I tilt my head, considering her. “What is he then?”
“Ours,” she replies with breathtaking simplicity. “Pack.”
“I hate to break this to you, but what he is…? Is Aurelius’enemy. The type of hatred between those two idiots could destroy realms. It has done. And Sin…if he knew who I was…he’d kill me, slowly. He may be yours, but I am not his. Aurelius isn’t. How could we work as a pack? I love that you want to protect everyone, but I don’t need a prophecy to see that this is going to lead to at least one of us bleeding out. The question iswhich one of us.”
Freya grips me harshly by the chin. “I won’t let any of you bleed. I swear on the moon, I won’t lose a single one of you now that I have found you.”
I swallow the lump in my throat.
My tongue feels heavy in my mouth.
Should I tell her about the iron poisoning?
I can’t hurt her like that.
“Okay,” I whisper.
Freya’s gaze hardens, and she still refuses to let me look away. “What did you mean, when you were under the compulsion and you said that you were afae who had lived too long?”
May the Shadow Devils choke Horus, I knew that would come back to bite me in the arse.
My Spark is smart.
“Now I’m glad I saw that fanged arsehole weeping into the arms of one of the priestesses about how his knot wouldprobably never workagain,” I grumble. “Horus was limping and being pampered by the Omegas who looked to be in mourning that their favorite mage toy was broken.”
“Shame Shadow didn’t kill him.”
I arch my brow. “Savage.”
“Couldn’t you tell that Horus appeared to be nothing but a playboy but in fact, was the most dangerous person in the court? He’s going to have a serious vendetta against us now. Those crocodile siblings and their mom scared Lanlin in a way that even the other freaky Omegas and Betas didn’t. Plus, as much as they may suck, why did Lanlin tell us that he had no family?”
“They must be bad, if he hates them enough to not even claim them as family, when he has no one else.”
“Or maybe,” Freya suggests, softly, “theydon’t normally claimhimas family. Maybe they only put on that performance because it was in public.” She grabs me by the curls and tugs me closer. “And don’t think that you’ve distracted me from thefae who has lived too longcomment.”
Our breaths mist, mingling and becoming one.
My mask feels like a protection. But Freya can still see into my eyes, and I am flayed.
“I’ve seen my family,” I reply, quietly, in a way that I couldn’t to anyone but Freya, “court, friends, brothers and sisters in thefeatherglass, and my own kingdom burn to ash. I should have died with them.I should be ash.”
Understanding bleeds into Freya’s eyes.
She kisses me, tender and raw with emotion.
I let her to stop myself from spilling out more of the truth.
Then she drops her grip on my hair and chin and holds my hand instead. “You don’t think I understand that? I grew up as a ghost in my own court. A court that mourned a vampire massacre that only I survived. I was weighed down with guilt every day for surviving…for keeping on living…while the baby princess didn’t, to whom everyone lit candles and prayed to the Shadow Gods at the barrows. Except, I was her all along. I still don’t know how to fucking deal with that. I’ve spent so long wondering…why me? Why did I survive? What does fate want from me?”
“We’re two survivors of blood and ash.” My eyes gleam. I curl my wings around Freya. “Fuck fate. We’re not ghosts. We’ll live now for ourselves.”
Freya’s shoulders relax. “Fuck prophecies and destiny. I’m going to carve my own place in this world and I’m going to choose it. I mean, probably through cunning, sneakiness, and thievery.”
“Your best qualities.”
She rewards me with a kiss. “Want to see what I can steal to brush your wings this morning?”
My eyes become half-hooded.
