“No, no. He was afraid. I scared him.”
"Your friend didn't even try to save you when your father beat you with the lash. He let you take a punishment, never once saying it was his fault. He has been letting you take punishments your whole life. You are his shield and he hasnever thanked you for it. Never once."
My mind screamed back. “Tyr struggles inside but he is strong, he has been loyal, he never asked me to be his shield. I chose that path,” I snarled.
"He has never given you any other option to choose. Oh Emon, you are a bleeding heart."
The voices hummed, caressing against me as I frowned into the dark.
"Then your parents adopted the babies, Penina and Falcon. They replaced you as their dear golden prince. Then Falcon betrayed you, he who was supposed to be your trusted brother. He gave the queen your mother, then gave her your kingdom too."
“Stop!” I growled but I had no voice here. I was but a piece of the universe floating in oblivion. I felt hungry tendrils latch onto me, pulling on me with their spiteful words.
"The one you call sister holds secrets. Deep secrets. She sees and does not tell. She has let you feel this pain, the loss, the constant sorrow. She let you get captured."
The voices twisted the past and I gritted my teeth, blocking out the whispers but they were too loud. Too strong. I felt a suctioning pull and I groaned.
"Dragoon watched your mother burn, he did nothing to stop it, he was too afraid to lose his own life. He didn't do what was right to save her. He should have died that day too."
“No. No. No. I wouldn't have wanted that. She wouldn't have wanted that.”
"Xi is only loyal to him. She cares not for what you have provided. Safety, freedom, choices. She will never repay her debts to you."
I curled in on myself, wishing I could block it out.
"Bane has loathed you forever. You are the product of what he wished he had, your mother. He despises you and wishes you dead."
I couldn't argue with that one but no. Bane would never, deep down I knew this. Our hate was not murderous deep, just the maiming kind.
"Your father loathes you too. He sees his soulmate in you every time he looks at you. He is disappointed that you gave the gateway away, that you let yourself be raped by a woman for months on end. You are not strong enough to even be called hisson."
My father only knew truth. He said he did not feel this way. I shook my head, ripping away the thoughts but they continued to latch onto me. Boring into everything that I thought was true.
"The panther never cared for you either. He thinks you incompetent and unworthy. A disgusting parasite. He has told you this many times. It is why he has not returned, he hasn't even tried even though you pine after him. You disgust him."
Ethereal. He would know how to stop this. Did that really make me incompetent?
"Then there’s me."
Me? My conscience piqued, I looked outward.
The darkness cleared and the most beautiful deadly creature leaned over me. She was a dark halo of blue black hair, large green eyes so brilliantly bright and gorgeous with flawless pale skin soft to touch. I would never forget the first time I saw her in this place. Lost in the depths of her eyes, I moaned when her perfect pale lips kissed mine softly, then followed her as she sat down beside the table I laid on. Strapped in with irons and shadows. A knife dripping with blood and darkness cut into my forearm pinned at the table.
The shadowy darkness swirled around the blade as it seared into my skin.
No this was not how it happened, I was…I could not recall but no the markings were my choice. Weren't they?
"You have always had a knack for beautiful storytelling, shifter. What a fantastical story you have weaved. Me being a lost hero, not the monster that you know I am, and the soulmate you wish I was. It's cute that you blame Deirdre for all this scheming without giving me credit for a single ounce of it. But you know you never left this place."
Confusion wracked me.
"No," I choked. "I love you. You love me."
She dipped the knife into my skin smiling, her green eyes glinting brilliantly. "Oh Emon. I don't need your pathetic simpering love. You gave me everything I ever wanted. Our daughter. And in due time, I will take her from this place, form my own army, and take over Faerie. Now with Riella to claim the shifter throne, your people will follow me to take out the Faerie queen. Her pathetic soul has fled, so cowardly afraid of me," she grinned, dragging the blade further down my skin with her dark brows furrowing in concentration. "But before I do, I will give you a piece of myself to remember me by because I do so enjoy your stories."
Leaning back, shesheathed her knife and blew a kiss to her shadows before lifting my arm to demonstrate the swirls of ink that were etched into my skin.
"See. They are exactly like mine, at least then I can make sure one part of your story has come true."
