Pain melded with my conjuring, condensing within, before traveling to my palm. My hand shot out before me, and with it, a wall of mist formed, blocking her path and the door.
She spun around, eyes blazing, as they met with mine. They harbored accusations. However, none of it made it to her lips. As if too surprised to actually speak.
“Why?” My voice wavered, the only sign of the terrible hole in my chest.
Her jaw clenched. “Girl, have you been hit in the head? I do not know you or what you speak of.”
Clause tisked softly from somewhere behind me. “Oh, C’mon Edda, why not answer her question?”
Her eyes widened just a fraction in shock, gaze cut to him, sharp as any conjured blade. But no conjuring could ever touch him. “How dare you?” Her lip curled.
“How dare I?” His voice grew colder. “You have kept herfrom me for how long? You knew she existed this entire time, yet kept us apart.”
I shook my head. “What does that even mean?” I looked over my shoulder at him. “Why me? You have plenty of conjurors. You do not need me for anything.”Why did he pretend I was so important to him?
His attention moved to me, drifting over my face, dipping to my lips before rising. “You are wrong. I have always needed you.” His tone remained firm, yet grew a gentle edge when addressing me.
“Don’t listen to him.” The venom in Edda’s youthful voice was potent, drawing all of us to her. “He will destroy you if you let him.” Her onyx eyes blazed as they often had when I was a girl and Fraser did something terrible to me or in front of me. Yet now that cold, judgmental look should have been reserved for no one but herself.
I wanted to hate Clause, yet a part of me felt sorry for the Sidhe King. His views of the world and people isolated him. The life he lived was a sad shell compared to what it could have been. It didn’t help that since my arrival, he primarily only showed me kindness. I began harboring a strange compassion for him. A difficult life path led him to such a sad belief.
“How?” I asked.
“How?” She looked at me, baffled.
“Yes. How exactly will he destroy me?” I asked, gaze narrowing. Clause did not obliterate my heart, did not tilt the world beneath my feet. She, however, did.
I felt as though I was falling into a bottomless pit. My stomach wedged in my throat, my heart no longer beating.
Edda scoffed. “Have you forgotten already of your long-lost friend Landin?” She took a step towards me, eyes burning with a viciousness I knew all too well, but from a face I hardlyrecognized. “What, out of sight, out of mind? You wept for a few days and now have found a home in his murderer’s arms?”
“How dare you.” I shifted on my feet out of pure shock. Red misted over my eyes, becoming the only color I saw. The blood rushing through my veins boiled, and when it traveled to my heart, a sharp pain tore through my chest.
“You are in a mess of a situation right now, and you need to get your head on straight.” Edda’s gaze narrowed, completely unapologetic.
“You think you are the one to give me advice?” I shook my head. “Why did he owe you this...” My gaze traveled down the length of her body. Fat was redistributed into all the right places. Curves filled out her dress, and long limbs gave her a willowy look. She was beautiful. “...this favor?”
She didn’t answer.
My teeth ground against each other. “I asked you a question. What did you pay for this favor?”
The silence broke when Clause spoke. “This time, her payment was helping me acquire conjurors.”
I could have laughed. The lie of the conjurors being chosen by the Spirit, being taken for a higher purpose, was propagated by her. She stole our people and sold them to the Sidhe King for youth. How many families were torn apart because of her? How many lives were stolen? The entire Dunes Clan was erased from our lands because ofher.
My eyes burned and I shook my head in disbelief. “Why?”
No response.
“Why?” I pushed the word through clenched teeth. The rage within grew till I trembled with it, unable to contain it within my body. For the first time, I felt too small for everything. Incapable of controlling the feelings coursing throughme. Failing to control even myself as I navigated through the world.
Clause sighed and answered for her. “To gain youth. Edda here is nearly as old as I am. I guess you can say she is one of my oldest friends. We have been trading in favors for a long, long time.”
I shook my head, breath leaving me. “Did you ever care for me?” I asked Edda.
She stepped in my direction before stilling, and her gaze for the first time softened. Though I no longer believed what I saw in her eyes. “You are the only thing I have ever cared for in my entire life. I was too late to save my daughter, but you, I protected, however I could.” Clause had said she and I were blood relatives when he spoke to her before I entered the room. With her current comment…Was her daughter my mother?
“You raised me to care for others,” I stated. My whole life, she taught me kindness and patience, amongst other things. Yet her actions the entire time were anything but. They were callous and cruel. She played the role of the warm caregiver, yet was a monster underneath. A nightmare dressed up as a pleasant dream.
