Page 47 of Secrets of Ruin

She was going to throw up; everything dead and broken inside her was going to come out, and it was going to happen soon. With a hand against her mouth, she tried to hold back the tidal wave of broken things, but they burned their way up her throat and erupted before she made it halfway to the can.

Sahira and Lexi gasped as black bile coated the floor. Unable to remain standing, Kaylia dropped to her knees as she threw up again.

The black toxin erupting from her not only coated her lips but became a part of them as it tattooed its foul, bitter taste onto her. It was so vile it only made her gag and vomit more.

“Kaylia!” Sahira cried.

When arms embraced her, she quaked within her friend’s hold as more vile stuff spewed from her. Her vision blurred, her head spun, and for a second, she feared she’d pass out, but she didn’t get the chance before vomiting more.

“What’s going on in here?”

“Get out!” Lexi commanded.

Kaylia had no idea who had opened the door, but when Lexi yelled at them to leave, the door clicked shut again. A dragon roared outside, and the fire crackled while her heaving breaths came out as strange wheezes.

With the next purge of black goo, the truth hit her. It wasn’t her insides coming out; it was poison.

It was the poison Fabian had given to her with the food they shared and the drinks he made. It was the poison that had rotted her insides for centuries and turned her into someone who loved him deeply… except that love was never real.

He’d poisoned her slowly to make her growing love for him more believable. When, after a few months of growing closer to him, she’d decided she was in love with him, her change of heart was plausible to her and the friends who’d watched it happen.

They’d all known how she felt about him at first—he was nice but not her type, and despite being very handsome, she wasn’t attracted to him. When she started telling them how she and Fabian spent more time together and enjoyed laughing, talking, and sharing stories, they believed things were naturally changing between them… just like her.

Some of the best relationships were those built on friendship first, where the unexpected bloomed into something vibrant. It was all so miraculous to her at the time; she’d discovered a love that would last for eternity.

And it was all based on poison and lies.

So many lies were coming out of her as she threw up again and again. There was so much wrong that could never be fixed.

Those friends who had stood by her side throughout everything with Fabian were gone. She pushed them all away when she retreated to the crone realm, and none of them still lived.

It had taken many years of coming to terms with her grief over a lost love before she started to regret the loss of those friendships. By then, it was too late.

Not only had Fabian used, twisted, and made her into someone she wasn’t meant to be, but he’d also stolen years of her life from her. She’d wasted centuries grieving him in the crone realm.

Anger, hatred, and sorrow became her constant companions. She’d literally thrown Brokk and Sahira out of her home on their first encounter.

Like all witches back then, she’d hated vampires, but she hadn’t loathed them with the same intensity she did after Fabian’s death. After he died, she’d considered burning the realms to kill every last one of them. She’d yearned to destroy everything… including herself.

Kaylia had believed a part of herself died with Fabian, but that wasn’t true. A part of her died because of him.

None of what she’d believed to be the truth was. It was all a sick game by a manipulative piece of shit who’d reveled in his control over her.

All the time she’d spent fighting her attraction to Brokk in Doomed Valley was more lies. Guilt had eaten at her and made her hate herself… and all of it was also based on a lie.

All. Of. It.

He’d used her.

An awful wailing sob tore from her; she clawed at her chest as sorrow and betrayal battered her heart. Unable to make it stop, she grasped at her throat to cut off the noise, but it wouldn’t cease once it started.

Even back then, she’d been one of the most powerful witches to walk the realms… and a fool. Fabian was stronger, and he’d used that to his advantage.

She should have seen it coming and sensed something wrong, but she’d been too blinded by her growing love for Fabian to question any of it. She’d been lost to the joy that became a part of her life after he entered it.

Lexi and Sahira hugged her as they whispered words of solace. Their presence didn’t eradicate her misery, but they warmed the chill encasing her heart as their love helped ease her grief.

“What the fuck is going on?”