Page 85 of Of Night and Blood: Special Edition

That world was far different than this one, in which I was forced to witness my life crumble. Piece by piece it all crashed down around me.

Who was I? Certainly not a princess when I had been content to laugh and smile and breathe while my subjects were ruthlessly murdered by their king and queen.

I felt the moment when my mental shields fell. A cataclysmic shattering of that last mercy. When they toppled, every emotion and thought of the others bombarded me.

Suddenly I was feeling the rip in Lian’s heart at the thought of her Yuza dying on the ground. Ranbir’s thoughts of his own family being beheaded in front of him were horrific. Noe’s anger towards Bellamy as she stood to her feet hit me violently. Cyprus was a whirl of stress for us, for Haven, for Luca, for his parents and sister. Winona was calculating, thinking of what war would mean for the inhabitants of Eoforhild, for her abnormally large family of parents and siblings that had no idea what was to come.

But it was Henry, who still rubbed circles on my back, that pushed me over the edge. He thought of watching me practice, the speed at which I learned. The demon conjured images of me on a battlefield, cutting down fae with eerie precision. He imagined what it would be like to watch bodies fall as I shattered minds. In his head, I was the monster that woke fae younglings from their sleep, terror ripping screams from their mouths.

The one thing their thoughts had in common was their belief that I could be a solution. To all of them I was a creature of the Underworld. Everything I had never wanted to be. Everything they needed to win the war.

I screamed, clawing at my head as if I could dig out their mental voices. My own voice, that deep tenor of The Manipulator, urged me to end them all. To shut them up swiftly. I fought against it, heaving and screeching for anyone to please help me.

Hitting the ground with a smack to the snow, I writhed, body convulsing as my power attempted to dig into the minds of those around me. I sunk into each of their heads, fighting my own urge to attack as I did.

Bellamy seized me, pulling my body into his arms. No pain from portaling could break through the torment occurring in my mind as time and space tried to rip us to shreds for daring to defy them, for my soul had long since been torn apart.

V

Act V

~ Acceptance ~

Chapter Forty-Seven

We appeared atop snow, a crystal-clear pool to our left which was fed by a waterfall pouring lazily from above.

The sky was infinitely more beautiful. Green and purple streaks lit it up, zigzagging over the stars and casting an ethereal glow onto the scene below.

Hands gripped me tighter, as if the prince thought I might flee or fall. I urged my heavy limbs to wrap around him in reassurance, causing him to loosen his hold.

The snow covered nearly every inch of the sunken waterfall. Walls of black, glittering rock rose on every side, the obsidian peeking out here and there. I had never been anywhere like it. We had seen a beautiful mountain a couple weeks ago, which shone in the light of day and rose past the clouds. Three weeks prior we came across a dazzling valley that held a quaint village. The warmth that radiated from it seemed to push away the winter chill.

Yet, neither could compare to this place.

My tears were beginning to freeze to my cheeks, mirroring the icicles that hung from a cave just behind the waterfall. I wiped at them, wetting the sleeves of my red tunic. The leather vest I wore atop it was cinched across my chest, holding in some of my body heat, but not nearly enough.

A shiver made its way through my tired bones. Silently, I wondered what the demon’s plans were. We would be here in the middle of nowhere, far from the planning taking place at camp, and for what? To allow me the chance to breakdown in seclusion? It seemed rather pointless.

Unfazed by the chill, Bellamy walked us towards the opening of the cave, finding a path behind the falling stream with an ease that told me he had been here many times before. The sound of the water as it hit the pool below was melodic, soothing my sobs to a weak sniffle. I relaxed into him, but my mind remained a violent storm.

Bellamy maintained his own shields, the wall of black fire pushing back my reaching power that I had lost control of. So I was left to my own head. Mia’s face came to me more often than anything else as the demon prince walked us farther into the darkness. One memory in particular, repeated.

Mia had been doing my hair, as she often did. The braids were exquisite, wrapping around my head and weaving together like an intricate basket. I remembered the way she covered my ears, pulling the hair down and over the mutilated tips.

“So you will never have to see yourself as anything less than wonderous,” she claimed.

On that fateful day, my powers came to me in full force, lashing out and nearly killing the fae queen. I remembered the fear in her eyes, which would then turn into excitement.

Then the deaths began.

Quicker than I thought possible, Mia had a blocker made. I wore it every day, apart from practice hours, suffering in agony as my power was siphoned out of me.

I had thought it a mercy, to spare the world from me. A monster, Mia had said. I would become a vicious beast if not taught and restrained. Without fail, I thanked them for keeping me. For loving me despite what I was. Hatred filled me, for I was no better than a demon. I was horrid in every way, and I despised myself.

All while they murdered their own kind. All while they poisoned their ward, a female who had practically been their daughter. Perhaps after killing their own son.

A faint glow could be seen now, the color similar to the rays in the sky above. I squinted, trying to understand what could possibly make that light. As we neared, I gasped, seeing that small turquoise lights dotted a vaulted cave ceiling, reaching far higher than I would have expected. The lights wrapped around the walls, the cave bigger than a large home.

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