AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Because of who I am. You’re The Divine, Arianna. You’re meant to do so many things and I—”
“Don’t talk like that.”
“I’m cursed,” he finished. “I have more blood on my hands than your father’s entire force put together. I’ve done things that would make you sick. That would make the strongest Fae run in the opposite direction.”
Arianna pressed the whisper of a kiss against his neck, and he shuttered. “I don’t care.” She pressed another along his jaw. “I don’t care what you’ve done.” She nipped his ear. “I don’t care who you were.” Her lips grazed his mouth, dragging a moan from him. “I only want who you are now.”
He pulled back from her then. “Just like that? Without me having to confess my sins?”
Arianna let out a low growl. “You’re mine and there is nothing you could ever say that would change that.”
Rion rolled off her entirely and turned to face the fire, those damned chains still rattling. The blanket pooled at his waist, revealing his muscled lower back. “I want you to know. I want you to know the whole story so that you’re never surprised.”
“You want to make me run.” Arianna moved to sit beside him and rested her head against his shoulder.
He leaned into her. “I don’t want you to, but I don’t want you learning about my past and then looking at me like the monster I am. I don’t want the bond to settle and then face your regret.”
Arianna sighed, fed the fire, then returned to the blankets. She never stopped pouring her magic into him, probably wouldn’t until she was beyond certain he wouldn’t die. Because the thought of living without him hurt too much.
“I wasn’t born with my magic. No one usually is, so I lived the first ten years of my life like a normal young lord. I attended parties, festivals, went to school, drove my parents crazy.
“I watched my friends awaken their magic one by one. Most around five years old. A few a year or so later. I saw the way their parent’s eyes lit up and naturally, I wanted the same thing. To have my father tell me he was proud of me. To watch my mother celebrate by hosting one of her many balls.
“But as the years went by, my power didn’t surface and my father grew distant. Then my mother disappeared.
“It was my sister, Saoirse, who took over raising me. It might sound crazy, but the kids would often tease me back then, claiming I’d be magicless like the half-breeds so when those first particles of earth appeared, I didn’t question the fact that it was different from everyone else’s.”
Rion shook his head. “My father’s eyes didn’t light up. They turned cold, glaring at me as if I’d done something terrible. He struck out at me. Cut my face and arms. Saoirse pleaded with him, begging for my life. I was young, so I didn’t understand what was happening. I wonder now if my father missed on purpose. That maybe he had an inkling of love for his Demon child and just couldn’t stomach killing him.
“But I never found out. Saoirse put a hole through his neck before he could decide whether I was worth keeping. Then the guards entered the room and she was screaming. Screaming at them to let her go, screaming my name for reasons I couldn’t grasp. And my magic…It just—reacted. I can’t explain it, but the next thing I knew, those guards were on the ground, blood everywhere and my sister was reaching for me with tears in her eyes.
“I don’t know how long we ran, darting between buildings, moving as fast as we could toward the rear of the village. She took me to her teacher. A male she trusted with her life. I remember feeling the need to protect Saoirse, and he suggested I take the blame for my father’s death to do just that. My sister didn’t like the idea, but she agreed.
“I spent several summers with him, Caol. He treated me the same as anyone else. Usually. Sometimes I’d catch him looking at me with an odd expression. Like I was some kind of animal that would revert back to my feral nature given the chance.
“And as any rebellious teen does, I left the mountain despite his warnings. I knew what I’d done to my father’s guards was wrong, but it’d been an accident. In my naïveté I thought someone would understand.
“I found my old friends in a field, playing ball. They took one look at me and I tasted their fear. Even my best friend, the one who promised we’d grow up together, took a step back, pulling at his magic as if to protect himself.
“Then we were attacked. I tried to fight them off, but protecting others wasn’t something I’d trained to do. I wasn’t faster than those three males before they killed two children.”
Arianna’s hand covered her mouth.
“I killed the warriors who’d attacked us and fled.
“I don’t know why the boys blamed me. Maybe they thought the males were my allies. Maybe they assumed I was there to take over Brónach.” He shrugged. “I returned to Caol. He lectured me but after that night, something in him changed. I don’t know if he didn’t believe my story or if he had other reasons, but less than a month later he took me out into the forest and put four holes in my gut.” Rion glanced down at his scars. “He apologized and said it was for the best. I remember the anger rising in me as I pushed him away and realized too late that I’d pushed too hard. He didn’t get back up.”
“Who treated your wounds?”
“Saoirse. I spent an entire summer learning how to control my magic after that then entered Nàdair with my head held high. I was done being branded an outcast.
“Alec raged when he saw me, but Saorise intervened. At the time, they were losing a battle with a nearby territory. Some Fae had taken a stand and decided they wanted their own country.
“Caol had been the strategist. He taught me everything he knew. The rest I got from his books. I swayed Alec to give me the chance to prove myself. I think he just wanted me out of the city.
“When I returned successful, Alec begrudgingly accepted my presence. I was sent on all sorts of missions. Then the assassination attempts started. Some came from civilians. Others from seasoned warriors.”
He flexed his fingers and swallowed hard before continuing. “Two years after my initial mission, Alec sent me out with a group. He claimed this task was sensitive and required a team regardless of my abilities. That’s when I met her. A beautiful female who treated me like a living being instead of an abomination.
