A Gift from the Goddess

Book Two – Ch.# 36

“Rae… What’s happened?” he asked.

I opened my mouth to reply but the words wouldn’t come out. My body was running on pure adrenaline for survival now and I was doing my best to push through the overwhelming urge to cave into my emotions.

“I… I’m…,” I fumbled.

My eyes were trying to water but I gritted my teeth against it.

I didn’t want to fight Kieran… I didn’t know if I could live myself if I were to see the look of hatred in his eyes. Anything but that.

“Rae?”

“I… Kieran, someth-.”

But before I could finish speaking, I was suddenly cut off.

“RAVEN!” Allison’s voice shrilly screamed.

And I cursed. She was here. Probably at the staircase looking for me.

This was game over.

Kieran frowned but turned around to

investigate, walking towards my only available exit. One now manned by his insane little sister.

“Kieran! W-wait… don’t….”

However, as I futilely trailed behind him, I was further stressed by seeing that Allison had recruited help. Help in the form of Daniel, the Beta heir.

“Hand yourself over, Raven,” Daniel said, stepping cautiously forward. “Let’s not drag this out any longer than we have to.”

“What the hell is going on?” Kieran demanded.

“I’m sorry, man, but she’s been lying to you,” he said. “Allison said that she admitted to being one of them. Called herself by a name that belonged to The Council of the Silver Mist. She’s a Knight. Rheyna Knight.”

But as Daniel enlightened him to the

situation, it was Kieran’s reaction that was the most unsettling.

Or, lack of, to be precise.

Because there was no shock or surprise that crossed his features at all. Just… remaining completely silent as he held Daniel’s gaze.

Almost as if…

Almost as if he knew.

“…Kieran?” I whispered. “Why aren’t you….”

And his face then confirmed it, closing his eyes in guilt for a moment.

made sense now. Why he kept our training sessions private, why I was never allowed to talk about my health problems publicly, why he’d said those words to me last night. They’d struck me as odd, but I’d had more important things to

have to face publicly is just crimes your father forced you to do, then I think we’ll be fine.”*’ That was what he had said. ‘Biggest issue’ being my past. Because he knew that my birth family would cause a reaction like this, far greater than any other

alone keep this from me? Why bring me here at all?”

about the silver suppressors,” he said. “You kept up with me during a fight whilst taking them, Rae. It meant you had to be from a powerful pack, one stronger than even Ashwood by a considerable margin. Of which, there was only one other in modern history. But… I

stung me unlike anything I’d felt before. He’d known this

happen one day. That it

inside,

we’d both been keeping things from each other. Secrets that had dire

chimed in. “She’s a descendant of

were. She was an orphan of war, somehow surviving long enough to still

starting to wonder if Sterling’s death was really as justified as you claimed. She probably had you kill him as well. Swaying

listen to what I’m trying to tell you. Raven isn’t a devil like we were always

killed Sterling,” I said quietly, my voice

was me. I killed him.”

“Rae!”

right,” I said. “Whether it’s because I’m a so-called ‘Devil’ or due to my past crimes, I’m no innocent, Kieran. Pick a title; Rogue or Devil. Because the same

and exhausted of now defending myself against something I couldn’t change. My body felt numb to everything as the

I was done.

my confession, tears starting to fall down her face.

her, Kieran! She is literally admitting that she’s evil.

her to her room and tried to force his mark on her. If she hadn’t of killed him, I would have.

interjected before she could reply.

added. “I tortured him before I finished the job. Because that’s what he was. What you were too. A job, Kieran. You really think I

“What…?”

finally, Kieran looked surprised.

Kieran,” I said, swallowing back my emotions. “You always were, even from the very beginning when we first met. I was sent to retrieve documents once in possession of a smuggler I’d killed, believed to be handed over to Victor Lycroft. Documents that I then discovered Sterling knew the whereabouts of. After he attacked me, I turned the tables on him and tortured him into admission. This shouldn’t be a shock. I already told you that I’m

“Rae-.”

“…Rae is a lie. She doesn’t exist.” His jaw tensed as he looked at me, making me

true,” he said. “You wanted to stay here with me, I know it. I saw it in your face every day we were together. I promised to protect you, and I still intend to do that. You’re

only making this harder. Too hard

and sadness surfaced all at once, a cumulation of both the revelations today and the confliction

CAN’T FIX ME,

This isn’t something you can mend

good person, believing the best still

not there. It never

finally raised my voice in anger. It must have made him uncomfortable, unsure probably if I were about to perform some other devil

again, something that was a snowball that would

now was… how.

to safely utilise a window escape. I was trapped unless I

to take her to

decide

wasn’t having that. He looked… pissed. Probably rightfully so given

and I swear to the Goddess, Daniel…,” Kieran warned.

her? A child of the monsters who killed your mother? Our other pack members? So many died

Rae’s mother? Huh? Her father? Siblings?” he argued. “Because her entire family is dead because of us. Did you think about

…I hadn’t.

This