Captive: Hopeless

Chapter 48 - Victory and Defeat

Azera's face appeared on the wall of screens in Thane's headquarters, and with it being larger than the one Darius had set up, seeing the dark fae queen on that scale unnerved Kay.

"I should have killed your children when I had the opportunity," Azera coldly stated, eyes burning with chilling hatred as Thane stared at her without expression.

"You should have," he agreed, and the fae queen frowned at him before stepping aside to reveal Akira behind her.

The skin had been flayed from the succubus' body, and she shivered with reaction, pain, and misery, but no sound escaped her lips. Pity and sorrow speared through Kay.

"Send your men to my gates, and I will hand your daughter over when Megan has been returned to me," Azera's venom made Thane smile coldly.

"You mean your daughter has been returned to you?" He asked, but it was not a question.

Her gaze darted to Kay and darkened in anger, although she could not possibly know the truth?

"You were always too damned smart for your own good and looking at me with those eyes as if you knew what you should not. Why did I not gouge them from your head? But then, how would you have borne witness to my madness?" Azera sneered, and it was easy to see the apple had not fallen far from the tree.

"You mean your brilliance? This cold, calculated game you played for eons? Fooling the world and laughing at their naïve belief in the image of 'the mad queen' you painted?' Kay asked, and for a second, Azera stilled. Very few would have noticed, but she did, and Marcus and Thane did.

"Carduran lived no longer than the night you went to him for help, and he forced himself upon you, did he? He staked his claim and ensured that when Thane fell to his sons, he would stand beside you to get his rightful share of your dominion. The power he saw as belonging to him," she took a shot in the dark and struck the iron while it was hot.

The size of the screens made the way Azira's pupils contracted very apparent, but also the way her lids narrowed, and her nose flared.

"When you killed him, you realized no one knew, and if you played your cards right, no one would ever find out. He would be the perfect patsy and, although he gained power, wasn't around to enjoy it.

"Akira and Thane foiled your plans, but you were not done with them yet. Realizing you had not set your sights high or wide enough with Carduran, you regrouped. What you needed was time, the one thing you have in abundance," Kay pushed her luck, and Azera's face tensed.

"Nice fairy tale, newborn. When we meet again, and you are back in my power, I will teach you the true meaning of pain and humiliation."

The dark fae queen's eyes glowed with promise.

Something moved behind Azera, and her sixth sense warned Kay to pivot on her heel. Megan stormed her with a gun grasped in a wrong-handed grip. The bullets spit from the muzzle, and something in Kay shifted. She could see every bullet issue from the weapon in slow motion, and, taking her eyes off them, she watched Megan come closer.

Already, Megan's gaze settled on her next target—Thane. Kay flitted forward with such speed that when Megan blinked, she had already folded her right hand around Megan's throat.

One powerful shake snapped Megan's neck. Shock briefly entered that cold gaze, and then it turned blank. Kay ripped the vampire's head from her shoulders without thinking about it.

Blood sprayed from the arteries, splattering her face, clothes, and the ground as the body crumpled, but she was barely aware of it.

Kay heard her name being called in concern and anger, but it was as if everything came from a great distance. Some small part of her was aware that the bullets that ripped through her had embedded themselves in the screens behind her.

Megan's head dropped from her hands, and behind her on the screens that still worked, Azera's lifeless body, almost torn in half, fell to the ground. Without turning, she saw Akira standing over the dark fae queen like a monster as every exposed muscle rippled beneath her shredded skin.

An image from which nightmares were wrought, and a roar of power erupted from her mouth. Soundless as it was in that room, on the grass of Azera's castle, it rippled the air and shuddered the ground, and Kay could hear it as if she were there.

***

The advancing army of Dark Fae stopped in their tracks, prostrating themselves before their new ruler, and Akira's gaze flickered toward the cameras as if reaching through the screens. Her sister's attention was not on those men and women as pain briefly lanced through her chest, breaking the connection between them.

Anguish and anger tore from Akira's throat as Kay collapsed like a puppet with the strings cut.

Blood flowered from the open wounds in her back and the small holes in her front as she crumpled to the ground.

The world tilted, shifted off balance, and she met Marcus' shocked gaze as she fell. He lunged forward to help her, but she accepted her choice.

Wasn't this supposed to hurt more? Maybe shock delayed the reaction, and it was better this way. 

Now Claudia and Marcus could be together without the shame of her presence. Their world was safe in Thane's hands, and the war was over. The balance had been restored. 

As the cold settled into her chest, her only regret was that she had never had the guts to tell him how much she loved him. Her heart grew still, and darkness claimed her.

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