I clutch my chest, her pain piercing my very soul and sending me to my knees.
Because somehow I’m on the floor.
There are hands on me. Hands I don’t know. Hands that don’t belong to me.
Mates,some part of me recognizes.
But that term sends a shock through me.
It’s Klas trying to drag me to the grave… to own me… destroy my soul… torture me for eternity.
“Fallon!” a male snaps, the tone laced with impatience and igniting a scream from my throat.
I don’t want to talk tohim, the one who constantly questions me.
Fuck, I’m confused. Lost. Whirling in a sea of present and past, all while Issy shrieks in my head.
Only to go eerily quiet.
Too quiet.
As though her voice has been snuffed out…by magic.
What are they doing to you?I demand.
Punishing her for your sins,Issy replies, her voice dull in my head and very unlike her.
It reminds me of when she issued the edict on the patriarchs’ behalf. It’s emotionless. And not her at all.
“Stop,” I beg. “Stop hurting her!”
You betrayed us all, Fallon Doyle. That cannot go unpunished.
I did nothing wrong,I tell them, trying desperately to focus on my mental voice and not my physical one.It’s not my fault the spell rebounded and tied me to four new mates!
Silence meets my proclamation, so I try again, worried that I spoke the words aloud and not via my link to Issy.
It’s all such a mess, a maze of perpetual confusion.
No one and nothing should be able to touch this mental link. It’s sacred, existing between me and my twin alone.
“What are they doing to you, Issy?” I whisper, tears running down my face. “How are they doing this?”
I feel broken.
Betrayed.
Breached.
This shouldn’t be happening. Issy shouldn’t be hurting on my behalf. I’m supposed to protect her. Save her.Freeher.
To whom have you mated, Fallon Doyle?Issy asks in that deadpan voice.
You already know,I say back to her.You…I frown.You’re notyou.
Who?she demands, her voice uncharacteristically loud.
I cover my face with my hands, the names spilling through my mind on impulse.Bane. Nox. Nolan. Kaspian.
