“How?” He tilts his head and then flicks his narrowed gaze to the now stoic Alaric.
“Bastard born, what do you know?” Alaric smirks, but I see him swallow hard.
“Everyone. Out. Now.” Dax says through clenched teeth.
“Aw, come on, Dax. It’s fucking cool we…” Trent starts to rebuke.
“NOW!” Dax lifts his hand, letting mine fall, and slams it down on the wood table. Shadows blast from his fist where it lands. Spiderwebs of inky blackness travels the length of the wood, and a loud crack echoes through the room as a fissure splits the table right down the center.
Everyone shuffles back from the blast. Kait, Claire, and Ambriel’s eyes widen as they leave the room with haste. Trent shakes his head, his lips pressed into a firm line, and he eyes his brother with an angry glint. “Don’t make me say it again.” Dax seethes, shadows swirling around his legs and wrists. Pressure lifts from my chest as I watch Trent relent. He doesn’t put up a fight, because it’s evident that Dax is not willing to deal with any pushback on this. I stand up to follow Trent, but Dax wraps his hand around my wrist and tugs me toward him, roughly. I suck in a sharp inhale as my hand is crushed between our chests.
“Sit.” Dax commands, his lip curled back as he looks down on me, causing me to gawk at him. This is the Dax I remember—fromwhen I first arrived in Ravendene. This is not the man that I’ve come to know. I narrow my eyes as I nod once, taking the seat, allowing him his moment of dominance. I know he's been working through things lately, and this is a lot.
Alaric, being the cocky bastard he is, is sitting in his chair sideways now, his feet up and over the armrests as he kicks them out. A mannerism I’ve seen Ambriel display. I knock his boots down, and they hit the ground with a thud. His eyes lift slowly, in succession with the corner of his mouth.
“Would you be serious for just once?” I scold him in a whisper. Feeling like two children being sat down for a talk with our angry father.
“It doesn’t matter how I act. Dax is going to be a fucking prick about all of this, no matter what I do.” He cracks his neck, sitting back in his chair and splaying his legs wide. “You sure you want Raelle to stick around for this conversation, cousin?” Alaric says as he tracks Dax’s movements with his eyes. Dax is pacing at the head of the broken table, his face contorted in anger and shoulders stiff. His eyes have shifted to the glowing lava of his raven.
“I’m done with all the lies. It never did me any good, and I’m at a point where I just can’t fucking handle it anymore.” Dax’s voice is a low rumble, and the troubled look settling over him has my heart clenching. I’ve never seen him like this. He looks down at his feet before spinning on his heel, and faces away from us as he starts talking again. “Alaric and I have a history. He found something out that I’ve hidden away for a long time and blackmailed me into helping him fake his death.”
“Something…” Alaric scoffs. Darkness fills the room in a flash of black. The swirling shadows coil around every inch of the space until they are refocused and pulled away. Except for the band thatis extended from Dax’s raised fist and wrapped around Alaric’s throat. He’s no longer splayed wide in the chair. His body is pinned to the far wall, his hands digging and tearing at his neck.
“I FUCKING KILLED THEM!” Spit flies from his lips as he steps closer to Alaric, turning his fist in the air. The color of Alaric’s face begins to change to red, then purple, and deeper even. Dax has cut off his airway entirely. “I fucking killed them; is that what you want me to tell her? I’m a monster, and I killed my parents with the very shadows now holding your life in their grasp.” Alaric’s eyes are bloodshot and wide… frenzied. My heart is beating so fast I feel like it’s trying to run away from this entire situation.
This can’t be true. Dax cares too much about his family, but it would make sense as to why he’s kept his magic locked up for so long. I shake my head, watching this whole thing play out. I don’t care what he’s claiming to have done. I won’t let him kill Alaric.
I feel my power rising in me with my anger. Dax still has his back to me, too focused on squeezing the life out of Alaric. I feel the shift vibrating through my body. My eyes shift, and through them I see the glow begin to light my hands that hang at my sides. I clench and unclench my fists, and as I roll my shoulders, my beautiful white wings unfurl with a calmness that doesn’t match the room as I pull more magic to me. The moon answering my call and begins lending me her power.
When I lift my hand, white ethereal light shoots from my palm, wrapping around Dax’s middle and pulling him to me, but his shadows only tighten on Alaric. I wrap my hand around his wrist, and at the contact of our skin, his shadows fall away from him. His body slumps to the ground as he’s released. His eyes are closed, but I can see from the subtle rise and fall of his chest that he still lives. My attention snaps back to Dax. His eyes are wide as he shakes hishead. His shadows have wrapped around my throat like a necklace of death, and as he steps back to create space between us, they tighten to the point of pain. I still grip his wrist tight. I won’t allow him to back away from me.
“No, no, no…” He is breathing heavily, and sweat is beginning to dot his forehead. “Why do you always defend him? WHY?” He bellows the last word, and I hear pounding. I can’t tell at first if the pounding is the blood trapped in my ears or if someone is trying to get through the door, but movement in that direction catches my eye just as stars begin to bloom into my vision. I know I can stop Dax’s magic, but he needs to knowhecan too. He needs to know that he controls his shadows even at their most frenzied, just as he did today, pleasuring my body.
The pounding turns into roaring, and Trent is here now, but my eyes are growing heavy. My lungs are burning with the need to expand. Dax is frantic and yelling at his brother. I watch as Ambriel rushes in, Kait and Maki next, but none of them dare to step forward.
“Let her go, Dax!” I hear the words, but I’m not sure who speaks them.
“Dax.” My voice is barely audible, a croak, but Dax hears it. “You…promised.” Tears well in his eyes, and he grabs both sides of my face as he searches my eyes. Continually shaking his head in denial of the situation. My vision is beginning to narrow, and just as my eyes flutter shut, his lips come crashing down on mine. The shadows dissolve the next second, and he is wrapping me in his arms, keeping me from falling to the floor as Alaric did. I gasp, gulping down the precious air that burns my throat and lungs.
“Raelle? Fuck, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I—I didn’t mean to.” He kisses me between my gasping breaths, and I latch onto his faceand return the kiss. When I pull my head away, he sees his shadows swirling around my wrists, and fear so potent that it hurts fills his face.
“Dax, it’s ok. Watch.” I slide my hand down to his, and with the other, I lift the dancing shadowy bands and let them swirl and spin around my arms like snakes. The tickle of them makes me laugh, and then I flick my wrist, and they go shooting out at Trent. He flinches as they appear to attack, but just before hitting him, they spin in a circle around his body like a tornado of darkness. I don’t even realize I’m smiling until my gaze tracks back to Dax’s. His mouth is agape, and his eyes round with bewilderment.
“How?” He asks in awe. I shake my head and shrug my shoulders.
“I don’t know; it doesn’t always work, but this is how I got my memories back, Dax. I can sometimes wield other people’s magic. I’ve only ever done so with Alaric, and now you.”
“And me.” I hear Ambriel speak up. “You stole my magic from me in the hall when I used it against Trent. Remember?” I nod as I recall what she’s talking about. I don’t know how I managed that—I wasn’t even touching her. Every other time I’ve done it I’ve had to have skin on skin contact with the other Fae.
“You could have stopped them from choking you. Why did you allow me to hurt you?” His brows pull together and his lips turn into a frown as he lifts his hand to caress the swollen marks on my neck.
“You needed to know that you could stop them, Dax. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. Not really.” He crushes me into him, and I feel weak as he does. My legs begin to wobble, and my eyes flutter closed, but not painfully. Like I’mexhaustedand I’m finally wrapped in the comfort I’ve needed and fall blissfully into sleep.
***
The scent of roses fills my nose as my consciousness comes back to me. When I open my eyes, I'm in a place that I wish I wasn't so familiar with, but here I am in one of the small beds of the infirmary. I press my fingers to my throat, and they slide through a thick salve. When I pull my hand away and look at my fingertips like they are not my own, a voice cuts through my marbled thoughts.
“Its Rose Phoenix salve. Ginny and I came up with the blend. Phoenix embers are one of the main ingredients; thats why its tingling, but you won't even have a bruise on that pretty neck of yours in an hour or two.” Claire beams, a smile so bright I can't help but smile back.
