Page 349 of Bitten By the Fae
She found what she needed from him without much thought, her powers working on instinct alone. Then she whirled the three of us into a cloud of dark magic and took us to a bedroom I didn’t recognize.
I collapsed on the floor, my energy reserves depleted and in dire need of restoration.
Aflora fell to the ground beside me, her shoulders shaking as she deteriorated into sobs. Zephyrus pulled her to him, holding her with a ferocity that made me envious. I wanted to do that. I wanted to comfort her. But I couldn’t fucking move.
And I knew she didn’t want me right now.
You wanted him dead,she’d said, the accusation thick in my thoughts.
Had I known what it would do to her… I… I wasn’t sure I would have been able to go through with it. It’d been my goal all along. But seeing her now, hearing her cries, watching her fall apart… I never wanted to be responsible for such agony.
She was my mate.
My other half.
My Flora.
I would never put her through something like this. Fuck, she’d been through so much already. She didn’t deserve any of this.
It left me wondering what would have happened had I refused my father’s command. No bond. No yanking her into this world of war and destruction. Would she be in a flower bed now? Playing with her earth magic? Smiling at some boy, agoodmate, who made her trees and other forms of blooming life?
My heart thudded wildly against my ribs, my mind forming the picture perfectly.
Sweet Aflora, growing into her Earth Fae Queen status.
Happy.
Twirling in a circle.
Flowers in her hair.
So fucking beautiful.
But her cries to my left reminded me of her reality, her dark hair spilling across the carpet, as her body trembled beneath violent sobs.
The enchantment had worn off. She was herself again. Except her cerulean irises were blurred with tears, her cheeks red, her shoulders rounded.
This wasn’t who she was meant to be. She reminded me of a wilted flower, her final petals falling to the ground as the life disappeared from her features.
I’m sorry,I whispered into her mind, my heart breaking for her, forus.I’m so fucking sorry, Aflora.
I reached for her, needing to do something, when feet landed to my right, Shade’s essence clawing at my senses and drawing my gaze up to him and the body in his arms. “I need you all to listen and do exactly what I say,” he declared. “Or we’ll lose Kolstov forever.”
Several Minutes Earlier
“His death will beyour burden to bear,”my grandmother had warned me weeks ago.
“I think I screwed up,”I’d told her that night.
“Come,”she’d replied.“We’ll discuss it over cookies.”
I knew then that she had bad news for me. But this… I hadn’t expected her to warn me aboutthis.
She’d said that Kolstov’s life was the price I would pay for all my fucking around with time.
Well, I don’t accept that,I thought, repeating the words I’d said to her that night.
There was no way to come back from death. Once a life strand ended, no amount of magic or time manipulation could fix it.
