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“You’re really going to let her leave?” I ask incredulously. Dragus is thinking the same thing.

“She can’t leave, there is nothing out there. Everyone knows not to cross the borders.”

“So, you told her what’s out there then?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest. His head snaps toward me and I knew he hadn’t. No one knows except the Lycans and us.

“She knows it’s not safe,” he says, sitting down on the ground, placing his arms on his knees. I nod well, that’s one thing I suppose. Elora won’t risk the Fae, not when she only just found them.

“So, what’s next then, this is your plan?” I ask.

“We show them who has control, we don’t need another rebellion from them. Either Fae falls in line or we get rid of them,” he states. This shit again, this grudge against the Fae needs to end.

“Elora won’t allow that; she won’t bow down to you again Silas, why can’t you see that?” Dragus says.

“She won’t have a choice; she belongs to us. This is our kingdom, our home. She will see it as a good thing, the bond will make sure of it,” he says. I am done. He honestly believes she will stand idly by and allow him to control her, control everything.

Unable to handle any more of his nonsense, I decide to leave. I won’t lose my mate again; won’t lose her over a hundred-year-old grudge he can’t seem to drop.

I walk to our bedroom when I hear something that makes me stop. It’s Elora sobbing quietly. I hesitate, wondering if she hates us now because of him. Taking a deep breath, I enter to find her rummaging in the dresser for some clothes after hers were torn from her wings.

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know Matitus,” she says, a sharpness in her voice. I want to go to her, but I know she’s mad, hurt by what happened with Silas. I watch as she strips what’s left of her clothes off and gasp at what I see. She is simply magnificent. Her gorgeous skin is etched with the markings of the Fae. Elora looks down when she notices my stare, and I feel her shock hit me. The violet markings spread from her temple down her cheek and across one entire side of her body. The markings of her magic, our mate markings but there was more. I know the more markings a Fae has, mean the more powerful they are, but this was something else. These weren’t just Fae markings but the markings I had only seen in books. Dragon books never on Fae.

Something changed when she came back or was reborn as Claire had said. Running down her side were violet swirls, swirls I realized were mine and Dragus markings spreading across her ribs to the side of her stomach, they were mesmerising, and I never liked tattoo’s, especially on woman but on her, they were beautiful like a part of her, they enhanced her beauty, and I am in awe of her.

“I wonder what they mean?” she asks softly tracing her fingers down her side of the blossoms and flames.

“May I,” I ask, and she looks up at me. Her eyebrows furrow slightly before she nods. Kneeling in front of her, I trace my fingers over the new markings, they glow under my touch, reacting to me. I knew it. These are our markings, she has been blessed with our magic, when we pledged our loyalty to her, it sealed us to her, giving her a piece of us, though I could tell it wasn’t complete because of the way it suddenly cut off. She is missing one piece. That piece is Silas.

“It’s our magic,” I tell her, looking up at her. She stares back down not understanding.

“When we stood before you, pledging ourselves to you, it gave you a part of us,” I tell her.

“But I am Fae, not Dragon?” she says, slightly confused.

“It doesn’t matter, you’re our mate, we are part of you and you us,” I tell her.

“So, you sacrificed a piece of your magic and gave it to me?” she asks. Her words hit me like a ton of bricks and I remember Dragus’s words earlier, what he said to Silas. It finally makes sense.

I know he is right. It was never Elora who had to make the sacrifice, it was us. Only we could break the curse. We had to surrender to her, give ourselves wholly to her. Yet I know the curse would never be broken because I know Silas will never surrender to a Fae, even if she is our mate. Even if it meant breaking the curse.

I laugh at my newfound knowledge, Blaire was cunning, she knew he would never submit to the Fae; therefore, the curse would never be broken. She knew he would kill them off, yet she must have misunderstood the Fae’s ability to survive, or she knew they would, but his stubbornness would see to the curse never being broken.

Blaire knew, no matter what, Silas would be his own downfall, the ultimate revenge. We could have broken the curse all along, we just didn’t see it.

“What’s so funny?” she asks, staring down at me. I kiss her hip and she shivers. I love how reactive she is to us, love how her body reacts even when she doesn’t want to.

“Nothing little one, nothing you need to worry about.”