Or would they continue until I had to murder her entire family? When was the torment going to end?
It made me wonder if this was how my father felt when he tried to take over the Land of the Fae. He’d stolen so much power and was seduced by it. That was how it felt when I used mine. Magic was a drug, and it only worsened my addiction the more I used it.
Ridge’s truck pulled into the driveway, and he slammed the door when he got out. My other brothers were not with him.
“Kai!” Ridge shouted.
“In here!” I called out.
Ridge stormed in, the screen door slamming behind him. His brows furrowed when he saw me. “You look like hell. What happened?”
The liquor did nothing to quell my urges. If I went into my bedroom, I’d smell Ella’s scent on my sheets; it would be enough to drive me insane. I could feel the tugging on my soul to follow her back to the Land of the Fae. It infuriated me.
“Nothing happened,” I snapped, joining him in the living room. I peered out the window and huffed. “Where are Aric and Bane?”
“They’re out looking for Draya. She’s not at her apartment. Where did she say she was going when she left here?”
That was the thing, it wasn’t Draya who was here. I was the one who drove her car back to her apartment because I knew Ella had taken her.
Ridge was impulsive. If he knew that, he’d do something stupid. I didn’t want him going after Ella. But, if he did, I’d have no choice but to kill him.
“She left to find Piper,” I lied. “She said she needed a break from all of this.”
Ridge scoffed. “Draya wouldn’t just leave like that without saying goodbye.”
I shrugged. “It is what it is, brother. I don’t think she’s coming back.”
Ridge jerked out his phone and called her several times, seething each time he reached her voice mail greeting.
“What did you do to her?” he demanded, pinning me with a glare.
I stepped up to him. “I suggest you watch your tone, little brother. I didn’t do anything to her. Now get your head out of your ass and move on. She’s gone.”
He sighed in frustration and looked away. “Fine. Have you figured anything else out about the princess? When are we going to lure her here?”
“We’re not. I’m going afterher.”
Ridge’s gaze narrowed when he turned back to me. “Why the change?”
I walked to the door and pushed it open. “Because it’s for the best.”
Not wanting to hear another word out of his mouth, I took off for the woods, running as fast as possible. I hoped it would help clear my mind, but all it did was clarify one thing. I was born to hate the royals, to hurt them no matter the cost.
There was no choice . . . I had to fulfill my destiny.
Chapter14
Ella
TWO DAYS LATER
“Are you ready, Mikel?”
The man clutched my hands, and his skin was warm and golden like that of a Summer fae. “I am. I wish I could see my Rosalyn in the Hereafter.”
As always, most of the fae who died in the mortal realm did so because of a broken heart. Love was magic to our kind. If we lost it, it could be devastating. That was how powerful it was to the fae.
“I wish so too, Mikel,” I murmured. “But Icantell you that your heart won’t hurt anymore soon. Rosalyn is happy where she is and you will be, too.”