Page 71 of To Scale the Emerald Mountain

She rarely was.

Ellya often felt the headaches that plagued Locane due to his over exertion and the taint of unnatural magic. With each passing day she laughed less—smiled less until she rarely smiled at all, becoming a shell day by day.

Locane never would have been able to achieve a fraction of this horror without the blood magic. Even still, he was unable to dig into Ellya’s mind for what he wanted to know. He was unable to compel her to tell him, despite Ellya’s minimal training in mental blocks. Her subconscious recognized the threat, and she guarded her secrets.

Locane and I had vicious fights with each other in the past and would burn out quickly. Part of our twin connection is that our power does not always work on the other and are only able to see into the mind of the other back so far. We wouldbattle the mental effects of those fights for days. Our surroundings became surreal and unreliable. Our noses would drip blood from the strain of mental magic.

Locane held Ellya’s mind captive for months.

Letting go of his throat as soon as the flow of images comes to an end, I back away quickly.

Only months ago, I still hoped for the distance between us to close. Now, I do not think there could ever be enough.

“What have you done?” I ask in horror.

To himself. To Ellya. To me.

“I only did what was necessary,” Locane rasps, holding an unsettling stare.

“You used your blood magic to try to sever our mating bond—to permanently erase her memories of me.” I swallow down the sickness crawling up my throat. “When did you take my blood?”

When Ellya did not respond to their intimacy the way Locane had hoped, when she ran to find solitude instead of seeking him, he found his own empty corner of the property. He pulled out two vials of blood, one mine and one Ellya’s that he easily took while she slept, before slicing into his skin. He drew his runes, chanted his incantations, and attempted to sever our mating bond.

Locane erased all of Ellya’s memories connected to me in a much more binding way than his initial erasure of her life.

But he failed in his ultimate goal of fully destroying our bond. My bond with Ellya—gifted by the Fates—is too strong. Stronger than any natural or dark magic. Locane’s effort in desperation is what finally tipped him over the edge of control, the sands of his hourglass rapidly emptying.

Locane does not answer. Kraeston and the other guards start changing his chains back to irons.

“You get to have it all, brother. Your sanity, your pretty little mate, your Kingdom. Tell me, are you enjoying my title?”

My head shakes in disbelief at the audacity of his accusing question. “You abandoned your responsibilities, willingly dumped your title in my lap. I was not meant to be king.”

“You were. No matter that I came into the world first. We all know that it was I who split from you in the womb. ‘Two halves of the same whole,’” he scoffs at the phrase our mother has used for us all our lives.

He gives me a disturbing smile before continuing. “I may not have been able to claim her, but I’m sure that didn’t stop me from being able to make her purr. Tell me, brother, did your mate’s noises make your cock twitch even though it was I coaxing them from her?”

The words are meant to rile me, but it is Kraeston who loses his composure and punches Locane in the gut. Locane grunts and hunches forward, momentarily hanging himself with his chains.

The anger he seeks does not come to me, only overwhelming anguish. “What have I done to earn your hatred?”

Locane’s only answer is to smile at me, blood staining the creases between his teeth.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ELLYA

Laying on my bed, my swollen eyes stare out the window at the midnight sky in my room at Father’s castle. I’m too overrun with wallowing in my heartbreak to sleep.

I don’t understand why Alec changed his mind. I’ve been mulling it over endlessly since he left, wondering if maybe I had done something to make him go back on his word.

When he arrived a few days ago, I saw it—I saw the change. Alec had never looked at me like that before. Suddenly his eyes held the same fire that I know mine have for years. All these years he’s refused to be romantically affectionate with me because of our age difference, even when he began officially courting me.

But this time, he gathered me in his arms and brought his lips to mine.

When Alec kissed me, it was as electrifying as when I use my currents. More so. His soft mouth against mine made me feel like I was taking my first breath, like my life was truly beginning.

He made my knees weak with the burning passion of that kiss. He held my face in his hands as we connected, conveying such a deep and loving need while he pulled me against his body and claimed my mouth. I thought I might die from pure joy when one of his large hands worked from my cheek to thread into my hair, holding me closer. Itfar exceeded all my expectations for what our first kiss would be. And then he asked me to come home with him, to be his queen—after so many years of waiting. I’ve never been so happy.