“That’s it!” Jace boomed as he moved to charge toward her.
A scream of wrath tore through my throat as I surged toward her in unison, but the moment I thought we would collide, I was met with nothing but air. My body slammed into the floorboards where she had stood only a moment before as the vanishing shadows swirled.
“You made your choice, Elianna. Now, you must live with it.” Idina’s voice echoed through the room as if coming from every direction.
And then she was gone.
“Lia!” Jace bellowed as fell to his knees at my side. His arms wrapped around me as he heaved me to sit upright beside him.
“Why did you make me stay down, Lia?Why?! She was eyeing you like prey. I was bursting at the fucking seams. Please don’t ever demand something like that of me again.Ever. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
His eyes roamed over my body, pure worry radiating from him.
“I didn’t know if she would harm you, and I wasn’t willing to risk it. Especially with the sorcery that had brought her here.” The words were barely audible as I tried to gather my thoughts.
My rage-hazed, unseeing eyes darted back and forth, refusing to land on any one thing as my entire body remained tense. I wanted to crawl out of my skin, feeling more violated than I ever had before.
I had endured chains, whips, and the hands of unwanted males on my body—but none of that had felt likethis.
His eyes softened, and he bowed his head. “Gods, I’m so sorry. I was just terrified. Why the hellcouldn’t I see her too?! I could only see her through your eyes. It wasn’t as if I was a bystander, but exactly where you stood beneath her stare. I saw it all…feltit all. Lia…” His tone teetered in desperation.
My lips parted as I worked to put my thoughts into words. “She killed my mother,” I whispered.
“I know.” His tone was more gentle than I had ever heard.
“Idinamurderedmy mother the day I was born…and she allowed everyone to believe thatIhad killed her from the birth. She lied to my father and told him that it was a birthing complication—that she bled out on the bed as she lay there alone.” My voice rose with each word as tears of rage streamed down my cheeks.
“My Lia,” he breathed. “Your father knows that it wasn’t your fault.” His thumbs worked to swipe the tears as they slipped.
“I’m going to fucking destroy her.”
He nodded. “Yes, you will. And I will be right there with you as you set her world ablaze and watch it burn.”
My gaze lifted to his—the golden flecks in his eyes illuminated as dawn filtered through the curtains. “We move our armiesnow.”
Chapter fifty-one
Elianna
I burst through thefront door of Jace’s old home after putting my wedding dress back on, the only item of clothing I had since our surprise stay in the cottage, and stormed up the hill that led up to the estate’s back door. Jace remained right on my tail as we passed Nox, whose golden gaze was locked on us while we ran past him.
With each step, I internally worked on the speech on how to convince my court that we needed to move our army sooner than anticipated. Not only that, but Idina’s possession of the witches’ dark magic had now been more than confirmed.
I stormed through the back door to find Zaela standing in the kitchen, looking every bit of hungover from the night prior.
“Is everything okay?” she asked as her eyes flared.
“No. We need the others,” I stated as I stalked through the kitchen, aiming for the living area.
“You look like shit,” Jace said to his cousin.
I peered over my shoulder in time to watch as she flipped him off in response. Normally, I would’ve laughed, but there was no room for that in our current situation.
“Family meeting!” I bellowed.
When no one answered, I stormed up the stairs and down the long hallway that held all the bedrooms, banging on each door I passed.
“Everybody up, now! Family meeting in the living room in five minutes.”
