Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter TwelveSage

Chapter Twelve

Sage

M y hand hurt from where I’d grabbed Evaline’s braid.

My heart ached at the memory of Dean’s face when he saw us leaving through the portal in Correnti, when he understood what Evaline had not yet.

That I’d betrayed them.

That I was the one who’d abducted the Kova in Merwinan, with the help of a Vasi I portaled around with me.

That I was the reason Maddox turned, even if I had no idea that my father would do that to him.

But none of those wounds could ever compare to the white-hot heat of pain that seared through my gut as I watched Evaline try to make her escape.

She ripped the dagger from her thigh as she turned and dashed toward the now paneless windows that bordered the Kromean Sea.

My father didn’t make a move to run after her, only held a hand up to Lauden’s chest, so that he would stay put, and to the Vasi around us so that they wouldn’t move, either.

And we all watched as mere seconds ticked by, as she ran to the windows. As the glass spun around the room.

She made it to the windows and leaped toward them. She planted one foot on the sill, and used the leverage to launch her body forward and out of the open window.

Before she promptly smacked into the invisible boundary.

Her face smashed against it, as if it were a brick wall, and her head rebounded, snapping back, sending her sailing away from the window.

I looked down at my feet as I heard a million shards of glass fall to the ground and heard her head smack against it, too.

I couldn’t watch.

I couldn’t watch how they tormented her, let her think she was escaping, only to hurt herself in the process.

I couldn’t watch the consequences of my actions.

My father moved away from me, and I knew he was walking over to her. In my peripheral I could see the way he stopped at her side and looked down at where she splayed on the ground, trying to catch a breath from the air that had been knocked out of her.

“I believe you’re familiar with wards, yes?” my father said and the satisfaction in his voice made my stomach turn.

Her answer was another gasping attempt at an inhale.

“They aren’t only used to keep certain people out. Sometimes,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “They’re used to keep people in .”

Lauden strode forward then. “All I needed to make the ward was your blood, and you made it so easy, storing it in the cellar of Kovarrin’s manor for your dear old mate .”

I cringed at the sound of her fumbling movements against the floor.

No, I chastised myself. Look. Look at her. You don’t deserve the grace of looking away. Look at what you’ve done.

I held my breath as I lifted my head. My father kneeled beside her and Lauden stood beside him. She was trying to sit up on her side, to face them, and tears pricked my eyes at the blood on the ground, where her head had been, and the deep crimson that stained her pretty silver hair. Her eyes were wide, disoriented, and I could feel the way the ground rumbled below us, the way the wind in the room shifted, as she tried to call her magic.

“Your magic is incapacitated. I’ve spelled the wards to diminish your strength here, but it will be especially low for a few hours now that you’ve directly touched the ward,” Lauden explained with a hint of glee in his voice. In all the years we’d been together, all the years I’d known him, I’d never heard him sound so happy.

My father drew his wrist to his lips, bit it, and extended it to Evaline’s mouth.

She drew back, a disgusted look on her face.

“Get the fuck away from me,” she snarled at him, finally able to catch her breath as she scooted another foot away from him.

He sighed and leaned forward, grabbing her wrist, and jerking her closer to him.

“You will drink. I’ve been hunting for you for a long time, and I can’t risk you dying now that I’ve finally got you.” He tilted his head. “Wouldn’t do much for my grand plan for you now, would it?”

She shook her head but didn’t dare speak, instead melding her lips shut as her eyes pinned on his wrist.

I ground my jaw, preparing for his next words. The words I’d heard him say to me countless times over the years. When I’d disobeyed him as a rebellious teenager. When I was a little girl, and was too tired to continue to try to use my magic in the way he wanted me to, and gave up. When I’d begged him, so many times, to let me stop. To give me a break.

Do what you’re told.

But my skin crawled, my heart stalled, and my face paled as I heard what he said to Evaline, instead. What he said to get her to do the thing he wanted. What he never once, not in my entire life, had ever said to me, his daughter . What he said before he shoved his wrist to her mouth, and held the back of her head with his other hand to force her to drink.

“Please.”