Red

44. To Whatever End, I Will Find You

and on this day, i finally come BACK TO YOU. it's been a long & busy journey on my part, and i crammed in some time to write this for all of you patient & lovely humans who waited so eagerly for this update.

enjoy this intense chapter!
xx

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     I found myself drawing closer to Fareoh's side, flames dancing at my fingertips as Iliana made a run for it and managed to escape.

Despite whatever pain Kail was experiencing from his power, he watched me with a terrifying grin etched in his face. He wasn't fae anymore. He couldn't be. Whatever he was, it had taken him over entirely, and perhaps had been inside of him the entire time I had known him.

     Maybe even longer.

Black blood continued to spill from his eyes when Loraine came around to my front, her yellow eyes pleading. "Please," her voice was broken. "Don't kill him. He's the only thing I have."

     Despite the emotion in her expression, I didn't feel a twinge of regret for what I was about to do. Kail was more than willing to take me captive, and had let Mathus take Rome without a thought of regard for his fellow king.

     I was going to kill him.

     "Move, Loraine." I bared my teeth. "Now."

     She shifted defensively on her feet and raised her knife again—but this time her hand shook with instability. "I-I can't. You can't kill him—"

     "—MOVE." My voice was not my own. Whatever had taken hold of my body...She was relentless and unforgiving. Solely focused on one thing and one thing only—retrieving her mate.

     And nothing would stop her from finding him. Nothing.

     Loraine fell to her knees before me, bowing inwards as her face hung to the gravel under our feet and her grip loosened on the blade. Her stark-white hair fell around her head and hid her expression from view. "I'm begging you, queen. If you have any humanity left in your mortal heart, I beg of you. I will have nothing left."

     Something inside my chest squeezed painfully, causing me to hesitate.

     I knew what it felt like to loose everything. To be so defeated you couldn't even fight for what you lost anymore. But despite that, despite everything—I found something worth living for, and perhaps she could too.

     Fareoh kept his power trained on Kail as he snarled, "Don't listen to her, Scarlett. She's not on our side, and never will be. Just give me the word, and I'll crush his mind in seconds."

     Loraine lifted her face from the ground and took me in with her eyes. Those serpent-yellow eyes that had somehow softened in color as tears began to fill them. Something like defeat crossed her expression and she opened her mouth to plead one last time, but I lifted a hand and stopped her.

     "Loraine," I began, moving to grasp her arm. I lifted her from the ground and kept a tight grip on her wrist. "There is always someone left. No matter where you are, or who you become—there is always someone to catch you when you fall. Dead or alive. Living or in spirit." I paused when those tears that had so desperately clung to her waterline began to spill down her tanned cheeks and felt my heart squeeze once again. "Do not continue to plead for someone who doesn't think any more highly of you than the dirt beneath his feet. He is not worthy of the pedestal you put him on."

     She blinked in shock as a sob strangled her throat. Fareoh turned to look at me—to really look at me, and his sharp mismatched eyes softened just slightly.