16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I headed for a side entrance close to the training fields, creeping across the grounds to avoid being seen by any guards. As I got closer, I saw the silhouette of a man standing in the field, and my heartbeat quickened. Cassius? I moved swiftly toward him, but I stopped when I realized who was actually there.

Jesper gave me a small wave. Disappointment weighed heavily on my chest as I continued walking toward him.

“Where did you come from?” Jesper asked with a smile.

“I went for a walk and saw someone standing here. Curiosity got the better of me,” I said carefully, my darkness ready to kill him at any moment. Killing Jeb tonight wasn’t enough to satisfy my need for vengeance. I knew the soft moonlight concealed Jeb's blood that was splattered on me.

Jesper’s smile brightened as he pointed to a blanket and food. “Do you want to have a midnight snack out here under the stars with me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

His smile faltered, and I hoped he felt like the slimeball he was. I sighed as I sat on the opposite side of the blanket from him. He sat and smiled brightly at me. I could see how I had been drawn to him before Cassius came along. He was handsome, and his smile made him look innocent, but I saw the monster lurking in the depths of those eyes. He handed me some food and poured drinks. Part of me wondered if I should kill him right then and there.

But I was curious about why he was out here and what he would say to me.

“I wanted to apologize for the way things have gone since being back,” he said.

“Okay,” I muttered, unsure of what to say. My family must have sent him, knowing I no longer trusted my father.

“I feel protective over you. I forget that you could kill us all if you felt like it,” he chuckled instead of showing disgust at the magic I wielded. His hand instinctively touched the large gash I had given him. My dagger pressed against my leg in my boot, a silent reminder that I could end this liar too. “Your father can be a difficult man to get along with.”

“Stop calling him my father. He is the king, not my father.”

He nodded in agreement, his eyes turning to the sky as he ate his snack.

“Before Cassius, it was me, you know. I was the one you were in love with.” His lie sounded so genuine, but I knew better. I had never loved this monster in front of me. How could he sit here and lie like this, knowing they had tried to kill me in the trials?

“No, I did not,” I scoffed.

“Yes, you did. We were to be married, but then Cassius came along and tricked you. He stole you from me.”

Uneasiness filled me. Why was he pushing this so hard?

“You are not anything I want from a husband,” I said, my tone dripping with clear disgust.

The moment I insulted him, his entire demeanor shifted. I almost smiled as his true self surfaced.

“Well, too fucking bad,” he glared. “Your father will be announcing our engagement at the meeting of the kingdoms.”

“Luren would never allow that,” I hissed, but I was filled with fear. I couldn’t get married to someone like Jesper. Especially now that I could see the evil that lurked under his fake friendliness.

“Showing a united front between our kingdoms will elicit a new sense of power for both of us. You will be my wife, but your father still has the ultimate say.”

“Why would you ever agree to that?” I scoffed.

“The kingdoms will never stop fighting over you, Thea. If you are married to me, then I will have your perceived power on my side. They will not mess with my crown.”

I was to be a pawn again.

“I would rather die than be tied to you,” I snapped. “I will not marry you.”

“You will not have a choice.” His eyes were now enraged and full of hatred. “I will force you anyway I can. You will be mine, and that is something I can throw in Cassius’ face for the rest of our existence.”

Through the haze of anger in my mind, my senses alerted me to something moving near us. My ears perked at the rustling of bushes in the woods. My eyes darted toward the sound, but I couldn’t see anyone there. I held my breath, hoping to hear the noise again. When nothing appeared, I let my attention fall back on Jesper.

“Cassius would not care,” I said, but I knew the words sounded untrue.

“Do you think I don’t see how you're acting lately?” Jesper cocked his head to the side, analyzing me. “I know something happened. Did you speak with Cassius?”

“Of course not,” I said to him like he was an idiot.

“Your father is too blinded by greed to see how much you hate it here. He doesn’t see the way you recoil when he says you will fight for Cerithia. But make no mistake, Thea, I see everything you do, and I know that you hate this kingdom, your family, even me. You can’t fool me.”

“You’re right. I fucking hate you, I hate my family, and I hate the fae of Cerithia. But that does not mean I will not fight against Crimson. I hate them more.” My darkness hissed at my lie.

The rustling sound in the woods caught my attention again. I focused once again on the darkness. This time, my eyes landed on the silhouette of a man standing at the edge of the woods, just in the shadows. The man was too short to be Cassius, but it was clear that he was watching Jesper and I.

“I don’t trust you,” Jesper scoffed.

“I don’t fucking care.” I turned to him. My magic was ready to reach out and burn him alive.

“There is a meeting in a few days that the king and I will have to attend. You will need to be there too, as the captain of the Cerithian army. You will be on your best behavior.”

I needed to kill them before that meeting. The stars would fall from the heavens before I married Jesper.

My focus, however, was now elsewhere. I only nodded in response, not truly listening anymore. My eyes were fixated on the shadow in the tree line. Maybe I should tell Jesper we were being watched. Immediately, I dismissed that thought. Hopefully, whoever it was, was here to kill Jesper.

My attention refocused on Jesper and what he was babbling about, but a freezing gust of wind came through, chilling me instantly.

“I’m going to bed.” Jesper stood. “Guards are watching you, so don’t even think about taking off,” he snapped.

My eyes drifted back to where the shadow had been, but I didn’t see the man anymore.

Jesper waited for me to respond but turned in a huff and left when he realized I wouldn’t be. As soon as his steps faded away, I headed straight for the woods.

“Hello?” I called out into the now silent woods. “I saw you... Who are you?”

Nothing responded. But as I looked around, I noticed that there was frost clinging to the nearby trees. Only one fae that I knew of had the power to do that.

“Haden?” I whispered harshly for him, but he was long gone.

I waited in the woods for a few minutes, but he never showed up, so I headed back to the castle, trying to understand why Haden would be here. He was from Crimson. Was he spying on Cerithia? I continuously glanced over my shoulder all the way to the castle just in case he came back, but he didn’t.

Near the end of my walk, I turned around to see Wisp hovering in front of me. She was flashing black and red in front of me, almost as if in warning. I paused, puzzled. Was she warning me from Haden or was something else out here?

Feeling uneasy, I hurried into the castle, realizing only too late that it was an ambush she had been warning me about. As soon as I entered the doors, guards grabbed me and restrained me. One of them punched directly against my temple, making me dazed for a moment. Before I could even evaporate everyone with my fire, Jesper stepped forward and twisted magic binding barbs into my wrists, making me cry out in pain. Jesper, Luren, and Gwyn all stood against the far wall and watched what was happening.

My darkness and magic simmered inside of me, wanting desperately to kill all of them. Once I was bound by Jesper, the guards quickly let me go. Before they could stop me, though, I grabbed my dagger and plunged it into the neck of the closest one to me, then stood, full of rage, and headed for Jesper. I was still lethal, even without my magic.

“If you harm him or us, we will kill everyone in Exile,” Gwyn sneered at me. Her threat made me stop heading for Jesper and turn towards her instead. By this time, my eyes had turned red, and my skin glowed with swirls of red and orange.

“What did you just say?” I demanded an answer.

“We will kill every elite magic fae in Exile if you do not cooperate with us,” Luren said so casually.

“I should gut each one of you right now. I do not need my magic to kill everyone standing here.”

Gwyn stepped back at my promise.

“They will be dead before you can ever reach them,” Jesper scoffed. “If you harm any of us, the guards in Exile have orders to kill them—painfully.”

Relief filled me that Sybil and the twins were alive. I knew I hadn't made them up. But gods, I had failed them over and over again. I lowered my dagger.

“Very good,” Jesper said with a smile. “I told you she was acting weird.” He glared at the king and queen.

Seething with hatred, I stared each of them down in turn. “I should have gutted all of you tonight instead of Jeb.”

“Jeb?” My father glared.

“He was too easy to kill. I should have slaughtered all of you while Lavtan was here.”

My father rolled his eyes.

“You are too much like your mother—always watching and scheming.”

Something about his comment made me so angry that the grip on my dagger tightened until it was painful.

“Everything was a lie, wasn’t it? The day I came to get the stone, you fed me lies about this being my home and you being my family. I know you had Cerithian guards kidnap me. It was not Falgon or Crimson.”

This made all three of them look surprised.

“They called me the Crimson whore, which is only what fae in Cerithia call me. I also know that you hired witches to fuck with Exile. I saw the contracts.”

No one answered me, but I knew that it was them. Gods, I would have destroyed this whole kingdom if my magic wasn’t barbed inside of me. Cassius had known that Cerithia was not kind to me because this was how they had always treated me.

“You’ll get over it,” Jesper sighed, irritated.

“You tried to kill me on Crimson lands to start a war, and you think I’ll get over it?” I took another step toward them. “Why on Crimson lands? If Cassius hates me so much, it would not make any sense to kill me on his lands to start a war.” The thought that struck me next was so unbelievably painful that I almost couldn’t say it out loud. “Unless he doesn’t hate me at all.”

My father stepped forward and tried to grab me, but I swung my dagger at him, slicing open his cheek.

“You stupid fucking bitch!” he yelled, clutching his bleeding face. Seeing him in pain pleased me, and I smiled at him, making him step back with wide eyes.

“I should have killed all of you when I discovered your schemes. You tried to get me to fail the trials, and you've been lying to me. I want to know why.”

“If you don’t stop talking, we will fucking kill you and try this again. But before you come back from Exile this time, we will slaughter Cassius and his entire family. You will be ours no matter what,” Gwyn snapped.

“I will kill you first,” I promised her. “Actually, I think I’ll kill your daughters first so that you will really suffer.” I smiled when Gwyn’s face paled. “And anyway, Cassius would have you all slaughtered before you could hurt him.”

Gwyn had made a very big error in her threat. She threatened to harm Cassius and his family, which let me know that they were important to me as well. They feared my feelings for him, even though he killed me. I knew that I was still missing a large piece of the puzzle, but it was starting to come together.My instincts were telling me I should have picked Cassius.

“If you do anything against our wishes, we will kill Sybil and the twins slowly and make you watch. As for Cassius, he would never see our spies coming. He would be dead before he realized what was happening,” Luren threatened.

I said nothing as I stared at them. I was so angry. My thoughts were racing, but I knew one thing: I had to act now.

Turning to the three guards behind me, I threw my dagger into the heart of the closest one. As another guard rushed at me, it took little effort to overpower him, using his own sword to kill him. The last guard tried to flee, but I ran after him, grabbing him by his hair and yanking him back. My dagger slit his throat, and his blood spilled onto the king and queen. Once the guards were dead, I turned back to my so-called family. They had backed themselves against the far wall, as far from me as they could get.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you all live,” I snapped. “But make no mistake, it is only because you have control over those in Exile.” I also wanted to mention that it was also because they had insiders in Crimson, but I pretended as if I didn’t care. “You might as well kill me, because now I will never fight for you.”

“You will obey us, Thea. We will not allow you to die and start this all over again. If you are here, then we know that you will not be in the hands of our enemies. So, you will stay, and you will fight, or you will lose everyone you love.”

With one last black-eyed stare as full of threat as I could manage, I turned and stepped over the dead bodies of the fallen guards and left the room, leaving the bloody prints of my boots behind me.

They had said nothing as I left, probably knowing better than to tempt fate any more than they already had tonight. I hurried to my room and slammed the door shut, my chest aching so painfully that I thought my heart would burst. My magic swarmed inside of me, causing an uncomfortable ache that was bottled up and unable to free itself because of Jesper’s binds. However, mixed with all of the pain and confusion was the relief of finally knowing some of the truth.

Wisp appeared close to me; her color is a bright green. She was happy that I knew the truth, but now what would happen? I had no magic. I couldn’t risk killing those in Exile because of my fuck-up. My hope for the future deflated. All the realizations of Cassius and me had come too late, I was stuck in this hell.