Chapter 49
Vesper
I’m sensing a theme here.
I have been kidnapped for the third time in just a couple of months.
I gripped the large candelabra and tested the weight in my hand. Whoever this person was, wasn’t very smart. They even laid out a new outfit for me to wear, two actually. One with brown leather pants and the other a simple dress.
Each one was easy to move in so they were ready for me to put up a fight.
This person was obviously paying attention to me because they got my sizes right, left grooming products in the large attached bathroom and on top of it all, left the door unlocked.
My captor clearly wanted me to explore beyond this stone chamber.
Someone carved the room meticulously into the mountain itself, with only a single window interrupting the rugged walls.
Its clean-cut edges and wooden frame held back the frigid mountain air while some unseen source kept the space unexpectedly cozy.
I followed torch-lit corridors chiseled straight through the mountain, where droplets of mineral-rich water trickled down the walls and collected in small stone basins carved into the floor.
I walked along a carpeted hallway, with open doorways lining both sides. No need to search for my kidnapper. Every door stood wide open, revealing rooms as lavishly furnished as my own chamber at the corridor's end.
Each room had its own palette. My chamber dressed in whites and creams that caught the morning light.
I passed others awash in fiery oranges and reds, then one wrapped in white like snow, another in browns and forest greens.
The corridor stretched on until the clatter of cookware echoed from around the corner.
I adjusted my grip on the candelabra, hefting it like a baseball bat, ready to introduce it to my kidnapper's skull.
I was supposed to be bonded by now. I was supposed to connect my soul to the two most important people in my life and they had stolen it from me.
Once this fucker was dead, I don’t know how I would get back to them, but hey, one step at a time, am I right?
And getting kidnapped was getting damn annoying.
I went around the corner and the smell of meat and vegetables cooking hit my nose. My stomach instantly growled and gave away my position because the flame that crackled immediately stopped.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd sleep through another meal.
" The voice was deep and unhurried. He didn't bother turning around as I came around the corner, my fingers still white-knuckled around the candelabra.
"That's not a toy, you know. You're liable to hurt yourself.
Now put that down and come have some food. "
Sylvaine’s long, fire red hair cascaded down his back. He was calm, as I figured my capture would be. He had magik like Veylor did and perhaps he was as strong as Oryx.
But I had something he didn’t have. Sarcasm.
“I’d rather not,” I snapped. “I’d rather do what I intended and that is to knock your front teeth in.”
Leaves swirled around me, the shirt that was tucked into my pants came undone and lifted the shirt to reveal my stomach. I didn’t flinch and held on tight while he chuckled.
"I see Alicia in you—that same fire, that same refusal to bend."
My body stiffened.
Sylvaine slid the sizzling food onto two ceramic plates, turning to face me with one eyebrow arched.
His casual movements betrayed no concern about the weapon in my hand as he placed both dishes on the small wooden table.
He gestured toward the empty chair with a lazy flick of his wrist, but I remained frozen in the doorway. A weary sigh escaped his lips.
“Come eat, and I’ll tell you a story.”
I shook my head. “If you know anything about my mother, you know I’m not going to willingly sit at a kitchen table as a barter for information. You took me away from Veylor and Oryx. I have no reason to trust you.”
Sylvaine hummed and put his hands behind his back. “Would I get any credit at all, if I said that I was just looking for your best interests? Tried to save you from making a terrible mistake?”
I scoffed. “Nope.”
I’m also stubborn AF.
Sylvaine leaned back against the table, crossing his arms over his chest as he regarded me with a mix of amusement and frustration. It was clear that he was unaccustomed to dealing with someone as headstrong and unyielding as I was.
My mother was more… forgiving.
I wasn’t.
"I understand your skepticism," Sylvaine began, his voice softening slightly. "But please, listen."
I hesitated, torn between my instinct to stay guarded and the nagging curiosity that tugged at the corners of my mind.
Slowly, I took a cautious step into the room, still clutching the candelabra tightly in my hand.
Sylvaine gestured to the empty chair opposite him, a silent invitation to sit and listen.
“Will you tell me how you know about my mother?”
Because I was genuinely curious. A fae that lived somewhere deep in the mountains and away from the portal knew of a human? Specifically my mother, was strange.
“Of course, it is the first thing I will tell you,” he breathed.
I shot him a wary glance, those vibrant golden eyes of his tracking my every move as I inched toward the table. The chair scraped against the stone when I pulled it out. My stomach betrayed me with another growl when I sat down, the scent of whatever he'd cooked hitting me full force.
I gripped the candelabra tighter in my lap and locked eyes with Sylvain, daring him to make the first move.
“Thank you for sitting,” he smirked and pushed a fork toward me.
I rolled my eyes and rested the candelabra on my leg. “I did it because it was my choice, not because you offered it.”
Sylvaine pursed his lips and shook his head. “Very well. You do have more fire than your mother. I apologize—”
“Get on with it. My patience is thin, and you are wasting my time.”
Sylvaine growled under his breath. “You will not speak to me in that tone.” He pointed his finger at me. “I am your father.”
My eyes widened. There was a moment of silence that stretched between us. It felt like minutes, but truly it was just seconds.
I slapped my hand on the table.
"That's impossible," I said, my voice barely audible before rising to a shout.
I leaned forward. "My father died before I could remember his face.
My father wouldn't have let children mock me.
My father—" my voice cracked, "—wouldn't have watched from some mountain hideaway while my mother worked night shifts at the morgue, touching cold bodies so I could eat warm food. "
Sylvaine gripped his fork, unable to bring food to his mouth.
“My father wouldn’t have left us…”
Sylvaine stood. “I didn’t leave you! Your mother left me! Thackery left me!” He roared. The window shattered, the glass wrapped around him, leaves scattered across the floor.
I blinked, stepping back and holding the candelabra to my chest. Thackery?
Thackery must have been the frostwhisper fae. Mom didn’t have the white hair, she didn’t have any magik powers.
That I knew of.
That would have been so hard to hide.
Thackery though? Thackery must have been the middle piece of the triad. A male.
Sylvaine’s eyes filled with tears, his hand covered his face and turned away from me to go to the window. The sunrise was coming over one of the mountains and slowly its rays were coming inside the kitchen to bring us light.
I waited for his winds to slow, that reminded me of Veylor’s shadows before I spoke. “Thackery was a frostwhisper, that was why you knew about them, isn’t it?”
Sylvaine lowered his head.
“And Thackery, he was my biological father. The one that got my mother pregnant, with me.”
Sylvaine’s hands gripped the sink.
“Yes, but we didn’t know that. At least I didn’t, not until you came to this realm. I thought they were still through the portal, on Earth. Living out their lives without me.”
My brows furrowed and I started to feel bad for him. He was, my father, part of a bond with my mother. Supposedly, if I believed all this.
"I still love them both—never stopped. We had this ridiculous argument about scheduling date nights.
I was working for a court and I had been gone frequently.
We were still working out the balance between the three of us, and your mother was early in her pregnancy, emotions running high.
I lost my temper. Told her she should just go with Thackery since he was probably more potent and the father of her child anyway. "
Sylvaine dragged his fingers through his hair and faced me, his expression crumpling.
"It was a moment of jealousy. Words I can never take back.
I lashed out over something as trivial as a date night.
But they left that afternoon, and as the hours passed, I waited by the window, certain they'd return once I'd cooled down.
They knew my temper always burned out quickly. "
I frowned but still didn’t move from my spot.
"When darkness fell, they hadn't returned.
I paced until midnight, telling myself they just needed time.
Your mother—barely showing then—had always hated the mountain chill, while Thackery never seemed to feel it at all.
By dawn, fear had hollowed me out. I summoned the winds to carry me, following traces of them through the forest until every trail vanished at the boundary of Shadow Court lands. "
He let out a breath that moved the hanging flowers in the kitchen.
"For days, then weeks, I searched until my body wasted away," he said, voice hollow.
"The moonlight called to me. It restored my strength and helped me brew potions that dulled the severed edges of our bond.
" His eyes glistened with tears he refused to let fall.
"Every day, I hunted for some trace of them, only to discover—too late—a portal to the Earth Realm.
By then, it had been sealed shut, forbidden to all.