Page 31 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

“Wow, growling like an animal.” She made a face. “Very intelligent.”

I turned my wrist so my entire fist wrapped around her curls, and I yanked her head back at an awkward angle.

I opened my mouth to threaten her but got distracted by her scent.

It was unexpected.

I inhaled deeply.

Smoke and ice mixed with something so rich and tangy that I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was intoxicating.

“Why aren’t you afraid of us?” Scorpius asked as he moved closer, and Orion nodded like he also wanted to hear her answer.

I didn’t know why we were engaging with her.

She should be on her knees.

Pleading for the mercy we didn’t have.

Arabella shrugged. “If you hurt me, I’ll kill each of you. Then I’ll kill myself before the tattoo can regenerate any of our lives. Don’t worry, I’ve come up with a plan on how to end myself. I’ll rip out my heart and feed it to some type of cute woodland animal.” She smiled. “Aw, imagine a little teacup pig ruling from the fae throne. That would be adorable.”

“And you think,” Scorpius scoffed, “that you could take down the three of us?”

Arabella smirked like she had a secret. “Do you know how a fae becomes queen?”

Of course we didn’t.

We didn’t bother with the politics of inferior people, but I could guess. Monarchies in other realms always revolved around nepotism.

“You’re a princess. It’s pretty self-explanatory.” I yanked on her curls because I couldn’t get myself to release them.

I wanted to torment her with it.

Use her hair like a leash.

She made a face like she knew what I was thinking.

Red rays cast her too-pretty features in shadows as she said flatly, “A fae ascends to the seat of death by ripping out the current ruler’s heart and eating it.”

The words echoed.

She reached up and picked at the open wound on her lip. “I ate my mother’s heart, and now I’m queen. She was centuries old and known to be mad with unfathomable power. It wasn’t planned out.”

Her eyes were so dark they were black.

“I did it because she’d wronged me and I wanted her to die in the most brutal way possible.”

Vapor from her pipe swirled in tendrils around her.

Orion frowned, and Scorpius arched his brow.

I subconsciously tightened my fingers in her hair and dragged her closer to offer support. Of everything she could have said, this wasn’t what I’d expected.

Arabella smiled. “It was an uncontrollable fit of rage.”

She turned to me, and the full weight of her empty gaze slammed into me. “It will happen again if you try to hurt me.”

The words lingered like smoke.

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