Page 19 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
“She can’t remember this night, and please, Uncle, don’t let her feel this pain,” I said, rubbing my palm against my hollow chest as I headed out of her room. “Erase me from her memory.”
I asked Brenton to use his magic to do the same with Teddy’s friend and to clean up any blood I might have missed on Teddy. With those orders, I left without bothering to look in the other female’s direction.
“As you wish, Elias,” Uncle Hudson said.
I barely registered the hint of pride in his voice.
All I felt was what I’d lost.
A familiar thunder pounded as I stepped outside, and a quick flash of lightning ignited the sky. George stood beside me, his jaw open, staring at the sky with me.
“Thunderbirds,” he said in disbelief.
I released the restraint around my primal instincts to seeand hear better. Keeping my attention sharp, I angled my head to the side.
“Only one,” I replied with a growl.
Without another word, I tore through Teddy’s woods, watching as luscious green trees gave way to dead, empty branches. The frost from my realm consumed the forest, claiming one tree at a time. The warmth I’d stepped into when I came to the human realm was replaced with a cold bite that felt harsher than the cold of my world.
Disgusted with myself and what I’d done to this world, I hunted down the thunderbird. Her death would be swift. Merciful.
A contrast to the slow death I’d brought into this human realm. To the slow death I’d gifted myself by forcing Teddy to reject me.
So many fae found their soul-bound mates and fell in love with ease. Not me. I had the rest of my life knowing exactly where Teddy was while knowing I could never have her as mine. She had been my one chance at love, and I’d ruined it.
But as I promised her, I’d watch over her. Take care of her through the endless winter her realm would now face.
All while knowing that the more I repressed this fractured bond that still ripped through my soul, the more my desire for her would grow.
Chapter
Five
TEDDY
This—thiswas why I rarely drank.
With my head pounding, I popped one gritty eye open to find Ryenne lying on my bed beside me, her sleek blond hair covering her face. Her loud snores reminded me of a lawn mower and was probably why Hee-haw wasn’t sleeping on my king-sized bed with us.
I poked her cheek to make her sputtering snores stop. She swatted my hand away and groaned. When her eyes stayed closed, I did it again but harder this time.
She shot up and almost fell off the side of the bed. I stifled a laugh when she held both hands to her head, which I hoped throbbed as much as mine did.
“What did you do to me last night?” I asked, my throat dry and crackly.
“Me?” She reached for her pillow, and when she lay back down, she pushed the pillow against her face and moaned. “I don’t even know how I got here.”
I propped an arm under my chin and poked her stomach. “If you don’t remember, I sure as hell don’t.”
Where Ryenne brought the bad decisions, I was the lightweight in our friendship and made sure we paced ourselves.
She rolled over and rested her head on the pillow as she rubbed her eyes. “Shit, Ted, I don’t remember anything.”
“Nothing?” a voice said from outside my room. A man’s voice.
I lifted my nose at the sudden smell of coffee.
“Your brother is a saint among men,” I said as I shifted on the bed to grab some of the coffee Donnie was brewing in my kitchen.
