Page 81 of What did you do?

“Aaarrrrggghhh!” I thundered. A shock wave of my power shook the room.

The door banged open, and icy relief doused my hot skin. Whoever was at the door would be taking every drop of rage I had hoped to relieve with Aurelius. They were about to be in a lot of pain.

Walter’s shaggy, brown hair popped into the doorframe.

“Mendax! They have alerted the Lumins Army. They are coming for you!” he shouted.

“Good, let them come. My need for relief will likely not be satisfied until I drain the blood of an entire army.”

“You ogre! It’s not you I worry about. Caly loves Prince Aurelius, Mendax. She has been through more than the both of you will ever understand, and she doesn’t deserve this. She has her own reasons for being in Seelie, and if you get in her way, she will retaliate. She already hates you,” Walter stated, glancing to Aurelius, tied up with ropes of smoke on the marble floor.

“So you think you understand her better than we do, better than me? Huh, shifter?” I said through clenched teeth.

How much more could a person take? Was this what love was? I wanted to rip my own heart out and put a blade through it.

“I think that I’m the only one here thinking about her and not myself.” Walter narrowed his eyes at me. “You have alerted the entire castle that you are alive and that she was unsuccessful in killing you. As far as Seelie is concerned, Caly never completed her task of allegiance and has betrayed the entire realm, and the ones she calls family here. You just doomed the woman you claim to love.”

“It seems you have an awful lot of adoration for someone that is not yours, brother.” I’m not even certain I said the words outloud before I had him tied in twin ropes of smoke, lying on the floor next to Aurelius.

They both wriggled and strained against their cocoons as I stood over them.

I commanded the smoke to adjust them until they were leaned against the edge of the love seat. My glare attempted to burn a hole through their heads as I tied the ropes tightly behind their backs, restrained legs in front of them.

I needed out of here before I murdered them all. Too much rage still boiled under my skin. I was going to combust if I didn’t get it out. Now.

“Apparently, there is still a question of who Calypso belongs to,” my rough voice grated out.

Racing heartbeats roiled like a symphony in my head as I walked out the door, leaving Prince Puppet and Walter bound and gagged in the smoking room.

The thud of my boots reverberated across the hallway.

A collection of poorly armored Lumin guards at the far end froze upon seeing me.

I grinned at them and opened my hands, sending a barrage of smoke into the air that twisted and morphed until it formed three antlered wendigos of smog. The demon creatures overtook the guards, easily ripping and tearing into the weak-armored fae.

Screams and grunts rang out around me as I walked, a tendril of rage trailing after me.

I shouldn’t be near her yet, but I needed to see her before I left.

My mind strained under the pulsing rage. I whispered out a shield barring anyone from entering the hallway. It wouldn’t hold for long, but I didn’t need much time.

I shadowed into Calypso’s room.

22

PRESENT DAY

Caly

Ipulled the thin tank top over my head, letting the soft, gray fabric of my nightshirt drag against my damp skin.

After our return from the pits, I couldn’t help but be angry with myself. Saving Tarani was not my responsibility. I wasn’t even supposed to like Eli, but I’d failed there too. Marrying him would make things move so much quicker, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t do that to him.

The shower had helped my sore muscles but not my mind.

It wasn’t until I burst into my empty room and was hit with the familiar jolt of disappointment that I figured out why.

Walter was waiting in the room for me, alone.

---