Page 69 of A Fate of Blood and Magic (Fated #2)

“How exactly do I look?” I asked, dropping my head to her forehead while I rubbed myself against her again. I drank in the delicious moan that I drew from her parted lips, but then she palmed me, and I had a hard time thinking straight.

“Looking for compliments?” she asked through heavy pants. “You look powerful,” she murmured, stealing my lips for a chaste kiss as she rubbed my cock through my pants. “Like a sexy god who could either strip me of my soul or save it.”

“Your soul belongs to me,” I reminded her.

“I love you,” she said.

Those three words were more than a simple statement. They were a promise of our future.

“I love you too.”

We both stared past our bedroom door when Pietro knocked on our front door again.

“Replace him with a different messenger,” Teddy said, her mouth turned into a deep frown.

I kissed the side of her lips. “Shall I demote him for doing his job?”

I captured her hand, and after I adjusted my pants, we made our way to the front door, where Pietro waited for us.

Although I hated relying on someone else’s magic to bend space for us, I gripped his forearm while Teddy held his shoulder.

When I nodded, he took us to Somnio, where I’d first created a tear in front of the tavern.

It was already alive with activity despite it not even being close to midday.

I walked through the tear with Teddy, bracing myself for the cold that awaited us in the human realm.

Teddy huddled behind the thin, long-sleeved shirt she wore that draped over one arm, exposing her left shoulder to the cold environment.

I should’ve urged her to wear something thicker but hoped this wouldn’t take long.

As my feet sank into the fluffy snow in the human realm, something, a net of sorts, landed over Teddy and me, entrapping us in its hold.

I hissed at the way the net burned any part of my skin that wasn’t covered by my fighting uniform.

I snarled at the scent of iron that engulfed me.

The iron seemed to leach into every fiber of my exposed flesh.

Although I no longer had magic, the iron net made my energy wane all the same.

Teddy’s wild eyes met mine, and I pulled her to my chest while Pietro crouched in front of us, slowly putting on a pair of work gloves before he grabbed my elbow.

Pietro glared at me. Heat radiated from the black orbs of his eyes.

I didn’t understand, or didn’t want to understand.

He was our traitor. After my parents had shown him kindness after his father’s betrayal, he chose the same route.

“Let’s go.” His canines pulled out as his eyes darkened.

Anger burned within me. I shrugged him off me, guiding Teddy behind me so I could leap on top of the messenger as he approached me again.

With the strength of my attack, Pietro landed on his back with a forceful breath pushing from his lungs.

I pressed the iron net against his face and pried his lips apart to shove it in his mouth.

His screams did nothing but drive me further into my primal instincts, where all I knew was violence. I relished in the scent of his burning skin, wanting to watch the iron mar every inch of his flesh.

“You will release us at once,” I said, my voice low but lethal with the power surging inside me.

Just as he bowed his head, I felt a rod press against my back. Before I could turn, an electric shock wracked through my body while every muscle in my body tensed. On an involuntary scream, I fell to the ground, where my body continued to pulse with a current that zapped through every nerve ending.

As quickly as the pain had wrecked me, it subsided. Growling, I pushed up to my feet, that still felt wobbly, only to stop when I saw two human males holding Teddy by her arms, with one pushing a black rod against her stomach.

I shook out my tingling hands, taking in the scent of Teddy’s fear and the tears she held back. I growled again, pacing in front of them as I tried to find where to attack. Given the right opportunity, I’d end these males who threatened my mate and the babes she housed in her belly.

“Come closer, and we’ll tase her,” one of the males said, pushing the rod harder against Teddy. His grip tightened when she tried to inch to the side, away from the rod. “She’ll survive like you did, but your kid might not.”

I saw the way her eyes narrowed and the way her lips pursed as she positioned her body to strike.

I narrowed my own eyes at the weapon held to her stomach and shook my head.

Understanding what I meant, her posture deflated.

It made my need to protect flare stronger, the need to kill even more violent.

When Pietro gripped my elbow this time, I let him guide us away from the tear while I kept a watchful eye on the males surrounding Teddy.

I studied them, the way they held themselves and walked, looking for weaknesses I could expose.

Truly, their greatest weakness wasn’t the fragility of being human but in believing they could try to terrorize my family and get away with it.

Covered in layers of snow, Colina Verde no longer looked like the place I’d once considered my home. Although it wasn’t the place that had made it home, but Teddy who had done that.

We left the town behind, crossing into the forest that bordered Colina Verde.

When Teddy stumbled, her hands and knees sinking into the deep snow, I lunged, uncaring of the way the iron net ripped into my flesh.

I gripped one male by his throat and tossed him against a tree that grew tall and thick.

Bone crunched at the impact when the tree cracked where the male slammed into it.

The second male was in my hand, and I bared my teeth while I gripped the rod in my unused hand.

Although the net burned my palm where I held the weapon, I kept it firmly in my grip.

When I released the second male, I snapped his neck with a quick twist, and he fell to the thick snow.

“We’re wasting time,” Pietro said, his tone far too calm.

I turned to him, rage pulsing through my veins and filling my vision. That fury climbed through my throat where it sat heavy on my tongue when I found him holding my mate with her back pressed to his chest and one hand around her throat with the other holding a dagger to her stomach.

A scrape bled across her lips while a pink bump sat on her left cheek where I was certain a bruise would form. Both injuries would cost him more than simply his life.

He’d hurt my mate. The fury that took me made my blood heat.

I steadied myself so that I could see through the haze of my anger.

When Teddy narrowed her eyes this time, I readied myself to finish her assault.

With swift precision, she stomped on his foot, quickly spinning out of his hold to kick his knees with the heel of her right boot.

With the net draped over me, I tackled him to the ground. Pain shot through me. Despite the growing fatigue from the iron, I fought him, pressing the net against him while I wrestled him for his dagger. When he punched my stomach, that same pain ran through me, making me nauseous.

Teddy came beside us and punched her foot against the side of his face, making blood and spit shoot from his mouth. When she kicked him again, his body slackened, and once I took the dagger from him, I looked down to find blood soaking through my fighting leathers.

I pressed a hand to it, taking a second to inspect the stab wound before I started to strip the iron net off me.

Before I could free myself from the net, another sharp pain flamed across my lower back. I arched away, trying to get to Teddy and shield her against this new attack while another human male prowled around me.

Fire flickered before it erupted around us, the flames licking over the bloody snow.

When it blazed closer to Teddy’s face, grazing across her hand and arm, she rushed back.

Her breathing quickened along with the beat of her heart.

Her fear claimed me, making me call to my snow magic, knowing there was nothing there to answer my request. Instead, I moved in front of her as if I could shield her from this unnatural fire .

On a grunt, Pietro stood, his black eyes rimmed with the same orange and red of the fire.

With one hand hugging my stomach where Pietro had stabbed me, I forced my legs to move toward him, that pain in my back intensifying with each jerky motion.

“Why?” I licked my suddenly dry lips and shook my head. “You murdered children.”

He hadn’t simply betrayed me but also the people of my kingdom. He’d harmed my mate and endangered my babes. To what end?

His jaw ticked. “The children were never part of our deal.” He narrowed his eyes at the male standing beside me. “They betrayed me, so I punished them.”

“The humans?”

“I gutted them while they were still alive and let them feel the pain our young warriors felt when they burned them.”

“You betrayed our people.” I tasted blood, and when I spat, it came out red.

“It wasn’t them I meant to betray, only you.”

“Why?” I asked again.

Anger crossed his sharp features as his narrowed stare flared.

I didn’t back away when his flames twined around my hand, burning my skin as it traveled across my arm to my shoulder and upper chest. I held myself still, wanting his focus and magic on me rather than Teddy.

The fire died for a few beats, and I almost sighed in relief before it flamed again.

I bit the inside of my cheek, tasting more blood but refusing to let on how much pain I was in.

I gritted my teeth, my pulse slamming hard as the fire rose, and just as it reached my neck, Pietro called it back.

It fanned toward him, the embers dying with the exertion.

He gripped Teddy’s and my arms, digging his fingers against the burns on my skin, while the human male touched his shoulder.

He bent space and took us somewhere deep in the woods.

Black charred my skin where my leather had melted, and while I expected to feel unfathomable pain, the true pain only lived deep inside my chest.

How long had Pietro been working with the humans? Yes, the list of my sins was long, but what had driven Pietro to this?

“Why should I answer you, Your Highness ?” Pietro scowled. “You are not worthy to lead Niev. You are not a king I will ever bow down to. Without magic, you are no longer fae.”

At that, he spat on my boots before stomping away.

My breaths came out shallow, either from the injuries I’d incurred or the fury that flamed inside me. My vision blurred through the blazing haze. Each heartbeat felt like an inferno wrapped around my soul.

Only the human male watched us. Pietro knew my wounds were severe...and untreatable . Teddy came beside me, her fingers trembling inches away from my burned hand while my other hand held the open wound in my stomach.

“Can you help me get this off?” I asked, trying to slide the iron net off.

Teddy gripped the net and pulled it off while it seemed to fight against her to press against my skin. My vision blurred once we finally took it off.

“You’re bleeding.”

Teddy pulled my hand out of the way where blood pumped from the deep gash and soaked my leathers.

I fought back a groan when she pressed her hand against the wound, and blood quickly covered her.

When she removed her hand, I held mine to my stomach, pain coursing through me as quickly as the blood that ran from the gaping hole and through my fingers.

With hasty movements, she pulled off her long-sleeved shirt so that she only wore a formfitting tank top. She pushed her shirt against my wound and looked around us for . . . something, but all that could be seen were the unfamiliar tall trees that boxed us in.

“Sit,” she said, her voice shaky.

With her help, I did, groaning at the pain that sliced across my back.

I took in her worried expression, her pretty blue eyes coming in and out of focus.

I tried to say something to ease her concern, but couldn’t think beyond the overwhelming scent of my blood.

Once I settled on the snow, she took her time looking at my back.

Her palm pressed against me, and I hissed.

She sighed, looking at her bloodied hand.

“Another stab wound?” I meant for my words to come out light, but I heard the anguish that tainted them.

“Elias.” My name trembled from her lips.

An agony-ridden groan escaped before I could hold it in. Despite the torment, I forced my limbs to move. I needed to soothe her, to ease her worries. I cupped her cheek, leaving a bloody handprint on her face. “You’re going to be okay, mo elma. ”

I wasn’t sure how, but I’d somehow make sure she and our babes came out of this okay.

“You don’t have your healing magic.”

I traced my thumb over her cheek, but the gesture cost me. I licked my lips at the rising nausea, and when my vision grew black, I lay my misery-soaked body on the ground, where I couldn’t even feel the cold of the snow.

That fury that had flamed inside me a few beats ago retreated, the embers dying with the fatigue that took me. The wind whipped around me, its sharp shards cutting into my skin. With my anger gone, a bitter void filled me.

“I have you,” I said. “What else could I need?”

That temporary adrenaline and fury had seared and exhausted my soul. The inevitability of my death broke my heart, leaving me with a flood of cold emptiness.

I didn’t hear her reply, and despite my desire to see her face, I couldn’t will my eyes to open. I felt her fingers when they started to comb through my hair, though. I felt the bond that no longer existed between us wedge into the deepest parts of my soul.

I sighed a contented sound. Because this . . . I could die a happy male like this.