Undying Hate~ Book Three

Sylvie was still falling to the earth, life flashing before her eyes, when a grip wrapped her up and spun her until their body was under hers. Completely tense when they hit the ground, she was winded as they rolled across soft grass until they finally came to a stop face down. Elias lifted her by her shoulders and searched her face.

“What happened?”

Breathing heavily, she wiped her hair off her cheeks and felt her face crumple as she took in Elias’ tight expression.

“I don’t know. I- I-”

He gripped the sides of her head with a contemplative frown as she shook.

“I shouldn’t have-”

“No, Sylvie. I shouldn’t have pulled away like that. It’s my fault.”

He thumbed away the tears on her cheek and took her hand. “We have to get back; Kian’s up there.”

“What? No.” Sylvie immediately ran for the nearest door, panicking when it wouldn’t open. Kol was insane. He was going to kill him. “Ugh, dammit!”

“Come with me,” Elias pulled her, and she ran after him, praying they made it before that psycho did something. Whoever was controlling him didn’t seem to care about anyone or anything. Horrible images of Kian bleeding out in the hall flashed across her mind, and she whimpered, catching Elias’s attention.

His lips parted as she began hyperventilating, and he scooped her up without question. She buried her face in his neck and breathed him in as they raced closer to the freak who threw her from a fucking window.

“I’m sorry, Kitten.” She gasped and squeezed her arms around his neck as they drew closer to the other love of her life.

“Kian?”

A pregnant pause nearly made Sylvie throw up.

“Over here.”

Panting and leaning over a downed Kol, Kian was covered in blood.

“Kian!”

“It’s not mine.”

A door slammed from the other end of the hall, and Kerensa jogged towards them all, faltering when she spotted her father in a pool of his golden blood, a dagger hilt rising from his unbreathing chest.

“What the fuck have you done?”

“It was him.”

Sylvie pulled away from Elias and stepped closer to the attempted murderer, now dead at the hands of his son. Holy fuck.

“Him what? You better have a damn good excuse for fucking over our whole goddamn kingdom. Now what, King Kian? Are you going to walk in there with the crown on your fucking head? Oh, fucking hell-”

“Kerensa-” Sylvie barked, grabbing Kian’s forearm and pulling him away from the body. “Not fucking helpful-”

She stared at her with a message in her eyes. Trust me.

“He let the vampires into Evergreen. He tried to kill Sylvie.”

Kerensa’s head snapped to Sylvie’s, and she nodded, eyeing the window slick with her blood. The wound had already healed, but she could still feel where the grazes burned her skin.

Kerensa scoffed, shaking her head. “All that damn training. Fuck.” She turned and punched the wall so hard that concrete chips rained on the floor.

“Kian, what happened?”

“Elias and I found you just before you fell, and when I restrained him, he kept chanting. He sounded like he was being controlled.”

“What did he say?” Elias asked.

“Kill the girl.”

Sylvie gasped and grabbed Elias’ arm. “Same as the vampires in Argyncia.”

“I know.”

“It’s all connected.”

Kerensa hissed. “This still doesn’t help us whether he was controlled or not. Now he’s dead. You couldn’t have just restrained him, Kian?”

Kian looked at the blood on his hands and shook his head slowly. “He was opening a portal. It was too strong to close. I had to kill him.”

There was a slight tremor in his hands, and Elias pulled him away from the body, holding an arm around Kian’s back as he turned and dropped his head on Elias’ shoulder.

“I fucked up.” Kian’s voice was muffled in Elias’ huge shoulder. “They’re going to expect me to take over now.”

The reality sunk in, and Sylvie felt her stomach roll. The Fae kingdom will want him to be king. Of course, they would. He would make an incredible king. He was kind, just and everything his father wasn’t. But that meant he would have to stay. And Sylvie would have to leave him behind. Again.

“No,” she whispered, pulling away from her mates.

Kian lifted his head and took a deep breath. “He was the one letting the Vampires in. I could sense them on the other side of the portal he was making. So whether he planned it or not, he’s the reason our mother is dead.”

Kerensa sucked in a breath and spun, heading for the celebration still pumping in the throne room, ripping the doors open with fierce determination.

“Attention!” Her voice boomed so loud Sylvie covered her ears before moving towards her.

“The King has been found guilty of treason, aiding Vampires in our realm to kill our beloved Queen Katarina, and is now dead. Guards! Take him away and burn him.”

The crowd gasped, and some screamed, spotting the body through the door. Guards ran past, taking the body, and Kerensa turned to flee out a nearby door. This time, Sylvie didn’t let her go alone. She gave a quick nod to her mates and chased after her, pushing through nosy Fae bodies to the door she escaped through.

“Kerensa, wait!”

“Leave me alone, Hart.”

Kerensa had a giant katana in her hands and slashed it violently through a very sad-looking strawman.

“You shouldn’t be by yourself.”

“All I want is to be myself.”

Sylvie sighed and rounded the straw man, giving the arc of Kerensa’s weapon a wide berth.

“If we had gone to Stone Court when I said this would never have happened. Now I have to be-” She grunted and slashed again. “I have to be your fucking guardian and train you to be Queen-”

“No,” Sylvie said immediately.

Kerensa stopped her swinging and narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean no.”

“I mean, no. I can’t be Queen here, Kerensa. Things are different now. I have Elias and Rowan to think about too. I can’t stay here. This isn’t my home-”

“So you’d just give up, Kian. Just like that.”

“I don’t-” she groaned, throwing her hands up. “It’s not that simple, Kerensa.”

“Sleep on it.”

“What?”

Kerensa threw the sword into the ground, which stuck with a hard thwack as she stalked towards Sylvie.

“Come with me to Stone Court and make your decision after.”

“What about-”

“Kian will have to stay behind. They’ll probably want to perform the crowning while everyone is still here.”

Sylvie gulped huge breaths into her lungs as Kerensa rattled off the upcoming day’s events like she was commenting on the weather.

“They’ll expect me to train you anyway, so your absence from the crowning could be explained away-”

“Kerensa, stop.”

A door slammed open behind her, and her mate marks warmed as Elias’ hand brushed her bicep. “Yes, Kerensa. Stop. We haven’t had a chance to talk about what comes next-”

“Well, we don’t have time to mourn, do we? We never do.”

Kian appeared on Sylvie’s other side and rubbed his face tiredly. “You’re right. Your plan sounds good. Elias will go with you to stone court.”

“Wait a second,” Sylvie interrupted at the same time Elias said a sharp ‘no’.

She turned and took his hands, trying to meet his dull eyes. “Let’s talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. I know how you feel and what you want, and I won’t try to convince you otherwise. I love you enough to let you go, princess.”

Sylvie shook her head, but her thundering heart stole her breath away. Her words wouldn’t come out. She didn’t even know what to say.

“You should go now,” Kian said over Sylvie’s shoulder, probably to Kerensa. He squeezed her hands one last time and let them fall before turning and heading back for the door.

“Brother, wait.” Kerensa ran after him just like Sylvie wanted to do, but the shock held her in place. It was probably better for them to talk anyway. After becoming orphans in the span of a week, they surely need each other.

Her inhales wavered, and soon black spots filled her vision. Sylvie’s lip wobbled as emotions burst forth, swallowing her into a dark hole. Elias’ voice swum in her ears as she swayed and collapsed into him, the world fading to shades of pain.

“You have failed.”

“Forgive me.”

Sylvie ran blindly down blackened hallways away from the vicious voices, their soulless energy reaching for her from the darkness like sticky tar.

“She must die.”

“She will.”

“No, I won’t.” Sylvie ran further, unafraid of crashing, as they drew closer.

The man of shadow and woman without a face edged around her, forcing the blood to pump furiously through her heart. It throbbed in her chest.

Pure agony. Terror from the marks on her chest. A grip on her ankles, her wrist, her throat.

“Wake up.”

She screamed in frustration reaching for the tiny pinprick of light emanating from her throat, reflecting in a tiny hand mirror hovering in front of her face. Or was it on the ground? Her body ceased to exist in the liminal darkness, but she leapt for the light nevertheless.

“Wake up, now.”

“I’m fucking trying.” Her mouth moved, but her eyes wouldn’t open, and the demons were almost upon her.

Slap.

“Ow, what the fuck, Kerensa!”

Sylvie rubbed her stinging cheek and blinked from the carriage seat. Elias stared at her with a tight jaw while Kerensa looked unimpressed as they jostled along a rocky path.

Her eyes burned as she jerked upright and peered out the carriage window. Evergreen wasn’t even in sight anymore. “I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

“He didn’t want you to.”

“I don’t care! He’s my mate-” Her breath hitched as her sobs had a mind of their own. “He’s my mate, Elias. We can’t just leave him. We can’t-”

Elias pulled her onto his lap and tucked her head under his chin as she sniffled.

Kerensa groaned and swapped seats, the cushion beneath them dipping then jolting up as they shuffled around.

Everything was falling apart, her relationships, her fucking mind at that point. “What happened?”

“You passed out, and we left. There was no point staying-”

“Fuck you,” Sylvie whispered, climbing off Elias’ body and crossing her arms.

“What did you say?”

“I said fuck you, Kerensa. I know you can hear me perfectly fine.” She wiped her cheeks and stared angrily out the window as Kerensa growled.

Without a word, she slammed open the door and climbed out of the moving carriage, loud bangs overhead suggesting she was now on the roof. What she was mad about was beyond Sylvie. She wasn’t the one having to leave her husband behind to visit a court that only offered traumatic memories.

Maybe it was swarming with Hybrids.

Or vampires.

Or Lazuli.

She didn’t know what would be worse; only Kerensa had told her months ago Lazuli disappeared days after they returned to the earth realm, so she probably wasn’t there, which was good because she didn’t think she wanted to see her bitch aunt ever again.

“Do you wish to speak?”

“No.” Sylvie turned her whole body away and scowled.

Elias hummed ever so slightly as if she were amusing to him. “Fine.”

“Fine.”