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Pushing to stand, her own wounds starting to bother her now, she straightened her spine as she turned to face her aunt, keeping herself between Kian and the demon of her childhood.

Just another enemy. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“Put the knife down, Bryndis,” her aunt hissed as she stepped forward. Bryn hadn’t noticed she’d grabbed a dagger dropped to the ground by a dead wraith as she stood. That part of her, death incarnate, was pushing back up into the driver’s seat of her mind, and she doubted she would ever get it back in the cage.

And honestly, she didn’t want to if it could protect her and those she loved from Mallory.

“Stay back or I will end you as I did the rest.” Bryn’s voice was more than just hers. The monster rose to meet the challenge that Mallory’s appearance held as she stood before her.

“I am sorry, Bryn,” her aunt apologized, and she stared into Mallory’s eyes looking for the truth. Her mind confused, she stepped toward Mallory.

“Wh—”

Before Bryn could formulate the words, a searing pain roared through her belly. Her hands going to where the fire emanated from, she felt the blade sticking out from her. A gut wound. Bryn knew enough about those from some of the ranchers’ injuries that such a wound would not be a quick death.

Mallory stepped back after having stabbed her, leaving the blade in Bryn.

“You never should have been brought to us. I warned your father over and over again you were a changeling and would be nothing but a curse.” Her aunt spat at her feet, the knife she’d stabbed Bryn with was holding her blood loss at bay while she finished her tirade. “But he wouldn’t listen, thinking you were his daughter from the gods. Blasphemy. I am glad everyone you love is dead.”

Looking Mallory straight in the eyes, she stepped toward her aunt.

“May the wild hunt take your black soul.” Bryn ripped the blade from her side, knowing she would die faster now, but she didn’t care. With it, she stabbed Mallory right in her black heart, before ripping the blade back out and dropping it to the ground.

Unable to focus, Bryn hit her knees, falling onto her side in the sand, her blood mixing with the others’ lost in the battle of Ifreann. Her vision turned red as the monster rose from within with the word “kill” on its tongue.

But the monster was in a mortal body, and as she lost her lifeblood, it grew weaker.

Fire pulsed through her weakening veins, her mind lost to the shock that her father might have known who she was all along.

A clawed hand went around her neck, picking her up from where she had fallen into the sand. Daran stared down at her, making his appearance after abandoning Arioch in the battle, leaving his leader to his death at her hands. Probably to save his own hide.

She attempted to pull from him, but he smiled with long, yellow teeth. Not at all worried she had just ended his betrothed. It seemed in the end the only one who cared most about Mallory had been Mallory.

And Jace. Oh, Jace! He had lost both family members this day. The sudden will to live pushed through her as she clawed at Daran’s beastly hand around her neck.

Bryn could hear screams, some her name, some her aunt’s, as the smell of panic grew stronger than the coppery smell of blood.

Words stuck in her throat as Daran leaned into her face.

“I knew you’d bring death, but I had no idea you’d try to kill us all. I am going to enjoy the taste of your blood, witch,” Daran spoke into her mind right before his mouth was at her throat, his teeth digging in.

It felt like a lifetime, but it had been mere seconds from the point of him biting her until he ripped her throat out, dropping her to the ground like a used doll no longer cared for.

The pain in her throat seared through her as the blood gurgled from her torn flesh. Her body seized on the ground before the numbness took over, and then she knew, deep down, she was on the verge of her soul leaving its mortal form.

She would see them all again, and she knew that Justin, Declan, Travis, and Kian were waiting on her to cross over.

With that thought in her heart, Bryn let death take her.

Death.

Home.

Chapter 50

Faeriewasasbrightas she remembered it, yet the only one of her friends there to greet her was Travis.

“You sure can dole out a hell of a fight when provoked.” Travis laughed, the light in his eyes catching the brightness of the world around them.