Page 104 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
Pain lanced through my heart. I let it tear the remains of that vulnerable organ apart until I felt nothing.
“We will discuss tonight another time,” I told them, my tone brittle.
“Elias, I think?—”
“I care little of what you think, human,” I growled at Donnie. “Go.” I spoke this to everyone, releasing the fae from my hold on them.
When they lingered, I let out a blaring roar from deep within my cracked chest. I opened myself to my wrath and let it consume me.
My friends were the first to jump to their feet, their eyes searching mine. Whatever they saw made them race toward me.
I angled my face to the sky and sniffed. Satisfied, I grinned when I found the scent I hunted for.
George opened his mouth with a hand toward me, probably about to tell me to wait. I bent through space again before he or any of my friends reached me.
While I’d never traveled to my uncle’s region, my senses led me exactly where I needed to be.
Tall buildings surrounded an otherwise desolate street, where lights blinked from poles high in the air. While the smell differed from my region, the starry black sky above remained familiar. There was an eerie quietness to the place, with only the sound of the wind gusting through the buildings and the creaking of street signs.
Always, there was noise in my region. Whether it was from people talking or children shouting, it was never quiet. Not like this.
I followed my uncle’s scent to a large manor. While it was much smaller than the castle my parents called home, it was larger than his home back in Niev. Larger than the house or cottage I shared with my friends.
I didn’t bother with the niceties of knocking but instead prowled into his home unwelcome and unannounced. I bared my teeth at a human servant who tried to stop me. Letting my senses guide me, I followed the wide stairs to the second floor. More human servants scurried past me, each of them wise enough not to speak to me.
I threw his bedroom door open and slammed it shut hard enough to make the walls shake. Something that hung on the wall fell, and shattered pieces of glass spread everywhere.
Two women leaped off his bed. I didn’t hear whatever they or my uncle shouted and ignored them as they hurried off with blankets covering their naked bodies.
I edged closer toward my uncle. His eyes widened and, in an instant, turned black. It was a stark contrast to the ashen gray of his complexion.
His canines grew while he scooted back until he was propped against the bed’s headboard. With careful, deliberate steps, I stalked toward him.
“You will calm yourself at once,” he said, pulling out his dagger.
The scent of his fear was enthralling. Intoxicating. And I wondered how much terror I could bleed from him.
I ran my tongue over my teeth and smiled. “Will I now?”
I pounced. His knife sliced my right cheek, but I felt nothing.
I was nothing.
I wasn’t sure if I was breathing. If I was still alive.
I felt hollow. Like everything that mattered inside me had seeped out. I was certain that if someone were to wrench my chest apart, all they’d see was the black nothingness that remained.
Uncle Hudson and I fought. Although it wasn’t really me fighting. Once Teddy had fled, I’d ceased to exist. I had handed over the reins of who I was and let my primal instincts take over.
I barely noticed the blood that poured from me. The blood I spilled from my uncle.
It wasn’t until he pleaded that I peered over the heavy fog pressed against my mind.
“Have mercy, Elias,” Uncle Hudson said, his desperation filling my nostrils.
I breathed it in so that it spread through my lungs too.
I dragged myself up, away from his neck where I’d bittenhim. Blood coated my tongue. It was the wrong blood, though. Tasted sour. Tasted wrong.
