Page 149 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
“Three hundred and sixty-two people died because of you.” Elias’s snarl echoed in the desolate woods.
“How many more died because of your parents?” Pietro pulled out his sword. “How many died because you ripped through the tear? How many people that you were charged to protect lost loved ones because of themagewhose revenge should’ve been focused solely on your family?” His nostrils flared as red spread over his neck to his face. “Your parents destroyed my family. They stripped my father of his position because he knew the truth about them. They took me from my home to be raised in a castle filled with their lies. Iknew, though, as did every youngling I grew up with under your parents’ roof. Since our youth, we’ve planned our vengeance. Even if I die this day, they’ll see it through. We’ll have our uprising, and you and your family will die.”
Elias staggered back a step, clutching his stomach as blood spilled through his fingers. “Who else betrays us?”
“After all that destruction and death, you brought humans back to our realm,” Pietro continued. “You gave them shelter and food when your people didn’t have either. You gave the surviving mage access to our kingdom. You sided with the lirio, who’d always been our enemies. Over and over again, you chose yourself over your people. Over and over again, you made choices that damned us.”
Except Elias never chose himself. He chose me. He chose his people.
Pietro didn’t see it, couldn’t see it, not with his heart and mind turned into this vengeful, prejudiced, hard stone.
My heart drummed hard and fast, waging a silent war against my ribs. I didn’t know how this would end, only that it had to. Only that Pietro had to die, and his death must come at my hands.
He’d hurt Elias and had gone after the babies nestled in my womb. He couldn’t survive this. I wouldn’t have it.
Then, we’d find the other traitors.
The dagger at my ankle called to me, so I grabbed it while I called to my mage magic, my mind swimming through the texts I’d read with Alastor and the lessons he’d given me. There were answers there. I simply needed to find them.
In the span of a blink, Elias was on top of Pietro. Their movements were too fast to track, but I saw Elias stumble as he held an arm across his stomach. Pietro used theopportunity to punch Elias. At the final blow to Elias’s head, Elias staggered back, his hold on the dagger slackening.
Pietro took the dagger, making it, along with the sword he carried, disappear into his inner pocket of magic. When Elias fell to his knees, his head drooping forward, Pietro grabbed his hair and pulled his head upright.
“Only once you’ve watched me kill your mate will I give you the mercy of death,” Pietro said.
A low rumble reverberated from Elias’s chest. After several failed attempts, he finally rose to his feet.
“You will not harm my mate,” he ground out, spitting blood again.
Before he could lunge at Pietro again, fire erupted around me. With a shocked gasp, I took a retreating step, only for the fire to cage me in. The edges of the fiery flames taunted me as it drew closer and closer, sometimes lessening in size but always moving closer.
I tried to reach for Alastor but couldn’t find the threads of his magic. Something inside me stirred. While I wasn’t certain what I was doing, I trusted that stirring and let it guide me. I picked at the small wound I’d made on my hand until I drew blood and was about to hold my palm over the enclosing fire when Elias leaped through the fire to stand beside me.
His shoulders heaved with every forceful breath he took, but then I was in his arms with him carrying me as he jumped through the flames again. On the other side of the circle of fire, he dropped to his knees with a loud wheeze. I knelt beside him, pushing the sweaty strands of his hair away from his face.
Pietro rounded the fire, walking slowly to us with a sword in hishand.
The magic born of my blood called to me, and I knew, in my soul, I had to answer her.
“Bite me,” I said, offering Elias my uncut hand.
With a shake of his head, he lowered my hand.
“Trust me,mo elma,”I urged. “Bite me.”
The pale violet of his eyes dulled further, but he did as I asked and struck a vein on my wrist. As he pulled from my blood, I stretched out my other hand. Fire licked at my hand, but I kept it there, trying to ignore the pain as I fisted my hand so drops of blood would spill as I chanted the words that echoed in my head.
My words came out loud, and the earth beneath us trembled. I chanted louder, as loud as the wind that howled around us, throwing my fear and hope into every word. When I felt a third drop of blood drip from my hand, I pulled it away from the fire. Although the skin was charred, I turned to run my fingers through Elias’s hair. It was as much for him as it was to center me.
Withdrawing my hand from his lips, he grasped my hand and stood on shaky legs.
I used my magic to summon the fire that submitted to my command. I cut off its source, forcing it to dwindle. Once it was nothing more than a tiny flame, I saw that Pietro watched us with a bewildered look in his eyes.
Rather than letting the flame die out, I sent it to surround the traitorous messenger. He shouted when my flames licked his flesh, but the embers seemed to delight in his pain. Or maybe I was the one who found joy in it.
Although I wanted the fire to consume him, I thickened the flames as they danced around him to form a cage. While I wanted his death, yearned for it, he couldn’t die just yet. Not until we had the names of the fae who’d also betrayed us.
Pietro shouted again, but I couldn’t hear what he said.
