Page 84 of Ignite the Infernos

“He was betraying us,” he hisses. “King Tenebrae was betraying the dragons, and he got everything he deserved in the end because of it.”

I go still, every muscle I possess drawing tight, at his accusation. He notices, and a satisfied glimmer alights in his hateful gaze. A smirk slips across his face, and I want to rip it off.

“Got your attention now, don’t I,” he mumbles, his bloodshot eyes wandering around the room, like he suddenly doesn’t remember where he is.

“And what was this great betrayal my father was guilty of?” I taunt, shooing away my unease.

The general’s attention shoots back to me. He tries to get out of the bed, forgetting that he’s been strapped down. The second he realizes as much, he absolutely loses it.

“You have to die; all Tenebraes must die! Listen to me,” he bellows up at the ceiling as though the clouds and the blue sky might help him. “King Tenebrae was betraying The Horde. He made an agreement to open the Fae Gate. I have proof. I have proof,” he wails as the nurses move in to try and calm him. “We all would have died. He wouldn’t listen—he was going to kill us all!”

“You fucking liar,” I snarl, bypassing a nurse to get in his face. “My father would never betray his people. Tell the fucking truth, you coward!” I bellow.

“Zariell, he was working with Zariell,” he screams, and all at once it feels as though the floor has been ripped out from under me.

Fairwyn’s grin is triumphant and he writhes and snarls as the healers try to settle him. “She knows. She knows!” he screeches, and everything inside of me goes numb.

How the fuck does he know that name?

A healer squeezes between me and Fairwyn, pushing me back so she can inject him with something as he howls like a mad man.

“Check my files! It’s all in there. The password is justice,” he roars and then starts to laugh hysterically.

I shake off my shock, and round on the general, ready to bash his face in so no more lies can leave his lips. Someone wraps their arms around me from behind, and I’m pulled away before I can so much as make him bleed even a little.

The general laughs and laughs and then he glares at me. “You should have died with the others. Your father was a traitor and I would help rip him limb from limb again. Death to all Tenebraes! Don’t let her open the Fae Gate! They’ll kill us all!”

I’m torn out of the cell, despite my efforts to get to Fairwyn. All I can see is red. All I can taste is the vengeance I deserve. I scream and fight to get back into the cell, to wring the lying bastard’s neck until he tells the truth. But Aeson refuses to let me go.

Cool air suddenly assaults me, and I look around to find a grassy clearing that looks oddly familiar, but I can’t place it. The red walls of Thrasher Keep dwarf the crisp lawn, and I shove away from my mate and look out over Paragon City as I try to collect myself.

My mind is a chaotic mess I don’t even know where to begin to unravel. How does that monster know my mother’s name? Why would he accuse my father of trying to open the Fae Gate? It makes no fucking sense.

I spin and find Aeson and both our Wings watching me. His face is filled with worry, and it makes me want to scream and shake the look off his face.

“Don’t you do that,” I snap, shoving my hands into my hair and tugging my roots, hard.

“Do what?” he asks innocently, but the apprehension radiating off of him feels like spiders crawling across my skin.

I need to fly, I need to get as far away from here as I can, because it can’t be true. My father would never. It makes no sense. And yet, how does Fairwyn know my mother’s name?

“What?” I snap at everyone. “He’s lying. You know that,” I yell, my gaze hopping from Karis to Farrow, to Vesper and then Bryndol. “He’s lying!” I defend, when none of the Thrashers agree with me.

Silence stretches between us, and the resigned look on each of their faces feels like a blow I’ll never come back from.

“You can smell it,” I remind them as though each one has forgotten how their affinity works.

“I didn’t pick up on any deception,” Farrow hesitantly volunteers, and I growl at him, seething.

“He was lying,” I shout, because how . . . how could this be the truth?

Farrow’s eyes fill with sympathy, but he doesn’t say anything more. I look to Karis, then Vesper, my eyes pleading for one of them to agree with me. But they don’t.

Bryndol steps forward, her blonde hair blowing in the breeze, and her dark-gray scale armor reminding me of my father’s. “He wasn’t lying,” she tells me softly, and those three words bring the world down on top of me.

Devastation stalls my lungs. Horror overcomes my denial. My knees hit the frost-covered ground hard, and once again the world shifts on its axis and I can no longer tell up from down.

“This doesn’t make sense,” I whisper to Aeson as he kneels in front of me.