Page 63 of Courting the Fae Captain
“Wait! Remove his mask. I want to see the mastermind behind the Pentad before he dies,”I said down the bond.
The shadow halted.“Aeris, you need a healer. The longer we delay?—”
“Please, Raithe.”It hurt to breathe, but I kept the pain locked down.“I need to know.”
“As you wish.”
Raithe ripped that golden mask from the male’s face in one swift movement. My heart sank—utterly plummeted. The worldtilted on its axis, and I breathed in sharply as I looked upon the face of the male who’d long tormented me.
“You.” I laughed in disbelief as it became all too clear why the serpent had felt so familiar. Why Declan had been here despite already having a wife. “Of course. It all makes sense now.”
My father stared back at me with cold murder in his blue eyes. “Are you surprised?”
“No,” I admitted. “Just disappointed. All that power and wealth. All that status. None of it was ever enough for you. The only time you felt powerful was when you were hurting those you deemed beneath you. I may not have the physical scars to prove what you did to me, but I wear them on the inside proudly.” My vision dotted once more, but I blinked and refocused, determined to say my piece. “Despite your best efforts, I am no longer your captive. I am free.”
“Free?” he said with a sneer. “You are chained to this male. You will never truly escape.”
“Aeris can do whatever she wishes with her life,” Raithe said darkly. “Even if that meant leaving me and never looking back. Unlike you, I do not keep my females bruised and chained. I am lucky to have her and damn proud to call her my mate.”
“Mate?” My father snorted, then groaned at the weapon firmly embedded in him. “You are both fools. War is coming for this court, and you will bring it to its knees in the face of our enemies.”
“I guess you’ll never know,” I said in disgust.
“I think we’re done now,” Raithe said with a hurried glance at my wounds. He shifted on his feet and moved to take the kill.
My father twisted, his pale face whitening even further. His eyes darted to mine. “No, you can’t do this. Will you not have mercy on your father?”
“You’re not my father. You never were in the ways that counted.” I thought of my mother, Raithe's mother, and Portia’sfamily. I thought of all the countless females he’d hurt by heading the Pentad and the Rite. I thought of how he would often be gone for months at a time during my youth, which now made much more sense after learning he was head of the Pentad. Finally, I thought of all the things I had learned in his absence and the female I had become because of it. Then, an idea formed in my mind. I relayed it to Raithe, who paused, his face tilting to reveal a raised brow.
Utter delight flashed in those ocean eyes, but he asked aloud all the same. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. They need to see this.”
Raithe chuckled as he quickly dragged my father over to the table. He then grabbed a dagger from his belt and impaled my father’s hand to the surface. The shriek that followed made my ears ring. It only worsened as Raithe grabbed another dagger and impaled the other hand in the same fashion. To the lion, who was still huddled in the corner looking like he might piss himself, he simply commanded, “Stay.”
I snorted at the mocking command, then winced as the air rattled my chest. There was no chance that pitiful excuse for a Fae was going anywhere, but I gathered my shadows around me just in case.
Raithe’s eyes snapped to mine at the painful drag of air I took in, then he walked forward and kicked the unconscious male wearing the eagle mask. “My father,” he said simply. “In case you hadn’t guessed it already.”
I had been too caught up in fighting the others to think about it, but Akira, Sherai and I had always guessed Lord Windaire was among the Pentad. We just thought he was its leader, not my own father’s lackey. Raithe dragged him across the ground and said,“Perhaps you should bind him to the table with your shadows as well.”
I did just that. “What are you going to do with him?” I asked as he made for the door, this time using the conventional method by unbarring it from this side.
“First, I’m going to find a healer immediately. But after that? Probably nothing,” he said with a tilt of his head. “I’ll save that for someone else. Someone with even more reason to finish him off than me.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
‘In spite of all the death, I never lost hope. I might be gone tomorrow, but someday someone will take up arms and end the killing. Someone will find a way to break the chains and set us free.’
Journal excerpt, author unknown
My eyes immediately welled up when I saw her. This close, I could see her features clearly, and she was as beautiful as the day she’d left. Even covered in dirt and whatever other manner of filth, my mother’s face was a beacon of light. Her blonde hair was braided much like mine, and her blue eyes—my eyes—gleamed.The state of her body, however … I gulped down the lump in my throat as I took in the obvious malnourishment and abuse she’d been through. Her body was thin and pale, her cheeks gaunt, and her eyes sunken in. Yes, the beauty was still there, even if trauma was visible inevery line, or bruise, or scar. And I knew there were many of those lining her back alone.
“My daughter,” she said, running to me where I still lay inside the Pentad’s underground chamber. “I’m so sorry, Aeris. I’m so very sorry.” She burst into tears as she beheld the state of me, all the blood now pooling over the dirt.
All I wanted was to hug her, but with the weapons jutting out of me and the blood trail, I was fading. Instead, I held out a weak hand for her to slide her own into, then tried for a smile. “It’s okay, Mum. I’m okay.”
“You’ve been stabbed in two places and you’re bleeding out,” she said with that familiar stern tone I remembered well. “You’re anything but okay. Just as well, your mate brought some friends.”
