Page 54 of Of Vows and War: Special Edition
It was a race to see who could slice open the other, and I lost. The female who had once been sobbing turned ruthless as she aimed again and again for my chest. For every good swipe that I got at her, my dress and shoes slowed me just enough for her to get one in as well. Our blood and sweat tainted the stifling air, but we remained nearly silent, not a single fae awaking.
I fought with every ounce of rage I had ever possessed. I screamed with the voice of the youngling who had been caged for days on end. I sobbed from the eyes of a female robbed of joy.
And as I towered over the final fae as she healed herself just enough to stand back up, I inhaled from the broken lungs of someone who had gasped for air for so long that they no longer knew what it was to breathe deeply.
“Why do you not just shatter my mind? Why not get it over with?” she asked as she limped towards me.
“Because I want to feel this,” I answered just as I dove forward. She was not prepared for my direct attack, but her instincts were strong. The moment my knife sank into her chest, hers dug into my side, slicing through my ribs.
I let out a barely audible cry, gripping the hilt of the blade and shoving her body away from me. She hit the ground with the same lifeless thud they all had, but for some reason, it hurt more to see her staring off into the distance.
All they had wanted was something different, something better. But they had chosen to hurt innocents in their fight to end the Mounbetton rule.
Nicola’s words echoed in my head.
“Remember who you are while away. Remember who you have vowed to save.”
“Asher?” Mia’s voice stripped me bare of any thought or feeling but one: defeat.
“Let me guess, you had to check in to make sure your guard dog did its job?” I asked, never taking my eyes from the female on the ground. I was truly everything she always wanted me to be.
Mia’s footsteps stopped, the scorching air silent but for the bugs that swirled around my sweaty head and the dead bodies before me. My blood-soaked hand still held the blade firmly, trying not to move.
“I wish I knew what you meant by that.” Then she approached, gasping as she took in the carnage. “Eternity above. Asher, what happened?”
“I did what I do best. I killed them all.”
“But who are they? Were you attacked?” she asked in a voice that dripped panic.
“Rebels,” was all I offered, not so much as looking her way.
After a handful of excruciating moments, she whispered, “They do not wear the mark.”
“You never told me about them.”
“I did not want you to know. I feared it would put even more on your shoulders. You have already lived with far more burdens than any Mounbetton Queen before you.” Her hand moved to my shoulder, and I quickly shook it off. Her motherly touch no longer soothed, it burned.
“Do not pretend you care. Not when you spent two hundred years torturing, belittling, and brainwashing me.”
For a few minutes, we remained in silence, neither of us willing to speak or move first. My eyes roamed over the destruction I had caused, and I found myself thrown off by how utterly bizarre this was. I meant to speak, to give in, but then Mia let out a heavy sigh.
“I know I have been hard on you, my flower. Your life has not been easy or fun or fair. I know you loved that Healer and that you likely never forgave us, even though you said you did.”
I let out a hiss of pain from my body tensing as Mia brought up Sipho. I had spoken of him more in the last year than I had in my lifetime. Or, no, maybe not the last year. Wrath was getting to my head. The world was.
“Growing up, I was taught the importance of the Mounbetton line. Of the females that ruled and conquered. My father showed me no love. When I lost control of my Earth power and demolished part of the palace, I was beaten for days. My mother was different. She offered me a calculated sort of love. I was precious, like a gemstone. Something that could be buffed and cut and displayed. Every day was a test, every move watched. That was all I knew. In my head it made sense to do the same to you. To covet you.”
She cleared her throat, the sound of her dress swishing as she shuffled, a clear sign she was either uncomfortable or on edge. Wrath appeared at my feet, twirling through my legs before making his way to the dead fae on the ground. His laughs rang in my ears like a warning.
“I have loved you in the way I know how, Asher. Yes, it can be hard. Sometimes I wish I were different. But this way will make you the strongest. And one day when you have younglings, you will understand it. You will be just like me, even if you say you will not. I am the closest thing you have to a mother, and I am doing my best. I am doing what I was taught.”
I wished I knew how to make sense of that information and decide if the story was an excuse or an explanation. But I had neither the time nor the patience for that.
“We should probably clean up these dead bodies before someone realizes your toy has a brain of its own. Would not want the masses to fear me too much and turn on you.” Then, my eyes darted to the spot on the wall not too far away, where the fae had painted the bleeding crown with the wordsdeath to the royalsbelow it. “Just so we are clear, I do not care that the rebels want you dead. I did this for the innocent fae they would have killed along the way.”
Mia remained silent as I turned and walked away, passing her without so much as a fleeting glance. Wrath followed, still chuckling at the carnage.
“Congratulations, Strange One, you are officially the monster in the night.”
