Page 197 of Wrath of the Fae

Jonah forces out a sadistic laugh. ‘He came to uspleading,’ he snarls. ‘He told me about Rhea. About her pregnancy. And begged me to take her instead of you. That he would let us out if I swore to let him keep you after the walls between worlds fell.’

I stare at Lucca. My closest friend. The one I thought of as family. And my heart, what’s left of it, splinters into pieces in my hollow chest.

‘You set him free?’ I whisper. ‘Him? After everything you know he did to me?’

‘I wanted you safe.’

‘What about everyone else?’

He lifts his head. ‘I just wanted you safe,’ he repeats. ‘Rhea doesn’t deserve your forgiveness. The guys… they don’t deserve you. And you don’t deserve to be put in that machine gain.’

I watch him, speechless and devastated.

‘I am so, so sorry,’ he cries. ‘I did it for you. I did it because I love-’

I flinch as a loud pop rings out, and something warm splatters over my face.

Jonah laughs as I watch Lucca fall forwards, landing with a thud.

Stone. Cold. Dead.

Blood spurts from the massive hole where his head used to be, and his body twitches.

‘That was fun,’ Jonah snorts, coughing on blood. ‘I just wanted to make sure you knew just how much of a traitor he was before he died. Couldn’t have you thinking you actually have any real friends now, could I…Pup.’

As Valker storm the room, surrounding Jonah and beating the living shit out of him, I stare at Lucca.

At his headless corpse.

At his mangled wings.

At all his blood seeping out around him.

And everything inside me just… empties.

I become lightheaded as it all fades away.

Tessa calls my name and desperately tries to come to me, forcing herself to stand as iron steals all her strength.

When the ground starts to shake and the sky beyond explodes in white light, I don’t even have it in me to react.

I just stare. I just stand.

I’m not even certain I breathe.

I slowly face the balcony and walk slowly towards it, feeling Lucca’s blood on my feet as I pass.

I stop outside and peer up.

The tear is widening. The sky is ablaze in streaks of violent lightning, streaking in all directions.

The machine is up and running. The walls separating this realm from the human one are falling away, crumbling slowly like shining dust in streams of sunlight.

Rhea has been put into Ivan’s machine.

My Mates are gone.

Lucca betrayed me and has been murdered before my very eyes.

---