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Her shaky hands clasped onto his cheeks as if she were willing him to look at her. Toseeher. “I went to the lake as I did every morning. Pax knew my routine—we’d met there secretly countless times.” Tears filled her eyes. “He wanted to get rid of the child. I told him that I expected nothing from him, that I would never tell who the father was, but that wasn’t good enough for him.” Rush’s heart thundered in his chest as she continued, “Pax dragged me into the lake after shoving a liquid down my throat that prevented my dragon from coming out. He put his hands around my throat to hold me under the water until I died.”
Rush felt the blood drain from his face and his dragon stirred inside him, rage clawing at his flesh. “You’re telling me the prince murdered you, and I’ve let him live these past two years?”
“Yes.” She stepped out of his grip and peered down at Aura. “But that’s not the point! You can’t use this woman to bring me back. I’mdead, Rush. I’ve been dead for a long time now. And you’re saying the reason I’m trapped here, reliving it over and over, is because you think I want to wake up and fulfill some sort of revenge plan you conjured up?”
Each breath heaved from his lungs. Pax killed his sister.Murdered her.Strangled her. Drowned her. Stole away his only remaining family because… Because his sister carried a Starnight heir.The fucking prince deserved everything he had coming to him.Everything.
When he didn’t say anything, Sorcha’s bottom lip trembled. “I don’t care what you do as long as you break the spell. Let Aura go. Letmego.”
He backed away from Sorcha, his gaze flicking between the two women. It was never Aura’s fault, even if he’d blamed her like the prick he was. And all this time, Aura and Sorcha were meeting while she dreamt. Soon, Aura wouldn’t wake but Sorchawould. How could he deny his sister her life? A second chance? Sorcha deserved to avenge herself against Pax more than ever.
“He needs to pay for what he’s done,” he whispered.
“So make him pay.” She advanced, her arms outstretched as if to cling to him, beg him, but Rush backed away from her. “Let the truth be known. Destroy him. Let your dragon burn the entire Starnight palace for all I care, but don’t let Aura pay the price for it. One tragedy is enough, Rush. You’re better than this.”
Nerves tingling, hands quaking in anger, thoughts swimming with indecision, Rush shook his head. Hewasn’tbetter than this. Since Sorcha died, he’d done everything in his power to bring her back. Killed. Imprisoned. Cursed. And he wasn’t sorry.
Or was he?
“I’m not.” Rush moved forward, folding his arm around his sister and kissing her forehead. He couldn’t stand under her scrutiny a moment longer, not after hearing the truth. “I love you.”
“I love you too, brother, but—”
He held her tightly, not wanting her to disappear. Looking down at Aura over his sister’s head, his heart clenched.Fuck!He had to leave now before he thought too much on it.
The next moment, Rush woke himself, lurching up in his own bed. Pulse thundering, his eyes darted wildly around the room. He glanced down at Aura who still slept peacefully beside him. The sorceress had told him how to end this, how to break the curse.Break the spindle on the spinning wheel, the bitch had wrote. He was surprised he’d gotten that out of her though. But if he figured out a way to touch it, could he let his sister disappear forever? And if he didn’t try, could he let Aura be forever trapped in a hellish nightmare?
At the moment, there was something else important to deal with. Rush leapt from the bed and tore open his door to find Astor standing across the hall. The hawk shifter took one look at the king’s face and stiffened.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Rush’s upper lip twisted into a sneer. “I’m going to tear that bastard apart.”
Astor lowered his brow in confusion. “Who?”
“Pax!” he seethed. “He needs to come here—to Moonstone.Now. Send him an invitation for a peace talk in our old meeting spot.”
“Peacetalk?”
Rush bared his teeth. “Slaughtering him will bring me peace.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Aura
“You need to wake up,” a soft feminine voice pleaded. “Wake up and save my brother. I know you read my journal. Rush told me while he was here in your dream. You now know what I did, and I’m sorry. So very sorry. I can’t have a life, Aura. Not anymore. I want to pass on, and I want you to live yours.”
Aura tried to wake yet couldn’t. She wanted to see outside of this darkness, ask Sorcha so many things, but then a sharp prick struck her finger. When Aura could finally open her eyes, an obsidian canopy rested above her. No longer was she inside of a dream or lingering in a horrific room down in the cellar, but laying on Rush’s bed.
Shouting from the hallway reverberated through the walls, andeverythingcame back to her.
The body.Sorcha’sbody resting like a pristine doll in a beautiful bed…
Sorcha had spoken to her, mentioning Rush had come to the dream, yet Aura didn’t remember any of it, couldn’t remember him there, only darkness before his sister had spoken to her. She clutched the side of her head as she threw off the blankets, thinking that, perhaps, she’d heard voices around her but no clear words.
She was going to find out precisely what sort of sick game Rush was playing with her and his sister. Heart pounding, she clenched her fists and stormed out into the hallway.
Two sets of eyes turned to her. Rush’s jaw was hard, his gaze blazing with fury while Astor seemed to hold pity, guilt. No guards stood in the corridor as if they’d all been sent away.
