Queen of Lies

by Kel Carpenter

  “He is.”

  “How do you know? How is that even—”

  “Possible?” she asked, a small smile coming back to her lips. “When Anastasia came, I already thought I was in love, and he certainly acted like it. Everything was perfect. We were perfect. But he’s the first born of his family and she had come to collect.” My heart stuttered in my chest as I replayed every interaction between the two of them that I had ever seen.

  She hated him from the moment I met him. Despised him. Hell, I told her I would take him out if I had to, but she had declined.

  “In the Supernatural world, when a firstborn child turns eighteen the ruling families have a claiming of sorts. In return for the protection and schooling that they provide for all families, they take the first child during their last year of school and enlist them.”

  She said the last word with a scathing harshness that left little question.

  “They’re slaves. Paid slaves, but slaves. They have no choice. Alec is powerful, and the Fortescues took an interest in him well before his birthday. He knew she was going to take him, and he was okay with it. If he went, then it meant Lucas and Tori could have a future they chose. He hadn’t planned on meeting me,” she said, her last words filled with so much regret. So much hurt and pain. It was only the sound of her voice that told me how much this memory hurt.

  “But he did, and when she came for him there was no hiding it. Even to this day, I don’t understand what possessed her to give the order she did, but after what happened at Daizlei, I can only assume she’s insane. No person in their right mind would have told him to do what he did next.”

  She didn’t laugh and she didn’t smile. The wind whipped at us and Keyla was still nowhere to be seen, but Blair and I existed within a moment that I would remember for the rest of my life. No matter how long or short that may be.

  “What did he do to you?” I whispered, fearing the truth that had already settled in the back of my mind.

  “I knew something was wrong the night it happened. I could feel it inside of him. His terror. His revulsion. At the time, I didn’t know half the things I do now, but that night I knew something was wrong when he led me out into the woods.” Her eyes fluttered closed, and when they opened they were glacial.

  “He raped me,” she whispered. “Or at least he wanted me to think he did.”

  My breath caught in my throat, so swift and sudden that I almost didn’t notice the clench of my hands and the sudden shift of the winds. They swooped and curved every which way around us, howling in my ears but keeping this conversation between us.

  “At the time, I couldn’t understand or think through the terror when I saw him split in two. One second he had been kissing me, and the next he stood over me and started pleading for the ancients to strike him dead.” A strange calm settled over her as she turned and looked to the fire. “An illusion with his face pushed me down, made me think he was undressing me. My clothes never left my body, but at the time I was overwhelmed. I saw what he wanted me to see, but it was watered down, per se. Only in the coming weeks did I start to put together what I really saw. The books on Supernatural and signasti bonds are quite limited at Daizlei. During a trip to the black market, I did some inquiring on my own into how his powers didn’t work on me. Why. There was only one explanation.”

  I wanted to murder him. I didn’t care that he hadn’t really done it, or who made him. If anything, it fueled the anger more. He deserved to pay for this.

  “Selena,” Blair said lightly, wrapping ice-cold fingers around my wrist. “Don’t. I’ve made peace with myself, and I didn’t tell you this so you would rip his throat out. I told you this so that you understand being Aaron’s signasti doesn’t make you love him.”

  I stopped and let the tension drain out of me. My muscles uncoiled under her touch, but the rage didn’t fade. Rage towards Alec for what he’d done. Rage towards Anastasia for the lives she’d ruined. Rage towards the world for being so dark and cruel.

  “How do you do it?” I asked her. “How can you stand to sleep under the same roof as him? Train with him? Hell, you saved him in the simulator when the bomb went off. How do you do it?” I turned to look her in the face and she watched me with slate grey eyes. Her fingers dropped to hold both my hands between hers.

  “I forgave him.” She smiled when I cocked my head, my lips parting. “Forgiveness isn’t for the person who hurts you, Selena. It’s for yourself. Without it, I would have become bitter and succumbed to the bond madness long ago.”

  It seemed that Blair had more lessons to teach me than I realized. Of course, I always knew she had a strong mind and will. She never would have survived training with me if she hadn’t. Now the tables were turned.

  “Does he know? That you know he’s your signasti? If you guys never completed the bond—”

  “No. As far as he knew, I was a Supernatural, and most Supernaturals don’t realize who their signasti is until they complete the bond—which we never did. Signastis can’t use their powers to harm each other once the bond begins to form. That’s how I figured it out after he was gone.”

  I recalled the number of times I’d hurt Aaron in my year at Daizlei. The glass that I threw him through during our time in the simulator. Yet, only a few months ago, I couldn’t even push him aside. I had to move a couch to get him out of my way.

  He’d told me then that it was because of our bond. I’d never thought much on it until this moment.

  “And now?” I asked. “How are you defeating the bond madness now if clearly the bond had started to form?” She gave me a look like she knew what I was getting at.

  Did you find a way to break it?

  It was the question on my lips, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to ask it.

  “There’s no way to break the bond.” Her eyes flashed with what looked like a warning. “But when neither person wants the bond, and enough distance is put between them, it goes into a stasis of sorts. We still experience the madness, but it creeps in much slower. It’s like…freezing it. Eventually it will get to us, but it hasn’t yet, and it probably won’t for years to come.”

  I released her hands and pinched the bridge of my nose as my eyes fell shut. I turned, pacing in place for a minute, and then two, before I finally said what I was thinking.

  “If all it takes is neither of us wanting it, why hasn’t mine stopped?” I asked her. She swallowed and gave me a level look.

  “You already know why.” She flicked her gaze past the bonfire to where Aaron stood messing around with Keyla fifty yards away. It looked like she was mouthing off—shocker—and he picked her up, slinging her over his massive shoulder. She screamed and squawked like a bird, wiggling in his grip.

  “He can’t possibly want to be bonded to me,” I whispered.

  “If you think that then you’re a fool,” she replied sharply. I whipped my face around to glare at her. “You think I don’t see how you look at each other? How you tense up whenever Jessa goes near him? You wear a good mask, Selena, but I know your tells. He’s not the only one that wants this bond, and you’re lying to both of us if you tell me otherwise.”

  She lifted both her eyebrows, waiting for me to say something. To refute it.

  “How do I know that anything I feel isn’t just the damn bond? You said yourself, you thought you were in love before and I don’t think I’m in love, but I don’t know what I am. He knows just how to get under my skin, but then calms me when no one else can.” I threw my hands up and the winds followed. Blair smirked, looking around us as cups flew towards the trees and the fire shot up twenty feet in the air. I took a deep breath, releasing the wind and dropping my hands to my sides while I was at it.

  “I can’t tell you what you are or aren’t feeling. That’s not my place. What I can say, is that whatever feeling you have is entirely your own. The bond makes it easy to love them, and almost impossible to leave. I thought I was going to have to rip my heart out when I rejected Alec, but I’m ali
ve and smiling to this day.” She quirked up her lips looking at something over my shoulder. A familiar tug in my chest told me exactly who was coming our way.

  Blair reached across and squeezed my shoulder before disappearing into the crowd.

  Chapter 23

  “What were you and Blair talking about that had you so up in arms?” a rough voice asked behind me. I turned to see Aaron still holding Keyla over his shoulder.

  “Nothing important,” I said smoothly.

  “Put me down, Aaron! You—you imbecile! Ha! Yeah, I said it—whatcha going to do—agh!” she screamed as he flung her in the air fifteen feet or so, then caught her with ease. “I should murder you,” she hissed as he set her back on the ground with a gentleness I rarely saw in him.

  “I don’t think you want that. Who’s going to convince them to let you be the stag if I’m dead?” Keyla’s eyes lit up like twin yellow moons and she threw her arms around him.

  “The stag?” I asked.

  “For the wild hunt,” Keyla answered. “The stag goes to hide in the forest and then the Shifters are let loose. The first one to find the stag wins.”

  The blood drained from my face as I looked between the two of them. Kayla beamed up at me with an innocent smile and shadows began to creep into my vision.

  Goddamnit. Not now.

  “Are you okay?” Keyla asked, moving to hug me. Aaron reached forward and snatched her fingers away just before she touched me.

  Good. At least he had some sense.

  “What are you thinking sending her into the forest right now?” I snapped at him. “After what happened at Daizlei, how could you possibly think it’s safe?” My voice rose to an almost hysteria. Aaron pushed Keyla to the side and stepped towards me. Into the very space he stopped his sister from crossing.

  “It is safe. For nearly fifty miles in every direction, this is Shifter territory. Keyla knows the rules and she won’t stray beyond that,” he said softly. I didn’t realize when his fingers wrapped around my upper arms, lightly massaging circles into them.

  “I don’t care. It’s not safe for her,” I growled. That seemed to perk up some ears. Several bodies moved closer to us, but I had no idea who.

  “Who are you to speak to our future Alpha that way?” a sharp voice scolded. I froze beneath Aaron’s fingertips, the shadows once again pushing their way to forefront.

  No. Not here. The last thing I needed was to take ten steps back by killing a Shifter on their territory.

  That would send me right over the ledge.

  I took a deep breath, and then another.

  “She is my signasti, Jessa, and you would do well to remember it,” Aaron snapped at her. If only she had the good sense to stay quiet.

  “I’m having a hard time believing that with the way she cowers. No true signasti of an Alpha would hide behind her partner,” Jessa argued.

  I wanted to cover my ears. To stop the talking. This was exactly why I didn’t raise my fist today. Why I wouldn’t train. The urge to hurt something was rearing its ugly head the longer that went by. How could I possibly chance it after everything I’d done? The people I’d killed...

  How could I justify that?

  The answer was simple.

  I couldn’t.

  I wouldn’t.

  “What? No answer? Color me shocked,” she continued. “You call her your signasti, but all we see is a broken piece of Supernatural trash—”

  Fire drowned out her reply as it broke out across the clearing, swift and sudden. I shoved Aaron aside as I turned on my heel to face the direction where Jessa had been and to where Alexandra now stood. She scalded the earth with vengeful steps as she approached the now silent blonde.

  “You do not speak to her like that,” Alexandra said. The voice that spoke was not my sister. It was her demon.

  Fucking hell.

  Without thinking, I crossed the stretch of burning grass. Faster than lightening. Silent as the dead. I stepped between the demon that was my sister and the girl that did not deserve my protection. The eyes that stared back at me were not warm brown, but an endless darkness that sucked in all light that dared shine on them.

  I should have been terrified, but the creature before me was no different than myself.

  And if there’s anything I knew, it’s how to control the entity within.

  “I want Alexandra back. Right now,” I barked. My voice was every bit as cold and callous. The creature cocked her head slowly and fire pressed in around us.

  “The Shhhifter overstepped herssself,” the demon hissed out of my sister’s mouth. The flames surged against my skin, burning at my clothes.

  She was testing me. Seeing how far I was willing to go, but the demon should already know that answer.

  For my sisters, I would do anything.

  “She’s ignorant and jealous. That doesn’t justify death,” I replied just as cold, letting my own demon surface entirely. I used my own power to thicken the air and take control of the flames.

  That got her attention.

  She took a step back, but I advanced on her.

  Alexandra may be powerful, but she and her demon both knew I could put her in her place. She knew what I could do if push came to shove, and even her demon, who came to my defense, did not want to test that. I curled my fingers and sucked the flames inward, towards us and away from the Shifters that lurked on the sidelines.

  Watching a battle between two sisters.

  Two demons.

  “Alexandra. Now. I will not ask again,” I commanded in a snarl, redirecting the flames at her with a snap. They poured down like sky fire, relentless in their assault.

  The demon stared through the flames and gave a slight bow of its head.

  Alexandra dropped to her knees in the dirt, and I extinguished the fire immediately, leaving only the bonfire burning like nothing had ever happened.

  “I’m sorry,” Alexandra whispered hoarsely. She still hadn’t opened her eyes, but the voice of the girl before me wasn’t lifeless or cold.

  “I know.” I went to her, crouching down on my knees over the charred earth.

  I reached inside myself to call my own demon back, and for the first time, she went without question.

  We were equal now, in every way, but my sister and her other self were not.

  “I didn’t mean for that to happen, I just got so angry when I heard her talking to you like that. She has no idea what we’ve been through, what you have…” Alexandra said roughly. I slipped two fingers under her chin and lifted her face.

  “Listen to me,” I said. “You have another being inside of you. One that is going to get angry sometimes. It’s going to want to scratch and claw, even kill, but that doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s what you do with that power that matters. Do you understand me?” My voice was strong, softened from the icy tone I used to command the dark entity down. This was the role I’d played for her enough of my life that I knew it like the back of my hand. Hard enough to give her reassurance, pliant enough that I wasn’t overbearing.

  Alexandra drew her eyes up from the ground slowly, and only when she searched over every visible part of my skin that the fire had burned clothes from did she nod.

  I sighed deeply, exhausted to the bone, and lifted my head to the crowd.

  “Where’s Tori?” I asked. The ground shifted as someone slowly came toward us. I didn’t have to look to know it was the girl in question.

  “Here,” she said behind me.

  “Do you feel comfortable enough to take her back to the residence and stay with her tonight?”

  Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have been so blunt with her, but I had two reasons. The first is that I already knew what she would say, and she was probably one of only three people that would. The second is that I wanted my sister to see it and hear it, because the second someone called her a monster it was all over.

  She needed to believe that she wasn’t a bad person, and that started with Tori’s response.
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br />   “Of course,” she said without hesitation. I released a breath and stood to my full height, pulling my red-headed sister up with me. All I had to do was step to the side and Tori filled the void where I had been. She wrapped her arms around Alexandra, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

  I turned to the crowd gathered around the ashen circle and raised my chin defiantly. They all needed to hear this, but one person in particular. I crossed the ten yards at the same speed Tori used to teleport out. Appearing directly in front of a very tall blond who’s normally lovely skin looked rather pale at the sight of me standing before her.

  “Let me make myself very clear,” I said, using small threads of power to project my voice over the hundreds of Shifters gathered. “I saved your life tonight. I could have just as easily let her burn you alive—and she would have—because unlike me, you are not fireproof.” She stumbled back, and the group parted. No one caught her, and no one stopped me as I took another step.

  “So this is what’s going to happen. You are going to repay me in the only way I deem acceptable: by keeping your mouth shut. You will not continue to challenge me. You will not test my patience again, and you damn sure will not say a single fucking word to her.”

  She stumbled back again, tripping over a tree root in her haste. She landed on her ass, looking up at me with large blue eyes. I parted my lips and breathed in the scent of her fear, but I wouldn’t revel in it. That was where I drew the line.

  “Do I make myself crystal clear? Because I will not give you a second warning. Next time you try something, I am going to challenge you to a duel, and I will make burning alive look like child’s play. By the time I walk out of the ring you will wish I killed you. You will beg me for death. Do you understand?” My voice was not my demon’s, nor was it the one I talked Alexandra down with. It was my voice, filled with resolute determination and anger. It spoke of the darkness inside me. It was all that I was, am, and ever will be.

  It was the voice of the leader and the assassin.