I wanted to kill for her.
The flames stopped, and the girl threw up all over the floor as her muscles twitched in the aftermath. Embarrassment flooded through her as she realized she’d soiled herself.
The guards wrinkled their noses with disgust, and she groaned in shame.
Why won’t any of them help me? What did I do to deserve this? Her thoughts were despondent.
I wanted to smash the guards and woman to pieces; I wanted to make them suffer like they made this defenseless girl suffer.
They deserved to die.
At times like this, I was glad for my abilities because it would be too easy for my mates and I to hunt them down. I’d snap their puny necks with my bare hands.
It would be much easier than the efforts they were exerting to torment a child.
Consciousness pulled me away from the child’s form, but I forced myself to stay in the memory and not wake up.
I wanted to memorize faces.
I wanted names.
The cruel woman clucked her tongue and knelt next to the girl’s convulsing frame. “We’ve been over this, darling—you’re powerless, pathetic, and an embarrassment to my name. You will suffer until you learn.”
She snapped her fingers.
Blue flames.
Silent screams.
Unfathomable torment.
The torture stopped, and the woman gloated down at the girl. “The palace aides told me you freed those monstrous birds from their gilded cages.” Her smile contorted into a frown. “Your maid told me you defended a filthy villager child that was caught stealing.” Her frown deepened. “And that was just from this week. Do you see why I must do this?”
The girl shook her head. “S-S-Sorry. I won’t. I promise. I swear. I’ll stop.”
She snapped her fingers.
The world burned blue.
The blue flames stopped, and as the girl coughed and shivered on the cold marble floor, I started to put the pieces together.
The woman’s unique blue hair and familiar otherworldly beauty, the fae palace surrounded by fae guards, the girl being tortured by her mother.
It was obvious, but I desperately wanted to be mistaken.
I needed to be.
The woman snapped her fingers, and yet again the girl suffered in shades of blue. Her world was a cruel hell, and she knew only torment.
Her slight frame felt like it was breaking at the edges because she was too young to withstand such torture. Few adults could.
Again.
The agony stopped.
The woman grabbed the girl’s chin, and as she leaned close, she smelled like corrosive acid.
She whispered, “You’ll never amount to anything if you keep being so softhearted. Nothing good comes from being weak.” Her eyes were unfocused. “That’s what they want you to believe. They want you to be tethered to righteous morality and neutered like a dog with a fucking handler—they’re wrong. These realms will destroy you if you give an inch. So much power in your ancestry—yet you produce nothing? Not even a single shard of ice. At your age, I could move mountains.”
The woman paused, then spat, “You disgust me, Arabella.”
Horror engulfed me.
The girl zoned out as the mother ranted; she was used to her senseless prattling during torture.
“We’ll continue these lessons every night until you learn.” The woman smirked, and Arabella dropped her forehead to the floor.
Every night. Horror seized me.
My gut feeling had been correct—I was experiencing Arabella’s memories. I was living through her torture.
The child on the ground was my mate.
She was helpless.
Tortured nightly.
I could tell from her thoughts that there was not a single soul in the realm who had protected her from her mother.
The fae guards had kicked my mate.
They’d broken her back.
Sneered at her as she convulsed with agony for hours, naked.
My Revered had suffered in unimaginable ways, and we’d failed her more than we ever knew.
Unholy rage pierced the veil of sleep as I was thrown out of the sickening memory. I sat up in my bed, panting.
The bedroom was quiet, and the clock read three a.m.
My body burned with heat, and even in the darkness, colors were richer. The grayish-blue filter was gone from my vision.
The strange emptiness I’d felt inside her chest was replaced with an overwhelming need for control.
Immediate regret filled me as I remembered how I’d treated her. How I’d lost control of my temper and yelled at her, just like her mother—I’d been afraid for her safety, but it was no excuse. I was disgusted with myself.
A whimper echoed in the sleeping room.
In a blur, I flung myself at the lower bunk on the opposite side of the room and knelt before her.
It took me a second to realize Scorpius and Orion crouched beside me.
I turned to my mates with confusion and asked, “Did you experie—”
“Yes,” Scorpius cut me off.
The silence among us was fraught with angst and regret as we processed what we all knew.
We knelt together in disbelief.
Disciples at her altar.
Since we’d all been affected, it was obvious what was happening—the bond sickness had connected us to her memories. It was punishing us like we deserved.
“No, Mother, please,” Arabella whispered in her sleep as she tossed and turned before us. Her forehead glistened with sweat, and her covers were a mess. She slapped her arm back and forth like she was trying to fight off an invisible assailant.
I ordered, “Wake up,” as Orion shook her gently and Scorpius patted her face.
She whimpered louder.
Then she opened her mouth, bowed her back, and silently screamed.
Helplessness churned in my gut. I hated that I knew exactly what torment she was experiencing.
“Please,” I begged as my mates tried frantically to wake her.
Nothing worked.
She continued to thrash about.
Suffer.
We couldn’t wake her, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Flames exploded across my shoulders, and red blurred my vision.
They had desecrated my Revered. I needed vengeance, or I was going to burn the war camp to the ground and murder everyone within it. Embers fell around me as I turned to my mates.
“We need to make this right,” I said roughly. “I refuse to do nothing.”
“I agree.” Scorpius cracked his knuckles. “We need to go now, or I cannot be held responsible for my actions.”
The eye tattooed on his neck shot wide open. It stared down at Arabella’s thrashing form.
I nodded in agreement, flames crackling hotter across my shoulders.
“One of us has to watch over her,” Orion whispered. “I’ll stay.” He caressed her sweaty blue curls as she thrashed about.
“Then let’s go.” I grabbed Scorpius’s arm to guide him and stalked from the barracks.
We ran through the snowy forest. It was eerie at night. The once steaming ground was covered in a thin layer of ice and snow slammed against us from all directions.
The white contrasted with the vibrant green and rich brown conifer trees.
It was nothing like the shades of blue and gray that had painted Arabella’s vision.