Page 116 of Wrath of the Fae

‘He tried. Tessa’s tougher than he expected. She’s been with Lucca for about a year and a half.’

El lets out a sarcastic scoff. ‘Good old Tessa. Always finding a way of escaping pain. She’s been with Lucca while we’ve been stuck here. Typical.’

‘She’s been through hell. Don’t think for a second she escaped anything, El. You have no idea what she’s gone through. What any of us have gone through. If you think anyone has had it better than you for a second, think again.’

She flinches at my outburst and looks at the floor.

‘Sorry,’ she whispers.

I quit rummaging for the non-existent weapons and watch her. She’s so small and timid. A far cry from the girl I knew.

She’s so different. Her colourful hair is gone, replaced instead with light blonde waves styled perfectly. Her long dress looks the same as everyone else’s. All her piercings are gone. Her many markings are covered. She looks like a typical lady. The same as any of the others I saw last night.

She told me once that her personality was free to be expressed in the human realm in a way not allowed in the Thirteenth Kingdom.

She’s lost an awful lot of weight and I wonder when she last truly smiled or laughed. Her face is so drawn and tired from severe sleep deprivation, and she’s so grey and thin. She picks at her broken nails, and as I look closer, I see numerous faded bruises on her hands, neck and face.

‘Rhea told me what they did to you. When you returned, that the King’s men-’

‘I don’t want to talk about that,’ she mumbles. ‘I don’t want to talk about any of it if you don’t mind.’

Her hands knot together, and she stands straighter, staring ahead and avoiding me.

‘Rhea is perfectly safe with Lucca. I promise you,’ I assure her. ‘And soon, you’ll be safe too.’

‘I trust you.’

Truth.

‘The guys have been in pieces since they lost you, ya know,’ she says, shuffling her feet and still not looking at me. ‘They have nightmares, even now. Reid wakes up screaming almost every night and always screams for you. Rhea says Cyrus gets drunk, curls up in a ball at her side, and talks to her as if she were you. Telling her he was sorry. That-’

‘How about we don’t do this.’ I walk to the wardrobe, feigning interest in the dresses.

‘You were dead, Raven. They knew it was their fault. We all knew it was our fault-’

‘I wasn’t dead,’ I reply, pulling out a dark green dress embroidered with silver flowers. ‘Why are Rhea’s dresses like this and yours modest?’

‘The King changed them when he returned from a month-long trip a few months ago. He’s taken a liking to Rhea. The prick. I hate the way he looks at her.’

‘He won’t have eyes to look at her much longer.’

More uncomfortable silence consumes the room before she speaks again.

‘Where were you? All this time, where were you?’

‘Where you left me. In the portal. I felt everything. Every second of it. I felt people pass through the portal. Sometimes, I even heard them. Their thoughts or their screams.’

‘So you were… imprisoned?’

‘Did Reid tell you what it was like in Ivan’s chair?’ I ask, lowering the dress and looking at her. ‘When Ivan ripped his power from his body?’

‘He said it was the most excruciating pain he’s ever experienced. Like his body and soul were being torn to pieces. Burnt. Obliterated.’ Realisation dawns on her. ‘You felt that?’

‘I had no body, but it felt like every nerve was exposed and raw. I couldn’t scream. I had no voice. I didn’t sleep. I had no respite, El. Not for a second.’ I blink. ‘Two years…’ I whisper. ‘Every second just pain.’

‘How… I mean…’

‘What?’

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