“What triggered yours?” Lora asked.
Farren glanced towards Elyssa. “My parents died in front of my eyes when I was fourteen. It unleashed something inside me, but I couldn’t save them or anyone else at the camp. I didn’t know how to channel my powers properly.”
“I’m really sorry.” Lora met his saddened eyes. She wondered if there had been other witches at the human camp. Farren had to have had a witch in his bloodline to pass down the witch gene. “Can I ask, were your parents witches too?”
“My parents were both human. Well, my adoptive parents. They found me in the streets when I was a few weeks old and took me in. They assumed I was human. It was probably for the best that my parents didn’t know. I think they would’ve taken me in either way, but they would have worried even more. Witches are hunted even more so than humans. The fae see us as this big threat. They will never let us live in peace.”
If humans could accept witches, why couldn’t they accept certain fae? It was as hypocritical as fae looking down on witches but still using them for their power, enslaving them with life contracts—if they didn’t outright kill them.
“I don’t see why the fae think they’re so different,” Lora said.
“You say that like you’re not one of them,” Farren said curiously.
“I…” She caught sight of Eyden instinctively as he re-entered the cave. He was carrying a bucket and dropping it off next to Elyssa, whispering something she couldn’t make out. His shirt had holes and was drenched in blood where the sword had cut through flesh. His hand moved to cover his chest as he seemed to catch his breath.
Eyden’s gaze met hers when he looked up. She tried to read him, but there was a wall of ice veiling his eyes.
And just like that he dropped his hand and walked out.
Lora started to rise even as her body hated her for it.
“I don’t think you should get up yet,” Farren said.
Lora didn’t listen. Her legs felt unsteady, but she managed to get up. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think we’re all that different,” Lora said, pausing long enough to meet the witch’s gaze. Farren’s smile was faint as he tilted his head, telling her to go.
She saw Eyden’s shadowed figure in the distance as soon as she left the cave. “Eyden.” He kept moving forward, but she caught the hesitation in his step. “Can you wait a second?” Lora realised she was panting, out of breath already. “Please.”
This time, Eyden did halt. He turned around but made no indication of moving. Lora walked forward on shaky legs. She stopped some distance away, taking him in, peering into those eyes that had turned stone cold. She could read the exhaustion in his expression. The dark circles under his eyes, the blood and grime sticking to his skin. She could guess the only reason he was still standing was his high power level quickening the healing process.
Lora opened her mouth to explain, to justify her lie, but Eyden spoke first. “You know what I’ve been wondering about ever since I met you? What is it exactly that makes you so fuckingspecial?How come you found a way to cross, just in the nick of time, when so many before you have tried and failed?”
Special.The way he said it now was so different than the last time she’d heard the word leave his lips. Last time it was like wonder and honey, now it was disdain and poison. “You’re clearly not human. Not completely,” he continued.
He knew, then. Didn’t he? There was no point in playing games anymore. She’d long decided the charade needed to end.
“I’m half-fae.” She said it quietly, a whispered secret in enemy territory, in a world that wasn’t her own yet somehow had always been.
Eyden’s face remained blank, void of emotion even as his voice carried a million. “It’s how you could cross, isn’t it? You knew all along there was nothing you could give me.”
All Lora could do was nod, her lips wouldn’t move. His words hit her harder than all her physical wounds combined.
Finding her voice, she took a step towards him. “Eyden—”
But he was already turning away, taking any hope that her secret wouldn’t ruin whatever had been building between them with him. It was all gone now.
Forever.
Chapter52
Amira
At a reasonable distance, Amira followed the guards into the palace. They had no reason to be wary of her given that other fae from the court were also going back inside. No one seemed to care much about the two dead bodies. A few even made jokes about them.
The tricky part started when the guards moved away from the entrance and started taking small corridors. It would appear too suspicious for her to walk right behind them. Amira decided to wait at the start of the corridor while noting their general direction. There was a chance that she would lose their tracks, but she couldn’t risk them suspecting anything.
Her plan worked at first, but the palace was a true maze and she lost all sight of them. A few doors lined the walls and Amira wondered if she should just open each one of them. She reached for the first one, but her mind was distracted by a strange pattern on the wood next to the third door. She went to it and leaned down for a closer look.
Blood. The viscous dark red matter was unmistakably blood. Standing up, she looked at the door more carefully. The wood was dark grey making it less discernible on the stone wall. Slowly, she pushed the door open. On the other side of it, a flight of stairs descended into darkness. She took a deep breath before starting her descent. The pungent smell of blood filled her nostrils. The bodies were probably very close. Completely in the dark, she followed the smell and the faint light at the end of the corridor.
