Page 10 of Land of Monsters

“Because it’s true.” I started to move around, hating the envy I carried when it came to my twin. “Rook is seamlessly split. Hecan turn into a full dark dweller and hunts and fights with the pack. Or he can work his Druid magic. He’s one or the other. Never together.”

Ash’s head tipped back in understanding. “You can’t.”

“No.” The burning started behind my eyes again. “My powers were never separate. They came out jumbled and flawed. I get stuck in this in-between state, where I can never fully be a dark dweller, and I have never been a high Druid with white magic like my brother. My mother is a natural obscurer, of course, from her mother, and Aunt Fionna can do black magic, but they both mainly stick to white magic now.” Aunt Fionna still loved to dabble a bit in black magic every once in a while; she still had the choice to do either. I didn’t. Before she reunited with my mom and her own daughter, Piper, she practiced heavily in black magic. She was part of the alliance to take down the fae, but her life took a huge turn when she fell in love with Uncle Lars.

Aunt Fionna was the one who helped lace my cuff with the Druid protection, spelling it to hold back my obscurer and buffer the goblin metal from trying to drain me of all my powers. She saw my heartbreak and knew I needed to be protected from myself, and her daughter was part of the reason for my downfall.

My older cousin Piper was my idol growing up. From the moment I was born, I had been in awe of her talent, intelligence, beauty, and her seer powers. I trailed after her, copying everything she did, said, and wore. I worshipped her, happily sitting by her side on days she was absent from our world, lost in visions, and flighty to reality.

Then she became my foe. Taking the only person I ever loved.

“You could never control them?” Ash’s voice pulled me back to him.

“Well, no. I was okay with dealing with them… before.”

“Before what?”

A tear finally slipped out.

“Before Wyatt left me.” His name was a dagger to the gut, instantly putting the image of him in my mind. His rare smiles and cheeky winks.

A carbon copy of his father Ryker, Wyatt was six-two, broad, blond, and had the prettiest white/blue eyes I’d ever seen. A wanderer like his mother and father, he had his mother’s dimples, which I think I fell in love with the moment I was old enough to understand their power.

“Wyatt is the ex?” Ash’s jaw gritted.

“Yes.” I nodded. “He was my best friend, my first love, and I thought my last. We lost our virginity together. He was my whole world.”

“But…?”

“But he was secretly in love with my cousin.”

“Ouch.” Ash flinched.

“Yeah. She was older than us, and for a long time, thought of us as annoying kids. I don’t know if Wyatt ever really thought she’d see him as more, especially being raised like family together. We dated, and I think he fell in love with me too, at least for a moment there. But we grew up, and things shifted between them. Between us. They began hanging out more.”

I couldn’t go on, remembering how I found them kissing. My heart had shattered into pieces because I could tell it was more than a simple kiss. I couldn’t deny how they looked at each other.

They were fated mates.

And my whole world combusted.

“I was so heartbroken, so lost… I went on a work trip to Russia with my mom and Uncle Lars to get away.” I swallowed, memories of that night flickering in my head. “Another boy wasthere, saying all the right things, telling me how pretty I was. How much he desired me and always had. I wanted the hurt to stop…” I wiped at my cheek. “No, I wanted to punish Wyatt. I think deep down I was hoping he’d find out and realize what a mistake he made.”

Ash’s head bobbed like he perfectly understood.

“We got really drunk and took some fairy dust.” I closed my lids, more snippets from that night coming through. “We were so high.” I recalled how rough I had been riding Alexsei, how desperate I was for pain, to taste blood, to lose myself, like I could bleed myself of the agony rotting my core. The drugs twisted my mind, making me see Wyatt and Piper next to me, watching him fuck her, grinning wickedly at me, telling me I had never been good enough, that it had always been her pussy he imagined when he had been with me.

The dweller and obscurer lashed out, wanting everything to feel the anguish we did. I had heard his bellows of pain, his distress, even when I felt him come inside me, but I didn’t stop. Nothing felt real, like it was all a faraway dream.

“I snapped.” I swiped faster as a few more tears fell. “I woke up laying in his blood, his throat and heart torn out, blood pooling from his eyes and ears.” A sob racked my body, and I quickly curbed it. There was no image sharper than when I had stood up, his blood dripping from my mouth and hands, while his cum dripped down my legs, and I stood over his dead body.

“The boy…” I lifted my head, looking directly at Ash. “Was Alexsei Kozlov.”

Ash’s mouth fell open, his eyes widening.“Faszom!”he barked, his hand going through his hair. He paced in a circle, understanding the significance of my declaration.

“The son of Dimitri Kozlov,” I continued anyway. “The leader of Russia.”

Ash let out a strangled laugh. “And head of the fucking Mafia!” Dimitri denied his involvement in the Mafia, though it was the worst kept secret. Even Lars was unnerved around them, and if you knew my uncle, that saida lot.

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