Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Ellery

"I'll tell you; I'll even take you to them, but first, you have to promise that, no matter what, you'll get my mother out of the palace."

"I don't have to promise you anything."

I fisted my hands as my frustration built. Yes, I'd messed up really, really bad, but he didn't have to make this so difficult. "And I don't have to tell you anything."

Lightning crackled higher up his arms as it rose to encompass his elbows. It snapped at the air and filled his eyes.

I'd never seen him so livid before, and the fact it was because of me only made me feel worse. This isn't about you.

That was so true. Pushing aside my growing distress that this was all about to blow up in my face, I continued. "I'm going to ensure my mother's safety. She shouldn't suffer because of my choices."

"But bringing suffering to others is what you do best, Ellery."

I recoiled from his words and couldn't stop from taking an involuntary step back. The knife that plunged into my heart upon seeing him with that woman twisted deeper.

Is that what he thinks of me now? Is that who he thinks I am?

I lifted my face to the trees as I struggled not to cry. Is that who I am?

I'd never seen myself as cruel—reckless sometimes and impulsive, yes, but never cruel… at least not purposely. However, my actions had stomped all over Ryker and now my mother. Maybe I wasn't intentionally cruel, but I wasn't good.

I was the villain in his mind, the monster. And I should be because I was the monster who'd brought all this misery down on the two immortals I loved most.

"I never meant to hurt anyone," I whispered. "It all started because I was trying to help . I never expected you to get involved, and I certainly never expected to care for you. I never expected us to talk again after that day with Mouse, and I never expected to end up hunting the Hooded Robber together."

He waved a hand absently through the air. "None of that matters. Tell me who the Robber is."

"Not without your promise to make sure my mother's released. I don't care if you have me tossed into the same cell she vacates, or killed, or whatever it is you decide to do with me, but she has to be free. I swear to you, Ryker, she's innocent in this."

He didn't speak as the power around him swelled, and I felt the crackle of his electricity against my skin. From deep within, my lightning ability swelled toward the surface as it sought to draw on the electricity coursing around me.

Rather than letting it go, like I longed to do, I suppressed it as I'd so often done throughout the years. Ryker would learn the truth soon, but I required his promise about my mother first.

A muscle twitched in his clenched jaw. "I'll see that she's freed."

My shoulders sagged as I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Make no mistake, I'm not doing it for you. If you're telling me the truth about her innocence?—"

"I am! She knows nothing about the Hooded Robber."

He continued as if I hadn't spoken. "—then she doesn't deserve to be imprisoned. No innocent deserves that."

Ryker knew that better than anyone after all he'd endured at the hands of the ophidians. That reminder made my heart ache, and though I couldn't see most of them, I knew well the hundreds of scars marring his large, powerful body.

Now that I knew where to look for them, I could see some scars on his neck and temples, but they were from the war. The others were all from those monsters, Doomed Valley, and his father.

What they'd done to him was beyond brutal and cruel; what I'd done to him was as bad… if not worse . When I first put on the hood to become the Robber, I never could have known it would lead to me falling in love with this man, but I'd never hated myself more.

"Who is it, Ellery?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before lifting my chin. I held his gaze as I spoke the words that would forever sever us, but I couldn't look away. "It's me."