Chapter 27 #2
“A little goddess told me.” She shrugs and my mind thinks of Layla.
She must have known from her mother. “And to my surprise, not only was I looking for a blood summoner, but my brother’s child.
Do you know we spent centuries apart when I first laid the curse on Kyrin?
” She scoffs. “He was so mad. He disowned me.” Aoife points a finger at me, an unhinged smile gracing her horrible face.
“It’s fitting that it’s his daughter that was destined to end the curse when he couldn’t stop it the first time.
And it’s fitting I’ll kill you when he left me in this world alone. ”
“Fenrir could,” I argue. I refuse to acknowledge the death part.
She laughs. “You think Fenrir is mine by blood?” She shakes her head, chuckling. “Fenrir was a baby I found after convincing the king I was pregnant. I wouldn’t be stupid enough to produce a child that would end my curse on the Moorgate family.”
“Until me.”
She stops, face expressionless. “And of course, Gods’ Will interferes and binds you to Kaden. The Gods have conspired against me.”
The daggers are heavy in my palms. “All this because one Fae didn’t love you back?”
The rage swirls in her eyes. “He would’ve loved me if not for that damn claiming,” she snarls. “If he had just loved me, none of this would’ve happened.”
“You destroyed the world over nothing,” I say quietly. “Nothing that matters.”
“Says the blood summoner who is here, fighting for her mate. Tell me,” she drawls, “why are you here?”
She doesn’t let me answer. “Love. I told you it is worthless in the end. It brought you here, unprotected, where you’ll die for a Fae that doesn’t want you.”
“He does,” I insist. “You’ve corrupted him.”
She laughs, twirling slightly in her skirts.
“I’ll let you in on a secret,” she whispers.
“You corrupted him. That potion you drank before kissing him?” Her grin grows, malice shinning in her eyes.
“It was the binding drug. I know I’d never get it into him.
I needed your help. Once he ingested it, it made him susceptible to the next phase.
So, really, you have no one to blame but yourself. ”
Despair wells inside my chest. Baris was right. Aoife cannot be trusted.
I thought I was doing everything right. I thought the potion was to save him. But I administered the first dose and gave Aoife a chance to steal him away.
I’m sick as I glare at her. “It was all a lie?”
She shrugs. “You just needed to give him your blood in the most sacred of place and truly love him. Everything else was for me.”
Pressing a hand to my stomach, I breathe through my mouth. “You’ve been waiting to do this since you first saw him.”
She clasps her hands to her chest, biting her lip. “I always made a point to meet the next firstborn. The curse fuels my magic. As long as they live, I am invincible. But then, I saw him. He was a spitting image of Kyrin.”
She giggles as if we’re sharing secret crushes.
“Kaden was so close with his mother and I inserted myself into their lives. He saw me all the time—started to depend on me. When I discovered of how horrible Serafina’s marriage was, I convinced her to have a third child.
Said it would heal a hole in her heart. The strain on the marriage grew and the fights became too numerous to count. ”
I swallow thickly. “Zelos was blamed for the murder. But that’s not true, is it?”
She looks to the side, eyes faraway. “A little bit of sleeping plague and she was gone.”
The revelation rocks me to my core. So much so that I need to hold on to a nearby chair for stability.
She sees my reaction. “Well, I couldn’t let her live. How else would he come to me with all his problems?” She glances to the balcony and sighs. “Then, Oslo had to ruin it. Remind him of his duty. But I bid my time. Kept going. I provided support and reassurance—everything a spouse would do.”
“He saw you as a mother.” And she groomed him to be her husband.
“He saw me as an equal,” she argues. “Until you came into his life.”
“No, I am his equal. You are just a hopeless old female with delusional dreams that are everyone’s else nightmares.”
Her smile melts away, eyes growing cold. “If that is the case, why is he bonded to me and not you?”
Now I smirk. “You had to result to magic and tricks to get a bonding with him. I have the Gods on my side. Who really won?”
I expect the hit. Energy whips through the bedroom, slamming into my chest. I brace, holding my magic back, concentrated on my body. The force knocks me back, slamming into the golden wall. A dent is left as I slide down, blooding trailing behind me.
Thankfully, it’s a small cut. And she didn’t slice my neck like Reid. Small miracles.
Looking up from the floor, her face contorts into a mask of fury. Red colors her cheeks and she raises her hand again. The Hadeon jumps to my aid, nuzzling my shoulder as if to help me up.
My chest tugs and that burn from my dream starts to spread. But it doesn’t go further, it doesn’t blister, and I pull my tunic open to watch in fascination.
A small red mark, more of a rug burn, shows but nothing else.
Aoife screams, stomping her foot, eyes wild. “He gave you the potion!”
Thank you, Baris.
“What can I say?” I quip, standing on shaking legs, using one of the Hadeon’s head as a cane. “My father thought this through.”
If it keeps my heart in my chest, I assume it does the same to her. I may be able to use her blood against her, but I won’t be able to crush her heart. I’ll have to fight her with my weapons and avoid her magic in order to attempt to end her. Easy enough.
Clenching the hilt of my daggers, I lower my shoulders as another voice calls out from the doorway, “Am I interrupting?”