Page 122 of Hell Fae Prince

That had been the only time Melek had ever lied to me. He’d allowed me to think he’d slept with Vivaxia because that deal had been the only way for me to achieve my dreams.

Had I not signed it, had I not fallen, had I not beenbroken, the Hell Fae Realm would never have existed.

Melek’s cruelty—hislie—had cost him dearly. It’d nearly broken him, too.

But in the end, it’d been the right thing to do.

Because the alternative would have hurt so much more. Living in the Virtuous Fae Realm with no means to protect the innocent would have driven me mad. With the limitations of my power, I would never have saved Azazel.

I would have grown spiteful and angry.

I would have pushed Melek away and become destructive.

My prince had known that. That was why he’d played along with Vivaxia’s plan. He had even proposed the façade of having slept with her. She’d been delighted, given that she had only asked him to help convince me to sign the deal, not break my heart.

But Melek was the only one who knew how my power worked. He knew it wasn’t just in the language of my deals but also in the emotion storming in my heart.

That was why he had deceived me.

And he vowed to never do it again. He had completed our mate-bond shortly after, and of course we were compatible. I should never have doubted him.

But had I seen the truth; we wouldn’t be where we were today. And that… that I would never change, even if I had the chance to go back and do it all over again.

I forgive you, my prince.

I didn’t let him hear those words. I had already spoken them to him long ago, but now I better understood why he had done it.

The only way we could be at peace was to start over. The Hell Fae Realm was my dream, one he shared.

It had been created in an explosion of grief.

If reversed in the same manner, if everything I had done with good intentions was instead perverted and undone, it could be destroyed.

That method did not come in the form of a spell, or brute force.

It was in the perfect shape of a female not only designed for me but destined for my inner circle.

Camillia De la Croix was meant to be a corruption from the inside.

Vivaxia had finally figured it out, somehow, that I had once been a siphon, too. I didn’t know how she had learned it, and I didn’t really care. But if she knew my history, then she knew so much more than simply how to create a siphon and how to reverse everything I’ve built.

She’s been watching me,I realized as my jaw flexed.

That was why she had taken so long to act. She had been observing.

Learning.

And now she’s figured out how to destroy me and everything I care about.

She might have lost our battle long ago, but now she knew how to win the war. She had made sure to prepare for this.

And she’d sent a pretty little Hell Fae Bride as a Trojan horse.

But it went deeper than that. Vivaxia’s games weren’t one or two plays.

She’s after more.

She didn’t just want my power. She wanted to break my heart.