All because of a girl.
One neither of us wanted to be tied to.
Yet I didn’t really regret claiming her, even though I knew I should.
That nagging little realization followed me as I made my way to the portal and all the way to Ching’s place. By the time I arrived, I still had no answers, only a resolute opinion that we’d done what we needed to do and that there was no real alternative.
Which couldn’t be true at all.
We’d shattered our futures all for a girl who didn’t belong here.
An abomination.
A wrongness.
So why did it feel so right?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aflora
Several Minutes Earlier
Silk sheets.
Violet undertones.
Obsidian furniture.
It all matched Shade’s usual furnishings when he visited my dreams, the notes of his preferences in every minute detail.
I sat on his mattress, too exhausted to fight him or demand he take me to my room. What did it matter anyway? I wouldn’t be alive much longer. Might as well go out in style.
My head fell to my hands, my body shaking from the power exchange in the field. I felt all three of them inside me, their presence somehow grounding me. The question became, was it permanent or temporary?
Not that it would change my fate.
I was absolutely an abomination, my power surge proving it. “I’m a danger to everyone,” I whispered, my shoulders caving inward.
“You are,” Shade agreed, as helpful as ever. “But we can help you manage it.”
I nearly laughed. Except it came out as some sort of half-sob, half-crazed snort. “Fae, I’m hopeless,” I mused, broken. “When did I become this weak shell of nothing?”
“You’re not weak, little rose,” he whispered, his knuckles brushing one of the hands still covering my face. “You’re one of the strongest females I’ve ever met.”
This time I did laugh and lowered my hands to my lap while meeting his gaze. “That’s not what you said when we first met. I believe you called me a delicate flower, just after saying someone called me beautiful.” I frowned with the memory, my focus sharpening. “Who told you I would be beautiful, Shade?”
“Does it matter?” he countered. “What’s done is done.”
“As I’m going to die soon, I’d like to know who subjected me to this fate. So yeah, it matters. Who in the Fae gave me to you as a mission?” Wasn’t that what he’d called me when we first met? A “task”?
“You’re not going to die soon, Aflora.” He caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger, giving it a subtle squeeze. “We won’t let anyone hurt you.”
We being him, Zeph, and Kols.
Ha. “Yeah, I believe that.” Not. Had the three of them helped ground me? Yes. But that didn’t inspire much trust, not after my last few months with them. “Why did you bite me?”
I meant all of them at once, which he must have understood because he replied, “To save you from exploding again.” His tone suggested his response was obvious.