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The Beast drops the mask from his eyes, revealing irises I could never forget. Irises that once held so much love and joy and passion…for me.
I inhale sharply and step back, throwing my sword to the floor and staring at a face resembling some of my own. Tears pool in my eyes. Grief and terror andabsolute fucking furythunder within me. I turn back to Cristen, to demand answers I know he must have, but he’s gone.He left me. Again.
I bite my tongue and ignore the broken, mangled object in my chest that perhaps once, long ago, was a heart. My body shakes, and a low sob rakes through me. I cut it off, swallow it down.
The Beast steps closer. He reaches out and catches one of my falling tears. He frowns at it. “Zora.”
I tear my gaze from Gretta’s dull, gray form and stare at the man before me. The void inside my skull doesn’t feel like a void when I look at him. It feels like a whole, complete darkness. A cancerous mass. The kind that can’t be stopped. “Xavier,” I breathe, the name rough with sorrow against my tongue.
“What if I told you your cage was a palace, little sister?” he asks softly.
“You killed my friend, made the man I —” I shake the wordloveaway. I glare at my brother, at Xavier, atThe Beast. I wanted to find him for so, so long. Here he is.Here he’s been. Near me. All this time.Anger flares. “What have you done?” I grit out.
Xavier Vyner tucks my hair behind my ear, the touch light and endearing. It does not match the hardened, cold face across from mine, but I can also feel his grief, his longing. His eyes flash with pain, but he offers me a small, sad smile. “I’ve shaped you,” he says, his voice thick with finality. He brings his hand down from my hair and takes my chin between his fingers, forcing me to stand taller, prouder. “I’ve shaped you into the Queen I need you to be to save us all.”
My pulse stutters as magic locks around my body. “Where will you take me?”
Xavier steps back, and his lips pull into a satisfied smirk. “Home.”
