CHAPTER 34
I follow after Silas, his burning rage radiating out of him as he storms into the castle heading for the library. When I approach, he has upturned the entire room in a matter of seconds, once again I would have to clean up his mess, his anger always getting the better of him.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I demand, making him turn around and glare at me.
“I will not give the Fae our kingdom,” he argues.
“Is this what you’re so pissed off about? Because she is Fae, what did you expect her to be, a bedroom toy? We are kings either way she would be our queen.”
“That’s exactly what I expect, she is Fae. This is my kingdom, we built it. I won’t just hand it over to the Fae to do as they please.”
“What are you talking about? You’re not giving the Fae our kingdom, you are just agreeing to let Elora rule alongside us, they listen to her. This is a good thing Silas.”
“You are blinded by her; you don’t even see what is happening,” Silas retorts. I do see, clearly saw what is happening, change was happening, and he couldn’t handle it, his ego is getting in the way, his burning hatred for the Fae consuming his head.
“So, what did you expect of Elora, just to remain by our side and have no say in anything?” I ask.
“Yes, she is ours, she shouldn’t be challenging us, challenging our titles, she is to be seen not heard!” Silas screams at me, throwing a chair against the wall. I laugh, I can’t help it. He really expects a woman like her to be stuck in a corner and do as she is told.
“I can’t believe you’re laughing, there is nothing funny about this, this goes against everything. She is going against us!” Silas yells the temperature rising with his anger.
“Is this about Elora or the Fae?”
“The Fae, what else would it be about?”
“Well sorry to break it to you Silas, Elora is Fae. She can’t change who she is.”
“I won’t hand my kingdom over to the Fae, I don’t care what she is to us. This was supposed to break the curse on the Dragon’s not the Fae, her sacrifice was wasted and then this bullshit threatening to take our kingdom.”
“She isn’t taking anything, why can’t you see that? You are right she made a sacrifice so did Claire, the curse on the Dragons? Fuck the curse Silas, I don’t give a damn about the curse with her by our side!” I scream back at him.
“Maybe the curse on the Dragons isn’t a sacrifice she is supposed to make,” Dragus says overhearing the conversation as he walks in.
“What are you talking about, the book said the Chosen One had to make the sacrifice,” he argues back against Dragus.
“Think about it Silas, why would a Fae have to make a sacrifice for the Dragons? Elora doesn’t owe us anything.
If anything, you owe her a fucking apology, you just denounced her in front of the entire kingdom all because she is Fae.
Her being Fae does not affect her ability to rule alongside us,” Dragus tells him.
“She is not our equal,” he screams back at him. His entire body trembling and I can see scales rippling up his arms as he fights to not shift where we stand. His anger getting the better of him.
“Maybe that’s the problem, you two have been fighting against each other since the moment she got here. You want her to be our mate, yet she is to sit below us. That’s not how it is supposed to be, she is to stand beside us, not behind us, as equals, Silas.”
“Fae will never be equal to the Dragons,” he says, turning away.
Dragus and I both stare at him, nothing we say is clearly getting through to him.
What I don’t realize is that Elora has heard everything.
I didn’t realize she is watching from the doorway, she remained silent, if it weren’t for the hurt hitting me through the bond, I wouldn’t have even noticed she was there. What Silas said hurt her.
“If that’s how you feel Silas, I will take my people and leave.” Her voice is strong, yet I can feel how much she is struggling to remain that way, not wanting him to see how deeply his words cut her, she feels rejected by him, by us.
Silas spins around at the sound of her voice, I can tell he didn’t mean for her to overhear, yet she had, and he is too stubborn to admit he is wrong, too stubborn to give in to her.
“And go where Elora, you’re not leaving this kingdom!”
“If you don’t want the Fae here that means you don’t want me here,” she tells him.
“That’s not what I said,” he says, stepping forward, but she puts up her hand warding him off and he stops, regret shining in his eyes.
“I am Fae, Silas. I can’t change that and I wouldn’t even if I could.
My people will follow me. Your kingdom means that much to you?
Have it. I never asked for this. You brought me here.
I didn’t want to rule, I didn’t ask for this, it just happened.
Either let me in or let me go. I will not turn my back on my people,” she tells him, walking away.
“She won’t go, there is nowhere to go. She will get over it,” he says. I shake my head; I know Elora enough to know she will do as she says.
“You’re really going to let her leave?” I ask incredulously. Dragus is thinking the same thing.
“She can’t leave, there is nothing out there. Everyone knows not to cross the borders.”
“So, you told her what’s out there then?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest. His head snaps toward me and I knew he hadn’t. No one knows except the Lycans and us.
“She knows it’s not safe,” he says, sitting down on the ground, placing his arms on his knees. I nod well, that’s one thing I suppose. Elora won’t risk the Fae, not when she only just found them.
“So, what’s next then, this is your plan?” I ask.
“We show them who has control, we don’t need another rebellion from them. Either Fae falls in line or we get rid of them,” he states. This shit again, this grudge against the Fae needs to end.
“Elora won’t allow that; she won’t bow down to you again Silas, why can’t you see that?” Dragus says.
“She won’t have a choice; she belongs to us. This is our kingdom, our home. She will see it as a good thing, the bond will make sure of it,” he says. I am done. He honestly believes she will stand idly by and allow him to control her, control everything.
Unable to handle any more of his nonsense, I decide to leave. I won’t lose my mate again; won’t lose her over a hundred-year-old grudge he can’t seem to drop.
I walk to our bedroom when I hear something that makes me stop. It’s Elora sobbing quietly. I hesitate, wondering if she hates us now because of him. Taking a deep breath, I enter to find her rummaging in the dresser for some clothes after hers were torn from her wings.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know Matitus,” she says, a sharpness in her voice.
I want to go to her, but I know she’s mad, hurt by what happened with Silas.
I watch as she strips what’s left of her clothes off and gasp at what I see.
She is simply magnificent. Her gorgeous skin is etched with the markings of the Fae.
Elora looks down when she notices my stare, and I feel her shock hit me.
The violet markings spread from her temple down her cheek and across one entire side of her body.
The markings of her magic, our mate markings but there was more.
I know the more markings a Fae has, mean the more powerful they are, but this was something else.
These weren’t just Fae markings but the markings I had only seen in books. Dragon books never on Fae.
Something changed when she came back or was reborn as Claire had said.
Running down her side were violet swirls, swirls I realized were mine and Dragus markings spreading across her ribs to the side of her stomach, they were mesmerising, and I never liked tattoo’s, especially on woman but on her, they were beautiful like a part of her, they enhanced her beauty, and I am in awe of her.
“I wonder what they mean?” she asks softly tracing her fingers down her side of the blossoms and flames.
“May I,” I ask, and she looks up at me. Her eyebrows furrow slightly before she nods.
Kneeling in front of her, I trace my fingers over the new markings, they glow under my touch, reacting to me.
I knew it. These are our markings, she has been blessed with our magic, when we pledged our loyalty to her, it sealed us to her, giving her a piece of us, though I could tell it wasn’t complete because of the way it suddenly cut off.
She is missing one piece. That piece is Silas.
“It’s our magic,” I tell her, looking up at her. She stares back down not understanding.
“When we stood before you, pledging ourselves to you, it gave you a part of us,” I tell her.
“But I am Fae, not Dragon?” she says, slightly confused.
“It doesn’t matter, you’re our mate, we are part of you and you us,” I tell her.
“So, you sacrificed a piece of your magic and gave it to me?” she asks. Her words hit me like a ton of bricks and I remember Dragus’s words earlier, what he said to Silas. It finally makes sense.
I know he is right. It was never Elora who had to make the sacrifice, it was us.
Only we could break the curse. We had to surrender to her, give ourselves wholly to her.
Yet I know the curse would never be broken because I know Silas will never surrender to a Fae, even if she is our mate. Even if it meant breaking the curse.
I laugh at my newfound knowledge, Blaire was cunning, she knew he would never submit to the Fae; therefore, the curse would never be broken.
She knew he would kill them off, yet she must have misunderstood the Fae’s ability to survive, or she knew they would, but his stubbornness would see to the curse never being broken.
Blaire knew, no matter what, Silas would be his own downfall, the ultimate revenge. We could have broken the curse all along, we just didn’t see it.
“What’s so funny?” she asks, staring down at me. I kiss her hip and she shivers. I love how reactive she is to us, love how her body reacts even when she doesn’t want to.
“Nothing little one, nothing you need to worry about.”