Page 148 of Devoured

Because I have met Evander before, just not in human form.

“You don’t even realize why you’re special, do you? You can’t even understand the magnitude of the lies surrounding you.”

He had been testing me, pushing me to see what I was capable of.

“Thank you,” I tell him now, forcing my voice to be loud, unbreakable, “Evander Chamaeleon, firstborn prince of the Chamaeleon constellation, for sending us your finest legion.” My eyes blaze as I look to Cora now. As I watch her face pale and horror flash across that hideous gaze. “These soldiers aren’t here for you, Cora. They’re here for me.”

And at my words, every single soldier falls to their knees and glances toward Evander. Toward their fallen faerie prince.

Lyra looks at me and smiles.

49

EVELYN

KAAX KEEPS THOSE CLAWS EMBEDDED IN MY SIDE. I DO not impale him yet, though I will slit his throat as soon as I’m able. I don’t want to detract from Vanessa’s performance.

It is a freaking masterpiece.

The violet of her eyes radiates as she faces the faerie soldiers with a steely expression. She is not just a girl in this moment. She is so much more. Even amidst the anguish and blood loss, I grin to myself.

I grin because the Wolf Queen begins to tremble with rage.

“What are you playing at, girl?” Cora hisses.

Vanessa ignores the queen completely, and victory spears my belly. I shouldn’t have ever doubted her. I should have known she could do this all along.

A low growl builds in my throat as she says, “When the first stars fell, a faerie traveled here, to this very castle. He wanted to see for himself how ruined it had become. I ran into him in the forest before it closed.” She turns to Cora now. “You thought he was a member of foreign nobility, isn’t that right? He used his Modifier powers to trick you. But his powers aren’t like anyone else’s. They’re boundless—actually boundless—because he’s the Chamaeleon constellation.

“Evander was the first star in the sky. He is the one who blessed all werewolf Modifiers with their gifts. He is a god.” Sin inhales sharply in disbelief, but Vanessa continues as if she can’t hear him. “You’ve been arrogant, Cora. After slaughtering our loved ones and breaking our magic, did you think there wouldn’t be any repercussions? You’ve made our gods angry. You scorned them, and now they’ve returned to scorn you.”

Cora snarls. “It’s not possible. Those faerie soldiers—Lyra brought them here for me.”

“No.” Lyra shakes her head, her dark hair sweeping over her shoulders and across the delicate sleeves of her bodice—sleeves too sheer to conceal her scars. A dozen wounds inflicted by Cora, permanently etched into her soft skin. “You were arrogant. You believed I would do your bidding so long as you spared my life. But I did not travel to the edges of the Realm of Superiority for you, a traitorous wolf. I traveled there because fate told me so. This tapestry”—Lyra’s gaze flits to Vanessa’s, and her smile brightens into something breathtaking—“it was woven long ago, Cora. This was always the way this story would end.”

I lick my lips as anticipation curls around my middle fingers, around those rings, and I think of Nettie. Eric. My parents.

This. All this for them.

Vanessa looks out at her guests. “Cora has been lying to you and torturing you for months. She promised you a better life, but do you even feel safe? Does this castle really feel like home? To the Guatemalan soldiers and traveling packs: We haven’t met yet, but your lives won’t be the same under Cora’s reign of horror. I know you didn’t witness winter solstice, but she slaughtered everyone. Even the ones who could’ve been won over to her side—”

Jasper surges forward then, cutting through the crowd with his claws, charging straight for Vanessa. With a wild roar, he lunges—and she catches him by the throat. Without even blinking, she glares down at him. Emotions swell in her vicious, purple gaze, and Jasper yelps. His body seizes.

Vanessa drops him on the grass without a single explanation as to what just passed between them. He curls up in the fetal position and twitches as Sin recoils, blinking rapidly between confusion and betrayal.

“I don’t—I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she pleads. “I just want the killing and torture to end. Some of you must agree with me.”

“I have been in this court for one short month,” Evander—Prince Evander—announces, striding forward through the crowd to join Vanessa. He changes his appearance with every step, allowing the true light of his divinity to shine through. It’s brighter than that of the other faeries. It’s like staring directly at the sun. “And I have witnessed horrors unlike anything before. I would highly recommend you choose to fight for the side that won’t disembowel you for forgetting to change a queen’s bedsheets. Join us, and we will welcome you with open arms. Join us, and reclaim your destinies.” He strolls toward Vanessa’s side, and she steps back into that light.

Evander allows it to glow around her, casting her in a halo of power.

“What are you doing, Vanessa?” Sin’s frown deepens as the faerie prince slides an arm around her waist. “What is all this?”

“I’m doing what you should’ve done all along,” Vanessa says.

Sin winces.

In the silence that follows, the crowd begins to partition itself, either swaying toward Cora or drifting toward Vanessa. Even with the faerie soldiers, Cora maintains the majority. A wave of unease rolls through my stomach. We haven’t convinced enough of them yet. The faeries will win the fight hands down, but the deaths… There will be so much death.