Page 176 of Hell Fae King

Because I was merely her pawn.

Meanwhile, Typhos thought of me as a queen.Hisqueen. And I was about to serve by his side.

I’d start by taking back that throne, the one she still touched like her survival depended on its existence.

With a thought, I crushed the metal and stone, destroying the conduit she’d taken control of, and smiled as she stumbled, her eyes blinking as though coming out of a daze.

I didn’t give her a chance to recover, instead hitting her with a dose of my own light. If she wanted to ascend so badly, she could soak it all up and explode like a fucking star.

The death stone pulsated in my hand like it agreed, the rock amplifying my gift with a force that took my breath away.

It wanted me to use it to expel power, not siphon it.

Yet it was a siphon. Just like me.

Fight fire with fire. Make it burn hotter.

Fight a siphon… with a siphon.

Even though it didn’t make sense at all, I understood the purpose.

Hell Fae Rule #13: Nothing Is What It Seems.

Is it possible that my parents had groomed me for this moment?I whispered to myself, thinking back on all our experiences. All the impractical solutions to catastrophic events.

I’d thought they’d meant to prepare me for the trials.

But now… now I wondered if it’d been for this.To battle Vivaxia. To save Typhos. To protect the Hell Fae Realm.

Did they know? Were they fighting Vivaxia all along?

My mother had seemed distraught in that mirror, her eyes wild with panic. Had Vivaxia been controlling her before? Controlling my father, too?

I swallowed, my head spinning with questions and no answers.

And there wasn’t time to contemplate more.

I had to help Typhos.

He was all but depleted on the floor, his light almost entirely extinguished.

Yet he still continued to pummel Vivaxia with power.

I ran to him, my free hand finding his beautiful wings as they folded over him like a black-and-gold blanket, and shoved some of my vitality into him.

You’re mine,I told him.I won’t let you die. Not now. Not after…I couldn’t finish the thought. Rather, it trailed off as he took my energy and gifted it to Vivaxia.

I growled at him and fisted my hand in his wings to hit him with a heavier dose.

Don’t fight me, Typhos, I thought at him.Work with me instead.

A fierce surge of possession followed my words, but it didn’t originate from me. It came from him, from hissoul.

I felt it inside me, all around me, in the core of my existence. It was as though his essence had reached out and seized my very being, claiming me on a level that shouldn’t exist.

And yet it did.

Because my spirit bowed to his, accepting the ownership without question.