Page 170 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
I sighed, remembering this love.
I pierced her skin with my canines, and her warm blood coated my tongue. I swallowed, drinking her in as a ribbon ofpeach magic swam inside me, threading with the silver magic rooted in my soul.
And I remembered her. Teddy, the female I loved with every breath, with every beat of the heart she owned.
I crushed my lips against hers, twining our magic together and splintering the orb I still held in my hand.
Chapter
Thirty
TEDDY
“No,”I shouted, pushing Elias hard enough that he fell to the ground.
I grabbed the orb from him, staring at the crack he’d made. Terror surged through me and made my blood writhe. But he hadn’t destroyed it. The orb still spoke to me, whispered and sang in my ears.
Broken but not destroyed.
As Alastor charged toward Leanora, I dropped to the ground where Elias lay, the snow wetting through my pants. From my periphery, I saw Leanora vanish into a plume of smoke. I ignored the dread of where she had disappeared to and instead stretched out my hand to Elias. He blinked, those black eyes taking me in as if considering who I was. But he’d remembered. I’d felt it as soon as our magic touched.
He pulled himself up to sit on the ground. Watching me, he dug his hands into the snow as he seemed to wait for me to move. I touched his cheek, and my breath hitched when he leaned against my palm.
“You’re okay,” I sighed out.
Before he could answer, my vision blurred. That blurriness grew to an overwhelming darkness until all I saw was the depthless black of my surroundings. My breaths came out faster as I blinked and blinked, but nothing came back into focus.
Anguish hit me, and I spiraled with all that I’d lost. No, not me, I realized as a small village came into focus. Houses were destroyed with an endless fire that wouldn’t cease. Death was written across every face I saw. Oh, how these mages had suffered. How they’d cried out in pain to a king and queen who showed them no mercy.
These mages, whose only sin had been rivaling the fae in magic. A threat neither King Thierry nor Commander Hudson could tolerate.
Rather than snow, ash flurried and covered the streets and once green fields. Life in the village had been snuffed out so quickly, so ruthlessly, the earth trembled from its force. The sky darkened, and although a chill ran across my skin, I welcomed the rain, hoping it would wash away the ash, which was the evidence of this brutality.
The fae king stood before the destruction, his features void of any emotion, his face so much like Elias’s but harder. Blood coated his armor, his hands and face. An ancient embodiment of hatred lined his features when he turned to two towering dragons.
“It is done.”The dragon who spoke was an endless sea of black with clear, blue eyes that were filled with hate.
“It is done,” the king replied, bowing his head at the dragon. He sheathed his bloody sword to his waist while making his shield disappear. “Our pact?”
“You and your mate will rule your kingdom for eternity, with Hudson as your second,”the dragon reassured him. “You willnever grow older than you are now.Your people’s memories will be wiped of everything, believing the dragons as their salvation. They will bow to us and only know the mages as the evil we put in their minds without ever knowing the truth.”
The fae queen approached, her eyes the same beautiful violet as my mate’s. Her face was solemn. Sad maybe but it was triumph that spread her lips into a smile that revealed twin dimples.
With armor covered in blood, Commander Hudson stood at the queen’s side. That same sense of victory thrummed through him, making him more vicious than I remembered.
“What will our people think when we do not age?” she asked the dragon.
“Our magic will keep them blind,”the dragon said.“We will show them the natural course of life and death without death ever coming for you.”A puff of smoke blew from the dragon’s nostrils.“The pact remains as long as you keep true to the terms. You and your people will learn to suppress your primal instincts. It is your duty to make them fear it. And you, Queen Renee, can never bear children. Should you come to be with child, the pact becomes void, leaving you mortal and without our protection.”
Along with the ash, snow began to fall. Large drops, neither cold nor warm, fell on me like giant tears tumbling from the gloomy sky. The queen lifted her face, her delicate features open with curiosity and worry.
The king lifted his hand so that the snowflakes landed on his palm. “Snow?” he questioned.
The snow plunged down faster, thus beginning the first day of their realm’s endless winter—a punishment and curse for what they’d done.
The vision or memory blurred so that I was again standing in a black abyss.
The king and queen, Elias’s parents, had been there. They’d massacred an entire race and betrayed their own people. The dragons had become the true rulers while the royals had become immortal. At least until they’d conceived Elias and broken their end of the pact.
