Thirty Five
For years, Rosalie siphoned Silberium from Oberon, and when she died of old age, her daughter took her place as the conduit, and then her daughter’s daughter. Aubrielle and Emeraldia were both thriving as we had finally achieved a balance.
I knew that things were different with Queen Estelle.
Oberon was different with her. At three hundred years old, he was a bored and tired king when Estelle’s mother passed away, and she became the conduit.
Estelle brought colors back into Oberon’s dull world, a light returning to his silver gaze.
He was still married to Alta when the unexpected romance sparked, but if he had ever felt any love for her, those feelings were long gone.
Alta, on the other hand, still loved him ardently.
When she noticed the growing connection between him and Estelle, she became desperate to keep him.
Even though Oberon had never wanted an heir, resolved to reign for eons, Alta fell pregnant with their son.
In hopes to pull her husband closer, she only pushed him away.
Oberon surrendered his heart fully to Estelle, but their love was doomed from the very beginning, for she was mortal and would wither and die of old age.
As Alta had been desperate to keep him, he became desperate to keep Estelle for longer than her human lifespan allowed.
Refusing to accept that his time with her was finite, he became obsessed with finding a way to prolong her life.
And find a way he did. Another spell, another attempt to bend the rules of nature.
Everything that Oberon had learned from the past mistakes was forgotten when an everlasting future with Estelle became within his grasp.
The spell would draw on Estelle’s magical reserves to transform her into a faerie.
“What?” I whispered, sitting up straighter before the vanity. I was in my bedroom, stealing a few minutes to read Lady May’s journal while waiting for Adrian to collect me for the Garden Party in the Rolamin Province.
At first, I refused to perform the spell because I feared that Estelle’s magic wouldn’t be enough.
The risks were far too great, but Oberon wouldn’t hear reason.
When I asked Estelle if trying the spell was what she truly wanted, she told me that she trusted Oberon’s decision.
I went along with it and performed the spell, but it failed.
As I had feared, Estelle’s magic wasn’t strong enough to carry her through the transformation from mortal to Fae, and she died in Oberon’s arms.
With a gasp, I brought my hand to my mouth.
Lady May hadn’t shared that part with my father.
She had revealed that Estelle had died in the Fae lands but had refused to elaborate on the cause of her death…
because in a way she was responsible for it.
Why hadn’t she blurred that part of her journal before giving it to me? Had she wanted me to know the truth?
I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
Would I want to become a faerie if there was a way?
Turning my head to the side, I lifted my hand to my ear and ran my finger over the rounded tip.
Would Sebastian want to know? He had proposed to Mirielle last week, and as I had expected, she had said yes.
Would he want to know that instead of years with Miri, he could have centuries?
“It doesn’t matter. The spell didn’t work,” I murmured, returning my gaze to the diary.
Driven by the desire to avenge his dead sister, Estelle’s brother, King Elias, invaded Aubrielle and slaughtered Oberon.
Even though I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I knew the exact moment the High King took his last breath.
The entire Fae realm shuddered as if something shifted in the very core of our domain.
I was with Alta when it happened, and we both suspected that Silberium would seek out Sorin because, as Oberon’s blood, he was the rightful heir.
Alta begged me to do something, to shield him somehow, as he was only a child and couldn’t possibly withstand the full impact of the ancient magic.
In the nick of time, I performed a binding spell to link his life force to hers.
She would help him to bear the brunt of Silberium until he became strong enough to absorb it all himself.
The relief we all felt that the linking spell had worked was fleeting as Elias came for Alta and her son.
I was prepared to fight for their lives, but it didn’t come to that because the mortal king proposed a treaty.
He would spare them, but in exchange, I would cast a spell that would alter everyone’s memories.
No one would remember about the magic transfer between the Fae king and the mortal queens, and the alliance that had saved us all.
I was forbidden to speak of it, bound by the blood oath that Elias made me swear.
The mortal king did not stop there. He erected a barrier in the Enwyld Forest to seal Emeraldia away from Aubrielle.
Unable to breathe a word about the truth lest I meet my demise, all I could do was watch as another vicious cycle began.
As its new hosts, Alta and Sorin had to start transferring Silberium into the land to ensure their own survival.
The deterioration of the Fae realm that had stopped and been reversed over two hundred years ago began anew.
Once Sorin came of age, he demanded that I unlink his life from Alta’s.
Like father, like son, he craved power and wanted Silberium all to himself.
After I had performed the unbinding spell, Alta’s health deteriorated quickly, and she died shortly after, her life force drained after years of carrying the ancient magic within her.
Without his mother to guide him and help smooth out the sharp edges of his personality, Sorin descended into tyrannical tendencies.
The hunger for power that he had inherited from Oberon was amplified in him tenfold.
A ruthless king, he drove the Fae of Aubrielle into despair.
When Zarana, who came from a line of gifted sorceresses, prophesied that a Clairborne would slay the Fae king, I rejoiced at the prospect of Sorin’s oppressive rule coming to an end.
“Zarana?” I murmured in disbelief. Daelana’s mother was a sorceress?
When a knock interrupted my stunned silence, I closed the journal and put it away in the vanity drawer.
“Emelin? Are you ready?” Adrian asked, emerging from the hallway that connected our chambers.
I stood up from the chair before the vanity and turned toward him.
He froze, drinking me in. My floor-length gown was crafted from sparkling midnight-blue fabric and featured a fitted silhouette.
My right shoulder was bare. From the top of my left shoulder, a shimmering lace sash flowed to the floor.
Thea had suggested the gown, saying that it was perfect for making a statement.
What statement I was trying to make, I wasn’t entirely sure, but I felt elegant in the dress despite it exposing some skin.
“I’m ready,” I replied, glancing at my reflection. I had secured the crown on top of my head with magic to ensure it would stay in place throughout the evening.
When I turned back to Adrian, he was still frozen, his gaze roaming over my body. Self-conscious, I covered my bare shoulder with a lock of my unbound hair.
“Ready?” he asked again, his voice thicker than before.
“Yes,” I replied, fighting a smile caused by his reaction upon seeing me in the dress.
“I’ll glimmer us to the party. Thea and Tom are already there waiting for us. They’ll announce our arrival.”
He didn’t immediately move from his spot, flexing his fingers at his sides as if he needed to brace himself before stepping closer to me.
My heart fluttered, and I found myself reaching for him when he finally came closer. As he took my hands in his, a charge passed between us, jolting my memories awake. His hands on my hips, his fingers tracing the inner sides of my thighs…
“Don’t look at me like that,” he rasped.
“Like what?”
“Like you did that night at Bradford Manor. The best night of my life. As though you want me, I—” He closed his eyes and swallowed. “You don’t know what that look does to me. It has the power to bring me to my knees and make me grovel at your feet, for a mere brush of your lips against mine.”
The desire I felt for him had the power to bring me to my knees as well, but I refused to give in to it. “I do want you,” I told him the truth. “I’ve never stopped wanting you, but I need—”
“Time,” he ground out as he opened his eyes.
The word sounded like a curse on his lips.
“Such a precious resource, yet I find myself wishing I could glimmer into the future, to the moment when you have forgiven me. If you ever forgive me…” He paused and started to lean in.
My pulse ratcheted up. Was he going to kiss me?
He moved past my mouth, and a second later, I felt his breath next to my ear as he whispered, “I live and breathe for that moment. It may or may not ever come, but if it does, I can’t wait to coax out every last drop of pleasure from your magnificent body. ”
My knees felt weak as my body flooded with heat. Adrian pulled away, his lips twitching as he took in my visceral reaction to his words.
“Was that—” when my voice came out husky, I cleared my throat, “—was that your way of getting back at me for the torture you’ve had to endure for the past two weeks?”
A rough chuckle escaped him. “I don’t need to get back at you, for I know that you have been tormenting not only me, but also yourself.
I’ll be waiting, my star. I’m not going anywhere.
Say only a word, and I’ll soothe your ache.
I can’t wait to see you come undone like you did that night at the manor. Over and over again.”
The curling sensation between my thighs was becoming impossible to ignore.