Page 9 of Reflections of Peonies
“He keeps challenging her!” Finn answered, turning his furious gaze at the older fae. “I’ve never seen her act like this—she’s obsessed with the stupid idea that he’s usurping her authority. She keeps going on about ‘defeating’ him. It’s absolutely insane.”
Well—I frowned, touching my chin—it didn’t surprise me. He probably was doing exactly that. Fae had strange ways of feeling each other out.
But this was promising. It meant that she still contained an essence of her original self.
“How?” Bryce ignored the accusation, but he did finally look up. There was a careful mask over his features, but his voice was strife with disbelief. “How did she end up in a place like that?”
Damen POV
“How did she end up in a place like that?” Bryce asked, the sound of his voice grating across my nerves. “I don’t understand.”
How… How could he not understand?
How dare he look so surprised.
“This is all your fault!” I was even more certain now than before. I’d moved to him before I could stop to think, allowing the promise of death and destruction to rise through me.
I would kill him.
I recognized that look on Bryce’s face—that guilt—and I was more certain than ever: there was only one family to blame.
“Why did you hide her from me?” I asked, not expecting an answer.
Bryce didn’t try to block me as I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him from his seat.
Now that I knew, I couldn’t unsee the signs. The way she flinched when she was touched unexpectedly, her nervous behavior and anxiety, the way she was afraid of the dark—of being hurt.
All I could see were her panicked expressions—and the way she tried to hide. She had been crying out for help from the beginning.
I couldn’t hold myself back, the force of my anger led me. Wecrashed to the floor, and my vision filled with red as I allowed my fury to be unleashed.
Bone gave way under my fist, and blood coated my face, but I didn’t care. Shouting and chaos exploded around me, and hands pulled at my clothing. Distantly, there was the sound of exploding glass, but none of it mattered.
How dare anyone touch her? How dare they still be free? This never should have happened.
The comforting heat of flames burned through me, giving me strength. I needed to kill him.
“Damen, no!” Brayden grabbed my arm, but I threw him back. He crashed into the table, and I returned my fury to Bryce. If the younger fae continued to intervene, I would kill him too.
Bryce wasn’t fighting back, but it didn’t matter. There was no way that anything he might feel came close to the level of pain that Bianca had suffered.
Someone wrapped an arm around my neck, and before I could defend myself from them, I was thrown back onto the ground.
“That’s enough,” Julian said. His knee was pressed over my chest, and he closed his hand around my throat as his bright blue eyes stared at me. The fire in my blood cooled as the ancient magic began to fill my senses, and even though I tried to throw him off, to grasp the rapidly fading power, Julian’s hold remained firm.
“This is not the time,” he told me. “We’re all upset, but you cannot kill Bryce. We have to plan for next steps.”
No!
“Leave me alone!” My chest rumbled as the flames lingered. I grabbed the hand at my throat. Why was he stopping me? There was no way that he wasn’t just as furious—as bloodthirsty—as I was!
“Bryce is not our enemy,” Julian said. “He did not hurt her,and she needs him. So snap out of it so we can find those who are.”
I glared at him. How could he say that?
“It’ll be okay,” he told me, but I knew he was lying.
It would never be okay again.
