Page 49 of Hell Fae King

We’d have an audience soon, the Death Fae no doubt seeing our light show from their nearby castle.Let them come, I thought.Let them fear me.

Some of those assholes had tried to kill me a few days ago. Manipulated or not, the hurt still remained.

Sure, I would have come back.I think, anyway.

But that wasn’t the fucking point.

They’d attacked me and I wasnotpleased. They needed a reminder of my position as Hell Fae Commander. A reeducation on what the fuck that actually meant.

And Maliki was the perfect one to help me provide that lesson.

Our swords clanked again, drawing a maniacal laugh from my insane little brother. He craved lethality. Enjoyed the sensation that came with living on the edge, never knowing what may or may not be his last breath.

Some might even say he yearned for death.

Crazy bastard, I thought, matching him move for move as we parried across the Soul Yards. Maliki leapt over one of the deep rivets in the ground, his Corpse Fae energy kicking in as he ghosted through the souls streaming upward from the cavern below.

I made to follow, only my limbs locked in place as a shock of pain rippled through me.

Pain that came from theinside, not the outside.

My feet teetered on the edge of the steep cliff, a chilly spirit brushing within an inch of my nose.

Maliki was suddenly there and yanking me backward, concern etched into his features. “What is it?” he demanded, suggesting I’d released some sort of sound or an expression to indicate my sudden agony.

“Ajax,” I whispered, locking in on my mate’s dark suffering.

Words and images floated through his mind, all focused on his past.Constantine. Dakota. Emelyn. Anrika.When the names of his parents came next, I left Maliki behind in a cloud of ash and went straight for the dungeons.

All while cursing Typhos.

He’d let the wards fall, allowing Ajax to see the interior of Dakota’s cell. It was her own personal hell, one framed by the screams of the lives she’d helped Constantine take.

Lives that meant something to Ajax.

Screams that would destroy his heart.

Force him back into a time he didn’t want to live.

Make him relive that fated day…

Cami’s voice echoed in my mind as she screamed Ajax’s name, her energy latching on to mine as we both went straight to Ajax’s side.

Typhos didn’t react, almost as though he’d expected our arrival. A beat later, his mind confirmed it.

This was the training.

His fucked-up version of revealing the truth to Ajax while also providing Cami with a safe place to react and use her power.

My hands curled into fists.Typhos.

Give it a moment,he told me, his mental voice layered with command.

But Melek looked just as concerned as I did when he popped in a blink later, his glittering feathers disappearing in an instant. “I thought we were meeting in the palace courtyard.”

“Change of plan,” Typhos replied quietly.

“What the hell is this?” Cami demanded in the next breath. “What are you doing to him?”