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My father frowned at me.

“Thea, why would you do that?” His disappointment doused my anger slightly.

“They called me Crimson’s whore.”

My father opened his mouth to talk, but Gwyn stepped forward before he could.

Gwyn’s eyes bore into me with such disgust. “You better get a better grip on yourself because I will not let you destroy our image any more than you already have. You did this to yourself by sleeping with that monster, Cassius, so if others call you Crimson’s whore, just know you earned that title yourself.”

“Gwyn!” my father yelled at her.

At her harsh words, the last of my control left me. I felt my darkness escape me, and I smiled as it crept along the ground toward Gwyn. Without warning, it coiled around her and lifted her a few feet into the air. I forced the darkness to tighten on her, slowly restricting her breathing. I wanted to punish her, and my darkness was urging me to just do it. I could kill her without lifting a finger.

“Thea…” My father’s panicked voice made me pause. “Don’t hurt her.”

I stepped toward Gwyn, and I could practically taste the fear her body pumped out. Stars above, her fear only fueled my darkness more. It took every ounce of restraint I had to pull my darkness back. My body trembled with pain as it tried to claw its way out of me again.

“One day, you’ll regret what you just said to me,” I promised before dropping her to the ground roughly. My fingers dug into my palms so hard that I could feel warm blood seeping through them.

Gwyn started wailing, and I just stared at her with disgust. My darkness felt pleasure in watching her cry. And, like a monster, I also felt happy about it.

“I will not be treated like this. I did not come here to be treated worse than Crimson ever treated me.”

My father whipped his head around, his green eyes full of anger. His lips curled.

“You will never compare my kingdom to Crimson. Everything there was a lie!”

"Well, fake or not, they could at least pretend to enjoy my presence for a night,” I said, just to get back at him and his terrible wife.

“Please, you must give us time to try,” he begged. “How dare you treat us like this. We are your family.”

His words stopped my anger almost immediately. My darkness retreated inside of me enough to allow shame to fill me.

“Is everything alright?” Jesper’s voice broke through my guilt and angered me all over again. This started because he was an asshole.

“Thea’s lost her fucking mind,” Gwyn declared.

Jesper turned toward me and frowned. Tally and Mae were coming up behind him too. They slowed down when they saw their mother crying hysterically.

“What did you do?” Tally yelled.

I ignored her and focused on the way my sisters curled into my father’s side for protection. The sight of him holding them safe from me, the monster, made me sick.

“You’re a monster!” Mae cried out when she saw her mother.

I gave them a small smile. My darkness swirled around me in an angry vortex.

They were right. I was a monster. I couldn’t even keep myself together for one night. I turned away from them and headed into the woods, walking without thought as far as I could. Once I was far enough away from them, a vicious scream tore through me. The pain I felt and the power that I released as a result of it leftme in waves, ripping trees from their roots and scorching the forest around me. Power pulsed from me violently. I had never felt so upset with myself. I had never wanted to explode and take everything around me out like this.

I fell to my knees as my power quickly drained from me. Tears filled my eyes, knowing I had probably made things worse for myself here. How could I win them over and prove my loyalty to them if Cassius had damaged me so much that I couldn’t even turn an eye to one hateful comment?

I cried because I did not think anything would fill this void I had become. There was no cure for this silence that lived inside of me. Nothing brought me happiness. I looked forward to nothing. Hopelessness filled me and gripped me so tightly that I thought I would die. My lungs couldn’t get enough air. My heart palpated, causing a sharp pain in my chest as I tried sucking in a deep breath.

I was dying. I had to be. Desperately, I tried to take a deep breath, but I still couldn’t get enough air. Tears blurred my vision as I looked around.

My mind froze in shock as Wisp suddenly appeared near me. It was the first time I had seen her since Cassius’ betrayal. She turned away and floated deeper into the forest, her flames a bright white.

“Wisp!” I called out to her, but she flickered farther into the forest, like I was supposed to follow her. I reached out as I kneeled on the dirt, still unable to move. “Please, don’t leave me!” I begged her. She kept getting farther and farther away until, eventually, she was completely out of sight.