Page 54 of Secrets & Curses of Cerithia

“Jeb?” My father glared.

“He was too easy to kill. I should have slaughtered all of you while Lavtan was here.”

My father rolled his eyes.

“You are too much like your mother—always watching and scheming.”

Something about his comment made me so angry that the grip on my dagger tightened until it was painful.

“Everything was a lie, wasn’t it? The day I came to get the stone, you fed me lies about this being my home and you being my family. I know you had Cerithian guards kidnap me. It was not Falgon or Crimson.”

This made all three of them look surprised.

“They called me the Crimson whore, which is only what fae in Cerithia call me. I also know that you hired witches to fuck with Exile. I saw the contracts.”

No one answered me, but I knew that it was them. Gods, I would have destroyed this whole kingdom if my magic wasn’t barbed inside of me. Cassius had known that Cerithia was not kind to me because this was how they had always treated me.

“You’ll get over it,” Jesper sighed, irritated.

“You tried to kill me on Crimson lands to start a war, and you think I’ll get over it?” I took another step toward them. “Why on Crimson lands? If Cassius hates me so much, it would not make any sense to kill me onhislands to start a war.” The thought that struck me next was so unbelievably painful that I almost couldn’t say it out loud. “Unless he doesn’t hate me at all.”

My father stepped forward and tried to grab me, but I swung my dagger at him, slicing open his cheek.

“You stupid fucking bitch!” he yelled, clutching his bleeding face. Seeing him in pain pleased me, and I smiled at him, making him step back with wide eyes.

“I should have killed all of you when I discovered your schemes. You tried to get me to fail the trials, and you've been lying to me. I want to know why.”

“If you don’t stop talking, we will fucking kill you and try this again. But before you come back from Exile this time, we will slaughter Cassius and his entire family. You will be ours no matter what,” Gwyn snapped.

“I will kill you first,” I promised her. “Actually, I think I’ll kill your daughters first so that you will really suffer.” I smiled whenGwyn’s face paled. “And anyway, Cassius would have you all slaughtered before you could hurt him.”

Gwyn had made a very big error in her threat. She threatened to harm Cassius and his family, which let me know that they were important to me as well. They feared my feelings for him, even though he killed me. I knew that I was still missing a large piece of the puzzle, but it was starting to come together.My instincts were telling me I should have picked Cassius.

“If you do anything against our wishes, we will kill Sybil and the twins slowly and make you watch. As for Cassius, he would never see our spies coming. He would be dead before he realized what was happening,” Luren threatened.

I said nothing as I stared at them. I was so angry. My thoughts were racing, but I knew one thing: I had to act now.

Turning to the three guards behind me, I threw my dagger into the heart of the closest one. As another guard rushed at me, it took little effort to overpower him, using his own sword to kill him. The last guard tried to flee, but I ran after him, grabbing him by his hair and yanking him back. My dagger slit his throat, and his blood spilled onto the king and queen. Once the guards were dead, I turned back to my so-called family. They had backed themselves against the far wall, as far from me as they could get.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you all live,” I snapped. “But make no mistake, it is only because you have control over those in Exile.” I also wanted to mention that it was also because they had insiders in Crimson, but I pretended as if I didn’t care. “You might as well kill me, because now I will never fight for you.”

“You will obey us, Thea. We will not allow you to die and start this all over again. If you are here, then we know that you will not be in the hands of our enemies. So, you will stay, and you will fight, or you will lose everyone you love.”

With one last black-eyed stare as full of threat as I could manage, I turned and stepped over the dead bodies of the fallen guards and left the room, leaving the bloody prints of my boots behind me.

They had said nothing as I left, probably knowing better than to tempt fate any more than they already had tonight. I hurried to my room and slammed the door shut, my chest aching so painfully that I thought my heart would burst. My magic swarmed inside of me, causing an uncomfortable ache that was bottled up and unable to free itself because of Jesper’s binds. However, mixed with all of the pain and confusion was the relief of finally knowing some of the truth.

Wisp appeared close to me; her color is a bright green. She was happy that I knew the truth, but now what would happen? I had no magic. I couldn’t risk killing those in Exile because of my fuck-up. My hope for the future deflated. All the realizations of Cassius and me had come too late, I was stuck in this hell.

Chapter 17

The hot spring I sat in was relaxing my sore muscles, and it was nice to wash off the dirt from war. I heard a noise coming through the forest. I cocked my head to listen and froze instantly when I realized that it was the sound of footsteps—heavy footsteps—and they were coming closer to where I was. Before I had time to react, an armored figure appeared at the tree line. It was Cassius. I grabbed my viper-handled dagger, but he only smiled at me as he began to strip.

“How the fuck did you find me?” I hissed as I watched him step into the hot spring with me. “I will stab you.”

“Easy, little viper. I don’t feel like fighting today, and I’m unarmed.” He winked at me as he sat across from me, then dipped below the water before resurfacing a moment later with his dark hair dripping down his handsome face. His golden eyes stared at me for a long moment.

“We are in a war, and you want me to just forget that so we can relax together?”

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