Chapter 6 Wen #2
“That’s impossible,” I repeated, my voice shaking now. “I’m human. Just human. Normal, boring human who happened to open a portal one time because of a spell I found in a very old book.”
Umrik shook his head slowly. “You are not entirely human, Your Majesty. You never were.”
I turned to Mal, needing him to tell me this was crazy, that Umrik was wrong, that this was all some mistake.
But he wouldn’t meet my eyes. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders tight, his entire body radiating guilt so obvious it might as well have been written in neon across his forehead.
“Say something,” I demanded.
Silence.
“Mal. Say something.”
He finally looked at me, and the expression on his face confirmed everything I was starting to suspect.
“You knew,” I said. This was what he’d been hiding.
“Wen...”
“How long have you known?”
“I suspected...”
“How. Long.”
He took a deep breath. “Since the beginning.”
Through the window, I could see Killian in the garden, proudly holding up a handful of purple flowers and waving at us with a huge grin on his face, completely oblivious to the drama unfolding inside.
The room spun. Five years. He’d known, or suspected, for five years that I wasn’t entirely human, and he’d said nothing.
He’d let me think I was just some regular human woman who’d stumbled into a magical world, let everyone judge me for being the first human queen, let them call our son a bastard while he knew the whole time there was more to the story.
“I will just be over there,” Umrik said, backing away slowly. “Far away. From this.”
Smart man. That was probably why he’d lived for so long.
“I need air,” I managed.
“Wen, please...”
“I need air. Now.”
I walked toward the door on shaky legs, ignoring Mal calling my name. Just as I reached the garden, Killian came running to me, his arms full of purple flowers and his face absolutely glowing with pride.
“MAMA! LOOK! I found TWELVE! I’m a HERO!”
I forced a smile, crouching down to his level. “You’re definitely a hero. Tell me about them.”
“Okay!” He launched into an explanation of where he’d found each one. “This one was under a bush. This one was by the tree. This one was HIDDEN behind a rock, that one was super hard. And this one was purple but also kinda pink? Is that purple? Or pink?”
“It’s both.”
“COOL!”
“Wen,” Mal said from behind me.
I didn’t turn around. “Killian, keep telling me about the flowers.”
“This one smelled really good but this one didn’t smell like anything and...”
“Wen, please.”
“I’m listening to Killian right now.”
I let his chatter wash over me as I stood, taking his hand. “Let’s go look at these in better light. Come on.”
I walked deeper into the gardens. They were beautiful and I was having a complete identity crisis. Perfect combination.
Killian was showing me each flower individually, rating them by difficulty level and explaining his strategy. He was taking this very seriously, which would’ve been adorable if my entire world wasn’t imploding.
“And THIS one,” he said, holding up a particularly bedraggled specimen, “was the hardest. I had to climb. Well, not climb climb, but step-climb? Onto a rock? It was very dangerous.”
“So brave,” I agreed automatically.
Not fully human. How was I not fully human? I’d lived all my life thinking I was just a regular person, boring and normal, and Mal had known or suspected the whole time. For five years, he’d said nothing.
“Mama, are you listening?”
Damn. Kid was too perceptive.
“Sorry. Tell me again.”
He launched back into his explanation while I tried to focus on him instead of the spiral happening in my brain.
Torin was following at a respectful distance, giving us space but keeping watch. After Killian had shown me his flowers for the third time, Torin approached carefully.
“Your Majesty, are you alright?”
“No,” I said honestly. “I’m about one second away from screaming into the void.”
“Understandable. Is there anything I can...”
“Captain. Step back.”
We both turned to find Mal approaching across the garden, looking like he’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes.
Torin looked confused. “I was just...”
“I said step back.”
“Excuse me?” I rounded on Mal. “What the hell?”
“He is too close to you.”
I looked at Torin, who was standing a completely normal distance away. “He’s standing three feet away.”
“That is too close.”
“Are you serious right now?”
Torin raised his hands. “I will just...”
“Stay where you are, Torin,” I snapped. Then to Mal: “What is wrong with you?”
“He touched your shoulder.”
“He didn’t touch my shoulder!”
“I saw him...”
“He literally didn’t touch anything! He was standing there! Existing!”
What the fuck was going on?
“He was too close while existing!”
I stared at Mal, and then it hit me. He was jealous of Torin for standing near me and asking if I was okay. While he was the one who’d been lying to me for half a decade.
The absolute audacity.
And the worst part? He looked kind of pathetic. Like a kicked puppy who knew he’d done something wrong but couldn’t help himself from doing another wrong thing on top of it. His jaw was clenched with that stubborn jealousy and his eyes were all wounded and possessive and...
No. Absolutely not. I was NOT going to find this endearing. Stay mad.
“Papa, look at my flowers!” Killian held them up, trying to diffuse whatever weird tension he could sense.
“Very nice, pup,” Mal said, not even glancing at them. He was too busy glaring at Torin.
“You didn’t even look!”
“What the h-e-l-l was that?” I demanded, stepping toward Mal. “He was being nice. Something you’ve apparently forgotten how to do.”
“I saw how he...”
“How he what? Stood near me? Asked if I was okay? Did his job?”
“He is always there. Always close to you when I am...”
“Lying to me? Keeping secrets for five years?”
Mal’s jaw clenched harder. “I did not lie.”
“You suspected I wasn’t human and said nothing. For five years. While they called our son a b-a-s-t-a-r-d because of my ‘human blood’ and the powers he couldn’t have inherited from either of us. You knew and you said nothing. We could’ve investigated before this, we could’ve been prepared.”
“I was not certain.”
“You suspected! That’s enough! You should’ve told me!”
Torin was backing away slowly, clearly wanting no part of this argument.
“This isn’t about Torin,” I said, my voice cracking slightly. “This is about you and me and the fact that you kept something huge from me. That’s what this is about.”
“Wen, please...”
“No. I need space. And you need to figure out your priorities. Because right now you’re mad at Torin for being nice while you are the one who lied to my face for five years.”
“That is not fair.”
“Life’s not fair. Come on, Killian.”
“Can I bring my flowers?”
“Yes. Bring all your flowers.”
I took his hand and started walking away, eyes burning with tears I refused to let fall.
“Mama,” Killian said, looking back over his shoulder. “Papa looks really sad.”
“I know.”
“Can we make him a flower crown? To make him happy?”
My chest squeezed. “Maybe later.”
“Flower crowns make everyone happy. Even when they’re fighting.”
Behind us, I could hear voices. A deeply amused one.
“You’re an idiot.”
I glanced back to see Aurion had materialized out of nowhere, eating an apple and looking entirely too entertained by his brother’s suffering.
“I KNOW,” Mal’s voice carried across the garden.
“I was just asking if she was alright,” Torin said, sounding baffled.
“He knows,” Aurion said around a bite of apple. “He’s just stupid when he’s jealous.”
“I am not jealous!”
“Sure. And I’m a virgin.”
Their voices faded as I walked further away, Killian chattering beside me about whether we could have a snack when we got inside because finding twelve flowers was very hard work.
I focused on his voice and his hand in mine. No matter what else was falling apart, no matter what secrets Mal had kept or what I apparently was or wasn’t, I still had my son and his twelve extremely important purple flowers.
Small victories.