Page 42 of Fire Kissed
I wanted to meet Hela outside of her realm and the powers she holds here. I wanted more time to plan my attack.
There is no more time though. Torben was right: in life, we never will have enough time.
“Did you enjoy your time away?” Hela asks with a tilt of her head, her ruby lips spreading into a vicious smile.
“Why?” It’s a word that comes out slowly and then I can’t stop everything after that. “Why cause yourself the trouble of wanting me here?”
She wanted me here, after all.
Now she has me. And for what? Pure evil torment?
I don’t believe that.
Her hand sweeps dramatically before folding in front of her in a delicate way. She walks the mostly empty room that we’ve had countless galas in. Each step resounds with a clack of her red heels against hard stone.
“Do you know what happens without love, Rhys?” Hela looks up at me then with actual curiosity in her gaze.
I simply stare at her. I’m tired of her games.
“Everything goes to Hell,” she says with gleaming eyes.
I consider that, but I have no idea what her games are implying this time.
“And if you ruin love—if youbreak it—everything goes dark.” Her words are sharp and meaningful. She’s tried to break me time and time again.
She won’t succeed.
“You can’t break me.” I lift my head high, proud of who I am and how much I’ve changed.
The slow smirk that pulls at her lips is a terrifying form of amusement.
“Really?” With another sudden sweep of her slender hand, Hela flings magic at my mother, and she’s thrown back to the ground, her head hitting with a painful cracking against the floor, and I’m rushing to her. I’m running to my mother so fast, I don’t even notice the stream of blood until kneeling at her side.
The angry words of the Light King and Hela screaming at one another over whose toy she just broke is a rumble of noise that doesn’t fully register. All I hear is the slamming of my heart.
A splinter of a wound slashes down her pale face. It’s so deep, the rawness of the bone beneath can be seen, but the blood at the back of her long hair is much worse. Blank, glossy eyes look up to the ceiling, looking past me but seemingly seeing so much.
A gasp rattles her lungs as I take her frail hand in mine.
“You are loved, Rhys,” she rasps, her words sinking into my heart as well as my memories. “You are love. And you are loved.”
The pain in my chest is a building emotion that I can’t tame. The beast within me presses against the feel of all of it. The dampness in my eyes streams down my face without a sound. Her words haunt my mind over and over as her lashes flutter closed.
And then she’s gone.
I rip around with so much speed and force, Hela doesn’t even see me coming. My body collides into hers, and we’re both thrown to the floor from the impact of my recklessness. My fist lifts and releases over and over again into her pretty face. There’s too much rapid-fire movement for Hela to fully see my blows. Maybe my wolf can’t help me here, but I’ll still beat the Queen of Hell’s ass the old-fashioned way.
Big hands grip my shoulders, and I’m removed from my ass kicking as if I’m a pristine vase that the King wouldn’t want scratched.
All three of my men are surrounding him in less than a second, but no one makes a move when he places me away from his Queen and then steps back.
“Please trust me. I’m just as upset as you are,” he tells me calmly, brushing off his hands against his slacks like I’ve dirtied him. “I cared for her too. Hela had no right.”
Fury rains through me like a hailstorm. Pain stings my jaw from how hard my teeth clench.
“Fuck you,” I hiss, because it’s all my mind seems to keep thinking on an endless loop.
How dare he pretend to care for my mother?
