Ryker took a step towards her before he stopped. His fist clenched and unclenched, a line creasing his forehead.
“Who… Who are you?”
He looked at her like she was a monster.
Maybe she was.
“I’m the same person you’ve always known.”
She’d been this way since her Making. Her sire had made her into a creature of darkness, and her heart was black. She was the worst of the worst, and she’d always known it.
Now, he was learning that, too.
The answer didn’t seem good enough for him. He shook his head as though he was disappointed in her.
The fucking gall.
It wasn’t like Ryker was an innocent lamb, unused to the hard ways of this world.
Brynleigh bore the marks of his precious army’s torture on her soul—torture he’d allowed to happen.
Even though he hadn’t been responsible for Chavin’s destruction, she knew he had blood on his hands. His military records proved he’d been present at several battles, and he hadn’t flinched when he showed up in The Pit.
They were both predators, both deadly.
She stood and furled her fists. Her book was long forgotten in the face of the fae’s hypocritical anger.
“What did you think would happen when you sent me back to my Maker? Did you think we’d have a tea party and reminisce about timespast? That I could just waltz in and get your Isvana-damned information?”
He kept staring at her, which only fueled the blazing inferno in her soul.
“No,” she snarled, pulling back her lips and showing her fangs. “I have to play the game, and this is how I fucking do it.”
Like a statue, he stood in the doorway. Of course, he was reverting to his earlier silence.
Her heart would’ve ached, but it was too far gone for that.
Groaning, Brynleigh shook her head and grabbed the phone. She opened the first file and scanned it. The document lacked Zanri’s finesse, which didn’t surprise her. The feline shifter was a whiz with electronics, and Jelisette hated them. Still, the information was all there.
Target: Tathdel Crystalis, Earth Elf
Age: 241
Crimes: Convicted of three murders, suspected of a dozen more.
Brynleigh kept reading, her eyes growing incrementally wider as she scrolled through the pages.
Tathdel Crystalis was not a good Earth Elf. If anything, he might be one of the vilest creatures she had ever gone after.
A macabre slideshow filled the screen, but she didn’t look away. These victims deserved to have someone witness what had been done to them.
Vines bound corpses to the ground. Thorns ripped through flesh. Trees grew out of cement, their limbs choking those trapped in their branches. Blood coated everything in sight.
Earth Elves, more than their Light, Death, and Fortune Elf counterparts, were meant to use their magic for good. For life. After all, long ago, the High Lady of Life had restored the balance using her earth magic.
But this?
It was wrong on so many levels. What would the High Lady of Life have done if she knew one of her descendants would becomethis?