The Play-Toy Of Three Lycan Kings-Chapter 404: Reveals II

SAGE

By the way, he had ruined it... I thought, suddenly remembering Adam’s statement. And his provoking question.

He knew I was Maya. Something about a mark... How had he noticed that?

Whatever, he had ruined it.

The thought burned hotter than the magic thrumming beneath my skin.

I had wanted this moment to be mine. I had wanted to peel the truth back slowly, to savor every second of dawning horror on their faces, to choose the exact instant I would say the names that haunted them.

Maya. Dora. Sage. One soul, three lives, an unbroken chain of pain they had forged with their own hands.

And Adam had taken that from me.

The fury rose fast, cracking my composure and smile clean through. I snarled at him before I even realized I was moving, the sound ripping from my throat like an animal’s warning.

"Why do I hurt you?" I scoffed, my voice trembling with something dangerously close to hysteria. "You hurt me first. All of you."

I swept my gaze across the room, taking them in one by one. The brothers. Their brides. Their friends who had watched, whispered, laughed, or looked away.

My magic responded to my rage eagerly, flaring outward in a vicious pulse.

They dropped. Every single one of them.

An invisible force slammed them to the floor, pinning them in place. It wasn’t a clean restraint. It was punishment. I twisted the spell deliberately, weaving pain into it, setting it to strike in merciless intervals.

Every ten seconds, agony lanced through them like a blade, sharp enough to steal breath, cruel enough to leave them conscious through every second of it.

Gasps filled the room. Groans. Choked cries.

They hadn’t even had time to fight back, surprise freezing them in place before instinct could catch up. I laughed, the sound wild and bright and utterly unhinged, echoing off the walls.

"If the vampires are coming," I said lightly, "then I suppose I should make myself useful before they arrive."

I walked back to the bed and sat, crossing my legs with deliberate calm, as if I weren’t presiding over a roomful of suffering bodies.

I studied their faces the way one might study artwork, detached and curious.

Naomi was crying.

The sight almost made me pause.

Almost.

Her tears streaked down her face silently, her lips trembling, eyes squeezed shut as another wave of pain tore through her. Was that guilt I saw there?

I tilted my head, considering it. Guilt for what, exactly?

We were no longer friends.

"Is it the bullying?" Timothy gasped suddenly, his voice breaking through the pain.

I snickered, unable to help myself. "Oh. You remember."

I flicked my fingers.

The spell intensified around him, the next surge of pain hitting harder than the rest. Timothy cried out, his body convulsing against the invisible restraints.

"Do you remember," I asked sweetly, leaning forward, "barring your sister from playing with me? Do you remember telling her I was dirty? That she shouldn’t be seen with someone like me?"

He couldn’t answer. Pain stole his voice completely, leaving only a strangled sound in his throat.

I straightened and turned my attention to Claire.

She was the only one not crying, or begging for release.

Her eyes burned with pure, undiluted hatred, even as her body trembled under the spell. It almost impressed me.

"What?" I asked, meeting her gaze evenly. "You want to kill me?"

Her jaw clenched, teeth grinding together as another wave hit.

"Surprised I didn’t die after you accused me of stealing a necklace I didn’t even know existed?" I continued conversationally. "You were so convincing. So righteous."

She still didn’t speak, but the venom in her eyes was answer enough.

It made me laugh harder.

"Why are you doing this?" Noah finally ground out, his voice hoarse with pain and strain. "We apologized. We made a truce. You even dated Adam."

I turned my head slowly toward him.

"From what I’m hearing," he continued desperately, "he marked you. He defended you before our father that night. So why are you doing this? Is it really just the bullying?"

I scoffed, the sound scathing. Why were they still pretending?

"You don’t remember beating me to a pulp that same night?" I asked, my voice dropping. The room seemed to hold its breath.

My gaze slid to Adam.

He was on his knees, pain etched into every line of his face, but it was the confusion in his eyes that cut deepest. He looked... lost.

"You led me out of the cells yourself," I said softly, almost conversationally. "Took me to the barren lands. I thought you were helping me escape."

A bitter laugh tore out of me. "I was so stupid."

Silence followed, broken only by labored breathing and the rhythmic pulses of pain.

The triplets looked genuinely confused now.

That made something ugly coil in my chest.

Weren’t they tired of lying?

Or worse—had they truly convinced themselves they hadn’t done what they had?

Were they trying to make me doubt my own memories? Again?

Rage surged again, blinding. I stood abruptly and gestured at Adam. The magic tightened around him, yanking him to his feet.

I doubled the pain coursing through him, ignoring the way my own chest constricted in response, the way the bond screamed in protest.

"Tell them," I barked. "Tell the truth for once in your miserable life."

He looked shattered.

Not like a powerful alpha or a man in control, but like someone who had lost everything and didn’t yet know how to stand without it.

For a fleeting second, doubt flickered. I crushed it.

"Tell them!" I shouted, my voice cracking. "Tell them what you did!"

Adam swallowed hard, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as the pain wracked him. His eyes met mine, steady despite everything.

"My truth hasn’t changed," he said hoarsely. "What I told you, when you were Dora, was the truth." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The words hit harder than any spell.

I stared at him, heart pounding violently in my chest.

Truth.

That word had followed me through every life, every name, every scar.

And for the second time since this night began, uncertainty whispered through the cracks of my fury, soft and dangerous, asking a question I wasn’t ready to answer.

What if... they truly didn’t do it?

What if the monster I was fighting wasn’t standing in front of me—but buried somewhere far deeper, in the tangled wreckage of magic, memory, and revenge?