Chapter 67

Chapter 67

FEY

F ey took in the scene quickly as Jasper scrambled up the ladder behind her. Kallista and her sisters were already here, and thankfully, it looked like no one had been killed. Yet.

Her eyes narrowed when she looked across the roof and saw…

The princess?

What was she doing here?

“Fey,” Vivian said, excitedly, grinning at her. Fey’s heart sank as she stared across the roof at the young girl. A part of her had hoped she had been wrong. That they would find someone else, anyone else on the rooftop waiting for them. “I knew you would come. I knew you’d help.”

“Took you long enough,” Alice grumbled. Joy reached out, fingers wrapping around Fey’s hand and giving her a comforting squeeze.

Vivian saw. Eyes locked on Joy’s hand, her face fell, that smile slipping away in horror.

“You came here with them,” she murmured, almost in disbelief, as her eyes drifted up to stare at Fey. “You didn’t come here to help me, did you? You came here to stop me.”

“I came here to stop you from making an even bigger mistake,” Fey insisted. “Listen to me, Vivian. You can let this go. Let her go. ”

Rage. Cold, dangerous rage flooded those green eyes. Those eyes so like Jasper’s.

“Let it go?” Vee asked, voice icy. “How… How can you take their side? After everything they’ve done?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side?—”

A sharp scream burst from Amalia, and her back arched painfully as she twisted under Vee’s control.

“ You are taking their side ,” Vee shrieked. She didn’t even look at Amalia as she twisted her body unnaturally far, her eyes burning into Fey’s instead. “How could you? You were the one who took them down in the first place. We had a chance, Fey. You gave us a chance ! A chance to make it all better, a chance to take power for those who’ve never had any. Those who have been left behind, who have been hurt for all these years under the Queen. To make it better.”

Her voice was breaking, pained. She sounded desperate. And desperation made people dangerous.

Fey tried again.

“The council is trying to make it better,” Fey started to tell her. “They’re?—”

Vee growled. “They’re nothing but puppets for the Witch Faction to control. What has changed? What has gotten better, for any of us?”

“It takes time,” Alice interjected. “And we’re trying, we?—”

“We don’t have time!” Vee screamed. Amalia was shaking, shuddering on the ground, but the Wolf didn’t seem to notice. “We’re dying . Shifters, Demons—we’re dying out here in the city, all on our own. Why do we need to wait? Where’s the justice in that?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Fey tried to reason.

“Someone needs to pay,” Vee told her, fists tight at her sides. There were tears on her cheeks. “Someone needs to pay for our suffering. For our deaths. So many of us have died, and the council isn’t doing anything to stop it. They’re keeping everything the same, and no one is paying for what they did to us .”

Another shudder from Amalia, and this time everyone noticed, even Vee. They all turned to look toward the princess, bent and powerless under Vee’s control .

Her face was pale and her lips were blue as she convulsed.

She wasn’t breathing.

Vee took a sharp breath and dropped her hold on the princess.

Amalia gasped, drawing a deep, painful breath into her lungs. The force of it made her cough, body shaking as she tried to restart her breathing.

“I’m sorry,” Vee whispered, looking horrified. She swallowed hard, staring at Amalia. “I forgot. I didn’t mean…”

“Viv… please,” Jasper said, stepping forward. “Please let her go. Don’t hurt her again.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Vee whined. She glanced between Jasper and the princess, her eyes pleading. “Sometimes I forget about the breathing, that’s all. I didn’t mean…”

Jasper took another step toward her, and Vee tensed.

“Don’t do it, Uncle Jas,” she warned in a dark voice.

He ignored her.

“Let her go,” he said softly. “Please, Viv. No one else needs to get hurt. Please, just listen to me. We want to help you. But you need to trust me.”

Vee took a step backward, shaking her head slowly from side to side. Crying.

“Viv, look at me,” Jasper continued, coming even closer to her. “If you let her go, we can fix this. We can?—”

He stopped, and the words caught in his throat. He made an odd sound, like a gurgle.

Vee wasn’t looking at him. With her head still down, she stared at the ground beneath her, at the ring of light there. But her arm was extended, her hand pointed toward him.

“There is no fixing this,” she said, and she curled her fingers toward her palm. “There’s no going back. Not anymore. Not until this is finished. Not until they all pay.”

It’s never easy to watch the transformation—to see a Shifter move between forms. It’s a monstrous process, horrifying to witness. And it’s even worse when it’s forced.

Jasper let out a guttural scream as his bones twisted, breaking and reforming. He screamed as his muscles extended, his face elongating and fur sprouting all over his body. Screamed, until it turned into a howl, and suddenly there was a Wolf where he had once been, a huge golden-brown Wolf cowering on the roof.

It was too much for Fey to take.

Drawing her blades, Fey stepped into the light.