Page 141 of Hell Fae King

“Now that you’re here, hopefully that will change.”

My failure to do so echoed in his expression, accusations seeming to linger on his lips.

Why aren’t you doing anything?he seemed to be asking.Why aren’t you helping me?

My teeth ground together, my power flickering deep inside.

Only to quickly be extinguished by a wave of foreign energy.

Energy that shouldn’t be there.

Energy that belonged toVivaxia.

My gaze cut to hers.

“You’ve amassed so much power since your fall, Typhos,” she said, her gray eyes glittering with cruel intentions. “It truly has become your heart, hasn’t it?”

My chest squeezed as though she had her hand wrapped right around my organs, her nails digging into me without her ever having moved.

Real or a mirage?I wondered.Physical or mental?

Because I couldn’t tell.

She was suddenly everywhere, her essence infecting my very being.

Vita, I thought again.She… she…

There was something there. Something I had to grasp. Something… something that escaped me again.

The guard took his last breath, his soul crying out to me to intervene. Tohelp.

I could hear it deep in my head, hear my Source screaming for an opportunity to react. To respond. Topunish.

Just as it had punished Nos.

Because deep down, my power had recognized the betrayal and the infection that betrayal had brought with it.

Somewhere, somehow, I’d known she was here all along. Weaving her magic through my realm, corrupting my fae, manipulating them to do her bidding through her links to their souls.

Creationist magic.

Creationist magic that she’ssiphonedfrom others.

She’s a siphon. Like me. Like Camillia.

Is that possible?I thought, dizzy from another twist of my heart.Did Vivaxia understand my power all along? Is that why she sought me out? Taught me about deals? Because she saw herself in me?

She’d said that before, told me how I had the potential to be as great as her, if not greater. And I’d always caught that glimmer of envy in her eyes when she’d said those words.

I’d thought she’d been talking about my inner light, the power I possessed that helped others.A power crafted from my ability to siphon and harness energy.

It had shifted over my lifetime, my parents’ deaths acting as a catalyst that had turned my talent into something else entirely. My fall had heightened the burning energy when part of the Virtuous Fae Source became mine. Then I’d fostered it throughout the millennia, ensuring it protected the Hell Fae Realm.

And now Vivaxia wanted what it had become. Or perhaps she’d always wanted it. But she’d bided her time, waiting for me to create the ultimate Source before she stepped in to take it.

The Source being my heart. My core. My very reason for existing.

She’d promised to make me bleed, and this was what she’d meant—by forcing me to watch her extinguish the lives of everything and everyone under my protection. All while she absorbed my light.