Page 103 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
The man was sad, upset, angry … and all of it was directed at himself. None of it at me.
“What else do you have to say?”
“Two things. One of which I’ve been told isn’t my fault but feels as if it is. The otherismy fault.” He bowed his head, eyes closed.
“I’m listening,” I said, just a bit softer than before.
“A long time ago, Jiricek Grange and I crossed paths. I took his eye, but I let him live.” Dirk looked up, and my dragon made a very unhappy sound as we saw the pain there. “If I hadn’t, if I’d dealt with him that night, you would never have suffered at his hands. You could still … you would be unhurt.”
“What else do you have to say?” I asked, warring sides of me fighting over ownership of this new knowledge.
Part of me wanted to be even angrier at Dirk. How could he possibly have spared such a creature as Grange, knowing what he did? Knowing what he would do to me, what he wouldtakefrom me?
The other half, the logical side, pointed out the giant flaw in my reasoning. That Dirk had no way of knowing what Grange would do in the future. He could not be blamed for my pain.
Dirk cleared his throat, his eyes bouncing around, unable to settle on anything. “The other thing you should know is that I … I used to be one.”
“One?”
“A Hunter. I used to be a Hunter, Ella. Long ago. Before I knew, before I understood that it was wrong.” He breathed in and out, then again, his jaw clenched until the muscles in his neck stood out. “I was a good one, in their eyes. My name is on the wall in their headquarters, and I hate myself every day for it.”
A rush of guilt and loathing followed those admissions, the emotions mixing thoroughly. I tasted each of them, but only briefly, because they were quickly washed away by another feeling. Relief. It was bitter, yes, but it was there, and it was strong.
“Thank you.” I swallowed. “For telling me.”
Dirk looked up, finally meeting my eyes again. “You aren’t surprised. At all.”
I smiled tightly. “I was recently made aware of your prior status. I’m glad you told me instead of forcing me to get it out of you.”
“Who?”
I started to shake my head, but silver flashed in his eyes as the link betrayed me.
“Mirko,” Dirk hissed in cold rage. “He’s put you in his crosshairs. Again. Iwillstop him.”
“No, Dirk.” I shook my head. “You need to stop this crazy obsession with him. He’s evil. Yes. I’m not saying he’s a good man. But you need to let Caz handle him. Let it play out properlywithoutgoing on your own personal crusade.”
Dirk looked out at me through a face I barely recognized, so twisted with hate and darkness. “It’s the only thing I know how to do,” he whispered. “He has to be stopped.”
“Then let Caz stop him, please. That’s his job,” I pleaded with him, scared of the dark light in his eyes and what it foretold.
“No, not this time it’s not,” he whispered, turning away. “This time he’s crossed a line.”
I threw up my hands in frustration, shouting at his back. “Did you not actually listen to anything we just talked about?”
But Dirk was already gone.
Forty-Nine
Ella
I stared upat the pair of thrones that dominated the room, where Casimir and Anna sat side by side. They looked down upon Mirko and Andrik as the father-son pair once more escorted the ancient wet nurse to the front of the assembled Elites, this time to have her story questioned.
“Where is he?” I hissed, staring at the vacant spot to Casimir’s right side. The spot where Dirk should be.
Milly leaned over to reply. “I don’t know. Why are you asking me?”
A shifter, in front of us and several seats over, looked back slightly.
