Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Phenex
The stories of the Princes were difficult to watch unfolding.
There was so much drama between them. So many secrets.
But there was also love and bonds forged since birth.
I knew these secrets unveiled would not break them apart.
Seraphina’s was more in line with my own.
My acceptance into this bond was not the secret the goddess would ask of me.
No, that one had settled after spending time with Seraphina, and the others. I was certain the six of us were meant to be together.
The bonds of your mates are not the first ones you’ve broken.
Yeah, yeah.
It wasn’t a secret they would find particularly interesting. This news wasn’t related to them at all. But it was the biggest one I’d ever held close, and if anyone deserved to hear it, it was Morax.
True mate bonds share all. Who can say what may come of your admissions.
Cryptic words for a creepy mountain goddess. If I could roll my eyes, I would. The memory rushed through my mind, images flashing until one single moment stood out. It was the moment I led King Corson, our father, to his fate. I helped Belial become the monster he is now.
Belial and Morax both grew into clever and important figures in our father’s court. But me, he never cared for me. I was too wild, too independent. He never spoke of my mother but once, when he said I had her eyes. And he looked at me with such hate.
Soon after, Belial told me he planned to force our father from the throne and take it for himself.
Said it was for us and we would build a new world together.
Even then, Bels was too clever, and a touch sadistic.
I didn’t believe him, but I wanted our father punished.
My eldest brother needed a book of dark magic and sent me on a mission to find it.
It was my fault Belial enslaved our people. With the book, he sought out power in other worlds. Found Laszlo Blackbyrn. All the awful things we’d endured led back to the decision I made to ruin my father. Perhaps I should beg for forgiveness from them all.
No one will want me now.
Andras’s dominant energy thrummed down the bond. We cannot know the effects of our actions. Only new action will help us overcome the wrongs we have committed.
Having one of my new brothers, my true mates, stand up for me in this moment meant everything.
I could feel the others, including Seraphina, agreeing with Andras.
Hope burned through my veins, filling me with a yearning so fierce, it nearly cast my soul to the stars.
I would make this right. I would bring down Belial and build a new world with Seraphina and my mates.
We accept your vow.