heavily damaged because it had no doubt been facing the army that had conquered this place. Shortly after they had found my bloody reminder of what I had done, having it literally fall at our feet, was when we were grabbed, dragged and thrown inside here. At the time I’d had to force myself to calm my ass down or I would have ended up getting Nero hurt and not by the Harpies, but by me. I didn’t know what it was, but it was like the longer I was down here the harder it was to stop my temper from blowing up and manifesting into the bringer of death. I felt like some ticking time bomb and I knew I had to get my shit together before Nero got caught in the crossfire. She had already been put through so much and all because of me.
“I am sorry you got caught up in all of this,” I told her making her nudge me and feign a,
“Who me? Are you kidding, I live for this shit…genuine adrenaline junkie here.”
“Really?” I fell for it.
“Fuck no, I am normally in bed by ten.” I laughed at her reply and knew she was joking around just to make me feel better. Then when we were silent a moment, she released a sigh and said,
“Look, none of this is your fault, you know.” I gave her a raised brow of disbelief.
“I am serious…I mean do I look like I ask anyone for permission in my decision making?”
“It’s not the same thing,” I muttered.
“Yeah, it is. Look Fae, Faith, Amelia, or spring chicken, whatever it is you wanna be called, Princess, just as long as you listen to me. I was the one who let my heart rule my head that day you all walked into my shop. I let that cocky bastard flash his handsome smile at me and knew the second he did I would end up doing anything he asked,” she admitted, making me ignore the spring chicken part.
“You would have?”
“Shocking huh, I guess my badass act is a good one?” Her reply didn’t surprise me.
“You got it that bad, huh?” I asked making her drop her head to her bent knees, at the same time running both hands over her hair, pushing it back with her fingers combing through it.
“Hey, I am not judging here and trust me when I say I know the feeling.” At this she lifted her head and looked at me, silently prompting me to say more.
“This may seem hard to believe seeing as Lucius is just known as some tyrant king without a heart to you, but to me…oh Gods, he was always so much more.” Her eyes widened in surprise before admitting,
“Well shit, I always thought he kinda just found you one day and then stole you away to be his queen.” I laughed and admitted,
“I wish.”
“You do?” Her shocked disbelief was clear.
“Oh yeah,” I said in that dreamy way that couldn’t be taken any other way.
“Look, you think you have it bad for Vern, only ask yourself how bad would that obsession be now if it had lasted over ten years?”
“Ah, I see,” she said nodding, finally getting it.
“When I first met Lucius, it was when he saved my life and after that point, well let’s just say, he wasn’t exactly nice to me,” I told her making her laugh and say,
“Sorry, but now this is the part of the story I can see.” I flicked her arm and said,
“Oi, I am kinda bleeding my heart out here…do you mind?” She smirked and said,
“Seriously, I get it…When I first met Vern, he saved me too…well after making the trouble that got me into trouble in the first place, that was.”
“Ah, now this is the part of the story I can see,” I said throwing her words back at her and making her laugh.
“So why don’t you tell me about it.” She raised her eyes and looked around before saying,
“What here?” I laughed once and replied,
“It’s not like we don’t have time or anything.” She shrugged her shoulders obviously agreeing with me before starting her story.
“I first saw him when I was in this crappy pub near my shop, you remember, the Devil’s Cup?”
“Oh, that fine establishment, yeah I think I remember,” I said making us both laugh.
“Yeah, that shit hole. Anyway, I was doing a house call, delivering some cure for hoof fungus when I first noticed the notorious McBain brothers.” I smirked and