Page 290 of Cursed Evermore
“Have you ever seen me in the house?”
“I’ve seen you on the beach and the… garden.”
“But that’s not in the house, is it, my dear?” Her voice sounded wispy, like it had been caught on the edge of the wind.
“No, it’s not in the house.” I trembled, my body realizing before my mind that she was about to tell me something very wrong.
She shook her head. “I’m not allowed in the house, Elariya.”
And there it was. Thesomething wrongI was waiting for.
“Why? Why wouldn’t Wolfe allow you in the house? You’re his sister.” Unless she wasn’t and she was something like the Ruskiel.
“I’m not a Ruskiel.” Gods, she read my mind. “The situation isn’t complicated in that way, but it’s still quite complex.”
That comment opened the door for a bag of questions, but I was more concerned with the pressing matter of the hidden truth she was spoon-feeding me. “How did you get in the house if Wolfe didn’t invite you?”
“Youinvited me.” With the wave of her hand, she conjured the muffin I gave her yesterday, her smile widening. “Giving me something from inside the house was enough to get me through the door.”
My stomach dropped. “But this isn’t my house.”
She chuckled. “Wolfe made you his lady. Did he not?”
“How did you know? You weren’t there.”
“I told you. The grapevinewhisperedit to me.” Her voice took on the sing-song tone of a psychopath. “You’re in themagical realm, my dear. When you hear something like that, pay attention and take it at face value.” She nodded as if she were giving me some great wisdom. Just looking at her made me sick, the truth of her lie unfurling inside me like a flesh-eating disease.
“When my brother made you his lady, it meant everything he owned became yours, too, including the house.” Her smile sharpened as the air split open around us.
Several roguish-looking Fae males poured through, scarred and armed, their eyes gleaming with hunger. They looked like they’d crawled out of a nightmare. Like the pirates people feared back home. These were the rebels.
Cold dread spread through my body like frost on glass.
“And when you invited me to dinner,” Zyrra purred, “that was an all-access pass. For me. And for them.”
The sting of betrayal sliced into me deeper than a blade.
She’d used me. Played me for the fool she thought me to be. And I fell for it.
“It was you.” I glared at Zyrra. “You brought the rebels here.”
“Yes, it was me. Think of them as dinner guests.”
“Why would you do this? Wolfe is your brother.”
She threw me a menacing grin. “You’re the path to the ring. And I want it. The rest is as I said—complicated.”
She moved closer, and I stepped back. Behind me, a swirling portal appeared, the force lifting my hair and clothes. I glanced at it over my shoulder, watching the space widen like an abyss.
Terror gripped me. I snapped my gaze back to Zyrra.
That was all I got to do before she pushed me inside the portal with a bright smile on her cruel face.
Chapter 58
Elariya
“Ashes of Deception”
