Page 23 of Brutal Fae King
Did Maribelle know? She was born so much later than I was… adopted, but did they tell her? Did she know that we weren’t full-blooded sisters?
Were my parents ever planning on telling me that I wasn’t theirs, or did they die before they could? Was I going to live my entire life happy in this delusion, or would this kidnapping have happened regardless, and I’d have found out either way?
Could… could those other women who were killed by the king searching for the lost queen have been saved if I had known earlier and turned myself in?
My mind is whirring. I can feel myself swaying on the spot.
“My queen,” the witch says. “It is time for you to leave. He searches for you.”
“I… okay,” I murmur numbly.
I blink, and a bright light glares in my eyes. I flinch and cover my eyes, but after a moment’s adjustment, I realize I’m back in the corridor where the witch’s doorway formed.
I turn around and stare at it. There is no doorway anymore. Just the space where it should be.
He searches for you.
I’d best get going before my guard friend gets in too much trouble.
Chapter 8 - Vicmar
“What do you mean she’s gone?!”
The guard in front of me can’t meet my eye. He’s hung his head, staring at the floor.
“You had ONE JOB to look after her!”I snarl. “How did you let her get away?!”
“I-I do not know, Sire!” he stutters. “She may have used her powers on me! I remember nothing!”
I snarl to myself. My hand snaps out and backhands the guard across the face. He stumbles back, but I just turn and start searching throughout the castle. I spread my fingers, and my powers flow outward with them. I can sense them. All of them, their auras, as all of my guards wait, wander around, all on different floors of the castle.
Non-elemental magic is immensely useful that way. It’s the magic of auras, illusions… teleporting. Once I get to know someone, I can recognize their auras from everyone else’s, so I can sense Bruamin pottering around leisurely in the gardens outside, but I can’t tell one non-descript guard for another.
If she was walking around on a different floor, would I recognize her? Do I know her well enough? Shefeltunusual enough when I wasn’t attempting to read auras, but now I’m trying to find them.
This means that either I can’t recognize her amongst all the others, or… or she’s not there.
I start storming throughout the castle, searching every nook, every cranny, every inch of the castle for the lightest snippet of an unusual aura.
She can’t begone!If she leaves this castle, thenhe’sgoing to take her!
He can’t take her! She’smine!
The thought slithers into my mind, and it won’t leave.
She’s mine. She’s mine!She’s mine!
I can’t get her out of my mind. Those flinty, emerald eyes, staring at me with bone-shuddering defiance, the thick, glossy brown hair, the peasant dress with its crude stitching and the constant presence of dirt and other filths from chores—her beauty shone through it all. Then, the thought of her looking at me, the softer green eyes, the cheeks flushing rose pink, her warm fingers on my…
She’s mine. She can’t leave. She can’t be taken.I won’t allow it!
My thoughts return to him, but the constant thoughts ofherstart blending with thoughts ofhim.I see them in my mind. Him appearing, grabbing her—making her frightened, taking her as she screams and kicks.
No!
But then my thoughts change again, and I see him… and her…
Together.
