And that purpose to live has been taken away.
But she still wants it.
Right now, her little mind is struggling to decide if killing me would be worth the punishment my father would give her for taking my soul.
My eyes pin on her. Closer, I lean toward her, her gaze eating up my every move.
“Either do it or don’t. I’dlovea reason to kill you, Jer.” My lips tilt in an unrepressed smile.
She’s tall, massive really. But I was once the most powerful woman in the Court of Darkness. My short time here, being locked away from society, has made me careless and reckless.
Never fuck with a woman who has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Before she can make up her mind, I drift away from her. I trail down the steely hall just as I have day in and day out.
“Stop making empty threats, sister.” Basilus’s voice is pure and melodious. It makes him sound kind and serene. The tone of his voice doesn’t seem to reflect his true personality at all, really. Basilus is only so sweet when there is something to gain.
“Father wants us in the lab.” My voice echoes down the hall, ignoring his words entirely.
When I enter what my father calls the laboratory, my gaze skims over the dark, shining floors and the tables of experiments he’s done for days. Scribbled notes litter the white tabletops. Glasses of all shapes and sizes clutter the space, some empty, some partially full of liquids ranging from black to deep crimson. My skin crawls just looking at it.
I wonder if Jeriko and I will eventually be making these concoctions for my father. Not that Jeriko’s gigantic hands could manage. She’d shatter the glasses with a simple touch; I’m sure of it.
But what is all of this for?
Her steps are silent, stealthy from the centuries she’s lived within the Wild Hunt. But I might always sense Jeriko’s brooding energy.
“You think I could make your death look like an accident?” Her awful words only make a sweet smile pull at my lips.
I turn to her, my boots twisting on the iron floor. The dark magic that shadows half of her face only makes her features a harsher sight to look upon.
My reply is a steady and promising sound. “Of course, you can.”
I take a stalking step closer until I’m staring up into her glaring eyes. I speak as if I’m telling her a bedtime story. As if it’s something I want to say while I tuck her in at night. “If it were somethingI’dwant to do, I’d sneak into your room in the middle of the night. You’d never hear my steps. Only sweet dreams would caress you while I smothered the life out of your lungs. Maybe you’d struggle. Maybe I’d watch. The magic of the Wild Hunt is repressed here, but unlike your weak power, if I push hard enough, my true abilitiescouldsurface. It’d take little effort to take away the one true thing you need most in this life.”
It's a lie but a believable one. I can still feel the power within me, but every attempt I’ve made to use it has failed.
A taunting smirk highlights my features. “So yeah. That’s how I’d do it. Not that I’ve considered it in the least.” I blink innocently before my shoulders raise with a slight shrug, and her gaze continues to dart between my eyes.
“Are you two bonding?” My father’s words cut through the tension in the room. I step past Jeriko, forgetting her the moment I see what my father’s carrying.
The sight of the vials and syringes make an ominous feeling skitter through my veins. My mouth goes dry. Sweat builds in my palms.
“I thought I’d give you a taste of what real power feels like,” he says as he catches my lingering gaze.
Basilus watches from a few steps behind me. He leans against the wall, one leg propped up and his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t blink. Not even when our father sets down the glasses and they chime together loudly.
The king lifts a single vial, watching the liquid swirl inside it before he pierces through the top with a needle, and an inky color coats the syringe until it fills completely.
“What’s that?” Jeriko takes an eager step forward while I almost shrink away.
Whatever it is, it isn’t good.
“It’s a sedative of sorts. It’s infused with magic that’ll open her mind. As Fae, there is so much strength within us that we never even use. Our minds shut some parts of us away. This sedative will open herentirely. It’ll relax her enough to be who she really is deep down inside.” His attention slips to me, his gaze warming in an eerily affectionate way.
You’re just like me.I can hear his voice echoing inside my head.
Worry twists through my stomach. Whoever I really am deep down inside, I don’t want to release that person. I especially don’t want to release that magic.
