed him to be gone and away from her once and for all.

Fuck her for making me her fucking keeper.

I hoped that she had left the castle, because right now, I wanted to kill her too. She could wait for me just as easily in the netherworld of Tartarus. I wondered if they had officially marked her a Seelie royal or if she had enough Artemi in her that it would count; humans couldn’t go to Tartarus or the Elysian Fields, and I wasn’t going to run around trying to pull her out of human heaven or hell.

Was that a fucking eval?

The barbarous creature snarled at me. It was lucky I thought it was some new gargoyle when I passed it, or it’d be dead too. What the fuck was an eval doing at the front door of the Seelie castle?

I turned back around to look at the large animal for a minute, contemplating if I wanted the fight or not. It snarled at me, flashing its long teeth. It had an odd stare, one I’d swear I’d seen before. The creature stilled, growing as stiff as a statue.

I didn’t have enough time. I had people that needed to be killed.

Servants screamed as I charged into the entrance, the giant double doors slamming loudly when I pushed past them and continued down the hall. It didn’t matter who saw me. What could they do? She was the only one who could ever hurt me.

Platters and trays clanged to the floor, the cymbals in a terror-stricken orchestra. There would be no more lurking in the Seelie castle now, but I didn’t care. It was beyond my abilities to care about anything but her.

Screams pierced the still air of the castle from every direction. The harsh light pelting my face only fed my irritation. Apparently the walk to the castle hadn’t helped calm my rage. I couldn’t recall a time I had ever needed to make something hurt and bleed as much as I did right now.

A door shut with a crash at the end of the hallway near Caly’s room, and the man himself stepped out, looking around for the cause of the excitement. He didn’t look surprised to see me, which meant that my Caly had already told him. I hoped she’d told him how hard I’d fucked her on his throne too.

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