Page 117 of Secrets & Curses of Crimson

My brows creased. What would Thea be doing tomorrow at the wedding?

“She always picks Cassius. We shouldn’t waste our time. Every year we should be hunting her down and just killing her instead of trying to convince her that we like her.” It was Jesper who spoke such cruel words.

“Well, everyone has a weakness, and Thea’s is Cassius. We will use it to our advantage. We will not lose.”

“Are you sure you still have the stone?” Gwyn was the one who questioned it.

“Yes. Maybe she senses that you all hate her. Try a little harder to get over yourselves, and she’d be kinder to you,” he suggested. “After Thea kills the royal families tomorrow, we will kill her, and Genia will take the blood witches, and we will control Elloryon. We have one night; let’s not mess this up.”

Fuck. They were going to slaughter the royal families tomorrow. Is this what Thea saw in her vision? If it were, I wouldn’t be there, and neither would my family, so it would stop the vision from happening.

“I hate that you involved your whore in our business,” Gwyn snapped at Luren.

“That’s my fucking mother you’re insulting.” Jesper stepped toward her like he would kill her.

“I owed her after everything that happened. Either she gets something in return, or she makes things worse for us. Besides, having her lead the coven will only work to help serve us and our needs,”Luren said, ignoring Jesper.

“What the fuck are you doing?” a guard spoke from beside me. I turned and stared at his angry face. “How did you get in here?”

“I wish you wouldn’t have found me,” I muttered before I wrapped my shadows around us as my dagger plunged into his heart. When the shadows disappeared, his dead body hit the forest floor. Shit.

I glanced around the woods and sighed heavily at how I had almost been caught. I took a heavy breath as I cleaned off my dagger. I summoned my shadows and went home, but as soon as they disappeared, I was met with a horrific scene.

“There you are.” A Kizar guard smiled at me. “We’ve searched everywhere for you.”

I watched my father, mother, and siblings struggling against their binds. My shadows burst out of me and tried to kill the man standing in front of me, but he smiled when I hit some sort of barrier.

“You can’t get to me.” His smile widened. “I’ll trade all of them for you.”

“Deal.”

As soon as I said it, he lifted his hand, and his magic poured from him, wrapping around me so I couldn’t move. My shadows seized around me. I struggled to try and break free when he didn’t let my family go.

“Let them go!”

“No.” The smug bastard looked around as if he expected to see someone else. “I think we killed all of the guards you had stationed, so there is no one to stop us.”

Haden.

Leer.

Zade.

“Are you ready?” The man with long, greasy-looking blonde hair sneered at me. “We have a wedding to attend.”

No.

I tried to break free. I couldn’t go. But it was no use. I couldn’t break free from whatever his magic was. When I wouldn’t stop struggling, the man walked up to me and blew white powder in my face. My eyes and nose burned as I felt it coursing through me. It would knock me out in mere seconds, and I would be taken to a wedding where my wife knew I would die. My eyes were heavy, but I refused to give in. I used all of my strength to try and fight the tiredness I was feeling.

All I could think of was Thea living a life without me. She had always been stronger than me—she could live without me if I died—she could still exist if I didn't. If I didn't break free, then Thea would never forgive herself. The guilt would kill her, and I did not want her feeling like she didn't do enough to protect me. So I used everything in me to fight back.My shadows swarmed desperately insideof me trying to save me. One trendil of shadow escaped me and snapped the neck of the closest Kizar guard.

"Control him!" Someone yelled. But I was too focused on trying to kill the other guards to notice any threats. A guard blew more powder into my face, making me call out in pain when it burned violently in my eyes.

“You’re quite the fighter.” The man in charge smiled before he punched me in the face, making me lose all my fight.

"Thea, I'm sorry," I whispered as if she would hear me. Then everything went black.

Chapter 31

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