Page 12 of Wrath of the Fae

Lucca is on his feet now.

‘You have no idea what I have lost,’ I snarl. ‘No idea what I’m feeling.’

Her hand slides to my wrist. She doesn’t claw or smack but rests it there. Her eyes shimmer as a warmth seeps from her. A light glow emanates from her fingertips. A silvery trail that ebbs and flows seamlessly from her to me.

‘Yes…’ she croaks from beneath my grip. ‘I do know what you are feeling.’

I release her instantly, dropping her to the floor where she caresses her throat and tries not to let herself cough and gasp for the air I know she’s craving.

The light connecting us fades. Her empath powers sink back into her body, and she shudders at what she feels from me.

‘I know better than most what you have lost, Raven,’ she croaks. ‘And not only because I feel it from you. But because I’ve lived it.’

‘Lived it?’ I scoff. ‘You didn’t lose anything, Tessa. You destroyed it.’

‘I-’

‘You watched your father get murdered right in front of your eyes by the very men you snuck into his home. Your father was my brother, and his death lies on your blood-soaked hands.’

‘I didn’t know what I was doing. I was young and naïve. I was in love and-’

‘You hid when Fae were being slaughtered in the human world. And you drove away your friends when you went out of your way to break the Bond between me and…’ I choke on the names. ‘Them,’ I finish. ‘Don’t you dare say you and I are the same. We may be blood. But you are not family. And you are not like me.’

‘I sacrificed everything to bring you back. To help fight. To make things right!’

Truth. I sense no lies.

But I don’t care.

I lean into her face and spit my words. ‘You are here because you have nowhere else to go where you won’t be killed or sold. Don’t pretend otherwise.’

‘I am here to stop the false king! And I helped bring you here because you are our best shot at achieving that. If you die over some trivial nonsense, you are letting everyone down. Not just those out there who have lost everything and everyone they love, but everyone held captive in the Kingdoms. Every man who has lost his family. Every woman sold off or stolen. Every child taken to become a soldier and weapon. Every soul who dared stand against tyranny and got sent to the human world to have their magic stolen and left to become a monster, forced to do Ivan’s bidding,’ she scoffs angrily. ‘That was before the portals were closed. Now they just kill them! You owe us all not to die for the wrong reasons. You are the Queen!’

‘I am not a fucking queen!’ I hiss back.

She stands tall. ‘Yes, you fucking are.’

We glare at each other, hatred and distrust oozing from every pore. Wolf steps inside the tent and stills, looking at the stand-off between Tessa and me.

‘We’re ready for you, My Lady,’ he says, his eyes darting between us.

‘Raven is staying here,’ Tessa replies sharply. ‘You question the soldiers, Wolf.’

‘Not gonna happen,’ I snarl back.

‘Easy, ladies. Let’s all just calm down, shall we?’

‘Shut up, Lucca!’ We both snap back at him in perfect unison.

Lucca raises his hands above his head and steps back to stand with Wolf.

Again, silence consumes the tent, and the air becomes heavy with tension.

‘You know I’m right,’ Tessa says in a low tone, looking at my clenched fists. ‘Do you truly wish to risk it all? Do you want to risk them?’ She points towards the camp. ‘Do you want to risk yourself all to take out needless revenge on some soldiers who in all likeliness know nothing of Reid, Cyrus, Rhea or El except their names?’

‘That soldier recognised me. He thought I was Rhea. He has seen her, which is more than any of you have done in the past two years. I need answers.’

‘You want to know why they are in the First Kingdom? Why they are married? Why they stand beside the man who helped tear down your mother’s Kingdom and has gone on to enslave the Thirteen Kingdoms? Why they have helped build open trade between this world and the human one, trading our kin for weapons? You want to know why, Raven? Why the people you loved the most, your Mates, best friend and sister have abandoned you and turned their backs on everything and everyone they swore to protect?’

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