Fateful Magic (The Star-Crossed Series Book 8) (4 page)

I snapped my head to the side and let out a deadly
snarl. They would not take me back to those prisons to rot.

They would have to kill me first.

I hated the feeling of the cage, of even the Titans as
they circled me. The animal instinct inside me rejected every notion of being
locked up or trapped with no way to escape. And they would restrict my Magic.

That was the worst. That felt worse than death. Losing
my Magic like that… not having access to my life’s blood, to the soul of my
soul… I couldn’t go through that again.

I let out another roar and then launched myself at the
nearest Titan. I bit at his face and clawed at his chest. He screamed in
protest and tried to scramble away while I sunk my teeth into his jugular.
Blood spurted into my mouth, but in animal form it was easy to ignore.

The other Titans leapt on my back and tried to grapple
some part of me under control. I continued to move and use my sharpened claws
to evade them. They reinforced their efforts but so did I.

When the Titan beneath me was subdued, I turned to
attack another. I planned to destroy them all.
Every last one
of them.

And I wouldn’t stop there. I’d go after Lucan next.

And then
Kiran
if I had to.

“Lilly.” The Titan that faced me now looked anguished.
“Lilly, stop.”

I roared at him instead. How dare he show up
here.
How dare he be a part of this!

“Lilly,” his voice broke. He held out a deadly,
life-ending sword and those damned handcuffs.

No.
He couldn’t.

I shook my head, unable to speak in this form.

“You have no choice,” he told me. “The Resistance has
fallen. You have to come with us.”

I shook my head harder.
Never
, I thought.
I will
never go with you.
   

I hadn’t spoken out loud, but he somehow picked up my
meaning. His dark eyes looked impossibly pained and his shoulders slumped as if
he had been defeated.

Only, he hadn’t been. His side was winning. They
picked us off one by one, decimating our rebellion and ending lives.

And now I was next.

“I have no choice, Lilly.” His accent was thick with
the anguish in his tone, but I forced myself not to pay attention. I didn’t
believe that he cared. I didn’t believe that he gave a damn, not one single
damn that I would have to go back to that place.

I remembered a moment after I’d returned to Kingsley,
after
Kiran
had given me the pardon.
Talbott
had cornered me in one of the long hallways and
touched my arm with his strong hand.

“You’re free now,” he said. “Free to do as you
please.”

I flinched at his words because I knew they weren’t
true. “I’m just happy to be out of prison,” I deflected.

He took my other bicep with his other hand and pulled
me to just a few inches from him. “And you’ll never go back,” he swore. “I
won’t ever let you go back.”

But he was a liar.

He wanted me to go back and he was going to be the one
that put me there.

Damn him. And damn the sense of betrayal I felt.

I
Shifted
back to my human
form. For the first time in my life, he made me feel embarrassed to be a
Shifter.

I had been afraid to reveal my true nature before. I’d
been careful to hide who I was my whole life, but out of necessity. Not because
I was ashamed of my ability or
Magic
.

He made me feel this way.

Against my better judgment, I’d come to care about him
in a way I couldn’t even admit to myself. I couldn’t stand before him as an
animal while he coaxed me to my death, while he encouraged me to give up all my
rights, all my Magic.

I was humiliated standing there on all fours.
Utterly humiliated.

In my human form, he seemed even more distraught, but
I could not let his stupid emotions affect mine. He was part of the end of me.
He had helped bring down the Resistance. And yet, whenever I’d seen him over
the last few months, he had pursued me with unwavering intensity.

What if I would have said yes to him any of those
times before? Or let him kiss me? What if I would have given in at any time?

Would I already be back in prison?

Was his interest in me just a tactic to bring down the
Resistance?

Now I was humiliated
and
heartbroken.

“How could you?” I demanded. “How could you do this?”

“I didn’t!” he shouted at me. “I didn’t know.”

I shook my head again, only this time it was not my
animal form, so my red curls bounced around my face and got caught in the tears
I hadn’t realized I started shedding.

My voice betrayed me by breaking when I tried to speak
again. “I don’t believe you.”

“Lilly,” he pleaded.

Titans stood at my back and a sword jabbed into my
side. They wrestled my arms behind my back and latched those horrific handcuffs
onto my wrists. I knew how this went
down,
I’d been
through it before. But that didn’t mean I had to cooperate.

I struggled and fought all the way back to one of
their trucks that was idled ready to haul us all back to Romania. I had no
access to any of my Magic and my natural energy had been zapped completely
during the battle. I was a prisoner.

Again.

Only this time, I was sure I wouldn’t make it out
alive.

How many chances could one girl get? Luck didn’t
fortune the brave; it fell to the wealthy and powerful.
And
on very specific occasions, to Royalty.

I was none of those things. My survival streak would
run out eventually. I had no doubt about that.

Talbott followed me to the truck that would carry me
away, trying to speak to me but I would not listen to him. I refused to listen
to anything else he wanted to say.

“Get your hands off her!” he suddenly barked.

The Titans that had been carrying me dropped me to the
ground. I fell in a painful heap on the hard rock and dirt.

Talbott was in my face in the next second, muttering
curses at the other Titans and lifting me by the armpits. Once I stood on my
feet again, he continued to hold me there, just inches from his chest.

A different kind of pain washed over me, and I
wondered what was worse? Losing my Magic? Or this boy I had come to trust and
want to know better?

Not that I could do either of those things now.

He betrayed me. I would hate him forever. I would
never forgive him for this.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he swore to me.
The conviction in his tone made my heart squeeze in my chest. I hated that. I
hated that he could still get to me.

Why couldn’t I just shut myself off to him? We didn’t
even have a relationship. We’d barely had a friendship. I shouldn’t have these
feelings. I shouldn’t care about him at all anymore.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you again, Lilly. You have my
word.” His hands had slipped to my waist where he clutched me roughly.

Ironically, this was the most-intimate position we’d
ever been in. And if you counted the handcuffs, it was also the kinkiest.

“I don’t want your word.” I looked away from him. I
had to avoid those eyes. They would crush me if I let myself look in their dark
depths. “I don’t want anything from you. Not even your protection.”

“You’ll get it anyway,” he growled at me.

A bitter laugh bubbled out of me. “God, why are you
doing this? The joke is over! You don’t have to keep pretending, Talbott. You
got what you came for and now I’m going where I belong. Just stop. I’m tired of
it.”

“What are you talking about? What joke? What do you
mean?”

“This!” I swung my head back to face him and made the
mistake of meeting his gaze. Those chocolate eyes looked back at me with a
brokenness I felt in my core. His pain flashed across his face with the agony
that I felt too. I shouldn’t have looked at him!
“This stupid
thing between us.
I get it. You used me while
Kiran
used Eden.
I get it.
But it’s over
now. Lucan has what he wants. The Resistance is dismantled. The Monarchy has
control over Eden. The Crown Prince is happy. You can stop pretending now.”

“I’m not pretending-”

His explanation was cut off when Eden’s shrill,
angered voice screamed through the night. Something unfurled inside me,
something dark and ugly. New fear surged in my blood and I fought the handcuffs
that restricted my innate abilities.

If they hurt her, I would kill them.
Every last one of them.

Starting with
Kiran
.

Talbott glanced over his shoulder, looking anxious and
a little lost. His duty was with
Kiran
. He felt
compelled to return to him. And hearing the way Eden screamed into the night, I
was with him in believing
Kiran
was in danger.

Good.

I hoped she gutted him.

“I have to go.”

I sneered at him. “Good. Go.”

“I will protect you, Lilly Mason. I swear it.”

“I don’t want your help, Talbott Angelo. I don’t want
anything to do with you ever again.” I let the truth of my words sink in before
I added the finishing touch. “I swear it.”

His face crumbled in front of me. His entire body
seemed to sag with the weight of my words. But he couldn’t stick around to say
anything more. Duty called and he had no choice but to return to
Kiran
.

I watched him go while the remaining Guard loaded me
into the truck with the others that had been captured. I felt my heart crack
apart at his retreat, the larger organ breaking off into smaller, jagged
pieces.

I hated him. I hated him for doing this to my friends
and loved ones. I hated him for being a part of something so ugly and
destructive, something that had ruined my life so completely. I hated him for
doing this to me, after he’d promised that he cared about me and forced me to
care about him in return.

And that was what I hated the most. I hated that my
heart hurt because he wasn’t here. I hated that I felt pain just because he
felt pain.

I hated that I cared about him and that even now, even
beaten up, handcuffed and thrown in the back of a truck, I still felt more
concerned about his suffering than my own.

I would just have to force myself to get over that.
And more importantly… him.

Chapter Three

Now

“Nervous?”

I whirled around and threw out my arms immediately. It
was a good thing too, because Eden had launched herself at me and I just barely
caught her.

Our arms went around each other and we held on tight.
We both immediately started crying and I knew my makeup was ruined, but I
couldn’t care.

Eden and
Kiran
must have
just arrived because this was the first I’d seen of her and I was supposed to
walk down the aisle in a little over an hour. I would probably be late though.
I just didn’t want to let my best friend go.

“It’s so good to see you,” I whispered hoarsely against
her monstrous hair.

She started crying harder. Her tears soaked my neck
and shoulder, her torso shook with the force of her tears. Her bulging belly
bumped into me and I started crying harder too.

“Okay, you two, enough of the water works. You have to
walk down the aisle in an hour,
Lills
. You look like
hell.” Seraphina’s voice cut through my utter happiness and reminded me that
today really did have a purpose.

The aisle.
In
an hour.

Holy smokes, I
was getting married today.

I pulled back and met Eden’s black eyes with raised
eyebrows. She laughed at my terrified expression.

“Would you rather not marry him?” she asked quietly.

I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “No,” I
swore. “I’m not putting this off for a second longer.”

Eden smiled proudly at me. “You look beautiful.”

“She looks like a natural disaster victim,” Seraphina
cut in. “Get away from her. I need to fix this mess.”

Eden and I reluctantly stepped apart. I saw Amelia
hanging out in the background so I gave her a wave. She smiled and waved back
but then disappeared.
Talbott
had enlisted her to
help decorate the small outdoor space for the ceremony and reception.

Seraphina set right in to fix my ruined makeup and
messy hair. My gown had been bought in a boutique somewhere in Milan. My mother
had picked it out since
Talbott
and I flew straight
to the Italian vineyard we were using for the whole shindig. As many as our
friends and family that could make it on such short notice would join us and
celebrate our union with us.

Finally.

We were going to get married under the stars, in the
middle of acres and acres of grapevines and with those people that I loved the
most next to me. It was intimate and small. It was perfect for us.

Sebastian had actually suggested the vineyard. It was
a property that belonged to
Talbott’s
family. Since
Talbott
had no immediate family living, a distant cousin
had inherited the place and took care of the grounds. Sebastian had known about
the place and thought it would be a great place to have a small ceremony.
Talbott’s
cousin was more than welcoming when
Talbott
called with the idea.

We’d flown from my parent’s home in central Oregon the
day I’d woken up. We spent the last two days relaxing in the splendor of such a
beautiful place. Talbott filled me in on all that had happened since I’d been
gone and I allowed myself to start believing I was safe.