Page 136 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
Titania won.
And she will break this realm.
I can’t find it within myself to care, while my king lies dead beside me. While the life bleeds from my body. When the darkness of oblivion comes to claim me, I throw myself to it eagerly. Anything is better than the agony of this reality.
Aldrin died thrice for his kingdom, but more importantly, he sacrificed himself thrice for his queen.
Maybe I will find him in the next life. Perhaps we will get the peace we deserved in death that we never achieved in life. I always knew I would give up my all for him. Now, I die alongside him. My heart stops beating. My lungs refuse to fill. My soul leaves my body.
I embrace death gladly.
My eyes snap open.
A blinding rage fuels me. It is all I know. Not my name. Not where I am or how much time has passed. Just endless wrath and betrayal. Just that my enemies must die.
King Leonardo leans down over me, his hand on the bare skin just below my collarbones. Those blood-red eyes focus intently on whatever he is doing.
I lurch upward with a guttural scream, wrapping my hands around his throat. I drag out every last bit of my magic and throw it into him. There isn’t much, not with the toxin still in my body and death on my lips, but a deep satisfaction fills me as cracks slowly form across the pale skin of his face. As the tiniest wisps of ash float up from them.
I will rip him apart for betraying Aldrin, piece by piece, until he is nothing but ash. His blood trickles down the sides of his neck as my fingernails dig in and his eyes widen as he tries to pull away.
I am like a savage animal, leaping on top of him so as not to break the contact. Iwillkill him, even with just a scrap of mymagic. Even if he is the only one I enact vengeance on for what they did to us.
A sudden, infuriating block hits my magic, making it sputter out. A familiar voice calls my name that has me freezing.
Surely not.
I must have imagined it in my insanity. In my grief.
Strong, tanned arms fold around my waist and tug me off Leonardo. My arms and legs are wrapped around him and I don’t let go easily. The king has the audacity to stare at me with shock, rearing back and not even fighting me while I snarl like a wildling and try to claw at him.
The man behind me finally pulls me free in my weakened state and we collapse backward, knocking over tables and hitting a wall. He turns me as we sink to the ground together and I am very suddenly tucked up against a hard, masculine chest, curled up in his lap.
I gape openly at him.
I have lost my gods-damned mind in my grief.
There is no way I can truly be here. That both of us aren’t dead.
Aldrin kisses my forehead, my cheeks, my mouth. He doesn’t stop pressing his lips all over my face while I try desperately to drag in air.
“It is okay, Keira. It’s going to be okay,” he rumbles, his arms tightening around me almost to the point of being painful.
“How is it okay?” My voice is shrill. “You died, Aldrin. I watched you die! Hekilledyou!”
I shake violently as it plays through my head again.We both died.
“Yes. We both died by Belladonna’s poison.” He repeats the words I didn’t realize I sent down the very alive mate bond. The one he still uses to block my magic. “It was the only way we could get inside the palace. It was a risk I had to take. I never imaginedyou would get dragged into it. That they would make you watch and that it would take you too. Leonardo did not betray us. He played his part well to convince Titania that he was on her side.”
A little too well, from the way Aldrin’s mind still reels. The very real doubts he had while dying that Leonardo wouldn’t bring him back as planned still bounce around his head as aftershocks.
I slap him hard in the chest. “Do you mean you planned this?” I yell, pounding him again. “Without telling me? I thought I lost you.” Uncontrollable tears run down my face.
“I am so sorry. It was the only way I could get inside before you died in that cage,” he murmurs, wiping away the streaks of moisture from my cheeks. “The plan was formed after you were captured and put in that cell, and only agreed to at the last moment.”
I kiss him hard, needing to taste his lips and feel his warmth. To know without a doubt that he is truly here. I run my hands over his face, mapping it out, then down his chest and over the defined muscles of his bare arms. I finally pull away from him when the need for answers becomes greater than the desire for his body.
“How?” I choke out. “How are we alive?”
