Page 23 of Secrets & Curses of Cerithia

“Thea, you need to stay at the castle from now on. No more visits to town,” my father sighed. Did he think I would ever agree to that? I was never going to be a prisoner again.

“You went to town?” Gwyn yelled at me. Her normally pale face had reddened in her anger.

Her words immediately made my magic surge forward. Fire mist wrapped around me in fury because she had no right to say anything. My family all froze at the sight of me, with my power wrapping and twisting around me in an angry buzz. My eyes pulsed with spots of red as I stared down at each one of them.

“Yes, I did, and it was very enlightening. It seems the whole city is repulsed by me. But don’t worry, I think I made a very compelling point to the fae of Cerithia.” I smiled wickedly.

“What did you do?” Gwyn asked. “Luren, she should not be allowed in public when she looks like that. She makes us look bad.” Gwyn glared at me. All I could do was focus on my father’s giant golden crown on his head. Those men at that cafe shouldn’t have treated me so disgustingly, but I was starting to get the impression that I could be treated poorly by anyone.

“If we tell you not to leave the castle, then you will listen,” my father declared. “You killed a man yesterday and cut the tongue from another.”

“You stupid Crimson-" Gwyn started, but I gave her a menacing look that let her know if she continued that sentence, she would be dead.

Tally and Mae practically choked on their fancy meal at the news. Tally’s hand flew over her mouth as she looked at her mother.

Rage filled me. I did not choose to come here and be treated like trash. Glancing around at my family, I bit back the rage that was coursing through my veins at a violent rate. My fire mist whipped more violently around me, but now shadows intertwined with it—Cassius’ shadows.

“Put your magic away,” Gwyn demanded, but I just turned my black eyes toward her and didn’t look away until she visibly shrank back at my appearance.

“This is your home,” my father spat. His words broke something inside of me. I could no longer accept the fact that I had betrayed them, and maybe I should be treated poorly. No, they simply hated me here.

“This is no more a home than it is a prison,” I shot back.

They all watched me like I was losing it, which I was. But this was just a small sliver of the rage swarming dangerously insideof me. A rage that started because of Cassius is now being fueled because of this fake family and kingdom.

A moment later, she appeared. The woman with star-colored eyes and golden skin smiled at me as my darkness raged. I stared at her, wondering where she had been.

“Ask them if they will make a new family portrait with you,” she demanded of me. No one batted an eye, so they obviously hadn’t heard her.

“Will there be a new family portrait painted for the hallway?” I asked, catching them off guard.

“That painting has been hanging there for nearly fifty years; why would we change it?” Tally scoffed.

It hit me that the painting had been there longer than I had been missing. My father seemed to understand why I asked, and a moment of worry flashed across his features before he hardened his face. His hands flew up in defense.

“You did not want to be in the portrait, Thea. You did not like the title of princess. You wanted to be the captain of my guard for the love of the gods.”

“Do you really think I will believe that?”

Something deep in my broken memory was struggling, wanting to be free. It was like an itch I couldn’t scratch; it became more insistent but never surfaced. Why was my family lying to me?

“Push to be in it,” the mysterious woman spoke.

“Well, I would like to be in it now.” I pushed to see how they would react.

“Luren,” Gwyn hissed through clenched teeth, but I could feel fear from her and my father pumping through them rapidly.

“We will discuss this after you’ve settled here.” He agreed, but I knew it was just to pacify me. Something deep inside my mind knew they would never include me in something like that.

“I want to hear that you will include me in the family portrait. You said I didn’t want to be in it before, and now I do. So can we get a new one done?”

Mae and Tally exchanged glances with each other before looking at their mother. Gwyn didn’t look to my father for an answer. It was clear that she made decisions without talking them over with him. In truth, I didn’t care about being in their stupid portrait, but the more they refused, the more I felt myself pulling away from them.

“We will not be doing a new portrait,” she said.

“Of course you won’t,” I snapped.

The woman with star-colored eyes watched me, and for the first time, she smiled at me like she had witnessed something great. Then she disappeared in a blink of an eye.

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