31. With Such Force – Elias
With Such Force
ELIAS
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, already reaching for Rosemary to pull her to my side.
“Elias,” Rosemary said as she faced the intruder. “Who is that?”
My mother grinned. Long strands of midnight hair cascaded over slender shoulders, and her lips curled up into a serpentine smile until the hairs along the nape of my neck stood on end.
Everything about this woman screamed malicious, danger, beware, and my eyes tracked her stealthy movements as she approached us.
“Oh, my dear, have you forgotten me that quickly?” my mother sang, then she hummed as she tapped the corner of her deranged smile. “Oh, that’s right,” she added. “Your mother took your memories right after she cursed my sons so that their curse could never be broken.”
“Unseelie Queen,” Rosemary answered her own question, her tone low as she stepped closer to my side. That small crease between her brows furrowed, and I could practically see the gears within her mind twisting.
"Your mother was cleverer than I gave her credit for," the queen continued, circling us like a predator.
"When she realized my sons were bonded to you and your sister, she knew exactly how to ensure the curses could never be broken.
She stole away every trace of your childhood bond with my son, every moment that might have helped you recognize him for what he was. "
Rosemary frowned, her fingers slipping into mine. "Bonded?"
"Oh yes, dear child. Mates. Destined partners.
The kind of connection that could have shattered every curse I laid.
" Her smile turned cruel. "But your precious mother made it so you could live side by side with your destined mate and never know him.
Ensured that love alone wouldn't be enough to break the curse.
" The queen's laughter was like breaking glass.
"Brilliant, really. Cruel, but brilliant. "
Rosemary’s body tightened as she stared curiously at my mother. She frowned as she asked, “What curse? Briar’s?”
I stepped forward, positioning myself in front of Rosemary. I didn’t want my mother to try anything. Rosemary tried to come forward again, but I shot her a concerning look and gave my head a slight shake. Her hand, still held within my own, squeezed mine, but she remained behind me.
“You thought you could break it, believed you could just live happily ever after and that I wouldn’t find out?
” my mother chastised me. One second, her face had been soft and musical, and the next, hard and cruel.
“The moment you began seeking her out, I knew.” Her hard, cruel eyes flicked to Rosemary.
The words she’d spoken to me the night I told her who Rosemary was to me still rang in my head.
“You will not sully our blood or our name with seelie scum.”
“You would rather see us fail, see us stuck in this damn curse, rather than help us!” I snapped, annoyed at her antics.
“What curse? You’re acting as if you know her, Elias. What’s going on?” Rosemary gave my hand a tug as she pleaded for answers.
My mother tilted her head. “Oh, sweet girl. You have grown so much from the young, gangly girl that I remember. I never did understand what my son, Elias saw in you.”
“Son? What?” Rosemary tugged at my hand, pulling me until she could look up at me. “She’s your mother?” Her voice rose, breaking. “How could you keep this from me? First the crow. Now this? You knew what she did to my family—you knew—and you still stayed silent.”
"Oh, didn't you know?" my mother cooed, and my heart skipped a beat as I watched the glimmer of evil behind my mother's narrowed glare. "Your companion, the male you cling to, is the unseelie prince, my second-born son. You two were quite close, once upon a time.
“See? I doubt your mother knew everything she had done to save you would play out like this. Isn’t it fantastic?”
I should have told her sooner, and as my fingers clutched onto hers for the lifeline that they were, I realized everything was about to change. I risked losing her all over again.
Rosemary’s fingers slipped from mine, leaving only an icy emptiness behind.
“You’re lying,” she replied. She took a step away from me, her gaze flicking between mine and my mother’s.
She looked at me as if she wanted me to say it wasn’t true, but I couldn’t.
My heart ached as I watched the hurt and betrayal flash within her large brown eyes.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” I said, trying to make her understand. “At first, I was upset that you didn’t remember me. When I realized why you couldn’t remember me, that someone had stolen your memories of us, I was afraid to tell you the truth.”
She shook her head, backed further away from me, and panic lanced at my heart. I needed her close to me. I couldn’t protect her if she distanced herself too much.
“All those times that you called me princess, that wasn’t just a pet name to annoy me,” she said, anger lacing her words.
“No,” I said, a weak smirk on my lips. “I love annoying you, princess. It’s always been one of my favorite things. But also, yes. I knew who you were. I have always known you, and I always will.”
My mother pressed her palm to her chest. “So touching. So sweet.” She rubbed her hands together, a wild glee flashing behind her widened eyes. “Now, do tell her what you were planning to do.”
“Stop,” I said, my teeth clenching so tightly that I was surprised they hadn’t shattered.
“Elias?” Rosemary turned toward me, watching me like she would a complete stranger.
“I knew I didn’t deserve you. That you would be better off without me.
” My voice hitched as I spoke. “I thought you were dead for decades, and that nearly ruined me. You were so young when we first met, you didn’t know what we truly were to one another, but I did, and then I thought I’d lost you.
When I realized that you still lived, I didn’t understand why you hadn’t sought me out.
I was so lost, so angry, so wicked. I will never deserve you, Rosemary. ”
“Tsk, tsk. That was such a sweet revelation, my son, but I believe I asked you to tell her what you were going to do.”
How did she know? I might have laughed at the dark humor of it all, her watching, keeping tabs, waiting for the perfect moment to step in and ruin me again.
That was my mother's love: the kind that ripped out your heart and relished watching you slowly die afterward.
My hands clenched at my sides as I glared at the woman who had birthed me.
“Elias? What is she talking about?” Rosemary asked, blinking back tears. My eyes flicked to hers and that look, the devastation in them, it broke me.
My shoulders sagged under the burden of the secret.
Her heart was visibly breaking as she watched me, while my mother stood nearby, a knowing, cocky grin on her face.
I knew I had to tell her. With a deep breath, I exhaled sharply and turned to Rosemary, ensuring my mother remained in my line of sight.
“I was going to make you fall in love with me, break the curse, and then leave you,” I said in a rush. Shame whirred within my chest, flaming against my neck as I hurried to continue. “But I couldn’t do that. I realized that I could never betray you like that.”
My mother stepped forward, a wicked smirk stretching her lips as her fingers toyed with the air in front of her. My hand went to my hip, already summoning my blade from the air as I shifted my attention from Rosemary’s hurt expression to my mother’s gleeful one.
“Oh, Elias, that’s not even the best part. Tell her.” My mother gave Rosemary a look of fake pity as she pursed her lips as if she actually cared. She didn’t. All she cared about was that my next words would change everything.
“Elias, why?” Rosemary asked with pain in her gaze as she watched me as if my last words hadn’t broken her enough.
“You don’t understand. How can you? You’ve had the luxury of forgetting.” I lifted my chin, locking gazes with her and laying my heart bare to her. “I lost my mate the night the seelie kingdom fell.”
Rosemary took another step back, shaking her head as she clutched her hands in front of her and bit her bottom lip. “No, no, no," she muttered over and over.
“You’re my mate, Rosie.” I said the words I’d never dared to say as the only female I’d ever loved looked at me like I was as monstrous as the queen just a few feet away from her.
“Is that supposed to make it better?” she snapped. “You lied to me when I needed truth more than anything. You say you’ve always known me but you watched me suffer, kept your distance, hid who you were. The crow, the prince, the mate... what part of you was ever real?”
Her expression shifted from confusion to anger, her lips pressing into a thin line.
Her voice cut through the air, sharp and unyielding as she turned that fury toward my mother.
“You. You are the one who killed my family. You laid a curse upon my sister,” she accused the queen as if she needed this fight between them to distract her from my betrayal.
“I tire of this,” my mother said as if Rosemary’s words, her realization, meant nothing to her.
She lifted her hand and dropped it so quickly, I barely recognized the movements until my body was hoisted from the ground, whipped into the air dozens of feet, and then slammed back into the ground with such force that my body cracked and the ground split.
I groaned, my arms going beneath me to crawl back to my knees, but before I could right myself, my gaze locked onto my mother’s, and my stomach clenched with fright.
“Say goodbye.” My mother, the Queen of the Unseelie, smirked, and I tasted death in the air as her eyes turned as black as voids. As black as her soul.
Dark smoke coiled around her fingers, and the same shadows glared at me from her narrowed eyes.
Her focus shifted to Rosemary as she shaped a death blow with her fist, launching it like a bullet at Rosemary's heart.
Time froze when a scream ripped from my throat.
Rosemary was defenseless against my mother's darkest magic.
She only knew how to use her seelie magic for healing, and even that was mostly instinctive.
If that dark missile hit her, it would be fatal.
My knee scraped the dirt, but I didn't care.
I propelled myself forward, feet stumbling as I thrust myself between her and my mother's magic.
My eyes connected with Rosemary’s, and as I fell through the air in front of her, knowing the blow would hit any second, I wanted to reach out to brush away the lone tear that slipped from her wide, unblinking gaze.
“I love you,” I said, my words rushed. “I have always loved you.” Tears streamed down her face as I gritted out, “forgive me.”
Agony exploded along my spine as the magic tore through me.
The icy cold fingers of death gripped my heart as my shoulder hit the ground hard.
The air rushed from my lungs as my head struck the ground.
Pain lanced through my veins and my vision darkened.
A tormented scream ripped through my ears, and I closed my eyes to the world.
I felt nothing.