Page 327 of Bitten By the Fae
“Exactly,” Zen agreed.
“But that would make Shade part Quandary Blood, right?” Aflora pressed, looking at her Death Blood mate. “And Fortune Fae?”
“We’ve already established that I’m an abomination, little rose,” he replied before popping a cookie into his mouth.
I’d avoided the treat, concerned Zen might try to poison me.
She’d never kill me. But she would do what she could to control me.
We’d been dancing around it for years. There was a time when I’d agreed with her, as did everyone else. Then the Eldershad shown me their penchant for death. And I’d realized there was only one way to end this.
Retribution.
“So you think there’s a way to align all the factions?” Aflora was saying beside me. She sat between me and Shade at Zenaida’s dining room table. The Fortune Fae Omega and her two mates were seated across from us.
It was almost like looking into the future to see where we would be in a thousand years, except Aflora would argue that we were missing Zephyrus and Kolstov.
I nearly sighed, but Zenaida was launching into her political plan, bringing us near the twenty-minute mark of this conversation.
Which was when I finally realized that the point of all of this had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the female beside me.
A laugh escaped me as I shook my head and interrupted her midsentence. “Oh, Zen.”
Her gaze sparkled as she glanced at me. “I honestly thought it would take ten. But your arrogance provided me with additional time.”
“I don’t understand,” Aflora murmured, glancing between me and Zenaida.
“She’s recruiting you,” I said, holding Zen’s gaze. “There’s only one thing she’s failed to mention in all of this, and that’s her knowledge of your parents’ deaths. How about you regale us with that tale, Zen. About the deadly weekend where the Elders slaughtered her parents without an ounce of remorse before coming for countless others.”
Silence met my words, Zen’s eyes hardening.
“Shall I start naming them all?” I asked, arching a brow. “Or have you forgotten all the suffering and pain in your continued quest for diplomacy?”
“Killing the Elders won’t bring them back, Zakkai,” she said softly. “Death is a fate none of us can escape.” She glanced at Shade with that comment, but the Death Blood was too busy eating his cookie to notice.
“How did my parents die?” Aflora asked, drawing my attention to her gorgeous features. She looked back at me and then at Zen. “I want to know.”
I waited to see how the former queen would reply. She knew more than I did. I’d been with my father that day, running for our lives.
However, Zen had foreseen their fates. She’d been the one to warn us the Elders were coming. She’d also been the one who’d tried to talk sense into Constantine that day.
Tried andfailed.
He’d nearly killed her in the process, but her triad with Kodiak and Vadim had proven too powerful for him. Which was why I wished she would join our side. They had the power to take the Council down but chose to continue to pursue a diplomatic course instead.
The only way reformation would happen was with Constantine Nacht out of the picture.
“Your parents were caught shortly after leaving you with Primrose and her two children,” Zen said softly. “The Elders consumed them with dark magic, severing their ties to the earth source. Which is why you ascended early.”
“You mean they tortured her parents,” I clarified. “By forcing the dark source essence into them, something Ifeltthrough Aflora and absorbed on her behalf to protect her.” Then, shortly after that, I’d protected her again when that half-crazed abomination tried to take the source from her.
I didn’t regret it. Nor would I have changed a second of it, other than to perhaps have taken her with me rather than leave her with the Elemental Fae.
“That was a burden you never should have had to bear,” Zen interjected. “I told Laki that, but he insisted on you bonding Aflora.” She shook her head. “I know you saved her life, but there were other options, Kai.”
“Other options,” I repeated sourly. “Like trying to talk Constantine off a ledge and nearly dying in the process?” I snorted. “Sure, Zen. That’s worked well.”
“At least I tried,” she replied, sounding sad. “More death isn’t the solution.”
