Page 34 of Magic Hunted
His shoulders dropped as though exhaustion had burned through everything he was. “Your parents used death magic as the ultimate safeguard, and each Chosen child went dark. We tried to track you all down. For years, we searched without a whisper. We thought you had all perished.”
“And you thought I’d stolen the grimoire for myself,” I said.
I rose from the table, rage dictating my actions. I didn’t care that he was sad or exhausted, or anything he would feel. If they’d designed everything about my life, then there was no excuse. I pressed my shaking hands flat on the table and leaned over. “You made sure my parents would sacrifice themselves for the grimoire. They paid the ultimate price to ensure something that should have been your responsibility all along.”
“I’m sorry for your parents, but there was no other way to safeguard the grimoire. If we hid the grimoire with us, The Six would have tracked down the magic centuries ago and life on this world would be far different than it is now,” Taredd said. “We stayed hidden ourselves, to safeguard the army both worlds would need.”
“Yeah, because The Six have made life such a utopia here,” I said.
“At least life has prevailed. King Cedar prophesied this was the only way,” Taredd said.
“King Cedar? Your king? Heknewthis would happen?” Ashir said, his blue eyes blazing.
“After the tear appeared between our worlds, it…changed everything. For all of us. I was entrusted to see his plan come to fruition. Doing what needed to be done on Earth,” Taredd said.
I felt sick to my bones, their plan coming together with striking clarity. “So you bred shifters by manipulating their bonds. That way, it could assure you of the strongest offspring.”
“We worked with the bond. Not against it. The strength of shifter children comes from the strongest of bonds,” Taredd said. “You have to understand, if there was any other path, I would have taken it. But, the king—”
“I don’t want to hear it. Nothing is a good enough excuse for what you’ve done. Nothing!” I couldn’t stand to listen to his lies any more. The hard shell I’d built around me from the moment the life bled from my mother’s eyes cracked and shattered and there was nothing to protect the black oozing pit where I’d stuffed all my pain. It rose from where it had festered, clawing its way free. That place where I yearned for a bond. That I really would find my mates and we would be happy. A dream that could never come true.
The only thing I’d really ever wanted for myself was something I would never have.
“You tricked my parents and used the bond to sacrifice for your magic. You’ve done that for generations. You had no right to destroy their lives. No right to destroyanylives!”
This would stop. I would not live another day of a lie. The inferno of rage I’d stuffed deep inside me erupted. The grimoire tried to tear free from its tether. I clutched my abdomen as the sharp pain speared through me.
Golden sparks showered inside me, flickering with sparks of bright green. What began as a few sparks grew and grew until it was only speckled with flickers of golden magic. Until a green haze filled my mind and my vision. It was magic, but of another sort. As powerful as the golden grimoire magic. As potent. Even more so. The same bright green magic that had exploded from me in the jungle.
Energy surged beneath my skin. The exhaustion that had plagued me vanished and I felt more alive than I’d ever felt before. My panther leapt to her feet, howling as power coursed through both of us. A missing piece inside me flared to life, snapping into place, a new dimension of myself birthed in an instant.
Vibrant green, as brilliant as the leaves in the jungle, hazed my vision when I looked at Taredd as the last of my sanity snapped. He scrambled to his feet, holding his palms out to me as though that could ward me off.
“I’m not your enemy, Haera,” he said.
But he was wrong. He was worse than my enemy because he’d been a silent assassin manipulating my life before I was even born. The green power surged, its need brutal. An innate knowing dawned on me. That I didn’t have to run and hide. That I was powerful enough to finally fight back against those who dictated my life. That I could tear the world to shreds and nothing could stop me. This power was mine to channel. Mine to shape. Mine.
“I’m sick of lies. Sick of the deception. Sick of being used for someone else’s purpose. You destroyed my life and now I’m going to destroy yours!” I didn’t recognize my voice. It echoed around me, magnified with the grief and pain that soared alongside the light.
Green light crackled from my palms, the magic rising at a whim, easily bending to my will. It danced between my fingers, a slight warm tingle caressing my skin. I threw the balls of magic at the elf who had bred me generations before I was conceived. Who had stolen my autonomy. Had killed my parents. Who had manipulated a thousand years of innocent shifters.
It was time to make him pay.
Chapter Eighteen
Shanyirra’s weathered hand clamped about my wrist as the green magic flared bright around me. It streaked toward Taredd, hitting him in the middle of his chest. He flew backwards with the impact, slamming into a table at the same time as I tumbled into a dark void. I lost sight of the elf, my mates and the eating hall around me. Colors and shapes took form, sending me back to a day I’d locked deep inside me. A day best forgotten, but etched into my skull with a burning blade.
Titan’s guards lined us up along the wall of the stronghold’s courtyard. The previous day, a market had been running here, and the air had been thick with the scent of roasting meat and apple pie. They were the same smells that had drawn me from the jungle four years prior, my stomach twisting so badly I could barely stand straight. Desperate for something to eat, I’d gone against my parents’ warnings and slipped through the open iron gates, only by then I had no parents to protect me. I’d been delirious with starvation and Titan had caught me easily after I’d reached for a bread roll. I’d been so hungry, I’d jammed it into my mouth and filled my cheeks with the whole thing even when he’d held me up by my collar.
That was the reason Titan had kept me instead of killing me the day he discovered me hiding under a farmer’s cart in the marketplace and turned me into a castle slave. I’d spent years cleaning floors. Scrubbing chamber pots. Running endless errands. I would have gladly gone back to that instead of standing with the other adolescents I stood shoulder to shoulder with. Children my age on the cusp of puberty, disposable because we were the lowest. No one would miss a shifter child or a human orphan. Not anyone who lived in the stronghold, in the far reaches of the territory and especially not any of the heavily armed guards who lined the other wall, studying us with sick anticipation. We weren’t anything other than entertainment to them.
Again, I’d been chosen and all because I worked so quietly, no one knew who I was. I’d thought I was smart, staying away from notice and the abuse it entailed if I was seen. Years later I’d understood why my actions had drawn attention to me. Titan had spies and they were everywhere. No one knew who they were or when they reported, and natural stealth was a prized attribute.
On this day, I was to battle to be ‘recruited’ for Titan’s next batch of spies. A position I didn’t want nor cared to have. I would have been killed on the spot if I declined, so it wasn’t a choice at all. Only a handful of us would live to see tomorrow.
I’d tried to control my trembling limbs, and failed. The lead guard’s hard eyes had fallen on me, the coldness in them seeping straight to my bones, while he’d explained our task. Weakness of any kind was not permitted and shaking because I was terrified was no excuse.
The guard walked toward me. Suddenly my hand was encased in a warm grip. I glanced beside me to see a boy smiling at me. His smile was so out of place with the stench of fear that permeated the courtyard it had taken a moment for my brain to understand what I was seeing. He squeezed my fingers and suddenly the acid pumping through my veins wasn’t so caustic. I stared at him wondering how he could smile. How he could be so calm. Wondering why he would try to calm me, knowing that we would have to battle each other for our lives. I was drawn into the glass-green of his eyes made more prominent by his smooth tan skin. Even more so by the strange sense of comfort that soothed the ache inside me.
