Realm of Wind and Vines (Flame and Thorns, #4)

by Marion Blackwood

We’re right here. In the Seelie Court. And I have time. I can go and visit my parents, if I want. I could go and check with my magic and finally get my answer.

What if I’m wrong? What if there is no manufactured flame of hatred in their chests? What if they really do simply resent me?

I almost drowned in that black ocean that is just one second away from crashing down over me at any given time. If I go there now and find out that my parents do in fact hate me, I won’t be able to handle it. It will be the final drop that makes that tiny light of hope inside my chest go out.

can find out the truth about my parents later. When I’m in a better place mentally.

It makes him look both like a weary thousand-year-old man who has seen too much and an overwhelmed twenty-year-old boy who just wants to go home at the same time.

This composure and power that he always exudes is a mask

he let his mask slip for a few seconds so that he could catch his breath. And I saw it. And he knows that I saw it.

“No, I’m not okay. I’m fucking tired!”

“Do you have any idea how fucking exhausting it is to always be the one in charge? To always be the one who needs to come up with all the plans and make sure that everything runs smoothly?

To be the one responsible for seeing everything through. For checking everything. Planning. Organizing. Mediating. Delegating. Doing everything. Always being responsible for everything. While half of the world hates me for something that I couldn’t even control!”

should’ve done more. I should’ve helped more.

I can’t even make sense of my own emotions anymore!”

“I hate you so much, and I don’t even really understand why. I just hate everything about you.”

at the same time, I want you so fucking badly that I can barely breathe. Which just makes me hate you even more. I’m ...

this is all my fault. I am the reason why he is struggling right now.

I did that. I forced this hard existence onto him.

I wasn’t smart enough to see through the lies and deceit. I just believed him. Just like I always believed everything that I was told while living in the Seelie Court. Like an ignorant child.

I thought I had grown. Changed. Become smarter. Better. Stronger. But I hadn’t. I ruined our relationship

over nothing. I ruined it. I ruine...

I hurt Draven. He is struggling and in pain because of what I did to him. And I can’t even try to comfort him. Can’t even try to help him. Because he hates me. Everything I do and everything I say will only make it worse.

I ruined it. I ruined everything. I always ruin everything.

Just because our society is structured like this now doesn’t mean that this is the way it should be structured. Just because we were born into the time and age that we were, we think that this is the normal way to live. But what’s normal isn’t always right.”

“The Red Clan is fierce and proud,”

It’s like watching a master archer shoot the wings off a fly.

This is the man who has tormented and punished us all my life. The man who has killed and hurt and humiliated any fae who dared to step out of line. And now, I hold his life in the palm of my hand.

“I thought you were my friend. I confided in you. I tried to help you. And you betrayed me.”

“Yes, friends tend to do that.”

When I tried to connect my magic to her emotions, something went wrong. No, something is wrong. With her. The moment my magic connected with her, it was like being hit by a wall of tens of thousands of screaming people. It was almost physically painful.

“You could help us. You’re one of us, so why are you helping them?”

“Sorry,” I give him a smile full of sarcasm. “Next time, I’ll make sure to hire a master of ceremonies to announce me.”

Lmao

This is it. Our entire plan hinges on this moment. If we screw this up, we’re doomed.

All my life, other people have been ordering me around. Everyone from the dragon shifters who patrol our court to the master of the Fishing Guild to the leaders of the fae resistance to random strangers in town who simply want their own needs met. So to have this kind of absolute power over someone, where they obey my every word, feels shockingly good.

he looks disturbingly like a real person with real emotions.

You are animals. No better than horses. This is where you belong.”

In theory, I knew that it must have been horrible for the dragon shifters who were enslaved by that small group of entitled fae who trapped them with dragon steel when they refused to form a normal partnership with them. But this was worse than I was expecting.

suddenly understand. I understand exactly why Bane and Jessina slaughtered the people who enslaved them. I understand why they trapped the remaining fae inside the Seelie Court. I understand why they made us live in filth and poverty. I even understand why they began sterilizing us.

It was for revenge.

I actually understand why the Icehearts hate us all so much. And they’re right to. They are right to hate the people who did all of these awful things to them.

I used to look at him and Jessina as monsters who were just evil simply because they wanted to be. But they’re not. They were humiliated and violated and tormented too.

Memories of how my stomach has ached all my life when I’ve only been allowed one single meal a day. Memories of all the drunk and ragged people who are drowning their sorrows in alcohol all across our court. Memories of how we were forced to kill and hurt each other during the Atonement Trials.

Memories of Draven standing on a mountainside while the Icehearts whip his wings to shreds. Memories of the blood that ran down his ruined wings and the world-ending pain that he had to endure. Memories of them using dragon steel to take away Draven’s free will for two hundred years.

Yes, that small group of entitled fae assholes who enslaved them and did all of those horrible things to them deserved everything they got. But we did not. The way they were treated by those people doesn’t justify how they have treated all of us who are completely innocent of those crimes. They have been punishing fae for generations for a crime that we have not committed.

I once again remember the feeling of that world-ending pain that Draven had to endure after his wings were whipped to shreds. And it wasn’t the first and only time they did that. They whipped his wings like that every day for six years.

I’m going to fucking kill them for that alone.

The dark fury inside me is swallowing my whole soul.

“She took him.

Sheer horror washes through me when I realize where it’s coming from. The mate bond. I can feel Draven’s pain through our flickering mate bond.

She thinks I’m cruel? Oh, we have only scratched the fucking surface

how cruel and vicious I can really be.

I increase the strength of my magic until Bane’s mind almost breaks. I can feel it, like a fragile eggshell that only requires one more tap to shatter.