Page 93 of Cursed Heirs

“Maybe a little,” he admitted.

Talon shot to his feet. “We need to go. Now. You’re hurting and you fucking promised me, Ore.”

With a groan, Orpheus pushed back to his feet. “I know I did and I aim to keep that promise.”

“Really? No arguing or pushing it further?”

He shook his head. Then he looked out at me forlornly. “Besides, Alena has work to do now.”

“To come back to us,” Xavier said.

“I’ll be back with you before you know it,” I reassured them.

Orpheus fell to his knees and started coughing up blood, some trickling from his nose too.

“Ore!” Talon cried, him and Xavier there and hauling him up, supporting his weight.

Before I could do another thing, the three of them faded in and out.

Orpheus held out his hand to me. “You’re stronger than you know. Remember that.”

His last words whispered on the wind, and then they were gone, out of my subconscious.

Emotion clogged my throat at being separated from them again.

But before it threatened to take me over, I got a hold of myself and focused on the cause of all of it.

Constantine.

His black magic infecting me.

At my indignation and increased resistance, I felt that cooling sensation permeating me again. I moved away from the tree, grateful that I had the illusion now and not the walls of fire, and I walked to a clearing and held out my palms, forcing my magic forth.

My golden power flamed this time and I was able to pull on it further without any ramifications.

It would be just the beginning.

If it took hours, if it took days, I wouldn’t stop.

Not now that I had hope—and a helping hand from the Dark Fae King that I could feel working through my system, allowing me to use my power here finally, giving me the impetus and means to begin breaking free of this fucking cage.

My eyes snapped open.

I awoke to darkness.

In a foreign space.

In an unknown bed!

I looked around, quickly trying to assess my surroundings.

I was tucked into a four-poster bed with crimson sheets and drapes. The rest of the large space, like that of a suite, I supposed, was unfurnished and unfinished. A new place then. Or a ripped apart abandoned one.

I shoved the covers off myself only to find that I was naked underneath.

Great.

Not just that, but there were red-raw scratch marks and bite marks all over me.

---