Page 78 of Fated or Knot

She cleared her throat primly. “I hereby revoke the vow Metalark of Osme Fen made to me, Cymora of Osme Fen. She vowed to be a good and obedient stepdaughter and do everything she was told with a perky ‘yes, Stepmother’ and no attitude. That is no more.”

We both eased up with relief to know our mate wouldn’t be compelled to answer to Cymora’s every order and whim. She was a servant no longer.

The mermaid smirked as she added, “I also hereby revoke all demands I made of her while she was under the effects of this vow.”

I tensed and snorted when Niall stirred within me, no longer so content. “The fuck does that addition mean?” I demanded.

She batted her lashes up at me. “I ordered her to forget a number of things. An essence spinner I used to dally with warned me to stop. He said if she ever received all those memories back all at once, it would probably break something in that silly little head of hers,” she simpered.

Fal and I exchanged a glance over her head. He gave me a warning look. “It’s bluster, Mar,” he said, switching languages.

“I did mean what I said, Prince,” she continued. “You can have your precious Metalark…however she turns out.”

The sword rattled in my hands. My lips peeled back in a slow snarl that wasn’t just for show. With one lunge and bite, I could crush her windpipe.

Fal put his palms up. “She’s with Kauz. You know he can get her through something like that,” he coaxed.

This malicious trick of hers could only be answered with blood. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so smug if I broke a few of her fingers. Or her ankle. See howshefared when every step was agony.

“Hit a nerve, did I?” Cymora taunted, though I only heard it distantly. My control was fading in and out while Niall was rising, directing my thoughts where they needed to go.

We couldn’t suffer the fish to live. Even now, she was too great a threat to Lark. If I couldn’t kill her, then I would ask Theodred to do it. It would be fast, efficient.

Protect the p’nixie.

I listened through a morass of feral instinct, barely hearing Cymora continue to mouth off. She didn’t realize what my unblinking stare and dilating eyes meant.

“You’re the ones who wanted a full confession. My misdeeds, as relates to Lark? Here we go.”

Fal was still trying to reason with me, a hint of urgency entering his tone as he caught on to what was about to happen. “Put the sword down, Mar.”

“I’ll tell you everything you need to know,” Cymora continued with malicious glee. “Starting with the vow. She made it when she was six, right after her father died.”

“You wrote the letter telling us she’d died, not her father,” I rasped.

“I did,” she said. She had the audacity to sound proud.

My growling deepened with pain.The letter. The turning point in my life. Mother’s agony at losing her godchild had hit her pack bond at the same time I’d been in a practice fight with Theodred. The all-encompassing hurt from his mate had triggered his rage and blinded him for a single swing, and that’s all it’d taken for him to nearly smash my face in.

“My first order to her was a test. I made her forget her full name, and it worked. The letter wasn’t a lie. She did die…in a way. There was no longer a Metalark of Osme Fen,” Cymora said.

“You are ill in the head, aren’t you?” Fal said to her in Theli. At this point, I was no longer listening. The implications…

While I’d teetered on the edge of life and death, Lark’s subservience to her stepmother was solidifying. She had died a little, doomed to fade into the gray shade of herself we had found the night of the Omega Masquerade.

But I had died a little as well. I’d later risen from my infirmary bed an angry boy, similarly doomed to be the feral male who’d fought his instincts until I was an unchivalrous ass to my p’nixie.

I was in another place and time entirely, dealing a blow to the rawest nerve my mate carried by asking her,“What do youknow of pain?”I had thought only of my struggle, my past, and the prestige of my place as the future protector of Serian’s next queen.

When, in reality, I hadn’t protected her at all. She’d suffered, and I’d failed to be there for her. Stars, that moment was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

As would her response.Shehad comfortedmeand sat in my lap like she wanted my gentling. Looked at me with hope rather than hurt. Smashed the fortifications between fae and beast until my thoughts had slowed to feral contentment.Warm. Soft. Mate.

She didn’t know much I yearned for her companionship. She had no idea that I’d struggled to finishThe Battle of Marsh Hillbecause I couldn’t focus on the book with her sitting so close. I hung on her every musical word and giggle while she talked to my brothers. I dreamt I’d never thrown a golden opportunity away and taken her straight to my inn room after she perfumed not for either of my alpha brothers, but forme.

Yet I’d held myself back and pushed her away. I was a fool. I’d been the only one of my pack who’d believed Mother wouldn’t immediately love her, and she’d let my fears taint her.

“I wouldn’t ask any of you to give up everything because of me,”she’d whispered.

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