Chapter 26 #3
The moths circle Freya, while she sobs but still bravely refuses to back away.
“You said,” she rasps through her tears, furiously pointing at me, “if we do not protect our partners but instead, abuse them, then that makes us monsters and not Alphas. Don’t you see?
It doesn’t matter what happens…what you see…
who… All that matters is that you act like the Alpha I know you are and not the monster they’re trying to make you become. ”
Freya’s words are overwhelming, pulsing through my blood.
I can taste the truth of them in my mouth.
I avoid Freya’s gaze, unable to look away now from the altar and the ancient magic being performed.
Agonizingly slowly, the fae’s wings change color from dove white to raven black.
Then the fae’s snowy hair becomes as silver as his cursed mask.
He looks beautiful but he is not the same fae.
Nothing has been real.
Everything between us has been built on lies.
He has been hiding behind a disguise.
My eyes burn.
“I only know one powerful, elemental fae with lavender eyes, silver curls, and raven wings,” Isis declares with a dark triumph.
So do I.
But it can’t be.
I’ve gifted this fae daggers.
I’ve killed my High Priestess for him.
He has become my honored bat rider.
I’ve had this fae in my bed.
Dove was never my friend. He never existed.
Yet how did this illusion trick me? Lazarus is the one with the dreamer’s heart. Have I truly become my twin because I allowed myself to love?
Is that what has destroyed me?
I howl, dropping to my knees.
Shadow and Devil bound to stand on either side of me. Their shadows snake out, transforming the hall into night.
Heka slides his curved, iron knife back to the fae’s throat. “I offer the ultimate blood sacrifice for the Night of the Shades, as well as a wedding gift for tomorrow.”
Behind me, I hear a wolf’s howl, as if in answer to my own.
Shocked, I turn to look.
Freya has transformed into a giant, scarlet wolf. She attempts to bound toward the altar — a glorious streak of fanged fury — but Shadow and Devil leap up and block her.
Freya throws her head back and howls again.
She flattens her ears, before she crouches with a snarl. Shadows spiral out of her, as she faces both demonic lions at once.
Seeing Freya’s shifter side emerge publicly for the first time to protect her soulmate is bittersweet.
I unleashed this side of her with the Power.
She is fierce and beautiful. But she isn’t mine.
I thought that she was my Omega.
But have I been wrong about everything from the start? Outplayed?
Freya’s muscles bunch. Her lips peel back in a fanged snarl.
I stare at her, longingly.
Freya would make an outstanding warrior in battle. I would ride Shadow, while she stalked proudly in shifter form next to me.
Yet is my marriage even going ahead now?
I wish that my nest mates had just killed me.
“This Night of the Shades, I have a worthy blood sacrifice to offer the spirits of your family and ancestors.” Heka presses the knife harder against the fae’s skin, and I flinch, when crimson blood beads along its length.
“I don’t need to remove the mask to know that this is your greatest enemy: The Shadow Queen Slayer, your mother’s killer. King Daire.”
Daire.
One word, and our marriage has blackened and withered in front of me.
One word, and I can no longer pretend not to know who is hiding behind the mask.
One word, and there is no way to save the fae.
My future with my royal nest mates has been poisoned by the truth of the fae’s identity.
Daire, instead of Dove.
War, not peace.
Why did I allow my emotions to overrule my instincts that my King and Queen weren’t who they said they were? Were hiding something from me?
Why couldn’t Heka have allowed me to live in my delusion for one more night, when tomorrow I die anyway?
If what we had was only a dream, then I still treasured it.
But this…?
It is a nightmare.
Isis and Horus prowl around the altar, flanking Heka.
The fae…King..my enemy…struggles even harder but he can’t escape.
“Slit his throat,” Isis commands. “Let the Shadow Queen Slayer’s blood coat the altar and bring justice to her watching spirit.”
“Stop.” My eyes blaze.
Heka holds the Night Sky Blade at Dove — Daire’s — throat.
“Don’t you want to forge your reign on the blood of traitors? Enemies? Your mother’s killer?” Heka slices the point of the blade into Daire’s throat over the exact point that I bit him earlier.
Nectar scented blood, which I have feasted on for many nights, my addiction, trickles down to stain the expensive robe that I gifted him.
Freya throws back her head and howls like she felt either the cut or Daire’s terror through the bond.
“My prince, I once promised that I would keep you safe. This is how I do it.” Heka’s voice is gentle, while the point of his knife is sharp.
More blood spills from Daire’s throat over the altar to the Void Devils.
I can’t look away. I am breathing too hard.
My fangs are in agony. That is my blood.
My blood alone. Mine, mine mine. “I also taught you how to turn your fangs into weapons against your true enemies. It is time to finally show everyone that you are the last vampire King of the House of Sin. King Daire is your true enemy tonight. I will symbolically cut him open, then you will drain him dry. You shall be purified for your marriage tomorrow, and finally, have your revenge on the fallen fae King.”