my left wing.
Panic flares through me. I twist on the bed and reach for his hand on instinct, digging my nails into his pale skin. Gold clicks his tongue and shifts over, restraining my arms so the doctor can take blood from my wings. A sharp pain grips me when he injects the needle. After a moment, he sets the needle on the cart and the liquid inside is silver. I snap my hands away from Gold and glare up at him.
The tears I’ve been fighting to hold back get the better of me and slip from my lashes. I feel so utterly betrayed by him. Why would he do this to me? I thought… I meant something to him. But clearly I was wrong. I don’t mean shit to Zavier Gold, otherwise, he wouldn’t be putting me through this.
“Very good.” Eva snaps her fingers at me. “Come.”
And with that, she skips toward the door at the other side of the room. I cast Gold a generous glare as I slide off the bed and follow her, my wings throbbing in protest of the pain. Just as I step through the door, I catch a fleeting glance from Gold, an almost pained look on his face, but he looks away as soon as I meet his gaze.
I really mean nothing to him.
It shouldn’t hurt me as much as it does, considering he’s the one who betrayed me, but the pain takes root inside of me, spreading to every valley of my body. I’m angrier at myself for letting my guard down and developing feelings for him. How could I have been so stupid?
The air catches in my lungs when I see what’s inside the room. My mother hunched over a panel of flashing machinery and computers, and a girl floating in a glass tank. It’s not just any girl, either.
It’s Sage Millhouse.
One of my friends from the academy.
She’s hooked up to a bunch of tubes that siphon into her, yet her expression is calm as if she’s merely cast under a sleeping spell. Her pink hair floats and wraps around her outstretched arms.
“What the fuck?” I hiss in a whisper, more to myself than anything.
My mother turns to smile at me. “Hello, darling. I see Her Highness has decided to reveal what we have been working on all these years.” She points to Sage. “The first of her kind, Sage will soon become a full-blooded light fae instead of shadowborn. Isn’t this marvellous?”
Bile rises into my throat. “What…have you done?” I barely manage to get the words out.
“I am healing her,” my mother answers, her tone unaltered despite my obvious distress. “I am fixing her.”
“You say it so pleasantly,” Eva drawls, dragging me over to the tank. “I much prefer the gory details. Did you know that a fae can endure several weeks of torture before their body can no longer heal them? It is rather fascinating. By the third week, I can manipulate their cells into a state of metamorphosis, which has, at long last, almost resulted in the cleansing I’ve desired my whole life. This right here”—she places her hand to the glass—“will soon be the end of all shadowborns. Now comes the Age of Light. Those who swim in darkness will have no place among us.”
I look between them, stunned for words. They are both fucking crazy, and this is my own mother! I knew she was fucked up and had gone to the ‘dark side’, but I guess I deep down I secretly hoped she’d see the light again. Now she’s merely using the light as a way to conceal her darkness. I no longer recognise the woman standing before me. She’s as much a monster as Eva and anyone else who particulates in this ‘research’. It’s just another word to justify the torture they’re doing.
Before I can even think about what I’m doing, I slam Eva’s face into the glass. A tiny fraction of it shatters, but my satisfaction at seeing Eva in pain is short-lived. She lifts her hand and I’m lifted into the air, an invisible grip tightening around my throat.
“Please, Your Highness, I beg of you!” My mother stands between us, her face ashen. “She is still my daughter. Please?”
For a moment, I think Eva is actually about to kill me, until she lets me go. I fall to the floor, gasping for air and tears gathering into my eyes. Gold appears at my side and lifts me to my feet. I