“Anyway, she was finally free, then all this shit happened and you two dicks are trying to do the same thing her mother did to her.”
“Fuck.” Yeah, what Kai said. I was doing the thing she hated most. Jackson had a satisfied look on his face as he saw realization dawn on our faces. Fucking smug prick, I’ll give him a taste of his own medicine.
“So Jax, how are things with Aurora?” Jackson’s expression changed immediately.
“Fuck you, Nico, you don’t get to ask me about her.” Yeah, that was a dick move on my part.
“Jax, I really am sorry. I only wanted to help Aurora.”
“Help her, why?” And he said I was thick.
“Because she said you would fucking die, dumb ass.” He recoiled at my outburst, but a look of understanding crossed his face. He knew I cast the spell to try and save him, not hurt him.
“I understand, Nico, but don’t interfere with my love life again. You have enough interference in your own to worry about.” Bastard was bloody right, but that didn’t mean I liked to hear it. We sat there talking about good memories and mending bridges between us that were damaged from our time apart.
Shit might suck right now because Randall discovered Ryan, but I will always be grateful, because her coming here brought me and my brothers back together again.
It felt so good to sit here and have a few whiskeys with my brothers and laugh about dumb shit. Just as I started to pour our third glass, I stilled at Kai’s confession.
“I wish you well tomorrow, brother, but I cannot be there.” I finished pouring our drinks and carried them over to the guys and sat back down.
“Why can’t you be there, Kai?”
“I will not face Randall until I am at full strength. I will not be able to tame the urge to kill him if he is in my sight.” I could feel the anger radiating off Kai—now that he was free from his blood oath to the vampire king, he wanted vengeance.
“I understand, brother.”
“No you don’t, Nico, you have no idea how hard it was to stand by and not be able to do a thing while he hurt Ryan’s grandmother and then to watch and not be able to help Sophia. That killed me every day.” I tensed as soon as he mentioned my sister. Soph wouldn’t disclose any information about what happened to her. She was with Randall for seventeen years and suffered untold torture. “She is not the same woman who was captured, Nico. Sophia is stronger than you could ever imagine.” I knew he was right; So-So was definitely stronger.
“You’re right, I won’t sit here and say that I am heartbroken over the queen’s death. She knew the risk of leaving the fae realm with Randall and what it would mean for her people if she didn’t go through with the marriage to me. I know, deep down inside of me, she was the one who told Randall how to enter my realm.
Her doing that caused my sister to be taken. I will kill that son of a bitch for what he did to Sophia. I’m getting married tomorrow, Kai, and I really wish you would change your mind and be there with me; I want my brothers by my side.”
I could see Kai was torn; he wanted to be there for me, but wasn’t sure if he could control his urge to kill Randall. I did something that I don’t normally do to sway his decision.
“Please.”
“How could I say no when you asked so nicely?” Fucking prick.
“Okay, guys, I don’t mean to break up this heart to heart, but one of my guys has just told me he saw Ryan, Sophia and Aurora enter the cells.”
“It won’t matter, Jax, they can’t get down there.”
“Actually, Nico, they already have.”
“How the fuck did they get down there?”
“Dom” That one name from Jax’s lips sent my blood boiling. Fucking Dominic. I was going to beat his fucking ass. He was going too far these days and needed to be taught a fucking lesson.
Chapter 29
Ryan
“Stevie, if you knew this whole time, why didn’t you say anything? We could have tried to help you!”
“I don’t want your fucking help, Ryan! I am the queen of the Knox coven.”
Is she fucking serious right now? That’s all she cared about —being queen.
“Everyone knows you’re the fucking queen, Stevie! I don’t care about that, I care about you! I’m trying to save you from yourself, not take some fucking crown from you!” Stevie jumped to her feet, glaring at me, and made her way over to the cell door, where I stood.
“You will never get my crown, Ryan!” Okay, so maybe I was wrong. Her being down here didn’t completely take away her psycho side. I leaned in closer, so we were nearly nose to nose through the bars.
“If me taking the fucking crown from you is what is going to save you, then I will. I will find a way to help you, Stevie. Dad told me there’s a way. This darkness inside of you is going to kill you. I will not let you hurt yourself or anyone else again! What you did to Melakai fucking disgusted me!”
A cruel smile graced her face, a face that I knew all too well. I saw that face every time I looked in the mirror. Her eyes started to darken; they weren’t green anymore but rather a muddy brown. She straightened up and looked down her nose at me; The way she was looking me sent shivers down my spine.
“I enjoyed breaking him. I loved hearing his screams.” I recoiled at her words, and Dom surged forward and put his arm through the cell bars and gripped my sister around her throat, lifting her off the concrete floor. Tyler was shouting for him to put her down and hurling death threats at Dom.
“Dom please put her down.” I was begging him to listen.
“You vile, fucking bitch. I will fucking kill you for what you did to my brother! I would love nothing more than to submit you to the pain you caused him. You’re a fucking cunt!”
“Dominic! Put her down now!” Dom dropped Stevie immediately, and we all spun around at the sound of Nico’s voice. Nico looked so angry. “What the fuck are you doing down here?”
“Calm down, brother.”
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down, Sophia. That bitch has tried to kill Ryan, and you bring her down here, for what?”
“We brought her down here so she could deal with her demons, Nico.”
“Shut the fuck up, Dominic! You and I are fucking going to have it out for this stunt!” Dom just smiled at Nico, almost like he had been waiting a long time for this showdown to happen.
“Fuck….you….all.” I spun around at the sound of my sister’s voice; she was still gasping for air and rubbing her throat. “Randall….and….I…will…kill..you all.”
“Randall is a liar, Stevie!” She was so blinded by rage and this darkness inside her that she couldn’t see the truth.
“He hasn’t lied about anything, Ryan.”
“He has Mom, Stevie.” Stevie smiled a cruel smile. Holy shit, she knew all along. I took a step back, shaking my head. She knew this whole fucking time and said nothing? She knew I was still searching for our mother.
“You think I didn’t know, sister? Of course I knew. When Randall offered me the chance to side with him and seal the fae realm, I took it. Then he told me he had that cunt that gave birth to us, and I told him I would join his crusade if he let me torture the bitch! How’d you like those body parts, Your Majesty?” Stevie started laughing like a maniac. Fuck, I think I was going to be sick. I turned to the side and gripped the bars on a vacant cell and started to dry heave. I felt a hand rub up and down my back. I didn’t turn to see who it belonged to. “Oh my, look who it is, Melakai fucking Cane, prince to the vampire race.”
“You don’t get to speak to him, you bitch!”
“Oh, Sophia Stone, princess of the fae. You seem quite fond of the vampire, are you fucking him too? You seem to have recovered nicely since we last saw each other.” Dom started growling, and I turned my head to see it was him rubbing my back. I straightened and cleared my throat. I knew what I had to do now; I could only save one of them, and the one I wanted to save the least was probably the only one I could save. That realization nearly broke me
, but I wouldn’t give up hope that I could save them both. I looked toward Tyler’s cell, seeing Aurora cling to her brother’s arm. Tyler’s gaze met mine, and he was begging me to help him save my sister, and I nodded.
“We need to leave now.”
“Come on Ryan, don’t leave now, we were just getting to the fun part. Don’t you want to know how mommy is doing? You know she asks for you, sister. Come visit her while she’s still breathing, at least then you can say you saw one parent before they died.” I turned and glared at my sister. I was fighting so hard to hold my tears back. I would not let my sister see me break.
“I will find a way to save you from yourself, Stevie, and when I do, you will be on your own.” My sister’s manic laughter followed us all the way to the exit.
∞∞∞
Once we left the cells and made it back to Jackson’s office, there was a small slender woman with white blonde hair sitting in the single chair by the couches.
“Who the hell are you?”
“That would be Mya, Squirt.” I turned to see both Alex and Chase sitting on the other couch. I was shocked that this lady was Mya. “She’s not what you expected, is she Squirt?” I had no words, I just shook my head. Mya wasn’t old like I thought her to be.
“The joys of immortality, Miss Knox.” She has a Southern accent, and she was so not what I had pictured. She had long, white blonde hair, a color girls these days were paying huge money to achieve, but it was her natural color. She had muddy brown eyes that radiated kindness. “Do not let my appearance fool you, Miss Knox. I am as old as these four men.” I raised my brows in surprise; she appeared so youthful and put together.
“Ryan, meet Mya.” I looked to Chase and then back to Mya, still in shock. Mya smiled and made her way over to me. She extended her hand and I stood there like a stunned deer, staring at her hand. “Ry, you’re supposed to shake the poor woman’s hand.”
“Right.” I placed my hand inside hers and shook it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mya.”
“The pleasure is all mine, Miss Knox.” She released my hand and stepped back. “It is a pleasure to meet you all.” Everyone said hello and introduced themselves, but Mya seemed to know everyone. We all took a seat on the couches and stared at each other. I don’t think anyone knew what to say. Mya cleared her throat then looked to me. “Would you like to tell me why I am here, Miss Knox?”
“Um…I got a letter from my dad that said you could help me.”
“Ask me what you wish to know, Miss Knox.” She was so formal.
“Please just call me Ryan.”
“Okay, Ryan, what would you like to know?”
“I want to know about my mother and about my sister and I…I want to know how to save my sister.” Mya nodded her head and looked around the room.
“Would you like to have this conversation in private?”
“No,” snapped Nico. I turned to glare at him and he backed off.
“I mean, I think you would like us to stay for support, right?” Nico was looking at Jackson, who was nodding his head like he was encouraging a toddler. These guys are fucking ridiculous.
“Squirt, if you want to have this conversation alone, we will all leave, even the fucking fairy.” Nico turned to glare at Chase.
“It’s fine, Mya, please continue.”
“Okay, so I’ll start from the beginning. It’s a long story, are you sure you want to hear all of this the night before your wedding?” it wasn’t even a hard question for me, I needed answers. I knew it was getting late and everyone would be tired but I didn’t care, they could leave but I was staying.
“I need answers Mya, please. If any of you want to leave and get dinner or go to bed, you can.” There was a chorus of no and no thank you. Jackson said he would get some pack members to deliver dinner to his office, which I appreciated, as I was starving. I needed food as soon as possible or I would start to get hangry, and no one needed me acting like a bitch during all this.
We decided to wait till dinner arrived before we started our chat, filling the time with chit chat about the coven and general catching up. Dinner arrived ten minutes later and we all polished off our plates within a few minutes.
“Okay now that we are all full and Ryan isn’t gonna hulk out on us, we can start I raised my middle finger to Chase but smiled sweetly at Mya and said, “Shall we begin?”
Chapter 30
Nico
I had never met Mya before; I was just as shocked as Ryan to see her youthful appearance. Mya’s eyes held so much wisdom and knowledge.
“Right, your father came to me fifteen years ago, so I could help him find a way to save your mother, and help him find a way to save you and your sister.” This was news to me. “He figured out that your mother was cursed not long after she had given birth.”
“The child was never cursed!” Mya didn’t look pissed off or angry at Kai’s outburst, she almost seemed like she expected it.
“Ryan’s grandmother didn’t intentionally curse her own daughter Melakai, it was an accident.”
“The queen put a spell on the child to protect it from harm.”
“Yes, Melakai, she did. Somehow the spell backfired when the queen's daughter had children of her own, I’m not sure how or why it happened.”
“So you’re saying my mother changed, because she had children?”
“Yes Ryan that is exactly what I’m saying.”
“How did my dad figure this out?”
“He didn’t at first; your mother was fine and happy. Then over time she started to get worse and your father grew concerned. He came to the coven to seek answers. I offered to help my king. We went through so many books and legends and came to the conclusion that your mother was the long-lost child of the queen. It was a story most of us knew but didn’t believe it held any merit, until one day it did.”
“How did you figure out that the spell my grandmother cast backfired?” Ryan was asking great questions, questions I think we all had.
“We don’t know for sure how it backfired, but our guess is that the cell that she was held in was spelled by a powerful rogue witch, and when she cast her spell to protect her child, the witch’s spell must have held some sort of failsafe. I don’t really know how to explain it; sometimes when you cast a powerful spell there is a price to pay. If the spell the witch cast was powerful enough, and your grandmother cast her own, maybe the two different types of magic didn’t agree and caused a ripple of some kind.”
“Kai did tell me that my grandmother’s cell was spelled.” I looked over to Melakai to see him nodding. So that’s why Kai could never break her out. Everyone called her queen, but the truth was she was only queen of the vampires, not the fae, as we never married.
“How do we save Stevie from herself?” Chase asked.
“That question, Mr. Knox, is a hard one to answer. I have searched high and low for years trying to find a sure way to save Miss Knox from the darkness inside her.”
“So you’re saying that there isn’t a way?”
“I am saying, Mr. Knox, that there is a way to save her.” I saw Ryan’s eyes start to glisten; she had hope now that her sister could be saved. “If Stevie has accepted the darkness and embraced it, then no, she cannot be saved. If Stevie is still inside, fighting it, then yes, I believe she can be saved.” Ryan’s shoulders dropped and her face deflated, the tiny hope she had just got squashed.
“My dad told me that if I can control my powers, I can blast the darkness out of her.”
“That is what we originally thought, Ryan. I kept looking into it after your father left, There is no research or books on this. We have never had something like this come about, before now.” Ryan looked crestfallen; she thought Mya would give her directions and a map to save her bitch of a sister.
“That’s not all of it, though, is it Mya?” Everyone turned to look at Aurora, surprised by her comment.
“Oh, you are good, Miss Evans. I left that part out to see if you were as good as Ralph
hoped you would be.” Huh, how the hell did Ralph Knox know about Aurora and her gifts? He never met her.
“How did Ryan’s dad know about me?”
“That I honestly don’t know. Ralph never disclosed that information. He knew Ryan would cross paths with you somehow. I used to think that Ralph was a seer himself.”
“Are you going to tell them, or should I?” Mya smiled at Aurora; clearly Mya was fond of Aurora’s abilities.
“I’m sorry, Ryan.” Mya took a deep breath and looked Ryan directly in the eyes. I could see from the look on Mya’s face she was finding it hard to disclose her news to Ryan. “Stevie accepted the darkness fully into her about three days ago when she held a ceremony on the mountain of our ancestors.” Both Alex and Chase gasped; Ryan looked to both her cousins, confused. “Your sister ruled that the coven must fight in the upcoming war.” Fuck, now the vampires had the witches on their side.
“How the hell did she do it? There is no way Gregory would have let her accept the throne on the mountain in front of the ancestors. The elders wouldn’t have allowed it either! They know Ryan exists now!”
“I am sorry, Alex—Gregory is dead. Stevie was able to complete the ceremony after she murdered him. She took a loved one from each of the elders to force them into aiding her crusade.”
What the fuck has that crazy bitch done? I had known Gregory. He was a wise man and an elder. He guarded the mountain path to ensure that no one could access the power of the ancestors without elder approval. Alex and Chase both seem shattered. They turned their backs on their coven to help Ryan and now there coven members were being killed at the hands of their cousin.
“Stevie will answer for her crimes! Blood must have blood!” I have never heard so much venom and hatred come from Alex, there was no coming back for Stevie in his eyes.
A Twisted Fate : The Dream Trilogy - Book 2 Page 14
