Jessamine
Pain bursts in the back of my head, reverberating through my skull, and I cry out as agony ripples along my spine. The ground rushes up to embrace me, and I crash into it hard enough to rattle my teeth. My fingers curl in the snow as I breathe heavily, trying to push myself up, but I find that I can't. I can barely see past the wall of black tainting my vision, and the coppery smell of blood--my blood--blooms, blocking out every smell.
Everything's heavy. My hands, my feet, my head, my eyes. It shouldn't be this hard to move, regardless of what I've been hit with.
"Bring her," I hear Renae say coldly, and I slam my eyes shut, shaking my head to properly see, take stock of my surroundings. Fingers grab my arm, hefting me up, but there's another behind. I try spreading out my awareness, to understand just how much shit I'm in, but everything's swiftly slipping from my grasp.
My hands move with painstaking slowness as I retrieve a dagger from my coat, and it doesn't sink in as deep as I'd like into the male's thigh. He snarls, shoving me into the next male, and thunder claps in my brain when his fist connects with my face, a vicious curse tumbling off his lips, "Stupid bitch."
I ignore the pain, or I try to, as I lurch forward, sinking my teeth into his neck, even if I'm missing my canines tonight. I clamp down on his throat and he roars, grabbing my arms to hurl me off. But I've panicked, and I know where this ends if I don't fight. I don't dare let go. It'd be over in seconds if I had Nyx, if I could shift and rip out his neck. If I had claws to carve out his heart.
But I have none of those, and my jaw hurts from biting too hard. Renae's hissing and cursing at them, but she hasn't moved from her seat by the fire. She thinks there's no need to. She thinks two men will be enough to hold down an Alpha King's daughter, and I can't shake the feeling that she's done something to me to ensure that. I've trained and worked too hard to be put down this easily.
I am yanked off him, but I don't leave without a piece of him in my mouth. Blood splatters against my face and the male's eyes are wide with horror as he feels for the missing chunk of skin on his neck.
I'm gagging when they throw me at Renae's feet, awfully close to her pristine boots. The puke landing on them isn't entirely intentional. She recoils, slamming her right foot into my chin and more violently into my rib when I turn on my side. "Here I was trying to make things swift. You never did like doing things the easy way."
Gasping for air, I clutch at my middle, another heavier boot sinking in, threatening to shatter my ribs completely. I swallow a scream, letting out an amused laugh instead as Renae's face hovers over me. "Having my blood on your hands will not end well for you." I intend to sound cruel, but I'm a rasping mess of incoherent words. "Did you..." I spit out the metallic taste in my mouth. "Poison me?"
She reaches for me, yanking my hand roughly. "Not quite. Wolfsbane, not easily detectable." She finds my injured finger and pearl white teeth gleam in the light as she laughs. "Unpredictable, you said. This is rich."
Must've been the thorn, then. I should've...nothing. There's no way I could've known it wasn't Kier. It was in his writing, covered in his scent. But of course, it wouldn't be the first time Renae wrote something in Kier's name. No need to wallow in what I should and shouldn't have done right now.
"What do you want?" I sputter, even if I very well know why she's brought me out here to the grove. I'm stalling. If she sprinkled the bane on the thorns, the amount couldn't be large enough to last the whole night. It'll wear off at some point. "Gold? A harem of younger, virile men?" Her eyes darken at that, and I add, "My head on a platter with berries and honey? The first two I can get you, but I like my head where it is, unfortunately."
She nods, seemingly amused. "I am glad that you find this moment humorous. It will be your last."
I'm not feeling any better. My stomach is queasy and hurts like a bitch. "You kill me and you'll bring the wrath of your son and my father upon yourself."
Her eyes seem to spark with emotion when I speak of my father, but it's gone the next minute. "Kier will follow shortly after you. The mating bond will claim him, and I wouldn't need to raise a hand to kill him. He'll fall ill and die, like every other male who's lost their mate."
I lurch, but her foot digs into my chest, keeping me down. Still, I say, "My father didn't die when you killed my mother. I'll have you know there's a letter containing all of your evil deeds, finding its way to him as we speak." A bluff, but she doesn't have to know.
She smiles. "Your father didn't die because he had you. The pain from losing a mate is greater than you can imagine--"
"Yet you would put your son through that," I hiss. "What has he ever done to you?"
Her face twists. "He was born, that's what he did." Her expression is ugly and hateful. "It didn't matter how hard I tried to get rid of the babe. He remained, a scourge. A mistake. I hated his father, Aiden, and the last thing I wanted was a child with him. Aiden knew this, and it didn't stop him from ruining me. He took me that night by force, ignoring my pleas. Love Kier?"
Renae laughs, and it leaves a chill in my blood. "I've only ever loved once in my life and I am incapable of extending or projecting that somewhere else. Kier came to exist through a wrong committed to me. The least he owes me is his life, and since he's betrayed me as well, I'll have that too."
I have no idea what to say to her. It brings too many things into context, and while I hate to judge people, it still doesn't justify all that she's done. "Kier is not his father--does he even know? Since when do parents hold children responsible for their own mistakes?"
"Of course, he does. Why else do you think he is unable to refuse me? I instilled every memory in his young mind, ensured he was conveniently present to watch his father hit me. Children never forget things like that."
Her foot comes off my chest, only enough for her to crouch, her eyes nearly as black as her dress. She extends her hand over me, twining her fingers in my hair and I have only enough strength to flinch. "You have his hair. If Madeline hadn't meddled, you would have my eyes. You would be mine, and his, and Kier wouldn't have been born at all." She strokes my hair and... I'm not entirely sure I'm breathing anymore. "I was depressed for years after Kier's birth. Couldn't look at him or hold him. I'd resolved to forgive your mother from taking Hunt from me. I was going to let it go. Until I learned she was with child. She was happy, the thief. And I was not."
Her eyes are lost in a distant memory, and the males flank either sides of her, daring me to move with a promise of violence gleaming in their eyes. The latter's neck is healing, slowly, though he keeps clutching at it, murmuring words I can't hear to his partner.
But, despite myself, I want to hear this. I want to understand why anyone would kill my mother. I want to understand what she means; what the fuck she's talking about. "You knew my father?"
She smiles fondly and meets my gaze. "I did. We do have a lot in common, you and I." Her fingers retract from my hair. "He would've loved me. She listened to me speak of him, fueled my imaginations and heard my wild dreams of him. Our future together. And then she stole my dreams too."
My mouth dries out. "You... killed my mother because of a man that doesn't even know you?"
Her nostrils flare. "You do not understand, child. Your mother was my only friend. She was my home. My world. My life. I worshipped that woman, and every word she spoke to me was law. And she betrayed me. I do not take kindly to that," she seethes, and in the same moment, she giggles. "Having assassins lay invade your father's castle was no easy task, but it was worth it. I never thought all that was needed to break someone so strong was forcing her to watch the queen die like her mother did at the whorehouse when she was a child."