Page 264 of Psycho Beasts

“Hello, Sadie,” Dick said casually. “Long time, no see.” It was the same man who’d beaten me my entire life.

The same evil man, except massive blue crystal wings arched off his back.

Wings.

Next to him stood a man in a black cloak, and unforgettable blue eyes glowed underneath his hood. The scent of ice wafted off both of them.

It was the man who’d taken me, Aran, and Cobra to the sacred lake.

I took a step back.

The throbbing pain in my left hand was the only thing I could feel.

Z grabbed my shoulder and stopped my retreat. He flung me forward.

I slipped on my blood and collapsed to my knees.

My vision closing in on all sides, I stared blankly up at the two men.

“For what reason did you call the High Court?” Dick asked Z in the same voice that haunted my nightmares.

Z bowed his head, a smile still plastered across his face. “We have found the half-breed, the scarred woman that captured the fae queen.”

Another round of inappropriate mirth burst inside me.

I was so dead it wasn’t even funny. My fate lay in the hands of Dick, my tormentor, and the main antagonist in my story.

It was hilarious.

I didn’t have an ounce of hope.

Dick’s face reddened like it always did when he was enraged. “And what evidence do you have that this is the woman who took her?”

I nodded, accepting my fate.

But his words penetrated, and I stopped moving, gaping up at him in shock. He’d seen me in the fae realm; he didn’t need evidence.

What the flying fuck was going on?

Z immediately explained, like he’d been expecting this. He pulled out a familiar syringe from his pocket and held it up.

“We’d heard rumors about a girl with red eyes from the fae realm and suspected her immediately. Molly injected her with this drug that reveals half-breed traits, and it caused her to fight extremely fast, and she had an episode where she muttered about hearing a woman’s voice. It wouldn’t have had any reaction if she weren’t a half-breed.”

Holy moon goddess. Cobra was right: my muscles hadn’t looked bigger.

Disappointing.

Dick’s face didn’t change, and Z waved his hands more dramatically as he tried to get his point across.

“Plus, an alpha, Hunter, fought her in the second trial, and he said she threw something at him and it overtook his free will. She only survived because she commanded him to stop fighting her.”

Dick’s expression darkened, and Z smirked.

He knew he’d won.

“She didn’t have any scars, but we noticed the enchanted ring on her finger. Heard they were commonly used for bodily concealments in the fae realm. I chopped off her finger, and look at her body.”

Z spat with disgust.