Page 68 of Savage Guardian

“I signed up for this, Teddy.”

“You didn’t sign up for this abuse, Fae. You were never meant to be used like this.”

“Well, what did I expect when I let Jimmy talk me into producing an album in on such a tight budget? Back then, before all this shit with the stalker and playing Carrie’s assistant, I honestly thought I’d have the time and energy to actually do the work for the album.”

“Why do you let Jimmy and Carrie treat you like this, Fae? What would they even do if you weren’t here every day, working your fingers to the bone and your voice to hoarseness? They’d be nothing without you, just a pretty face and a bad comb over.”

Fae snickered, the sound a momentary balm to the savagely growing ache in his chest.

Later in his life, he would look back at this and sneer at himself for how long it took for everything to click into place.

All the suspicions he had about Carrie; her lack of music knowledge, her Gaelic illiteracy, her shallowness, and carelessness with her public reputation….

Carriewas the imposter.

Fae wasn’t theassistantto Aoibheal.

ShewasAoibheal. God…even her name—Fae—meantfairy, and Aoibheal was the goddamnqueenof the fairies!

How could he have been so fucking blind?!

“…you know me—the real me….”She’d all but told him she was the real Aoibheal, but he’d been so damn determined to think the worst of her, to believe Carrie’s well-planted lies, that he hadn’t heard her.

And he’d torn her to fucking shreds the night before. Why hadn’t she stopped him? Why hadn’t she just been honest with everyone from the start? When they were together, alone, lying in bed, sharing their bodies with one another, why hadn’t she felt like she could trust him with the truth?

Maybe because you’ve treated her like hot garbage since the very moment you met!

As the cataclysmic truth detonated around him, his knees gave out, making him fall against the bathroom door.

He gasped, desperate to draw breath into a chest too tight to expand.

In a rush, all the words he’d spewed at her erupted in his brain.

“It’s not like what? Not like you’re so fucking jealous of your sister that you can’t stand it? You just can’t handle the fact that your sister is beautiful, talented, and gracious. It tears you up that with all your sister has you have nothing special.”

And the worst of it…what he would give every drop of his blood to take back:

“Youarenothing special.”

His Aoibheal had been standing before him, hurting because of him, and he’d fucking delighted in the pain on her face.

Fae was Aoibheal—fuck!

And with that revelation, a new chaotic, hideous truth emerged.

It wasn’t Carrie that fucker Banshee was after.

It was Fae.

The monster had known the truth all along.

And he’d been playing Hawkandthe Savage Raiders like fools.

With that terrifying thought in mind, he threw open the door to the sound booth and stopped just on the other side.

Fae.

She looked like shit.

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