Page 28 of Heir

“And I,” rumbled the bear.

“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded, surging back to my feet. “Get up. All of you. Get up and get out. This is ridiculous. I’m not your queen. I’m not anybody’s queen. I’m Omaera Playfair. A human. A h-u-m-a-n. Got it? Sure, I was an orphan. But my aunt, a nice lady by the name of Delia Refera, raised me since I was a baby. I would know if I was some weird . . . thing, like you guys.”

The mage shook his head. “Not if there was a cloaking spell cast over you.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Get up. All of you. Now.”

They rose to their feet again.

“You,” the mage cleared his throat, “are the heir to the throne of the Realm. It has been confirmed that King Donovar was killed last night. As he slept. And he must have been your father. Because the moment he died, his power and title transferred to you, eliminating any cloaking spell that may have been cast.”

I shook my head. “No fucking way. No.”

“What does this mean?” Gemma asked. “Who killed the king? Who killed Maer’s dad?”

“He wasn’t my dad,” I snapped, facing her.

Suddenly my friend fell to the floor, gripping the side of her head and screaming in agony. Blood dripped from her nose.

“What did you do to her?” I demanded, directing my anger at the men who had rushed to Gemma’s side along with me.

But when I turned to them, the vampire and bear both dropped to the floor as well, clutching at their temples as blood poured from their nostrils.

“What are you doing to them?” I rounded on the mage now since he wasn’t screaming in pain. It had to be him.

He held up his hands in surrender. “It’s not me. It’s you. You’re angry and taking that rage out on their brains. You need to stop or you’ll kill them.”

“I’m not doing it,” I said. “I’m not.”

“I can do mind blocks. It’s one of the powers mages and demons have in common. It allows us not to be mind controlled by you.”

“Mind control?” I left the bear and vampire to their own devices and focused on my best friend, who cried and writhed on the floor, clutching at the sides of her head as blood pooled from her nose onto the carpet. Tears seeped from my eyes as I brought her head into my lap. “I’m sorry, Gem. I’m so sorry. Please make it stop. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I love you. You’re all I have. You and Aunt Delia. You’re all I have. Please don’t die. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I pet her head as the tears from my eyes fell onto her forehead.

Their screaming had become such a white noise that when it stopped, it took me a moment to clue in. I glanced down at Gemma and she blinked up at me. My bottom lip wobbled, and I cradled her harder against my lap. “W-what happened?” she stammered.

The vampire and bear were no longer screaming in pain either.

Despite having just met them, I did feel a significant amount of guilt at not rushing to help them. The pull I felt for all three men was so bizarre and foreign that I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I certainly didn’t want them to die or be hurt, but Gemma was my person, and right now, she needed to be my priority.

“Demon powers vary,” the mage said. “But because you are the heir to the throne, and now the ruler of the Realm, your powers will be the strongest of all demons. However, since you didn’t know you were a demon and just came into your powers, you don’t know how to control them. Usually, demons have the power of persuasion. They can delve into the minds of others and manipulate them to make decisions that suit the demon.

“They prey on fear and can hear fear thoughts more than any other thoughts. But they can also plant ideas, like telling someone to kill themselves. And when enraged, and in this case not in control of their power, they can cause a person’s brain to begin to hemorrhage.

“That’s what happened here. Your confusion and anger over everything came to a head. You snapped at your friend and tried to blow up her brain.”

I grabbed a pillow from the couch and tucked it under Gemma’s head. “I didn’t mean to. I would never hurt her.”

The mage nodded. “I know that. But you did because you can’t control your powers.”

“W-what does all this mean?”

“Well, I’m not sure about the three Fated Mates, but mating with your mate will help. It will also give your mate some of your powers, and you some of theirs. It will also link your emotions. He’ll feel what you’re feeling and vice versa. He can help you manage your emotions so you don’t try to fry people’s brains. You need to learn how to control your powers. That’s number one.”

I glared at the redheaded man and the way he so cavalierly explained everything. At some point, he’d moved over to the couch and was sitting there, playing with rainbow-colored flames and making them dance across the tops of his fingers.

My eyes fell to the vampire and bear who had picked themselves up off the ground and now sat there, the bottom half of their faces covered in blood.

Fear shone back at me in Gemma’s green-hazel eyes. My heart hurt seeing the way she looked at me, like I was some kind of monster. Just like these three.

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