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Marius and Derrick both grumbled, their feathers ruffling.
I gave my sister a challenging look. “Then why didn’t you?”
She hung her head, her arms trembling as she rested her palms on the table. “Because I love you.”
“How dare you speak to me of love! How! Dare! You!” I screamed, throwing my goblet at her head as rage poured through my veins. Oh, how I wished I’d been born with Malvolia’s power. I would’ve turned her to ash on the spot.
She ducked, clasping her hands in a prayer pose while her eyes filled with black ink. “I do, Flora.” The ink spilled over her eyes, streaking her face. “I’ve never stopped loving you.”
“Liar!” I backed away from her as Derrick tugged on my hand. “You sent three fire mages to kill us!” The lying bitch!
“My spymaster sent them.” Her voice broke and splintered. “And only because Derrick and Tarianya exposed themselves.” She flashed a watery smile. “And it all worked out, for Shirina found her fated mates.”
The bitch. Did she think this was all a joke? “You have no idea how we suffered, how many nights Derrick and I went without so that our children could have whatever scraps we could find.”
“Flora,” Marius warned, trying to pull me back as black smoke poured out of Malvolia’s fingers.
I shook him off me and clenched my fists until nails broke skin. “How our children lived in fear that their evil aunt would find them and kill them.” I motioned to Marius, my voice tightening with emotion as tears threatened at the backs of my eyes. “And Shiri told me Marius was blind when she found him, living in his own filth without so much as a window in his cell. You didn’t spare us! You prolonged our torture!”
She placed a hand across her chest, cradling the hollow cavity beneath. “You think I didn’t suffer having lost my twin and my best friend?”
“Oh, you poor queen,” I taunted, “suffering all alone in her palace with her servants and sycophants and long line of lovers.” I waved at the courtiers who were gaping at us as if we were the strange ones. “We will take our supper in our rooms. My mates and I will no longer be attending your circus of a court,” I spoke through clenched teeth while glowering at the table of painted faces. “We will stay long enough to help you defeat the demons, and then the dukes and I are returning to Elisi.”
Malvolia twisted her hands together. “I gave Elisi to a distant cousin.”
“Then take it back!” I roared, punching the air. “That estate has belonged to my mates’ family for centuries. Living out our lives at Elisi was all we ever wanted.” My voice broke, and I hunched over, clutching my chest when pain radiated from my tattered heart. Then I looked at her through hooded eyes, the burning ire of a thousand flaming dragons pulsing through my veins. “Not your throne, not your castle, and certainly not your ridiculous court!”
Malvolia bowed her head, more ink spilling down her face. “Yes, sister.”
I motioned to my mates and grabbed their hands. Then we exited the dining room without sparing my sister another glance.
Tari
The Human Lands
Six months earlier
EYEING MY FATHER THORIN through sideways slits, I sat beside him, trying not to breathe in the sour stench of the ale fumes coming from his mouth. Swearing under my breath, I ducked beneath a tree branch as our old mule pulled us down the dirt path through the dense forest while we bounced around on our rickety cart with the one uneven wheel. The wheel wasn’t just smaller than the rest, but wobbly as well. Each time we visited a new town, father promised he’d pay a wainwright to repair the wheel, but then he’d spend most of my hard-earned money at the pubs and brothels instead, leaving very little left over for us to find food and lodging. How I loathed this mundane life, and how I resented my father for forcing me to brew healing elixirs, all so I could pay for his booze and whores.
Heaving a sigh, I clutched my bag to my chest, absently stroking Demon’s soft, black ears, when the thick tree branches overhead gave way to a piercing light as the forest abruptly ended.
I gasped as I scanned the graveyard of tree stumps as far as the eye could see, rolling up one hill and dipping behind another. What had happened here?
I turned to my father as he held loosely to the reins while stroking his bushy, gray beard. “Where are all the trees, Father?”
His eyes held no emotion as he scanned the devastation. “The demons used them to build their fleet.”
“Demons?” I clutched my throat. “Fleet?”
He shrugged a bony shoulder. “Warships to invade the Fae lands.”
I stared at him in shock, waiting for him to break into a smile and tell me he was joking. When he simply stared straight ahead at our mule’s flickering tail, a glazed look in his eyes, I realized this was no joke. “Do the Fae know this?”
He laughed, a low, dark chuckle that set my nerves on edge. “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
And then we descended the next hill, the tree stumps giving way to burned grass, and the grass leading to a town that was clearly devoid of people with hollowed-out shells that were once modest huts and buildings with burned eaves and skeletal frames. I wrinkled my nose at a strange stench like fermented eggs that permeated the air. “What happened here?”
He crooked a smile that didn’t reach the cold, serpentine gleam in his eyes. “My mistress happened.”
