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“Yes.”

Struggling, she pushed to her feet, retreating from me. “You shouldn’t be near me.”

“You won’t hurt me.” I stood up, flinching as I tore the wound my body was trying to heal.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” And I did. I had no idea why, but I did.

“I’m not good like you.” She stepped back even farther, her gaze never meeting mine. “It’s why I kept the bracelet on. To protect others from me. I am the monster you fear.”

“I am not afraid of monsters.” Regaining the space she put between us, I cradled her face, gripping it harder than I planned, needing her to look at me. I wiped the blood under her nose and eyes. “I surround myself with them.”

Her eyes snapped to mine, her body trembling under my touch, weak with fatigue, but she held herself strong.

“Now, I think it’s time you tell me the truth,” I rumbled.

Raven swallowed, distress dancing in her green eyes.

“The whole truth,” I gritted, gripping her chin harder. “What the fuck are you? What I just saw… none of it should be possible.”

Her lips pinched.

“Tell. Me. Now. Raven.”

Her expression shifted from trepidation to strength, her chin rising in my grip, her shoulders pushing back.

“I’m a dark dweller.” She swallowed. “And a Druid.”

Dark Dwellers were known as the assassins in the Otherworld, rare and greatly feared. If you saw one, you were already dead. I had actually met a few of them when we fought Istvan the year prior when the Dae Ember and her mate Eli helped us.

But to be thatanda Druid. It should be impossible.

“Not just a Druid, but a natural Obscurer.”

“What?” My hand dropped away from her, stumbling back, feeling the first twist of actual fear, no longer feeling the bullet embedded in my gut. “A natural Obscurer?”

They were unheard of. Natural Obscurers were powerful Druids born ofblackmagic embedded into their DNA from their mothers. They went against everything in the Druid world of white magic.

Druids could train in black magic, but it was almost nonexistent to be born with it. It required anextremelypowerful Druid to not “poison” her unborn child with black magic, killing them.

Druids had different magic than us, which fae already hated, but Druids mixing in black magic terrified us. They could control fae minds, bend us to their wills. And Obscurers were the darkest of Druids. The most rare anddeadly.

“No.” I swallowed, already knowing the truth but not wanting to believe it. There were rumors of two twins being born, but I heard nothing about them. “It’s impossible to be both.”

“Tell that to my parents and twin brother.” She smiled coolly.

“No.” I shook my head, putting the puzzle pieces together. I took another step back, dread pounding my heart. Seeing her in a new light, I realized why so many recognized her, why she held herself with such grace and poise. I could now see the resemblance, the mannerisms. The signs were all there for me, and I missed them.

Standing in a pool of blood and bodies she created, I stared at the pretty coed I had met in a bar over a month ago, by happenchance, not aware of the ties weaving around us, making our lives inevitably linked.

“You see it, don’t you? Who my parents are?”

“I need to hear it from you,” I muttered, requiring affirmation, though the truth was right before me.

“I am Raven Haley Scarlet Dragen,” Raven stated, her chin rising with pride. “Twin sister to Rook Jared Raghnall.” She pushed her shoulders back. “I am the daughter of Queen Kennedy and Lorcan Dragen.”

She wasn’t just some bored rich college girl… she was royalty.

An actual fucking princess.

“Well.” I swallowed. “Fuck.”

To be Continued…