Page 109 of Secrets & Curses of Crimson

Here for us.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I stood up. My emotions couldn’t be held in as my fire mist exploded and twisted around me in an angry vortex.

“We all died.” Kai was the one to finally say it.

My fire died immediately, and my darkness clawed its way up. The swirls on my skin glowed so damn bright it hurt my black eyesto see it.

“No,” I said. “You aren’t dead. You can’t be dead.” I started crying uncontrollably. Did I let them run out of food and supplies?

“Yes, we are. We died the day you were cursed.” Kaz frowned at me. “You don’t remember because you were dead too. Cassius was bargaining for you back. He doesn’t know that we had been killed.”

“You’ve been dead this whole time.” My father was right. Sybil and the twins and everyone were dead. “Why didn’t you tell me!”

“We couldn’t.” Sybil shook away her tears. “You needed a reason to fight, a reason to break your curse because you couldn’t remember Cassius. But it was like we didn’t have all of our memories either, or some of them twisted to make a different version of what happened. We didn’t remember we were dead until Cassius saved us last year, and we couldn’t tell you.”

Ardella moved forward, and I wanted to spit at her for taking them from me. These fae had been my family for eight years. Sybil and the twins were my family long before that. When I had no one in Cerithia, it was them who saved me.

“Thea, that day in the clearing, Cassius and I made that deal to save your soul. My brother put all of these stupid rules in place, including you being kept in Exile. All ofthese fae you see asked to stay until you broke your curse. To make this better for you, so you weren’t so lonely. I granted that to them because they felt like they owed you for saving them.” Ardella’s voice was still peaceful. My anger was slowly turning into a consuming grief.

“I didn’t save them if they are all dead!” The ground shook with my devastation.

“You saved us from our father.” Kaz squeezed my hand. “You risked everything to save us. Our father had all of us locked away in Cerithia, and he was planning to execute us, but you and Cassius stormed Cerithia and freed us. You did save us.”

I looked over all the fae standing in front of me, watching me with a deep sense of sadness.

“When we first got to Exile, we couldn’t remember anything that happened right before we got here. Our memories were gone too. It wasn’t until Cassius came and made us leave Exile last year that we remembered. We didn’t know that we were dead until a few days after leaving here, but we couldn’t tell you. The curse prevented us from saying that, and we didn’t remember details of how everything happened,” Sybil sobbed loudly to me. "Cassius could see us because Della allowed him to, to make sure you didn't find out untilnecessary."

My eyes squeezed tightly as tears streamed down my face. I shook my head as if that would make all of their words untrue.

“You once asked me who the other wisps were, and I lied,” Della confessed. “It was them.” Her hand swept around to all the elite magic fae watching us.

My head turned slowly as I stared at all of them. A sense of pride filled me. Slowly, they all shifted to wisp forms in front of my eyes. All around me, a rainbow of glowing orbs softly lit the night with a myriad of colors. Their lights pulsed gently, filling me with a sense of love before shifting back to their normal fae bodies.

“They protected you as much as they could,” Ardella said, frowning down at me. “I wish I did not need to take them, but I simply cannot let them stay.”

My eyes stung with deep emotion as I stood up and hugged Sybil and the twins tightly to me. How was I supposed to let them go? Sybil was like a mother, and the twins were my best friends...brothers. They turned towards Ardella.

“May we stay and talk to Thea for a little longer?” Kai asked. Ardella smiled and nodded.

Most of the fae shuffled into a guard formation. In the blink of an eye, all of the adults flashed in their crimson uniforms and saluted me.

“It was an honor to serve you in life and death, Captain Thea Valeska,” Fallon called out, and they all smiled at me as I saluted them, and then they were all gone. Tears spilled from me as shock was coursing through me.

“Here, sit.” Kaz helped me find my seat on the makeshift stage. Ardella stood there with them. At first, no one said anything.

“I don’t want you guys to go,” I sobbed. “You guys are my family.”

“We wish we could stay too, but this is the way it has to be.” Sybil gave me a sad smile. “We need to tell you what happened. It’s part of the reason for your prophecy.”

I nodded.

“Cassius tried desperately to help break the binding on your magic that your mother did when you were a child. He was so scared of losing you, so he said he was going to find the seer that foretold your prophecy. Cerithia had not made an attack for months, so we didn’t expect them to while he was gone.” Her eyes glazed over like she was reliving that day. “We were all living in Crimson by then, most of us as guards. You came and saved us when you realized what your father had been doing.”

“You gathered all of us and brought us to Crimson,” Kai began to speak. I nodded because I remembered that.

“Cassius had been gone for days when you insisted on going outside. You said something was wrong,” Sybil said. Flashes of that morning started coming back to me. “When we got out there, Cerithia had already advanced on the castle. We still don’t know how they got there without detection. But you immediately started fighting, and we tried to protect you.” Sybil’s voice was wavering.

“Cassius showed up right as your magic was about to kill you off for good. He said he knew what to do. So, we protected you two as you lay in the castle grounds. Then he stabbed you, and your magic exploded from you. We all went flying at the force of it. When we woke up, your father had already had us locked up.”

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