Samantha Cassidy

Samantha could hear them so easily on the other side of that thick wooden door, and yet that wood separated her from the only people on the planet that might share in the pain that laced at her chest. Tobi was sobbing - no... no he was wailing in the most horrific way and how she wished she could take away that pain for them. Aiden... her Aiden... their Aiden... He had burned and blown away and turned into nothing but memories. The idea of it made her sick. She wanted to scream and sob and beg whatever power there was to bring him back. But he was gone. He was gone. He was dead. And he was never coming back. That knowledge alone had another wave of sobs coming from the Fae Queen as she leaned her whole body against that wooden door. Tobi and Raven were the only ones that would understand. They were the only ones that could share in her grief. And somehow, judging by their sobs, they already knew what she was about to tell them.

But how much did they know? Did they know it was Frost? Did they know that it was all Samantha's fault? No, they couldn't know that. It had to be a bond thing, just like the bond she felt that laced her to Dorian and to Ivy. She would know if they were hurt, just as Tobi and Raven knew that Aiden was gone. But it was up to Samantha to tell them why, and how... and who.. Samantha herself certainly wasn't strong enough to take down Frost - not if Aiden himself couldn't - and yet perhaps Raven and Tobi were. And she would do anything to help them. Anything to make that monster of a man feel the pain he so surely deserved. Samantha wanted to kill him. And if she couldn't do it alone she would get help from the people who could. Well, if they didn't completely hate her for this. Which she was sure they would.

Samantha's body - having been so pressed against the wooden door - tumbled forward as the door opened on it's own. For a moment, she merely laid there on the floor. She couldn't look at them yet, and the grief seemed to press down so hard on her that she couldn't stand. The Fae Queen wasn't quite sure what was worse - her own grief, Raven's sobs, or Tobi's wails. Finally, the girl looked up and let her gaze fall upon the couple and the way they pressed into each other. They would hate her. They would destroy her and she wouldn't blame them one bit. "Raven... Tobi..." Samantha started, her whole body seeming to tremble in that moment. They would hate her. They would hate her so much but they needed to know what had happened.

"I'm so... sorry..." Samantha gasped out. She shifted then, moving to hug her arms tight to her chest as she stared at the floor, the wall, anywhere but at them. How had she been so naive? How had Frost tricked her for months? How had this happened? "F...Frost... He came to the burlesque one night... months ago... and he tricked me... He told me that he was your friend. All of you. He to... told me that he worked with the Hunters Council. He told me that the faeries who created me were here looking for me... He..." Samantha shook her head. None of it made sense anymore. None of it could have been real from the beginning and yet Sam had believed him. She had never considered that anyone might want to hurt her. It was naive, and Aiden had died for it.

"He tricked me, and I believed him... and I... Tonight he... he found me and he told me... he told me none of it was real. The hallucinations... the paranoia... it was all him. All him. And all because Aiden was keeping Nadya from him..." Samantha shook her head again. "And then... Aiden showed up..." She let out a pitiful sob. The very mention of his name made her ache. There had been relief there. When she'd felt Aiden's fur against her legs, she'd been relieved because that meant that she was safe. How naive it was. "They fought. They fought and t... there was nothing I could do... I... I thought Aiden was winning. He looked like he was winning... and then Aiden just... laid down and he didn't move... and then he started to burn. He just turned into ash..."

Finally, Samantha managed to lift her gaze up to the pair, sure that she would see hatred there. "I'm so s... sorry. This is all my f... fault..." She swallowed hard. "Aiden is d... dead."