Page 46 of The Queen of Ash and Magic

I find the tent she put up, and barge in. I am instantly pissed off when I find her laid out in the bed moaning. She is fucking herself with her fingers and rubbing her clit. “What the fuck are you doing?” I demand.

“Get out,” she snaps at me.

“Get up,” I say, but she doesn’t move. “Get the fuck out of the bed, Julianna. Now.”

“What do you want? I am here alone for a fucking reason,” she says coldly.

“Where is your ring?” I ask grabbing her hand. “Why in the fuck is our bond severed?”

“Because you chose her,” she says, yanking her hand back. “You chose her over and over and over.”

“It’s been one day,” I yell at her. “You knew and fucking encouraged this but now suddenly it’s a betrayal? I don’t buy it. What do we do about the baby?”

“What baby?” she asks with a smile that sends a chill down my spine.

“What in the fuck did you do?” I growl, and she laughs. “What did you do, Julianna?”

“Severed bond means I owe you nothing,” she sneers. “There is no more baby. Go breed the queen. She is your primary mate now.”

“You… Juli,” I say as emotion stabs through me. “You killed the baby?”

“Yes, and burned the fucking thing to ash,” she says with no emotion. “Remains are in that bag beside the door. Go grieve someplace else.”

“Who are you?” I ask.

“It was a girl, by the way,” she says. “Get your bag of trash and get out.”

“What am I supposed to tell Drake?” I ask, trying so hard to not cry. How could she do this? She wanted that baby before we left. She wanted me to give that ring to Lysa. What happened? How did I make such a mess without even knowing it?

“You tell him that your betrayal led to the sever and the loss of the baby,” she says. “Tell him the truth and I’ll tell him you forced yourself on me and I lost the baby that way. Wanna guess who he will believe?”

“You are a vile cunt,” I say, my voice shaking with anger.

“Get out, Eyrx. Go be with your mate,” she says as she waves me off.

I shake my head at her before turning and walking to the door. I make sure to grab the remains as I go but I turn towards the woods to be alone for a while.

Once I am far enough away, I dump the remains on the stone and back up to shift. Pain rips through me as I let my fire blast into the remains to form a stone. When dragon remains are heated, they form into a stone. Julianna was further along than we told anyone. My daughter was viable. She didn’t have to kill her. I am not ignorant. I know that she was alive when she had her. She killed my baby girl, and I don’t have the strength to find out how. If I knew how she did it, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from hurting her. If I do that, I will lose not only Drake but Lysaalso.

Poor Lysa… She is going to blame herself. She is so kindhearted; she will take on all the faults. I can’t tell them the truth, because Julianna will just make them think I raped her. I don’t know if they would believe it, but I don’t want to find out. I will take on all of this and grieve in silence.

When I shift back, I pick up the small pinkish-purple stone and tears fall down my cheeks. I take my necklace off and let the small green stone out of the center. Julianna’s dragon is green, so I did that for her. I toss the small emerald into the woods before carefully fitting the new stone into place. I wanted to name the baby Erin no matter if they were a girl or boy. So, that’s her name.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, baby girl,” I whisper to the stone. “Daddy loves you so much.”

I gently kiss the stone before wiping my face and going to be with my mate. When I get there, the lights are off and Lysa is curled up next to Drake.

“Hey,” Drake says. He switches a light on and immediately stands when he sees my face. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I uh… our bond severed,” I say, trying to keep calm. I don’t give a fuck about Julianna, but it’s Erin’s loss that hurts like hell. “The stress of the break made her… the baby is gone.”

“Oh, Eyrx,” he says as he hugs me. Something about his comfort brings tears out of me again. “I’m sosorry, man. Are you okay?”

“Losing Julianna isn’t what hurts,” I say. “Maybe that is bad but… I wanted that little girl so badly.”

“You’re hiding something from me,” he says skeptically.

“She was pretty far along. She hid the pregnancy for months to surprise you,” I say. “She didn’t tell me she lost her. She just gave me her remains.”

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