Page 94 of Wrath of the Fae

A horror.

‘You have to go,’ she says, slowly withdrawing from me and settling her hands in her lap. ‘You can’t be here. If they find you-’

‘Some soldiers found me in the orchard and thought I was you. Idiots saved me the trouble of hunting you down and brought me straight to you. One of them shoved his hand down my underwear. Rhea… what’s-’

‘That’s Leon,’ she huffs. ‘An impotent little prick in every sense of the word. Tries his luck but doesn’t dare go all the way with his efforts.’ She scoffs and rolls her eyes. ‘You’re bleeding. Let me get you something to clean you up with.’

She gets to her feet and grabs a cloth from the sink. As she washes it under the tap, I stand. At the base of her neck, her skin is red and welting. I lower the neckline of her dress and reveal sharp lines. She flinches and faces me, busying herself with washing off my bloody face.

‘You’re hurt.’

‘It’s nothing.’

‘Liar,’ I reply.

‘It was just a punishment,’ she says, trying to sound uncaring. ‘Cyrus broke some man’s hand, and the soldiers took it out on me.’

‘Took it out on you?’

‘Twenty lashes,’ she admits quietly. ‘I’m healing. They don’t hurt anymore.’

‘So Cyrus got in a fight and let you take the blame?’

She looks utterly confused.

‘No. Cyrus stopped one of the king’s men from force-feeding me soup laced with urine. And then they made him watch as they lashed me.’

‘Why the fuck did they try and make you-’

‘It’s a long story.’

She focuses on my face, squinting and wincing as she washes my blood away. On her hand, I see markings.

Marriage markings, twisting around her finger.

‘As long a story as how you ended up married to Cyrus?’ I ask.

She gives a slight laugh and keeps on working. Then she sees my expression, and her eyes narrow as she lowers the cloth.

‘Are… are you serious?’ she asks.

‘You married my Mate, Rhea.’ My words feel like venom. They sound filled with it. ‘You live in the King’s Kingdom. The same king that has torn this realm into-’

‘I know very well what the King has done. I’ve been living in his nightmare for two years.’ She steps back with an increasingly furrowed brow. ‘Do you seriously think Cyrus and I are together like that? Or that I am here through…’ She stops herself from speaking but never looks away from me. ‘Do you think I am your enemy?’

‘His clothes are on your bedroom floor.’

‘He sleeps on the floor with whatever weapon he can find in his hand in case someone tries to get to us in the middle of the night,’ she snaps, slamming her hands on her hips. ‘How long have you been here? The whole two years?’ Her fist tightens around the cloth, and bloody water trickles to the floor. ‘Did you leave us here because you were jealous or something? Is this payback?’

‘No! No, of course-’

‘I tried to get you out of that arch Ivan put you in, Raven. I almost died trying.’

‘I know.’

‘We were caught by the First Kingdom as soon as we returned,’ she snaps at me. ‘Hundreds if not thousands of soldiers stood there, laughing and jeering as we landed in the dirt. Lucca was bleeding to death. Reid and Cyrus were catatonic after seeing you die like that.’ She points to an empty spot on the floor as if her memory of those moments lay there fully formed. She shakes, and more angry tears spill down her cheeks. ‘Ezra, the monster, was insane with power and victory. He ordered our arrest, but not before beating Cyrus and Reid almost to death. El killed three before the King swooped in on his fucking horse.’ She stops, horrified at the memories. ‘They raped El.’ Her lips tremble as she tells me. ‘Right then and there. Right in front of everyone. Three of them, as punishment for the lives she took. She was screaming and screaming, and I couldn’t help her. None of us could help her.’ She pants as she grabs at her hair. ‘I couldn’t help her…’ she whispers tearfully.

I try to reach out for her, but she pulls away.

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