Page 100 of Forgotten Fate
My heart stuttered. “All of them?”
Elias nodded.
I couldn’t fathom it – an entire race of people gone extinct. Powerful, magic-wielding people. I wanted to know how. But first I wanted to know how many witches and lycans were walking freely in my world, under every human’s nose. “How many witches are there?”
“I’m not sure. They’re probably rare these days. Trybe is the first one I’ve run into in decades, besides Sarai.”
The pure hatred that rolled off his tongue when he said her name reached my soul. And because of what Sarai did to him – what she had been responsible for, for three hundred years – I fucking hated her too. Because of her, Elias was unable to escape his enslavement to the Sprathian kings.
“And what about lycans? How many of your kind are there?”
Elias exhaled, a wave of sadness escaping with his breath. “I am the last one.”
I nearly choked on nothing but air. “How could that be?” I asked in shock.
His shoulders sank slowly. “When I told you my entire family was killed, I didn’t just mean my siblings, my parents, my friends. It was every last lycan. I was the only one left alive.”
“Gods…” I whispered. “How does that even happen?” No wonder Elias refused to answer when I pressed for information about his life all those weeks ago. This was a lot to take in.
Elias looked away for the first time since I began questioning him. “Centuries ago, I started a rebellion against a tyrant – a mythic who destroyed his own kind and threatened to destroy mine…and we lost. To spite me, he killed every last one of my kind in front of me, but kept me alive. He wanted the guilt to kill me slowly.”
When a single tear rolled down Elias’s cheek, it was enough tobreak me. I couldn’t imagine what he had been through, or how he could have possibly survived it.
“I’m so sorry, Elias.” I lifted my hand to cup his cheek and brushed away the tear’s trail with my thumb. Unsurprisingly, energy ignited through our touch. Elias reached up and took my hand from his cheek, pulling it to his lips to kiss the backs of my fingers.
“Don’t be,” he said gently. “That was centuries ago.”
“Why isn’t it in the history books? Why does the world not know about this?”
As a princess, I was forced to practically memorize the history of the Four Kingdoms. Not once did they mention immortal creatures or an immortal tyrant.
“I honestly don’t know,” Elias sighed. “It wasn’t long after my kind was exterminated that I fled to Sprath. And then…”
“They captured you,” I finished.
Elias nodded. “Maybe twenty to thirty years after my capture, the Sprathian king informed me of the rumors that Zolmara had fallen, and that immortals were no more, save for whatever witches survived the kingdom’s downfall. I think he told me because he thought it would destroy me, but… it did the opposite. It meant that Torzen was dead. That the remaining witches were able to stop him, even after my rebellion failed.”
“Torzen…” I whispered. “That was the mythic?”
“Yes.”
We were silent for a long moment, Elias likely reminiscing on his past traumas while I absorbed this new information. It was Elias who finally broke the silence after removing the sheet that covered him and turning to face me.
“Aura, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for keeping all of this from you. I only wanted to keep you safe. I didn’t want you to find out the way that you did. And even after learning what I was, and what I’ve done…what Iwas supposed to do to you… you still saved my life.”
The corner of my mouth lifted in a half-smile. “You’ve saved mine plenty more than that. I still owe you a few.”
“You owe me nothing.”
I nearly laughed. “Only two hundred more gold pieces, right?”
Elias smiled. “I never wanted your money, princess. I wanted you. It has always been you.”
Without another word, Elias reached around to cradle the back of my head and pulled me into him, pressing his lips firmly into mine. Pure pleasure seared through my skin and into my soul as energy ignited.
Damn. Did I forgive him already?
I couldn’t pull away. Didn’t want to. I kissed him back with just as much passion, before forcing myself to slow down, then stop. I had so many more questions.