Page 49 of The Incendiary

“Shit.” The power began to surge. I dropped my hand to my side, away from Shera, and attempted to hold it in. But like the water in the showers two days ago, light burst from my hand in all directions. A blinding flash painted the forest around us in pure daylight so jarring and violent that my vision needed ample time to recover.

Shera blinked away the shock before returning to grooming herself. I was relieved to disprove the one thing I’d feared the most.

Ezra had told me that the Butcher was a messy killer. Perhaps he once had been, and the scary stories people told their children exaggerated what once was. From what I’d seen with my own eyes, he was too good at killing to leave this kind of mess. I’d never forget how peaceful Phillip and Oliver had looked. The slits across their throats had been so precise.

Not like this man, who had struggled. If the Butcher had killed this man, there wouldn’t have been a chance for a struggle. I didn’t know who did this, but I was sure who didn’t.

“Someone killed him.” Shera spoke the obvious mind-to-mind.

“I don’t think he’s an Insidion,” I answered her. “Though I suppose he could be a spy.”

“What if it’s one of yours?” she asked.

Confusion and dread flowed through me. “One of mine?”

“One of your people.”

Despite accepting I was queen, I was unaccustomed to the idea of people being mine. It felt odd. Everyone on the continent was meant to fall under my rule, but I knew what Shera meant: This person could be a resident of the Caves or the Barracks.

And if that were the case, there was one person who needed to be immediately informed of this.

“Damn it,” I grumbled. I bent down, kissed the top of Shera’s head, and turned back toward the fortress.

“I’ll try to come back out and meet you soon,” I told her. “Be safe and stay hidden.”

“I will,” she promised. “Where are you going?”

I didn’t answer. I was already too mentally exhausted by the conversation I was about to have with Elias Winterton.

FOURTEEN

ARYELLA

For nine years, I searched for you. I searched this entire gods-damned continent before I finally accepted that Simeon was using his magic to keep you from me. So instead, I found him. I begged him to give you back, but he refused. It’s tragic, really. I would have joined him. I would have done absolutely anything if he’d agreed to put me to sleep beside you. So we could face this life together.

You were all I asked for. Not power or wealth or magic. Just you. But Simeon loves control. He had his plan, and I wasn’t a part of it.

Simeon was hell-bent on getting what he wanted.

Unfortunately for him, so was I.

—FROM THE BUTCHER OF NYRIDA’S LAST KNOWN LETTERS TO QUEEN ARYELLA I

I jogged back to the fortress, this time with less speed and enthusiasm, and snuck past the guards to reach Elias’s door. A feat far easier in the dark than the dawn light. Only the sound of gravel beneath my feet could give me away, but I kept my steps light.

I waited for the guards to stroll out of earshot before lifting my fist to knock.

“Fuck, Eli! Harder! Oh! Yes! Fuck me!”

The cold air nipped at my wide eyes, and my mouth fell open at the sounds of moaning and filthy words. My gut reaction, borne from discomfort, was to laugh. Then I heard a gratuitous, mewling sound from a woman. No. Two? One moaning, one giggling salaciously.

My body was caught off guard. Heat pooled between my legs, and I hated myself for it. I stood there for far too long and listened, sickeningly entranced by the carnal sounds on the other side of that door. The fast, wet slapping of skin. The simpering moans that climbed, fell, and rose again.

An empty pit of curious need burrowed itself into my core, clenching as pleasure trickled down my spine. Part of me wanted to know what it felt like. But I didn’t think it would feel good, not in the way I truly craved. Not in the warm, aching, freeing way I felt every time Gavin looked at me.

Elias was the man I was meant to marry in this life. I knew I should feel betrayed and devastated that he had other women in his bed, but I only felt disgust. At him, for treating it so flippantly. At myself, for my morbid curiosity. Elias’s exploits didn’t bother me, even if they should have.

All I could think was, I miss him.