Page 85 of Elemental Fae Academy: Book Three

Uh-huh. To do what? I wondered.

“Well, where were we, Ophelia?” Elana continued, her mask slipping just a hair as she focused on my mother.

Fear radiated from my mother, her fingers clenching into fists as she fought the tendril of spirit hovering against her mouth.

What do you really want to say? I thought at her, tempted to brush that strand away, to reveal her true words.

It looked easy.

Just flick it with a talon of my own.

“She’s lying!” my mother screeched as the rope disappeared, my heart skipping a beat in the process.

Shit. Did I do that?

But I didn’t have time to worry because my mother took center stage, words spewing from her on a wave of truth that unsettled my very soul.

“It’s not a plague. It’s Elana. She’s feeding off the Earth Fae like she did the Spirit Fae. It’s dark magic, Claire. She siphons the elements, borrows them, kills them. It’s not me. But I figured out what she was doing when she forced me to bond to Mortus, using spirit compulsion. I broke free by going to the Human Realm, but I met your father, and then she came for me. I had to leave you, Claire. I had to leave both of you behind. But she’s framed me for all of this.”

It all came out so quickly, so harshly, that Elana didn’t have time to stop her.

Mostly because I seemed to have her strand caught in my mental fist.

Something her thunderous expression told me she’d noticed.

Oops.

Sorry, not sorry?

I swallowed as the calm-mentor veneer disappeared, revealing a darker expression, one that caused the hairs along my arms to dance in warning. Her lips peeled apart into a sneer that had me instinctively reaching out to Exos. Only, I couldn’t find him. Or Cyrus. Or Vox. Or any of my mates.

Oh, they were there. But not. Like I’d somehow left them in my current state, similar to when I’d ventured into the blinding white light.

Shit.

I should have evaluated that earlier, but I’d been distracted by my mother and Elana.

Now, however, it became far too clear that I was on my own to find a way out of this.

“I could try to deny it, but what would be the point?” Elana took a step toward the bars, her eyes on my mother. “You’ve been such a disappointment to me, Ophelia. Over and over and over again.” She tsked, the sound reminding me of nails on a chalkboard.

An ice dagger shot from her hand toward my mother’s chest, one I instinctively manipulated with my fire to melt before impact.

Elana snarled, sending another that I quickly deflected before creating a sheet of flames meant to protect my mother from further assault.

“You’ve been holding out on me,” my former mentor accused, changing tactics and focusing on me. “If the fae knew how powerful you’ve grown…” She trailed off, tapping her jaw. “Well, I imagine we’d share an execution chamber. It’s what the fae do to those they consider different. It’s all about the balance, trying to avoid wars between the supernaturals, because they all fear true power. Which you and I both possess, Claire. In abundance.”

She took a menacing step forward to wrap her fingers around the bars, completely unfazed by the heat flaring from the fire shield I’d created.

“I know what it’s like,” she murmured. “Not being accepted by your own kind, being called derogatory names like Halfling or Weakling. Being a Spirit Fae with access to only one element painted me as insignificant to most. They either teased me or pitied me.” Her lips flattened. “It wasn’t an easy existence, knowing I couldn’t tell anyone my true nature. Knowing if anyone found out my father was a Midnight Fae that I’d be burned alive. It’s not like I chose my parents, but the fae don’t care, Claire. They discriminate against anyone they fear.”

I swallowed. Because what she described matched what Exos, Cyrus, and Kols had told me. Abominations, they’d said. And I was fully aware of how the others had treated me as a Halfling, like an unwanted roach among a sea of butterflies.

But they’re different now, I told myself, recalling the ball. They were… nice.

Because they liked me?

Or because of my ties to my mates?

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