by Ciara Graves
Draven rested his hand on my shoulder, the move comforting in a weird way I wasn’t even going to try and understand. At least, not yet. The vampire had given me his shirt in the dungeon. I wanted to know why.
We’d been trying to kill each other, and then something changed his mind. He said he wanted to use me for my rings, but even that sounded off. When I could get a moment alone with him, we’d be having a very lengthy discussion about what game he was playing. Everyone around me was playing games, and it was about time I started disrupting the rules, so I could win, for once.
“Fine.” I started to walk with him. Draven and Shane followed me, but Marlie stopped them.
“You two have to stay here, at least for now. It’s going to be enough for me to get her in the King and Queen’s tent. Let alone two vampires I don’t even trust.”
Shane grunted in annoyance.
Draven’s eyes met mine. “You going to be alright?”
His question irritated Marlie, and I bit back a smile at his discomfort. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Keep yourselves out of sight.”
They fell back into the shadows of the trees as I turned to follow Marlie and the guards. The walk was awkward, but I didn’t care what he was thinking at that moment. He was taking me to see our parents. The King and Queen. What he hoped to accomplish, I had no idea. The Queen made it quite clear I was no daughter of hers, and that was just fine by me. We reached the large tent at the center of camp, and I stopped short of the entrance.
“Sister?”
“Don’t call me that,” I warned. “I’m not your sister.”
He breathed out heavily as if ready to argue, but let it drop and pushed his way inside. “Mother, Father, the wounded have been tended to, the guard has been set. It is time we deal with a very important issue.”
“What is she doing in here?” the Queen demanded as soon as I lowered my hood. “Captain Lark escort this prisoner from our tent at once.”
“No,” Marlie shouted and Captain Lark froze. “You are not going to push her away. Not when she’s finally come back to us.”
“Marlie.” The king sighed.
Marlie slashed his hand sharply through the air. “Enough! She has every right to be here and to know exactly what happened back then.”
The King and Queen exchanged furious looks with their son, then turned those glares around on me. The hatred burning in their eyes ate away at me until I couldn’t stand it any longer.
I snarled, startling them both.
“I didn’t want to come here,” I informed them roughly. “Your son dragged me here. I thought my parents died years ago in a train accident. You? I don’t know who you are, don’t even know your names.”
“Queen Karina and King Raine,” Captain Lark said helpfully.
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, really. Not that I care to know about two people who tossed me aside like I was nothing more than trash.”
“Not trash.” King Raine rubbed a hand down his face, looking much older than he first appeared. He sank down in his chair. “He’s right. She should at least know so she can understand.”
Queen Karina chewed her bottom lip then turned her back on me. “Then tell her and be done with it. We have a war to fight, if you hadn’t noticed. I don’t have time for all this drama.”
My hands curled into fists, but I focused on King Raine. “Well?”
He started and stopped a couple of times as if not sure where to begin. “You were born in a time of upheaval amongst the fae kingdoms. We were on the brink of war. The late King of the High Kingdom was determined to rule us all. There’d been countless attacks already on both families, and we were afraid you would be killed. Afraid war would break out, and we couldn’t bear to lose you. The princess of our kingdom, the first in a long while,” he explained, smiling softly at me.
I bristled at how fake it seemed. What was he up to? Why would he act sympathetic to me unless he wanted something?
“We did the only thing we could think of. Found a fae couple amongst our palace guards and entrusted you to them.”
“And you handed me over just like that?” The words came out garbled, a whirlwind of emotions that were threatening to spiral out of control bubbled up within me.
“The day we did, the castle was infiltrated by several assassins,” he went on quietly. “They went straight for your brother’s chambers and yours. Marlie was nearly killed, and you… you were a defenseless babe. They would have murdered you in your crib. They left a dagger stabbed through your pillow in warning.”
Karina kept her back to me, but her hunched shoulders told me she at least felt something.
“And that king, I’m assuming he’s gone now?”
Raine nodded.
“Then why didn’t you send for me?”
Raine looked to Karina, but there was no response from her. “We came to check on you, bring you home but… we couldn’t find you.”
“What?”
“The couple we gave you to took you somewhere, used magic to stop us from finding you.” Raine slammed his fist down on his thigh, cursing. “They stole away our daughter, and we tried for years to find you, but there was no sign, not one, not until…” He trailed off, pain replacing the anger in his eyes.
“Until?” I urged. “Just tell me.”
“Macron,” Raine spat out. “He came to us, said he heard a rumor Rudarius had a new pet.”
“How long ago?”
“Seneca, you have to understand—”
“How long?”
“Ten years,” Marlie answered when Raine seemed unable to. “He came to us ten years ago.”
“And? Why was Macron the only one to come and get me, a year after he told you where I was?” My usually cool body seemed engulfed in a raging inferno. “Why?”
No one seemed to have an answer, and I growled with fury.
“Do you have any idea what I suffered at his hands?” I took a step closer, and Captain Lark moved as if to stop me. I hissed at him, but he didn’t back down. “You know the best part? My wings weren’t torn out until right before Macron saved me. You could have stopped that, but you didn’t. You left me there with a monster. Why? What kind of parents abandon their child?”
“We were told you’d been turned,” Karina said, finally speaking. “That you were already tainted.” Just like with Raine, her words sound off, like she was lying, holding something else back. I wanted to call her out on it, except I was already on shaky ground, after learning that I could have been spared a year of torture. My wings, my precious fae wings could have been saved.
“Too bad that wasn’t true.”
She turned around with a confused look on her face at my words.
“I wasn’t turned until Macron up and left me to apparently come here to try and stop Rudarius from killing mages. For royals, you’re not well informed, are you.”
“How dare you?” Karina marched toward me. “How dare you stand there and accuse us of any wrongdoing?”
I had my hand around her throat without even realizing I’d done it.
Captain Lark yelled at me as Raine rushed to his feet and Marlie shouted at me to let her go.
I ignored them all, snarling in Karina’s face, enjoying the flicker of fear in her eyes. I wanted her terrified. I wanted her to feel just a hint of the terror I felt for all those years.
“You would turn your back on your only daughter because she was taken against her will and tortured? Because she was attacked when she was alone, and turned?”
Karina’s eyes narrowed as she gasped, “I would turn my back on a tainted fae who has no place in our world. Not anymore. You are not my daughter. You are not a Princess of the Burning Thorn family. That will not change.”
The rings on my left hand pulsed and the hate radiating off her was palpable.
“You don’t deserve to have the rings of our family.”
I pictured myself killing her then and there, the image so vivid in my mind for a second, I thought I already did it.
I saw her broken body at my feet. I blinked and let her go, my hand shaking with an anger I couldn’t control.
“These are mine by rights and you will not be taking them away. And who said I wanted to be your daughter?” I backed toward the tent flaps, waiting for Raine or Karina to change their mind and try to stop me. Neither moved, and it was another stab to the heart. “Been fine on my own all these years. Screw you, all of you. I hope Rudarius destroys the fae kingdoms.”
“Seneca,” Marlie said, but I was already out of the tent and stalking into the woods.
Gasps and whispers erupted around me. Everyone heard our argument and realized who I was now. Several called me a tainted monster, and I hissed at them as I passed, until I reached the line of guards and kept on walking.
“Seneca, wait!” Marlie caught up to me and yanked me to a halt. “Just hold on one damned minute.”
“Why did you bring me back here?” I demanded, shoving him so hard he staggered backward. Several guards moved, and I laughed bitterly. “Don’t worry, boys, I’m not going to kill your precious prince. Not that any of you would give a shit for me. Princess. What a joke.”
“I meant it when I said it was time you came home.”
“Obviously you’re the only one who thinks that.”
“I’ll talk to them, make them understand we need you.”
His words bothered me, and I craned my neck. “What do you mean you need me?”
He swallowed hard and refused to meet my eyes.
“Marlie, why did you come after me? Why were you looking for me if all of you think I’m too tainted to ever truly return home?”
“Macron.”
“You’re a bit too late. He rescued me when I was fourteen. Where were you then?”
Marlie took a large step backward as if anticipating my attacking him. “He came to us seven years ago saying he was on his way to his mage house. He told us, well told me, that we would need you before the end. That you were our only hope to beat back the darkness coming to claim the fae kingdoms.”
The world closed in around me, and all I saw was the white-haired mage who taught me all he knew for the couple of years I was with him. Told me I needed to learn to fight, to defend myself. I looked at the rings on my left hand, the ones Karina said I didn’t deserve to have.
Draven wanted me for my rings and royal blood.
Marlie had only come to find me because he needed me too, wanted to use me to fight against the darkness that I assumed was Rudarius.
And Macron, he’d only rescued me because, he too, needed me to learn to fight. To become what, a monster? That’s all I felt like, at that moment. A monster that barely had a hold on the killing instinct burning in my veins. Is that what he and Minnie wanted from me? To remember I was simply a freak of nature? A killer?
Hell, even Owen needed me. He always wanted to help people, fix them. It made him feel he was making a difference in the world.
Everyone wanted to use me, or change me, and I was sick of it.
“Seneca, you have to understand, I was going to come to find you anyway.”
“Liar,” I seethed. “You’re as bad as the rest of them.”
“Where are you going?” he yelled when I marched toward the trees. “Seneca, it’s not safe out there.”
“Safer than here,” I muttered and blurred away from just another lying bastard who’d found a way into my life.
My so-called parents, they were hiding the rest of the truth from me. Maybe even from Marlie.
After learning what I had, they could take the rest of the truth to their graves, for all I cared.
I was finished with them all.
Rudarius could have them.
A few years of torture would do them good.
Chapter 3
Draven
I left Shane at the tree and took the time to sneak through the camp. Seneca might say she was alright, but I didn’t trust Marlie, not after the rude welcoming we received. I got as close to the tent as I dared with so many guards wandering around. The yelling came quick, first Marlie getting onto his parents for not being truthful with Seneca. The more I overheard, the worse my anger grew, until I was stifling my snarls. It only took a few more minutes before Seneca was yelling. I heard gasps and the fae yelling for Seneca to let her go. I assumed she attacked the queen. As I was about to step in, she burst out of the tent. Marlie went after her and I followed them past the line of guards to the trees.
Marlie would’ve done better to shut up. I made ready to intervene when that killer look flooded Seneca’s face, but instead, she blurred off into the darkness, leaving her brother cursing.
“I’ll follow her,” I assured him, stepping from the shadows.
Marlie jumped but nodded. “It’s dangerous out there for her to be on her own.”
“I don’t care if your parents accept her as their daughter or not,” I said as I neared, “but they have to understand we all want the same thing. I can tell them what Rudarius’s plans are, at least what he’s told me. If they want any chance of stopping him, they’re going to need us.”
“Trust me, I want your help, as odd as that might sound. My parents aren’t as openminded. The past wars have made them overcautious, shut off to outside help. No fae ever believed the vampires would rise with such numbers and dare to attack us. We were too blind to his actions, too caught up in our own mess.”
“Noticed.”
He shook his head, planting his hands on his hips. “I wanted her to come home and be welcomed.”
“Sure you did.”
“Watch it, vampire.”
“What? You fae are all the same. Everything is based on the purity of your blood. You should have known how they would react when she showed up.” I took several steps toward the trees, then paused. “Did you really know she was with Rudarius all that time and not do a damned thing?”
“A year, we only knew for a year.”
“And you left her there? You’re damned lucky she’s not rampaging through this camp right now slaughtering you all. Not sure I’d try to stop her if she was.”
“She wouldn’t. We’re her kin.” He said it, but the words were far from confident.
I didn’t want Seneca to get too far ahead of me, but the ignorance coming out of Marlie’s mouth pissed me off. “Do you have any idea what Rudarius did to her?”
“Hurt her. Tore her wings out,” he whispered.
“No,” I argued.
Marlie frowned.
“Have you ever had someone rip you apart piece by piece over the years? Break you down, give you hope for death, and then do it all over again? That’s what that bloodsucker did to your sister. He broke her, wanting to turn her into his personal weapon. He tried to cultivate a seed within her, one that hadn’t sprouted until she came here and was faced with a family who hates her for events that were out of her control.”
“You speak as if she’s told you everything.” Some of his irritation with me seemed to fade away. “Has she?”
“No, but it’s what he did to me. It’s what he does to all his pets.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“The eyes,” I hissed as I walked into the darkness. “It’s all in the eyes.”
My trek through the trees was far from relaxing. I sniffed the air, easily picking up the scent I’d come to know after only spending a few hours with Seneca. There was the fae and vampire, of course, but underneath it all, was the slightest hint of lavender. It teased my nose and reminded me of the lavender plants that had grown around my father’s mansion before Rudarius destroyed them.
A sharp crack had me blurring toward the sound, expecting the worst, but it was only Seneca slamming her fist into a tree repeatedly, tearing it apart. When it crashed to the ground, she whirled around with a kick and bashed into another one, sending bark flying.
“Seneca,” I said quietly, and she blurred to stand in front of me, fangs out and hands looking ready to lash out and shred me to pieces. “I take it the t
alk with the parents didn’t go as planned.”
“What do you think?”
I took in the destroyed trees. “I’m assuming they’re still alive, at least?”
“For now.”
There was no joking in her tone, and I grabbed her wrist when she moved to walk away.
She growled, but I took her chin lightly and turned her face. I studied her red eyes. I thought I saw darkness in them before, but now there was so much more. The realization of how close she was to giving in to what Rudarius started all those years ago made me regret bringing her into this mess in the first place.
“Stop it,” she snapped and tore free of my hold.
“Didn’t do anything.”
“You’re doing it right now. Pitying me. Caring about what’s happening to me. Why?”
“You said it yourself, we have a destiny together,” I said.
She started laughing.
“I don’t find anything amusing about this situation.”
“Oh no? Destiny, prophecies, spreading darkness… On and on and on it goes,” she rambled. “I tried so hard to have a simple life. Not normal or good, I guess, but simple. I did my job, went home, and went to bed. End of story. But oh, no, no easy life for Seneca. Can’t have that. Let’s throw some other shit at her to see if she breaks. And if she doesn’t, well, great. Let’s throw more at her.”
She spun around with a roar and slammed her fist into another tree, splitting it in half in her fury. Her hand came away bloody, but she didn’t seem to notice or care.
“I finally found my family, and you know what? They don’t want me. They’ve disowned me.” Her laughter turned even darker as she stalked around me, eyeing her next target. “You know the best part? They could have stopped him from stealing my wings, the one thing that constantly reminded me who I was. They could have saved me, but they waited. Who does that to their kid? What kid deserves that? To be forgotten, left alone in the darkness.” She curled her hands into fists and crashed them into a poor small tree that didn’t stand a chance. “Giving in would be so much easier.”
The defeat in her voice ripped me apart. “No. You can’t let him win.”