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His hands lock on the side of my face. But I don't fight him, knowing exactly what he’ll find. I know what I fear, and I have already faced my fears head-on. He forces the cast to latch onto me. Only when it does what I fear reflects back at him. He staggers back when what he sees is his own reflection.
The night he killed my parents is the first thing he sees. What I fear, what I have always feared is him. The cast warps, and we are suddenly back in the basement where he broke my hand and leg, yet I don't scream when it snaps it this time. I keep my head, reminding myself it isn't real. However, Darius is not expecting to star in my biggest fears, his magic drops, and he takes a step back from me.
“What is it, Darius? I face my fear daily. Not as weak as you thought, huh? Because I'm still fucking standing!” I yell at him. He blinks at me in shock, which soon turns to rage when he grabs me again.
“Let’s see how much bravado you have without magic then,” he snarls, stealing my magic so quickly I stagger back, sucking in air and gasping for breath and clutching my chest. He steals every drop, leaving me with nothing, leaving me hollow as he siphons me.
“Darius!” Lycus growls, rushing toward us, but he freezes when Darius turns his glare on him.
“Give her power back to her, and she will be back in the fucking cells where she belongs,” he yells at our mates before turning his attention back to me.
“If you think you can push me and win, Aleera? You can't. You're smart to fear me. I am the monster you portray me to be, and pull that shit again against me, and you will relive your biggest fears,” he snarls at me, he then turns on his heel and walks out.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Darius Wraith
My anger gets the better of me. I stole her magic, something I didn't think I would do again. I didn't want her powerless, yet I couldn't have her digging around in my head. My anger will also be how I lose them if I am not careful.
Instantly, I regret it as I walk out of the classroom. The betrayal I feel from her takes my breath away. My mate's burning anger scorches me through the bond. However, Tobias' energy is curious as it washes through me, and I know he will be following me. Opening a portal in front of me, I step through it before he can follow me. I let the suction of it zap me into new surroundings.
It’s cold down here. Far below the ground and directly beneath the castle are the bunkers. When my mother and sister lived down here, I swear it felt warmer. Now it felt as cold as the nagging at my soul. As cold as the nagging guilt that plagues me. No one knew this place was here except my father when he was alive and the two guards that kept watch in the cells, and of course, my mates.
Aleera is utterly unaware that she sat in the cell that was the only entrance into this place besides portaling. However, only those with my blood could portal into this place. The blood encryption that protected the place kept everyone out.
Walking around and across the bunker, I sit on my sister's old bed. It was only a single, and she had drawn a fake window on the wall. I remember that day so clearly. She was so excited when I brought the paint down to her and snuck them in against Dad's orders. Molly loved painting, and she missed being able to play outside, missed playing hide and seek. So when I could, I would sneak things down here for her.
The beating I copped for that was worth it just to see her face light up as she painted what she envisioned outside to look like. My father was a good father mostly, he loved my sister and losing her changed him, he was always less tolerant with me, but I wouldn’t say he was the worst father, Lycus and Tobias’ fathers were cruel, beyond cruel. My father had his reason for doing what he did to me, it may not have been right, but I understood it. So losing Molly, the very person he was trying to save made him into a monster. My idiocy took her from them, and he lost it.
If there was a closet full of skeletons, this place held mine, the bones and blood spilled by these hands, the souls destroyed and lives lost, this is where they are stored as a reminder of the kind of monster I truly am. An entire species of fae had been eradicated because of me.
No one had more blood on their hands as I did. No one can say they have killed more people than the Dominic-Fae King. Was this my karma? A punishment for my past? Now I risked losing them all, the only four people I care about, and they would leave when they figured out what I had done.
So many secrets, and now they were unraveling around me. I tried to make it up to her and apologize. But Mom never looked at me the same after that day. She never uttered a word to Dad or anyone again. She slipped into herself and became a shell. Her life force was gone, and she was an empty vessel of my mother. I did that to her, and she took it to the grave rather than risk losing another of her children.
Waving my hand in the air, I let my magic fizzle through my fingertips, casting the memory like a projection, and I watch it repeatedly, wondering how I forgot, looking at any little detail I may have forgotten or overlooked. Though, there was no denying it was my fault.
The familiar echo of her laughter as she skipped around the vast bunker filled the air. She was so small, pale from not being in the sun, but full of life even though forced to live down here in the dark.
“Darius, Darius, look at me,” Molly squealed as I stepped into the bunker.
She did a cartwheel before running over to me. I clapped, watching her do another before she slammed into me, wrapping her tiny arms around my waist until I scooped her up.
I had just gotten home from school and couldn't wait to show mom the grade I got that day on my test. I ran straight down here. I always brought my homework down in the afternoon, and Mom would help, and I wanted to show her that despite her being underground, I was still doing ok.
She hated being apart from us, but none of us could bear the thought of leaving my sister down here on her own after the second wave hit. My father couldn't stay with her. He was too busy trying to find a cure.
Setting her down on the ground, I placed my bag on the coffee table and rummaged through it. Mom was making afternoon tea at the industrial-style countertop and cutting sandwiches into the little hats, as my sister would call them.
“Mommy, mommy, can I have a drink?” Molly asks, and my mother looked over at her and smiled warmly, a smile I never saw again after that day. My mother flicks her long raven black hair over her shoulder and watches her for a second.
“In a minute, sweetie, Darius is showing me something,” my mother told her, and she stuck her tongue out at me. I stuck mine back out at her, and she rushed off. My mother stopped what she was doing when I stopped beside her and handed her my paper. She beamed happily and gave me praise, hugging and squeezing me tight, telling me how proud she is. Something Dad never did since Mom became trapped down here. Her floral perfume wrapping around me always calmed me, and it did that day as I hugged her back.
"That's great, honey," she said, giving me a hug and kissing my head when we heard Molly cough. That one sound made time stand still. The room fell silent, and it felt like time had stopped along with my heart as my mother let me go. My mother glanced over her shoulder and I would never forget the way her eyes widened, how I watched the blood drain from her face as she turned, pure panic, grief, knowing, in that split second I watched many emotions flit across my mother’s face.
We turned from the counter to look at Molly. The scream that left my mother was loud, visceral, and pure guttural torment. That noise my mother made would forever haunt me. The sound of Molly's voice and the look on her face haunted my nightmares for years until I marked Kalen.
The blood drained right out of me when I looked at Molly. My drink bottle fell from her hands as she coughed, blood sputtering out of her lips. The plague worked like acid, eating away at them so quickly no one stood a chance. No help was ever fast enough. Her butterfly T-shirt is painted with her blood and she stumbles her scared purple eyes going to my mother in a panic.
