Of Thorn and Thread (Daughters of Eville #4) - Chanda Hahn Page 0,101

and their sins. He drugged and imprisoned your mother, and the queen poisoned her and paid Allemar to get rid of you. I saw your rescue and adoption.”

“I don’t know why, but this explains it . . .” He backed away, and I instantly felt his shield magic fall. “I feel it here. I’ve always felt it. A love and loyalty for this kingdom.”

“Believe me.” My hands trembled, and I felt the madness and the anger roll through my body.

He looked at me with tears in his eyes, and I felt his fear. “Aura, if you love me, save my people.”

“I’m not strong enough to fight her,” I whispered. “I can’t do it.” He handed me the spindle.

“I believe in you.” He reached down and kissed me on the forehead. “You will save them.”

I pulled away and nodded, looking up at the castle, my body shaking as I went to do the impossible.

But who will save me?

Holding the spindle, I ran toward the flaming hall. Liam tried to follow me, but I waved my hand, cementing his feet to the stone walkway.

He cried out my name in protest, but I knew this battle would end in death. I couldn’t save everyone, but I could try to save him.

When I entered the destroyed hall, King Pharell had Tatiana pinned against the wall, a blade to her throat. Her eyes met mine across the room, and I picked from her thoughts how the battle ended. She wasn’t completely heartless as I’d first believed. When she had tried to protect me, she had let her guard down. She lost her advantage, and the thorns retreated.

“I did it,” King Pharell crowed. “I defeated the fae queen. Now you will bow to me, or die.”

Tatiana’s chin raised. “I would rather die than bow to you.”

“So be it.” The knife pulled back.

“Stop it,” I screamed, and the king faltered. Lifting the spindle high into the air, I stabbed it into the ground and reached deep into the earth for the ley line, searching for it, but finding it too far out of my reach. I wasn’t strong enough to reach it through a mountain of stone.

The king smirked. “Is that it? That’s the extent of your power? I knew you were worthless.”

Tatiana’s eyes, glassy with tears, met mine from across the room. “My magic comes from the earth. Your magic comes from emotions. Use it, Daughter, to destroy him.”

King Pharell sneered. “Daughter? What are you talking about?”

I opened myself to the feelings and thoughts of those in the room. A kaleidoscope of reds, blues, and grays flickered across my mind. Hundreds of voices spoke at once inside my head and I heard them all. I felt their pain, and I took it into myself. As an empath, I desired to take pain away from others. I wanted to heal the mind, but in doing so, I had to endure it.

This time I didn’t. I siphoned emotions and feelings until my knees shook, my back felt like it would break, and my mind split into two. Then I directed all of it into the spindle. The string fell from the spindle as the firethorn took shape and sprouted new golden branches. With the sheer amount of pent-up emotions I’d directed into it, it grew faster than Tatiana’s. Racing across the floor, twisting brambles of gold shot out and went right for the king, wrapping around his legs and working up his body.

The king cried out, desperately swiping with his blade across the thorns. “Help me,” he commanded. “Kill her. Kill the girl.”

The guards and those left in the main hall moved as one unit, raising their weapons against me.

You will not attack me.

With a flick of my wrist, I sent the brambles after every one of the attackers and watched with a smile as the thorns pricked the nearest guard. He ran two feet and then collapsed. One by one, the thorns attacked until there was no one left standing except the king who was wrapped in my thorns up to his neck.

“You killed them,” he cried out, glaring at Tatiana. “You’re just like her.”

“I should hope so,” I said smugly. “She is, after all, my mother.”

“Impossible.”

I waved my hand, and a branch rolled up my arm, its leaves stroking my skin like a cat. The thorns did not dare to prick my skin, but glided across it gently.

“Kill him,” Tatiana seethed. “Kill him now, then drive his head on a spike and put it outside the