Why did he suddenly start to hate me? Why do I care that he hates me?
The two fae look at me with resentment from across the empty ballroom as they are forced to their knees. Ice appears at their throats.
I thrash wildly in my chair while my mind screams at me.No, no, no, no!I can’t watch this again. I’m going to die. I can’t bear it. I can’t?—
Their throats are slit.
A scream of raw agony tears from my throat, my real throat, and echoes the scream from the memory. Those claws of emotion rip my chest open and crush my torn heart.
And my mindshatters.
It feels as if there were glass walls around my mind, circling it and keeping everything outside those barriers, which suddenly explode.
Memories crash into me like violent blows.
My parents.
My mate.
Me.
Grief and regret and agony and despair flood my every nerve in a vicious onslaught as I finally remember who all the people in these memories are and what they mean to me. And whoIam.
But the memories don’t stop.
Jessina slits my parents’ throats.
Emperor Bane whips Draven’s wings.
I force a wildfire of hatred into Draven’s chest to save his life.
Over and over again, those memories continue flashing before my eyes.
“Orion!” I scream.
Blind panic crackles through my entire body. I can’t take one more second of this. I’m going to die. Oh Goddess, I am going to die.
“Stop!” Desperate sobs rip from my lips as I choke out the word. “I remember. Orion, please. I remember.”
Those horrible memories at last stop flashing before my eyes.
I gasp in a breath but nothing makes it past my throat. It feels as if there is a boulder crushing my chest. Blinking desperately, I try to get my eyes to focus on the real world around me.
A prison cell becomes visible, and now that all my memories are back, I recognize it as the dungeon underneath Orion’s castle. The same one that we locked Bane inside when we managed to kidnap him briefly. Before we had to trade him back for Draven, and Jessina killed my?—
Agony stabs into me, as if someone had shoved a burning spear right through my chest. I once more try to drag in a breath, but I can’t make my lungs work.
Orion suddenly appears before me. Tears still cling to my eyelashes, so his face is blurry before mine when he bends down and efficiently unlocks the metal bonds that are keeping me trapped to the chair.
The moment they’re gone, I shove myself out of the chair so that I can straighten and hopefully breathe better. But my knees immediately buckle.
I crash down on the hard stone ground with a thud, but I can’t feel the pain. In fact, I can barely even feel my body at all.
Gasping desperately, I try to drag air back into my lungs while grief strangles my throat and regret crushes my chest. It doesn’t work. Panicked whimpers spill from my lips as I curl up on the floor while tears continue streaming down my cheeks.
Orion just walks out the door without a word.
Broken sobs rip from my throat. Gripping the leather across my chest, I clench my fist in an effort to stop the agony in my heart. My entire chest aches so badly that I wish someone would kill me just so that I can escape this feeling. The grief and regret from my parents’ death alone is crushing me. It’s so heavy that I don’t think I will ever be able to pick myself up from this floor.
