He hated this man.
“You’ve been doing well so far. Come through. It’s time we took another finger from Mordred. He’s only lost one, and I have a sudden appetite for Fae.”
If the Monster King continued this torment, the dawn would hesitate to crest over the mountains, and eternal cold would sweep across the lands, casting the planet into everlasting darkness.
Jason swallowed his disgust and hesitation before walkingtoward the mirror, cautiously stepping through the glass. It rippled against his skin like water and placed him into the Camp, alongside the Monster King.
As he stared at the expectant, hungry expression on the Monster King’s face, he offered another silent prayer for his children, hoping they were safe… wherever they were.
Chapter 3
Seda
Seda opened her eyes, focusing on Cahir’s outline through the misty, pink fog around her. The pink haze gradually cleared, and she saw him holding onto a woman’s thigh from high on a dais. Cahir was staring at her with wide eyes, the same green eyes he had stared down at her with false love and emotion for years. She noticed that he looked different than before. He had grown taller and broader, his face now framed by a hint of rugged facial hair. His skin tone had subtly changed, glowing with a jade undertone, and he had tattoos along with more defined features than when she last saw him.
He wore a tall, three-spiked golden crown with a diamond-shaped hole in its center.
It took her weeks to get to this place, and his betrayal scorched her heart into a ravenous fury. Her escape from the Camp, the long journey to the Wisps, and finally reaching Umbrea took her through dark, haunted woods, where she learned to defend herselfand others. But most of all, that journey taught her that the life she knew had been a lie, and that she had to believe inherself.
Cahir had been her best friend for years. She had isolated and strapped herself to his side, leaning on him for emotional support, only to discover that he had been lying the entire time she knew him.
He wasn’t who he pretended to be.
He was someone and something else entirely.
And it wasn’t just him. Kalon had also entered her life, taking her first kiss and her moonstone necklace, then disappearing into the darkness of the Amanita Copse unnoticed. She needed that stone back.
Elco roared beside her, shaking the ground beneath her feet.
Elco was now her best friend.
Fuck Cahir. She and Elco had been chained together in the Camp, not only learning how to find themselves and survive in that dark place, but also discovering what true friendship was: loyalty, support, trust, and above all else,honesty.
Cahir shouted for everyone to stop, quickly releasing the woman’s leg he was holding, and held up his hand to the guards rushing toward her and Elco.
Seda’s eyes slowly scanned the woman he was touching and noticed her breasts were exposed for everyone in the room, just moments before forhim. A sudden, intense pain pierced her chest, and a swift, overwhelming wave of rage engulfed her.
Hewasfucking all kinds of women, Kalon was right when he told her that. HowdareCahir act like he’s upheld moral standards all these years?
Without any hesitation, her powers flowed through her arms, and sparks of electricity flickered from her fingertips.
“You lied to me!” she snapped at him as everyone murmured around her display of power. “YouLIEDto me!”
The Fae surrounding her began to murmur in hushed tones.
“Is that a monster?”
“She looks human.”
“How does King Ael know her?”
Cahir quickly stood from his throne, raising his hands in an apparent attempt at mock surrender. “Can we talk, please?” His green eyes begged her to accept, looking so familiar, so trusting. Seda watched him with a broken heart, consumed by betrayal.
She wouldn’t trust him; she couldn’t. He broke that.He broke her.
A beautiful woman, with the same skin tone and pointed ears as everyone else in the room, whispered something into Cahir’s ear. She wore a silky red dress, and her hair was in a long blonde ponytail. Seda narrowed her eyes, her anger simmering like a fueled inferno, causing her magic to vibrate violently in her chest.
A dark cloud formed in the ballroom, sparking against the ceiling.
