Page 24 of Hell's Storm

“I had her!” I scream inside my head to the darkness that surrounds me. “I had her!”

Fire rises and ignites the room around me. My shadow is the only one spread across the plane, but I can tell I’m not alone.

“Fuck!”

“Child,” my father’s voice comes, worsening my anger inside.

“I had her.Yourkiller!” I snap at him. He stands tall behind me, making me whirl around to see him. I almost don’t want to look. He might be disappointed in my fighting skills. He trained me as a kid to be able to defend myself, and that training was gone from not using it.

“This anger isn’t you!” my father shouts.

I roll my eyes. “You don’t know me. You haven’t seen me in two years, and you died when I came back. You planned this.”

He shakes his head. “I just knew it was coming.”

“You gave me the Flame I can’t handle, a task to find a court of men, making me look like a fuckingwhore, a throne that I don’t deserve,andyou got Fenric killed.”

My father’s face softens. “Asura…”

I should feel bad. The old me would never say anything like that, but the old me would never allow my brothers to be put in harm’s way for a throne. I would rather not have the stupid crown than be without my family. The anger surges through me and tightens around my chest. I let out another scream, seeing the Flames explode everywhere.

“Control yourself and the Flame, or you will never be Queen.”

I snap my head at him. “Who said I wanted to be? Maybe I’ll have it removed.”

“Don’t you dare.” his eyes wonder my face, searching for an answer to what that meant. Realization runs over his face, and he knows exactly what I mean.

“Watchme.”

Waking myself up was easy. The anger courses through my veins, sending a wave of adrenaline down my spine. I spring up, quickly glancing around. Where I was before is different now. The room seems to belong to someone of royalty. The bed is gigantic like the one I had at home, covered with expensive blankets. Paints of mystical places hang all over the walls, but there’s little to nothing else in the room.

Royalty… King. That assassin called Ryker a king… Is Ryker royalty?

Anger rushes through me, and the blankets hiss around me.

The bedroom door opens, and I look up. A fae woman gasps. “I thought—”

I throw my blankets off me. “Where is he?”

“W-Who?”

“Ryker.” I push past her into the hall, looking both ways. No one else is in the lobby, just many doors, art, and statues.

“He’s downstairs,” the lady says, stupidly pointing me in the direction.

I move down the hall until I finally see the stairs. The castle is way bigger than my own. But I finally find Ryker amongst other fae people. He must have felt me burning a hole into him because he looks up at me while I’m coming down the stairs.

He opens his mouth to speak.

“You knewher?”

“Who?” he frowns. With a slight hand wave, all the people behind him disappear.

“My father’s killer,” I grit through my teeth. A ball of fire goes up right in front of him and bursts.

Boom!

He holds up his hands, and a pink shield protects him from the blast.

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