“You have the fucking audacity to ask me aboutmymate when you are the one who plunged a blade into his heart?!” she screeched in my face, her fury-filled words rattling the throne room.
Shock took over me, eyes flaring wide at her declaration of Callius being her mate, but also that she believedIhad killed him—and so specifically.
“You killed my mate, and now claim to have one of your own. Well, little Elianna, I have now changed my mind. You will live through this day, just long enough to watch me rip your own mate’s heart from his chest with my bare fucking hands. And then you will die, but not before you know what it feels like to have the other half of your soul ripped from you.”
I thrashed against the hold the witch had on me while a smirk crept up her face. On the inside, I was flailing, scratching, clawing, and biting at anything I could to tear the bitch’s eyes out and watch her bleed out on the floor—but on the outside, my body remained perfectly still within her hold.
“Your father thought that your birth mother was his mate, but I knew better. I knew what that bond was like—what it smelled like. It’s what I had with Calliussince we were barely older than younglings. I had a duty to uphold for my family, and your father did as well…”
Her nostrils flared, eyes glazing over as if she had transported back to a distant memory.
“One of us held that bargain…and it was not the king.” Her breathing turned heavy as her focus returned. “I did everything I was told, Elianna,everything!Including making my mate suffer. He suffered every time I was forced to bed your father for an heir. And then he gets that stupid bitch healer pregnant before he did me, claiming that he loves her and you!”
I was screaming. Internally, I was screaming a raging battle cry at the top of my lungs, choking the life out of her as she spoke of my father and mother. However, every time I tried to lash out, Azenna sensed it against her magic and sent a shockwave of icy flames through me, rippling through my veins—but I still wouldn’t stop.
Idina chuckled wickedly. “Did I expect a few bastard children? Of course. Did I hope the male would occupy himself in the bed of another female?Obviously,” she hissed. “But not the first child. Not his heir. And certainly not one he loved.”
Idina released her hold on my cheeks, and my head fell to the floor once more, causing me to wince in pain as my entire skull ached.
“That’s why your mother had to disappear. And your father, well, he outlived our plans by decades. Plans change as years pass—they evolve into something greater. But do not worry, darling Elianna.” Her hand reached down andgently brushed over my cheek, as if it were from a loving mother’s touch. “You will be with your parents again soon.”
She stood tall and turned to Azenna. “Break her.”
An eruption of power slammed into me once more, making my body soar through the air and into the back wall of the throne room—and then all I knew was agony.
Chapter seventy-one
Jace
Lia was hurt.
I could feel it with every fiber of my being that she was suffering at the hands of our enemies, and there was nothing I could fucking do about it.
A guttural scream left me. Grunts escaped through desperate breaths with every heave of my blade as I plunged it through enemy soldiers.
I called out to her. Begged for her to answer me as I slammed my fists against her mental shield she placed so I couldn’t reach her, and all that managed to slip through was her sayingI love you.
I heard it for what it was—a goodbye.
I wouldn’t fucking accept that. Lia was wounded and terrified—likely alone, too, since Nox was here. I felt it. I felt fucking all of it, and I couldn’t bear it.
In that moment I decided I would get her my gods-damn self, and started pushing through the enemy’s army, aiming for the city’s gates.
My eyes lifted to the castle on the eastern side of Isla. They had my queen in there, and they weretorturingher. I would climb the city’s battlement with my bare fuckinghands if I had to—I would make it to her before it was too late. I didn’t care what it took, even if it was offering myself over in her place.
It was as if something else had taken over my body entirely—a beast that wouldn’t be satisfied until he had his mate in his grasp once more. My strikes into enemy soldiers were fueled by pure adrenaline and rage.
A male stepped in my path then. The look on his face made it known he didn’t plan for me to take a single step further. He certainly wasn’t expecting me to throw myself at him, sending my sword deep into his neck.
The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood as chaos raged on in every direction I turned. My eyes flashed to Gage, watching him cut down everyone in his path, but I hadn’t seen Zaela in only the gods knew how long, making me panic. I forced myself to push forward, aiming for the gates to get to Lia.
Suddenly, a scream sounded through the air. My gaze whipped in its direction from farther down the battlefield. I watched as my cousin tripped over a body and fell to the terrain, swiping her blade desperately as multiple males pursued her in an attack.
“Fuck. Zaela!” I screamed, hating that I had to turn away from my pursuit of Lia, knowing I could never live with myself if something happened to Zae because I didn’t turn back.
My scream caught the attention of Leon, who, thank the gods, was significantly closer to her. His eyes locked on his lover’s daughter, and he took off in a sprint in her direction.
Blood sprayed, and screams sounded, but I worked to get to my cousin, who continued to scoot back on the ground, unable to push to her feet as they relentlessly cornered her.
