Page 92 of The Path of Blood and Betrayals

“The Coven also says the Gods sit on top of their thrones in the highest parts, looking down at us, passing judgement.”

“That could still be true,” he concedes. He shifts his pack on his back and I raise an eyebrow.

“Planning on leaving?”

He hesitates. “Once we speak to Wulf, and ask for his assistance to finish this raid, and find the Crimson Army, we need to go back to the Coven.”

“I spoke to Nafre the night I healed the heir,” he words are clipped. He still hasn’t forgiven me for forcing him to heal someone he deemed beneath him. “Something is wrong at the Coven. Items missing, strange footsteps. Beasts roaming just outside the wards.”

My heart jumps, unease prickling my neck. “But the wards?—?”

“Are you failing, as you’re aware.” He glances around, stepping close. “Nafre doesn’t know how long the Coven has before they’re under attack again. But we need to get back.”

My shirt falls and his eyes glue to my scar. “Your place is in the Coven, Max. Not here.”

“My place,” I echo, searching the campsite. I lock eyes with the heir, a tugging compelling me to be closer to him.

Is it lust or something deeper, pulling me toward him?

“The Coven is your home.”

“It’s yours,” I correct. “You’ve made it abundantly clear, it is not my Coven.”

Tay’s jaw tenses as he glances to the side. “You’d rather stay here, choose—” hecuts off, shaking his head. “We gave you a place to live. We gave you a family.”

“You gave me fear,” I whisper. “But I love you and Nafre and Cully. Because although the Coven hated me, you all loved me.” Tracing my scar, I blink back tears. “Parts of me.”

“And he accepts all of you?” Tay asks, voice hard. “He’s a Dark Fae. As far as we know he’s only gaining your trust to lay between your legs. At worst? He wants your magic.”

I wince as if struck. Every fear, every suspicion, laid out and bare by my only friend. And he uses it like a weapon, digging deep to hurt me.

My shirt falls lower and Tay rears back. “He fed from you?”

I swallow at the disgust in his words.

Tugging my hair, I hide the bite marks on my neck. I never showed my friend, never asked to be healed.

I wanted the marks. I wanted the ownership, the dark deed to be seen. There’s a large part of me that feeds off of it, wants the ownership.

“You let that monster?—”

“He is no monster,” I defend, voice sharp. “Say what you want about me, but you’ll not insult him. I gave it to him—willingly.”

Growling, Tay steps closer still, large and intimidating but I don’t cower. I’m not afraid of him.

“After he tried to kill you on the cliffs, after everything their kind does, you would allow him this?” He scoffs. “He’s a beast parading as a Fae.”

Inhaling, I shrug. “Your Coven would say the same about me. A monster parading as a woman. Are they right?”

“That’s not the same thing. Your magic—” he stops. “My mother warned you that your magic would be dangerous if not controlled. Ignoring it, hiding it, it was the only way to keep everyone safe.”

“Everyone,butme.” Holding up my hand, I show him the red staining my tips. He can’t look at it. “You can’t even see the evidence of it. Your mother hid me away. Your elders shun me. Nafre tries to make me assimilate. You ignore it. The heir does none of those things. Heseesme.”

Hard silver eyes glare at me, lips curling. “He doesn’tseeyou, Max. He sees a vulnerable woman with a power he can exploit. You’ll never be anything more to him.”

My body shakes as I try not to let my magic attack. It’s incensed by the insult and my heart breaks as my best friend annihilates it.

“Back away from her,” the heir snarls, coming close. I didn’t hear him approach, but now at my back, my body leans as if to absorb his strength.