Page 80 of Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

It would have been better if they had just hung me. I wish they had just fucking killed me.

~~~

Trick

I hadn’t intended to stay away this long, but when my magic got ahold of me, it wasn’t so willing to let go.

It had taken some time, but I had finally come back, and the first thing I was going to do was pay my little addiction a visit.

She had broken so many rules, it was time I collected her penance. Starting with thoseboysmy shadow informed me she fucked.

I Jumped to the clearing just before dinner. I wasn’t sure she would be here, if not, I’d have to pay her a visit at her house in the city. Perhaps catch a glimpse of the brother that so clearly stole her heart. I needed her to know what she had done. That she had forced my hand, and in no less than an hour, I would return with those cocks wrapped in pretty little bows. Just for her.

My magic snarled as soon as I landed, my hair standing on end, and I didn’t realize why until a moment later.

My eyes lifted to the cliff above the cottage. The rain was pelting the ground, creating puddles and lakes where the ground was uneven. On the edge of that cliff was a pile of scraps. To any human eye, it would have been disregarded as trash, but I would have known who it was from a mile away through a blizzard.

I Jumped to the cliff, crouching down beside her. The stench of blood burned my nose. She wasn’t even shivering. Lying in the snow, being pelted by rain, her clothes soaked through, and she was as still as stone. Why had she come up here? It wasn’t her path. Her path led her straight from her house to the front door of the cottage, why come up here?

Her heartbeat was too slow, her breathing thin.

I carefully pulled back her hood and felt nothing but a cold, calm rage as I took her in. Broken skin, swollen eyes and lips, blood soaking through her hair.

A shudder fell down my spine as I knelt in the mud and snow, my magic too weak to even attempt at forcing a shift. I took her chin gently and eased her head up enough to meet her swollen eyes. “Who?”I hummed.

Her heart thudded once, only once. “Go away.”

My lip curled, but there wasn’t time to argue about this. I’d get it out of her soon enough. For now, she needed Cole and I needed to find the four dicks brave enough to come inside of my fucking girl. If those were the only names I had, then unfortunately, their punishments would be far worse than originally planned.

I let her chin go, placing a temporary shield over her to keep the rain off of her until Cole got her inside.

I Jumped back to Oridian, interrupting some meeting Lora was having with members of her army.

She looked up, her brows pulling together in anger. “Trick? What are you—”

I grabbed Cole and Jumped back to Kyra’s side. “Do not leave her side,” I ordered, not bothering with his wings. He wouldn’t need to hide them because he wouldn’t be leaving the cottage. Not tonight.

Whatever arguments Cole had prepared died on his lips at the sight of her. He hit his knees at her side, peeling back the hood, his back going rigid. “Who did this?”

“Go away,” she mumbled again, pulling her shoulder away from him.

I would have smiled had it been any other situation. As it was, I couldn’t bring myself to even breathe right. “I’ll be back.”

~~~

Cole

She looked worse in the light of the fire. Her lips were swollen, split in two places, her cheeks were swollen, myguess was that she had split the inside of those too.

Her right eye was nearly swollen shut, the left getting there. She had a cut on her cheek, a handprint too.

Her hands were filled with splinters, swollen, and covered in blood, and all of this was just what she allowed me to see.

She wouldn’t take off her wet clothes, she wouldn’t even look at my wings, comment on them, she just sat there silently, staring at the fire.

It was the first time I had seen her without a veil or a hood, and I was horrified.

I stood once the fire was roaring and turned to her. “What is it you need?”

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