I stared at a miniature pony and tried to forget the last ten-minutes of my life.
I ignored the kings’ attempts to talk to me. They’d lost that privilege.
What happened to normal gifts? Designer purses, limited-edition perfumes, diamonds, silk sheets, and enchanted super-yachts.
How had we gotten to this place where men brought their lovers into dark woods and showed them crucifixion victims?
What did this say about our society?
It wasn’t good.
When we got back to the estate, I sprinted to the great room and collapsed in front of the hearth.
My nerves were shot, and I was suffering from a dizzy spell.
I felt like one of the fair maidens Sadie was always talking about from her romance books.
The fuzzy blanket was a warm cocoon around my shoulders.
I shivered beneath it.
My fingers stiffened as ice spread across them. I stared down at them in disbelief. The doctors had said it would take me weeks before the ice came back.
How is this possible?
“Arabella, please listen,” Malum begged as he ran into the room with the rest of the men. They relaxed when they saw me.
The fire in the hearth burned brighter. Ice spread off my fingers onto the ornate rug.
A part of me wasn’t surprised that my powers were already back.
I tipped my head back and smoked.
“Why did you bring me to a forest of bodies?” I asked calmly as I lay down on the icy rug and smoked.
Snow fell from the ceiling and kissed my cheeks.
I would have laughed, but I was still traumatized by the kings’ surprise.
“It was you—even inside,” Luka said with awe as he stared up at the snow. “I thought a window was open.”
John flashed his dimples as he joined me on the floor. He looked up at the snow with a grin. “This is pretty with the fire.” He ruffled my curls, no doubt making them messy. “I like it. It creates a nice ambience.”
I pushed him off me and we tussled.
“I’m not a snow globe,” I sniffed haughtily but laughed as he shook the melting snow off his hair and got me wet.
“Um.” Malum cleared his throat awkwardly. “I think we should explain what happened in the forest.”
I grimaced. “I don’t think you should. I think it’s perfectly clear that you are serial killers—stay away from me.”
Orion’s eyes widened.
Scorpius snarled, “That’s not funny.”
I made a face. “Neither is PTSD, which I now have.”
“Are we already leaving them?” John stage-whispered. “Do we have somewhere to go? I kind of like it here.”
Luka sat down behind me and pulled me back, so I was tucked against his chest. I relaxed into his embrace.
The fire burned warmer, and the snow stopped falling from the ceiling.
“The bond sickness showed us your memories,” Malum blurted out. “Each time you had a nightmare about your mother at the camp, we were also experiencing it.”
I parted my lips and my pipe fell to the floor as I stared at the stone-faced kings.
I’d had a lot of nightmares.
“We created a list of the fae guards who helped hurt you.” Malum’s baritone voice shook with rage. “Every chance we had, we RJE’d to the fae realm and hunted them down. We would have done it even if we didn’t see your memories, they just showed us who to—spend the longest time on.”
Scorpius nodded and cracked his knuckles. “We gutted them all on pikes in the woods and made sure they bled out slowly and painfully.”
Silver eyes burned like molten steel. “I made a promise to you at Elite Academy—do you remember what I said?”
My tongue was heavy in my mouth. I thought he’d just been saying things. Only a crazy person would actually mean what he’d promised me.
“No,” I lied.
He looked smug. “Let me refresh your memory.”
Malum recited, “I don’t care that your mother’s dead. That is not enough. Whoever served her will burn by my hand. Whoever failed to help you will burn by my hand. Whoever was within a hundred-mile proximity to her when she did this will burn by my hand. I swear it on the honor of the House of Malum. You will be avenged.”
He smirked viciously. “Now do you remember?”
“Maybe,” I whispered.
Snow fell in larger flakes from the ceiling as I gaped at the predator I’d mated.
“Are you not avenged, Aran?” His voice was deadly, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
Scorpius and Orion smirked.
I stared back at the kings in silence.