Page 62 of A Story of Sinners

It didn’t matter. There were other ways to hurt him, regardless of how immune he was to my magic. He’d taken my choices away and deserved every last bit of my rage directed towards him.

“If you so much as try to bite me, I will bite you back and reject you, over and over and over again. I will reject you until all you become is a broken, brittle shell of yourself. I will reject you for centuries, until the sheer agony rips you to pieces and all you feel is pain,” I growled, feeling sharp teeth prickling out from beneath my gumline. “Don’t test me, Ryken. I will do it. You’ve claimed me once by surprise and rejected me. You don’t want to cross me twice.”

Ryken’s nostrils flared, and he pulled away, his chest heaving. I was telling the truth, and he knew it. A partnership wasn’t fair when one partner continued to take and take.

I called my flames back into me, and they sulked on the way down. I promised them they would be free once more, now that we were finally reunited. I was familiar with the pain of containment and would never hurt them in that way again.

I levelled him with a look of pure contempt. “Where am I, and why am I not in Cambriel?”

Ryken crossed his arms and uttered not a word, so Redmond stepped forward, his hands held in front of him. “We had to stop your plan. You were going to accept his proposition and go to the Otherworld, and he cannot be trusted, Dahlia.”

“I’m aware he can’t be trusted. Do you think I’m stupid?” I snapped. “It was for the best. There are things he knows about me, secrets about me and my powers, truths I will never discover so long as I am here.”

I snorted at the look on Redmond’s face, regret so thick, he could choke on it for all I cared. It wasn’t like him to be controlling. He often advised, but never stepped in. “You realize what you have done, don’t you? There would have been peace on the continent. There would have been sunlight and food. Life would have thrived again, all for the low price of my freedom of choice.” I tilted my head and glared at Ryken, baring my teeth. “Was that too much for you to handle? Me, having a choice?”

“You’re impossible,” Ryken muttered, and Redmond’s eyes shuttered.

If anyone was impossible, it was him.

“Just leave me be. I’m exhausted and dizzy, thanks to the sleeping potion I was forced to inhale.”

When neither Fin, nor Redmond, nor Ryken moved to leave, I let my power flood through my body, allowing flames to form in my hands once again. My eyes shifted, and something formed within my irises, terrifying enough to give them pause. “I said leave!”

Fin sifted away, and Redmond made a hasty exit, but Ryken refused to move. “You’ll come around to this. You will thank me for this one day.”

I scoffed as he disappeared in a flash of light, because I would never forgive him for this. Never.

* * *

My attempts at sifting out of Faerie had been unsuccessful. It took me hours to remember how to sift, and when I did, it was only to land in strange areas of the palace—once in an empty ballroom and a few times in the lawn outside, each time a harsher, more damaging fall than the last. My final attempt had landed me in a dungeon, one even worse than the dank sublevel in Cambriel. I’d been unable to sift free from the dungeon filled with iron walls and runes. How I’d sifted into a room fortified with iron was lost on me. After hours of unsuccessful attempts, a strange, red eyed fae discovered my presence and silently escorted me back to my room.

The male was absolutely terrifying—the sight of him made my heart race and my stomach drop. I did not attempt to sift after he’d found me for fear of meeting him again.

A sweet voice sounded in my room as I laid in bed with my eyes squeezed closed, desperate to forget the events of the day, but I did not acknowledge it. It was the small pinch in my side from tiny, deft fingers that had my eyes shooting open.

“Dahlia.”

My eyes landed on the last person I would have ever expected to see in Faerie. I gasped as she smiled at me, then blinked a few times and scrubbed my palms across my eyes.

“Gabriella!” I shifted and excitedly pulled her in for a hug, pinching her face to ensure she was real. Solid skin met my fingertips, and she pulled back, smacking my hand with a nervous laugh. My lips twitched upward in greeting. “What? How? Why?”

“I talked your male into taking me with you.” She rolled her shoulders and tilted her chin, proud and sly as a fox.

I hummed in response then collapsed against the bedframe. This would not be good. “I’m happy to see you, truly, but does Aiden know? Does George?” When she didn’t answer, I narrowed my eyes. “You ran away…”

“I did,” she responded with a smile.

My hands scrubbed down my face as a groan tore from me. Not only did Ryken abduct me, but he took the Queen of Cambriel as a hostage. War would be sought on too many fronts to count, all thanks to him. I shook my head; Ryken had lost his mind.

I stared at her, completely speechless, as she made her way to the armoire across from me and dug through it. Articles of clothing were tossed to the floor as she measured each piece and clucked her tongue in disapproval. Finally, she grabbed a small black gown and tilted her head, nodding with acceptance.

The gown landed beside me.

“They dress strange in Faerie,” she claimed, and my eyes measured her body and the outfit fitted around it, dipping low at the neckline and revealing a glimpse of midriff—a look eerily similar to what Aiden made me wear. “Get dressed. You missed lunch, and now it’s dinnertime. Everyone is waiting.”

“Who is everyone?” I asked, grabbing the dress and holding it to the light. This one was a little more conservative than what I was used to wearing. The neckline dipped down a small but attractive amount, and there were no slits running along the legs. I nodded my approval and peeled my nightgown off.

Gabriella turned her back and paced around the room, tilting over decorations and examining them. “Those two witches, who were not very happy to see me. Your male, the orange haired male, that catty high lady, and the two high lords, including the one with the red eyes,” she sighed. “Oh and your mentor, Redmond.”

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