Page 87 of Shattered Illusion
Everything he feels for me comes through his side of the bond, even if he’s not conscious that he’s left his feelings open sofreely. Or maybe he is. Maybe he wants me to know how he feels without expressing the words.
But I want to hear them. No. It’s much more than want. It’s a need. An innate need to know our hearts are in the same place.
A brilliant, fangy smile lights up Axel’s face as he gazes down at me with adoration shining in his red gaze.
Finally ready to take the leap and put my heart on display, I open my mouth to tell him how I feel, but a cry escapes me instead when a body slams into me, tearing me away from Axel and propelling me onto the unforgiving ground. Feral snarls and the telltale hiss of a pissed-off vampire ring loudly in my ears as the music cuts out and all the dancing patrons back away, leaving me in a mess of a heap on the floor.
Gasps, whispers, and muttered curses drift through the horror-filled crowd. A chant starts up next, calling for death. Death to who? What the hell is going on?
“Rise, curiomancer,” that disembodied voice comes again, but this time, there’s an underlying threat present in their words.
Oh. Oh fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. My hand curls around empty air as I search out my snowflake necklace, only to come up empty.
That means… Tears flood my eyes at the implication of their words and the revelation that my glamour is gone.
“I said rise!” bellows the disembodied voice, the words punctuated by the chanting supernaturals mobbing around me.
My legs quake beneath me as I find my feet, wobbling precariously on the heels Marion wanted me to wear. They threaten to give out completely, but I lock my knees, refusing to show these assholes weakness. And speaking of Marion, I seek out her eyes in the crowd. When I finally find her, I flinch at the betrayal staring back at me. The bad part is I deserve it. She’sbeen there for me from the first time she sat with me in the dining hall, and I’ve been keeping a big secret from her.
Unable to take the hurt any longer, I find Luka, Hudson, and Thaddeus fighting to get through the throng to save me. But there’s no saving me now. What’s done is done. The truth of my identity is now laid bare to the entirety of the supernatural world. Axel is nowhere to be found, which should worry me, but being faced with an entire room of preternatural beings who’d rather see my head on a pike than actually get to know me, I think he’d understand.
Every eye watches me with barely veiled violence, and I do my best to hide the fear percolating in my veins. But that’s not the only thing I’m trying hard to tamp down. My magic is going freaking haywire in my system, short-circuiting my every thought. It’s a hell of a fight I’m putting up against my own self to tamp down the glow begging to break free from my flesh.
“Name, curiomancer.” The robed head council member is poised on the edge of the dais, like he’s biding his time for an opportune moment to strike me down.
With the ease of someone well-versed in magic, I direct a thin trickle of power to the amplifier rune on my throat before answering, “Bailey Foss.” My voice booms over the death threats being hurled my way, instantly shutting everyone up, and while I may not normally go by my birth parent’s last name, they don’t need to know anything more than that.
“Curiomancer.” I grit my teeth at the blatant display of disrespect by not using my given name. “Your kind is not permitted to exist. You are too overpowered, like those who came before you, and must be put down for the safety of our world. I sentence you to death. Immediately.”
Ahh. Fuck.
To Be Continued…
