Page 68 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 68

Delilah

I ’m thrown backward as the memory spits us out.

My heart hammers wildly, my ears ring, and my hands are clammy with sweat. But my panic is nothing compared to the devastation etched across Knox and Axel and Harlow’s faces.

“I was right. The island was a governing city,” Knox whispers in disbelief.

Elysia rises onto her knees, taking a cautious step toward Axel, but he backs away, his head shaking furiously. “He’s a twin . He knows the agony that he caused and did it anyway.”

“He’s a monster,” Harlow spits.

“At least we know his true face now,” Elysia says softly, hopefully. “We can destroy him if we get him into his true form.”

“Everyone commit his face to memory.”

They continue to bark orders, but I tune them out. I can’t listen to anything else, not as my mind whirls to process what it just witnessed.

Why aren’t they focusing on the most important piece?

My head shakes at all the pieces everyone is discussing, when we should all be falling on what truly matters in this moment. The reason why I feel like I cannot breathe.

“Did you look at Phoebe’s face?” I ask suddenly, cutting off whatever Harlow was going on about.

Knox’s brows furrow.

“Go back and watch,” I say softly. Steeling myself for his reaction.

A second passes, two, three.

Knox gasps so violently my hand shoots out to clutch his arm, to try and steady him. Wave after wave of betrayal slams down our mating bond.

He shakes his head, running rough fingers through his hair. “ No ,” he says gutturally. “That’s impossible.” He pushes to stand, and a sound close to a whimper escapes him.

Knox’s sudden reaction yanks Axel from his thoughts long enough to ask, “What is it?”

Tears fill Knox’s eyes, the sight threatening to make my own spill. The devastation I can feel beating against his heart is like no other.

“Phoebe Maloone is someone we know,” I say softly when I realize Knox cannot utter the words. But at my declaration, a pained grunt escapes his lips and he clutches his stomach, looking like he might be sick.

Axel tenses, Harlow’s eyes widen, and Elysia’s head whips to me.

“No,” Harlow spits.

I flinch at the harshness of her voice, but I know it isn’t directed at me.

I swallow through the terror clutching my throat as it tries to stop me from speaking. My lower lip trembles, and I hoarsely whisper and tell the room, “Phoebe Maloone is the current queen of Air.”

All the oxygen in the room vacuums out, only to come back with a vengeance as Axel explodes with power.

The gust of air knocks us all to the ground. Elysia cries out in shock as Knox instinctively grabs me. Harlow throws a shield around us all to protect us, as Axel clutches his chest and roars.

“Axel, stop!” Knox commands, pushing aside his gutting feelings for the moment. Axel halts at the demand in Knox’s voice, his shoulders hiking up to his ears. But he still pants heavily, and his hands suddenly hold two swords, ready for an attack like the queen is in this very room.

“I have been around the woman who aided in the murder of my brother for MONTHS !” he bellows. “If you think you can stop me from killing her, you’re fucking stupid!”

Knox takes the insult with stride, clapping him on his shoulders to speak face-to-face, to get through to him.

“We get one chance to kill her, Axel. One shot of us knowing her dark secret before she comes at us with everything she’s got. It’s not just our lives we need to think of.”

Harlow gasps. “My gods…everyone was evacuated to the Air Court. To her residence .”

Knox pauses, deadly silent. Shadows swirl along his shoulders. His fists clench by his side.

“That was no coincidence,” Elysia says softly. “No wonder Peter never tried to come at Air from the docks.”

“This is a game…one they have been playing for a long time.” My gaze roams the library and the mystery of it all. “Longer than any of us can imagine. They have been orchestrating this for centuries.”

“They killed my parents,” Knox whispers gutturally. “I sent my people into our enemy’s awaiting arms.”

“They wiped out all the royals who were there the day they were exiled,” Harlow states.

Knox’s eyes fill with pain. “You are not the only one affected by this, Axel. We will make them pay but in due time and when we’re thinking rationally.”

An animalistic sound flies from Axel. His body tenses as if to hold it in, but there’s nowhere for it to go. He simply crumbles into the arms of his king and weeps.

“What do we do?” I ask.

All eyes turn to Knox.

Knox is wearing his role as king in this moment, but along the bridge…

His despair along the bridge nearly suffocates me.

He kneels there, his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking. I fall beside him, wrapping my arms around him.

“My p-people,” he gasps between sobs. “My people…I sent them to their death.”

“We’re going to save them. There is still time, Knox.”

He shakes his head, his chest heaving. “I keep failing. Gods, Delilah, why do I keep failing ?”

Doing what he does for me, I rub soothing circles along his back and hold him as he weeps. I don’t have any words. Nothing I say can fix the irreputable damage in my mate’s psyche.

“This would never have happened if my parents were still ruling. They would have never let it get this bad.”

“You are up against the most manipulative, heinous creatures, Knox. You couldn’t have known.”

“I’m a mind reader, Delilah, and in the moments where it has counted most I have utterly failed.”

Before I can say anything I’m pulled back into my body as Knox clears his throat. Axel, for the moment, has fallen silent in his arms. His soul is still weeping on the bridge between our minds, but all he does physically is run a frustrated hand through his hair. He drops it suddenly with a shrug. “This is—this revelation changes everything. It also explains why she never revoked her title and reinstated power to the royal heirs. It just?—”

“Is too much to bear,” Axel whispers. He avoids everyone’s eyes like the plague.

Knox dips his head. “We have to inform Lenox, then we need to formulate a plan on how to get the people of Aloriah to safety.”

“Gods, that bitch really went under the radar for centuries…” Harlow’s words taper off as she frowns. “Who were the royals before her? Her parents? Did she…kill them and take their place?”

“How did no one know any—” My words die on my tongue. “Mind control. It’s all one giant web of lies. It’s why the island was sunk by dark magic, to hide the truth and history that occurred here. And when they wiped the minds and changed the face of their queen to fit Phoebe’s, they also got rid of everyone’s memories of the governing island.”

Knox shakes his head, stunned beyond words.

“At least we know their true faces,” Elysia offers. “Peter will be hard to kill because he doesn’t seem to like wearing his true face, but Phoebe…she’s still wearing her true skin.”

“But how do we get an entire continent of people away from her?” I say with dread. “There’s no scenario where we get them to safety without them knowing. There are guards stationed everywhere, so the second we try to move people she’ll know.”

“Not to mention her spies litter the lands,” Axel spits with disgust.

Knox straightens. “Then we kill them both, before they see it coming.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sigh. “I’m all for killing them but the moment we kill Phoebe, Peter will pounce.”

“I want to be the one to take his twin from him.” Axel’s jaw ticks.

A smirk blooms along my cheeks. “And I’ll be the one to slit his throat…again,” I add.

“All this death and dark magic is giving me a headache,” Harlow groans, rubbing her temples. “First things first, let’s get back to Lenox, the griffins, and the pod, and formulate a plan on the ride home.”

“Harlow’s right, it’s too much to digest right now. We need?—”

“Time that we don’t have,” I say, cutting off Elysia.

She winces but doesn’t refute what I said.

As everyone moves out of the room, I can’t help but peer down at the book still swirling with the memory. Before anyone can stop me, I grab it, snapping it shut as I clutch it under my arm. Turning to the bookshelf behind me, I grimace.

There are dozens upon dozens of dark magic books. I’ll never be able to?—

“Angel?” Knox asks, startling me.

Placing a hand over my beating heart, I heave. “Gods, don’t sneak up on me. Not in this place.”

He’s sheepish for a moment. “Sorry, Angel.”

Waving off his apology, I turn my gaze back to the bookshelf housing the dark magic books. The spines along them display numbers and endless series, all connecting to one. To the right, a golden egg-shaped ornament holds the stack of books up.

It can’t be no bigger than my palm, it must be true gold to be able to hold up such hefty books.

Gods, Hazel was right. It is a collection…or perhaps she knew all along.

“We should take them all. Look at what happened when they fell into the wrong hands.”

Knox nods in agreement. “It also wouldn’t hurt to know what spells and curses we’re working against.”

“I don’t think we can bring them all, though,” I admit.

Before I can say anything further, Knox snaps his fingers, a black smoke-like shadow trailing from the sound. In an instant, the whole bookshelf vanishes, leaving only the egg-shaped ornament. Knox bends and picks up a handful of small pebbles. The books.

Oh, right. He can shrink them. I shake my head in wonder. “I’ll never get over that.”

Knox shoves the shrunken books deep into his pocket before placing a finger against his lips.

Let’s keep this between us.

You don’t trust someone among us?

Right now, I don’t trust anyone but you , he admits.

My gaze tracks to the library door where the rest of his court wait for us. With a simple dip of my chin Knox slides his hands in mine and leads me out of the library.

Before he shuts the door, I turn at the last second. For some reason, I have the deepest urge to commit everything about this room to memory.

And so I do just that.

Knox sighs deeply. “Let’s go back to Lenox and make plans.” Without another word he pulls me down the hallway, silent as we descend the stairs.

* * *

The house feels far more sinister than earlier. Now knowing who lived here, no wonder dark magic clings to the very walls. They were practicing for…years? Centuries?

I halt suddenly. “Should we maybe search the castle again? Look for something that will tell us their plans?”

“We already searched this place top to bottom. We would have came across their plans by now.”

The steady steps of everyone following behind Knox and I ring out in rhythm to my slow heartbeat.

I think I’m numb.

I know I should be feeling large emotions, should be crying perhaps, but…I just feel nothing. A void lives in my heart where I should feel everything that we’ve learned, the repercussions of it, and yet there’s nothing.

The same can’t be said for Knox. He’s marching and walking as he did before, but along the bridge, there’s a man who is being crippled by pain.

It doesn’t take us long to make our way back to the mirror portal. We peer within and see Lenox anxiously pacing before it, with his hand wrapped around a sword.

Knox moves to step forward, but I whip out a hand, wrapping it around his bicep to stop him. “Wait.”

Turning, I walk back toward the castle, ignoring the eyes I can feel on my back.

All I see before me is the beginning of our end. The place where a monster was truly created, where one festered and schemed.

Where the man who took everything from me found a safe haven.

The thought flashes across my mind, and then I’m lifting my hands and whispering, “You’re not the only one who can take away the things people love.”

With a sinister smirk, golden fire engulfs the castle, burning as bright as a star. Everything burns, turning into nothing but ash.

As I feel Knox come to stand beside me, the hatred that has been in my heart for months breaks free. “He took everything from me. It’s about time someone started returning the favor.”