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I shook my head, and my whole body seemed to twitch and tingle. The cool night air, and even colder atmosphere with the two men, had me shivering.
“Answer me!” I shouted, startling them both. “Tell me the truth. For once in my life, someone tell me what is actually going on.” I could only imagine how ridiculous I looked, shouting at the two men in only my thin, sleeveless nightgown, in the middle of this forsaken forest.
But I don’t care.My skin glowed the deepest shade of ruby I’d ever felt, and I lit up the entire area like a beacon of anger.
Maggie appeared at my side, her wet nose pressing into my palm to comfort me, but I pulled it away. I didn’t want to be comforted. I didn’t want to calm down. I wanted the truth. Though a twinge of guilt nipped at me when her sad, spiky form retreated into the tent, I didn’t reach for her.
I was close to shouting again when Uncle finally released a sigh.
“It isn’t as simple as that, Little One. There were other factors involved.”
I glanced up at Edrich to see the anger light up his eyes.
“She already heard you, Rumple. You may as well be honest now,” he added, and Uncle turned on him.
“Yes, what a clever game you’ve played, mercenary. If I believed you had the brains for it, I’d think you had set this up on purpose.” He spat the words with fury, his golden teeth shining behind a vicious sneer. “That you had betrayed your oath, and that I have no further need to honor my part.”
“I have done nothing but fulfill my oath to you. I have protected her. My family has protected her. We have spent our lives keeping her safe. And I never told her, as I swore I wouldn’t.Youjust did.” Edrich’s voice was steely calm. “Will you go back onyourword when we’ve done nothing but keep ours?”
While his words sounded angry, there was unfiltered fear in his eyes. Uncle’s lips turned up into a vile grin, but before he could respond, I found myself shouting instead.
“Enough!” I felt another twitch on either side of my spine, then warmth washing down my back. The spasms were threatening to return, but I ignored the pain.
I ignored everything but the horrible reality of my entire world turning upside down in the last few minutes. Uncle wasn’t who I thought he was, and anything Edrich or his family felt for me had been a complete lie in an effort to keep his father alive.
I couldn’t blame him for that. I couldn’t blame anyone for that, for wanting someone you love to live.But it still changes things.
“Enough,” I said again, more quietly.
A torrent of emotions ran through me, fast as lightning. My heart hammered within my breast, and I squeezed my eyes shut against it all. Against every word and memory.
“Lina.” Uncle’s voice was hesitant; the malice it held for Edrich was gone. “You need to calm down, Little One. You’re going to have another—”
“No! No more. No more pretending you know what’s best for me. No more blindly listening to you because you think you know better. No more sheltering me.No.”
Fury continued to boil out of me, winning over every other emotion.
“This whole time, I counted myself lucky to have such good friends—people who loved me in spite of our differences. But it’s all been a lie.”
“Lina—” This time it was Edrich’s voice, soft and gentle, and full of every imagined emotion I’d ever thought it held for me.
I shook my head and opened my eyes, glaring at him before he shut his mouth on whatever he was about to say.
“The man I look up to most in the world has a malice to him that I would’ve never imagined… ” I turned to Uncle.“How could you do this to him? How could you do this to his father? And to me? What kind of sick person has a cure for a dying man and blackmails them before providing it?”
He tried to reach out to me, but I moved away quickly.
“And you.” I said, looking up into Edrich’s eyes. “How could you think I would be okay with this arrangement? That I wouldn’t do everything in my power to talk Uncle into letting you out of the deal?”
Tears began to spill down my cheeks, but I didn’t care that it would make him uncomfortable. “My whole life has been easier because you were my friend—” My voice cracked. “But it was a lie. Every moment of it.”
I was inches away from his face at this point, trying to decipher the look of pure shock in his features.
“Lina… ” Edrich whispered my name with an odd sort of reverence, and my traitorous heart fluttered in response. “Lina, you’re flying.”
26
Edrich
