My eyes widened in recognition. I had almost forgotten the only being here that had attempted to bestow upon me some sort of kindness. The only one that had seen past Deirdre’s manipulations and tried to help me in any way he could. He never stood a chance against her.
“Please.” The doctor pleaded to the growling shifter who had his claws placed dangerously close to a main artery of the human’s neck.
“Worthless human.” Emon sneered. “Did the fae you allowed to be abused, assaulted, and raped for your disgusting science ever plead for her own life? Nay! She begged you to end it instead! Yet here you are begging for yours like you deserve a fucking request!”
Remorse shone on his wet face. “Please. I tried. God, I did try. Tried to protect her. But I have a family and she…the queen…she used my family against me.” The doctor bowed his head, his tears dripping to the floor. “I have a family. Please.” His last words were like a whispered prayer from a tortured soul.
I recognized it well, having heard that tone escape my own lips.
Emon roared with frustration. He gnashed his sharp canines right in front of the doctor’s face. “She had a family too! Did you even bother to ask her that? And you treated her like a fucking animal! Worse than that!”
More tears streamed from the human’s eyes. “I’m so sorr—sorry. I’m so very sorry. God forgive me. I tried…I did try.” He sobbed, not even seeing Emon anymore. His eyes glazed over with acceptance of his death.
Emon hissed viciously but I could see the change in his bloodthirsty eyes. He did not want to kill this human. Emon was everything light, seeing the best in the fucked up darkness of the world. It was what I loved most about him.
I inhaled sharply at my errant thought and my heart pounded loudly.
I loved Emon.
Warmth flooded into the bond as if Emon had heard my words inside his memories.
Growling, heripped his claws away from the human’s throat and watched the doctor slump with relief. Still sobbing into a pool of blood from one of his slain co-workers.
“Tell me where she was taken.” Emon demanded.
The doctor blinked upward against the flashing lights in confusion. “She…she wasss….was able to escape—.”
A slow predatory smile crept across Emon’s blood splattered face and his gold eyes swirled with hope…and pride.
If only what had come after had been testament to that hope. Morta was anything but.
Dr. Gerald S. Gio stared at Emon fearfully, shuddering when the shifter king spoke.
“This will not be the day you die, human. Instead, you will live. Live with the things you have done. It will haunt you day and night, when you kiss your wife, when you hold your children.” Emon rose slowly to stand. “Stay away from the games of the fae, human, if you see one of us ever again, run the fucking other way.” Turning and walking away, Emon kicked a decapitated head out of his path, straight towards the quietly sobbing doctor.
The doctor took one look at the head, its mouth gaping open in a silent scream, before turning away to retch.
“Pathetic.” Growled Emon before prowling from the room.
Darkness pulled at me but I resisted it, kneeling before the vomiting doctor with sadness in my eyes.
“I forgive you, Gerald.” I whispered before I lost sight of him. “I forgive you.”
Chapter 71
“Thisbetterbethelast one Emon.” I said wearily to him through our mind connection when a new memory appeared.
I didn’t need to see more to know the kind of fae Emon truly was. Strong and gentle, kind and just, vicious and fair, broken but still hopeful, he was the light in the darkness that I was never able to find until now.
I recognized the healing quarters with a small smile on my face. It was a place filled with such warmth and acceptance. The essence of the master healer’s work.
Searching the room, I found Emon sitting on an extended prime root of Riella’s bed with a broken expression on his face.
Alarm and panic had me rushing over to the faeling, recalling that Emon had placed additional wards on the room. Had he hidden a terrible truth from me, was she not well?
Seeing her still sleeping as peacefully as when I last left her, I frowned at the broken expression on Emon’s face.
It was the most lost and hopeless I had ever seen him. Even through the brutality he had suffered, he always held unwavering strength, but it was absent here. Defeated. My soulmate was defeated.
