Anastasia continued, “Aidan sacrificed himself to douse the hearth in you as you rode him, as you had intercourse with him!” 

Darla gasped because the naked fact got here out. 

“And also you two did not know when Carrick had gone far, to the purpose of no return! It was Kaizan and Guarhal who pulled the 2 of you out of that place. They tied you two after which attended to Carrick,” she stated, her voice an octave excessive. “I attempted to assist Carrick by trying to take the poison out, nevertheless it was not profitable!” She was panting by the point she poured all of it. “Darla, it wasn’t me who was accountable for the demise of Zlu and Carrick. It was you! You’re the one who’s the foundation of it. You tried to make me really feel responsible, and these males out right here—” she checked out Aidan after which at Guarhal who had simply entered the eating room. “These males did not say a phrase in opposition to you. They’re so loyal to you that they hid your mistake even from you!”

“I did not commit any mistake,” Darla shook her head. “It was. It was—” 

“Shut up!” Anastasia retorted. “If in case you have brains as large as a pea, then you should assume as to why did Aidan danger his life to avoid wasting you and why did not others?” 

The glare in Darla’s eyes modified to a mere stare. It was as if she was combating with the swirl of feelings in her coronary heart. Accepting what Anastasia simply stated was too tough for a woman who for her whole life had idolized a person she was fancied. Darla had been his assist and part of his inside circle. They used to play collectively and she or he hadn’t realized when her friendship become an obsession. She nonetheless hadn’t. She did not wish to imagine that he did not really feel something for her. She knew him just like the again of her hand. Bitterness crawled in her coronary heart and Darla waved a letter in entrance of her eyes. “Learn this. It’s for Ileus, however I gives you the pleasure of studying it first!” A vicious smile crept on her lips. That was her trump card. 

“Why ought to I learn a letter that’s for Ileus?” Anastasia countered, her thoughts screaming on the within to tear the envelope and browse the letter. 

“As a result of this letter is your doom.” She stated, with a gleam in her eyes. “And I’m supplying you with an opportunity to know Ileus!” 

Together with her chest falling and rising with nervousness and anger, Anastasia prolonged her hand within the route of the letter. What did she imply by her doom? Sweat beads dotted her brows. 

“You aren’t giving that letter to her!” Guarhal chided her. “That is for Ileus and you’ll’t go in opposition to him.” 

Darla stated scathingly, “Should not she know what she is stepping into?” Then she took Anastasia’s shaky arms and slapped the envelope in her palm. “Learn it! You’ll adore it.” 

Anastasia closed her eyes as she tried to subdue the power that was revolting to blow up from her. 

Guarhal and Aidan lunged at her to take the letter away, however Anastasia opened her eyes and the air round her rippled, restraining anybody to return close to her, forming a thick wall round her. The lads had been surprised. Guarhal rubbed his mouth together with his palm. They may see her, however not attain her.

She tore the seal of the letter and opened it. It learn:

“What’s your worth to return her? 

—  Aed Ruad”

“Oh. My. God.” Burning, acute ache surged by way of her physique and it stole her breath. It throbbed endlessly, making her imaginative and prescient hazy, soaking her chest in cinders. So this was his ploy? He waited for a yr to abduct her after which give her again to Aed Ruad for a worth? Her physique trembled. The letter dropped from her hand and fluttered to the bottom. The betrayal she felt was so uncooked that it minimize her like a razor on the within. Yesterday that they had made love. She had been craving and revelling underneath his contact, his kisses… and now—she hated him. Her eyes went to Darla who was watching her with sadistic satisfaction. 

She rose from her place and staggered on her ft. “You had been going to present me again for a worth?” 

Darla nodded. 

Anastasia froze. “Why? How a lot cash did you want?”

“That could be a query it is advisable to ask him,” she replied with a shrug and bent down to gather the letter. 

Her lips trembled. She had escaped Vilinski together with his assist to seek out Iona and return her to queen Adrianna and in change ask her to assist in getting again her kingdom and oldsters. And right here Ileus’s ploy was to present her again? She pressed her arms to her mouth. Did queen Adrianna ship him on this mission? “Gods!” she rasped. Her coronary heart appeared to cease. There have been knots in her abdomen. She felt sick as bile shot in her throat and she or he coughed. As if her legs had developed their very own thoughts, they pulled her out of the inn. Nobody dared to cease her as a result of nobody may. On her method she met Lilette who stopped to say one thing to her, however she did not perceive when Anastasia walked previous her. 

She clutched her arms as her coronary heart felt tightened with anguish, which she all the time felt when she was round her cousins. They tried to interrupt her mentally, however Ileus, he broke her coronary heart. Horror roiled by way of her as she thought that he would ship her again to Aed Ruad. She began to stroll quick with a view to go away so far as attainable from the inn. However wasn’t that her plan all the time? To depart him? The ache that she felt was a lot increased than she had ever felt. Her instincts screamed that it was all incorrect. She shook her head. Her tempo elevated. She regarded up on the darkish skies. Darla had gained ultimately. 

—

PS: Learn the writer’s ideas.