Page 188 of Death of a Mortal

I shot another tendril of shadow at her, but this time she expected it and stopped it right before it could wrap around her throat. And then smiled.

“Thank you, Naci. I wanted to test whether I could control your shadows. It seems I can. Anyway, where was I…”

How was that possible? Sevrin had said the shadows were sentient, unlike elemental powers. Could she mind-control them? Orwas she controlling me and my ability to control them? This made my head hurt worse.

“So,” she continued, “with Keryth out of the way and working every day to kill Caedryn, I waited, and I lived a beautiful life with Cassius for a time. You probably don’t remember this, but he was an excellent father. So I had Aemilia, and she was born to be strong, no doubt about it, but I’d hoped for a male to become my eventual heir. Much easier to control from the shadows than a daughter would be. And males present a better façade to the world, as I proved with Caedryn.

“So I grew angry when I had Agnella, not a drop of magic in her wasted veins. I also grew tired of controlling Cassius. That swine never loved me. His mind was always full of thoughts of Keryth.”

I couldn’t take any more. I dropped to my knees, where I felt Drayce’s shaking hand close over mine. I looked into his honey eyes, the only thing in this moment grounding me.

If I wasn’t so consumed with grief, I would have noticed that I was able to move from the grief and overwhelming anguish.

Or maybe she wasn’t even holding me captive anymore. Maybe I wasn’t trying to fight her because of my own paralysis over everything she had revealed.

“Queen Seralyth fell ill,” Malvina continued, “and a new idea formed. The rumor was that she had an illness she would not survive, so Sevrin infiltrated the royal court with his umbra influence and…accelerated her death for me.”

I looked at Varyn, who was staring at the ground in silent fury. Malvina had taken everything from him too—his mother and now his father. Gods, I could almost feel bad for him despite everything. He was just another of her victims.

“With the queen dead, I made my move—grieving males are so easy to manipulate. After all, marrying the king would be easier than killing him, but I still had hopes that the rebellion could succeed there and get me to this moment sooner. It pained me to leaveAemilia behind, but I knew the time would come when I would show her the truth and bring her to my side once she’d emerged and I was Ashthorn’s sole ruler. Before departing, I left a little bug in Cassius’s mind that she was the only child to be loved by him.” She winked at me, and I felt the last piece of my heart shatter. I had nothing left inside.

Shemade Cassius hate me, abuse me, and mistreat me. The tears that fell from my burning eyes were hot on my face, and my stomach flipped upside down. I finally knew why he hated me so much, for reasons I could never fathom.She’dmade him. And Aemilia? She was the spawn of this evil cunt and was spurred on by a mind-controlled Cassius programmed to hate me. Everything about my messy, fucked-up life finally made sense, and I despised every piece of it.

Literally every single thing in my life had been influenced and controlled by this foul…this wretched…this, gods, there wasn’t even a word for how cruel and terrible she was.

Drayce’s shaking had reached such a point that my entire arm was wracked with tremors.

I turned to Bramick and found Aerie across his lap, awake and wide-eyed. They both stared at me with utter devastation etched into their expressions.

Kellan had silent tears rolling down his face.

These four were the only things anchoring my sanity. I tried to block the darkness creeping in with thoughts of them, of our drunken nights and heart-to-hearts. My new family.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Bernitha down on all fours, bleeding and bruised, watching Malvina with disgust. She knelt next to Elene whose face was now unrecognizable.

We were all frozen.

But Malvina wasn’t done with me.

“My last act before becoming Caedryn’s queen was to bind your fae heart to mortality. Impressively complex magic, I might add. At first, I thought that if I could make you mortal, the prophecy wouldn’t come to pass, and I could be Caelia’s saviorandruler. Ajuvenile and reckless assumption, I can admit now, to attempt to prevent a prophecy from coming to fruition. But imagine my surprise when you walked right through the front doors of my castle. Still mortal but thrumming with the goddess-gifted power.

“So we arrive at the here and now. You’ve emerged as the powerful, dual-hearted fae you were prophesied to be, on the precipice of goodness or villainy. What do you say to a partnership? I’ll ensure you don’t destroy the world, and we’ll rule it together, savior and queen side by side. Speak!”

I felt my ability to speak return, but a cloud of pure rage around my broken heart kept me silent. It had been her. She bound my fae heart, my magic. All of this had been her. My entire life.

“You…will…die,” Drayce ground out beside me.

Malvina looked surprised to hear him speak—she must have still had her mind control on us after all. “I thought you might be less than agreeable at this point, Naci, so I offer you a truce in good faith.”

I found my voice. “Why would I ever want a truce with you?”

She just smiled that cruel smile, so like Aemilia’s. “Because I know something that you do not.”

Chills erupted across my entire body. What could she possibly mean? She’d said she wanted to conquer Caelia, but also more than just the world. I couldn’t begin to think how…

“I will allow all of you to leave my castle, unharmed, as I am sure we will meet again very soon. I have certain…assurances that you’ll be back. You’ll find me when you’re ready. And then our real work can begin.”

“The only thing we’ll be back for is your head,” Kellan screamed.