Free Deciding Her Faete (Beyond the Veil Book 2) by Sarah Marsh, Elena Kincaid, Maia Dylan Page A

began with her torture when she would not comply with Kheelan’s order to heal him.
    After her blue shield, as she started to call it, tossed Frederych and Kheelan against the wall the first time, and they both recovered, she watched as Frederych put his hands over the hole in Kheelan’s stomach. A black spark had emitted from his palms, and the hole closed up, leaving a giant scorch mark all around it. She had winced, seeing the redness and swelling that remained around the wound, which clearly indicated an infection. It was a temporary fix, she learned, one that the Fae had to administer to Kheelan daily, like a magical Band-Aid of sorts.
    After one particularly torturous session, April had spat in Kheelan’s face and said, “Even if I knew how to heal you, I still wouldn’t do it. So go ahead and kill me, you bastard. I’ll have the pleasure of knowing you’ll be dying painfully soon after.”
    He had slapped her and stormed out of the room.
    Later, he came back alone, only this time to torment her with his words. “You look so much like her … your whore of a mother,” he had sneered. Then his expression turned almost wistful. “Except for your coloring. Reysken had the most beautiful long red hair and the same big green eyes as you. He had far more freckles, however.” He paused and seemed lost in his own memory. “They covered every damn inch of him.”
    Kheelan sounded like he actually cared about her father—if the man he spoke of was actually her father. Reysken, he had called him. April repeated the name in her mind several times, testing out the sound of it. Then the word “daddy” flashed in her mind, and she gasped. Kheelan just sneered again and continued his incessant descriptions of Reysken.
    She suddenly found herself wanting to learn more about this man, but not from him, not from a man her father couldn’t possibly have been in a relationship with, let alone been in love with, as Kheelan had declared.
    “You are a liar, Kheelan,” April had yelled in his face. “My father could never have been in love with someone like you. You’re cruel and incapable of love.”
    “You have no idea, you filthy brat, of what I am capable.” He’d leaned over her and got very close to her face. She wouldn’t have thought it possible for his eyes to become colder. His lip then twisted in disgust. “I have loved two men in my life, both very deeply, and both of whom were honorable. You--you consort with filthy animals.”
    April had spat in Kheelan’s face for the second time that day and braced herself for his assault. It didn’t come this time, and it worried her even more. The bastard wasn’t done with her yet.
    “Hit a nerve, did I? I thought your father was honorable at first anyway. Until he met Ilyra. She bewitched him into thinking he was her mate, and he left me for her.”
    “That’s not possible,” April snapped. “You can’t bewitch someone into thinking you are their mate. It’s the most sacred, impenetrable bond there is.”
    “And how would you know this? You’ve been living among the  humans.”
    “I’ve also lived with wolves, and I have seen firsthand the love and bond that forms between mates when I was with them, something you have clearly never experienced. But even I had no idea of its true power until I experienced it for myself.”
    Kheelan seemed unaffected by her remark. He smiled cruelly. “Your parents didn’t get to experience it for very long.”
    April gritted her teeth. “What did you do to them?”
    “If your father had chosen me, if your father had trusted me, I would have only killed her. I would have even forgiven him for being part filthy beast since his Fae side was so dominant.”
    Was my father part shifter?
    “I had no idea what he was,” Kheelan continued. “Then I started hearing rumors about his dealings with a magician. I caught the mage training your mother and father on how to hide your filthy genes from the rest of our people. I