Chapter Thirty-Eight #2
This is it, the piece that was missing for everything to make sense. My gut wrenches and I’m not sure if I’m going to be sick or cry.
“What?”
“I told you, Joyce was my stepmother. My mother died when I was very young. She was the one who taught me all my songs. After she passed, my father forbade me to go into the woods, just like he forbade me to tell anyone who the book had belonged to.” I face Davien.
“I thought he was just being cautious, overprotective, because Joyce destroyed everything of my mother’s, maybe he wanted me to know how much sentimental value it had so I would never give it away. ”
“And that’s why, when you saw me throw it into the fire—”
“I lunged after it. It was one of the two things that I had left of my mother.”
He grabs my shoulders, shakes me. Davien is beginning to see it too. “The other thing of hers—you said it was your lute, right?”
“Yes.”
“The woman who should have been Queen Talahani Aviness was rumored to have been an excellent musician. The songs you know, always knew, fae songs…” Davien’s grip goes slack.
“No, no, it’s not possible.” He shakes his head, staggering away.
“And yet the songs, the secrecy, the scars on your back…your memory of flying…Queen Talahani’s book being found at your father’s estate. ”
“Wait, you don’t think—” It’s not possible. This can’t be possible.
“You summoned wings the day you fell. Your father didn’t let that woman burn you out of cruelty. He let her burn you in a misguided and draconian attempt to keep you safe—to keep you ‘normal’ by their standards. You sprouted wings and they clipped them.”
A shudder rips through me as the memories return in full. The memories I tried to repress but can no longer ignore. The memories of that day that made no sense to me as a girl and even less as an adult.
“My father knew too much about the fae,” I whisper.
“I thought it was his proximity to the woods. Or the stories he’d encountered on his travels.
No…he knew so much about the fae because he fell in love with one.
He always said my mother wasn’t made for that world,” I say, my father’s sad lament.
“He meant that she was made for Midscape.”
“You’re half fae.” Davien steps back and leans against the bookcase as though he needs to catch his breath.
“Queen Talahani was rumored to have fled in an effort to save the bloodline. The Boltovs claimed they’d killed her, but her body was never found.
Then the book the Boltovs were searching for—the one that Vena knew to look for through Allor—was discovered in the possession of your father.
Talahani must have escaped to the Natural World.
She must’ve fallen in love with your father and given birth to you before she withered there. ”
“No, I can’t—I might be half fae, maybe, but if I am, I’m sure my mother was some random fae. No one important.” I begin to laugh, slightly crazed, wholly overwhelmed. “You’re making no sense.”
“I’m making a great deal of sense. You thrive, even without the king’s power, in Midscape.
You can eat our food and live here without withering.
The magic of the ancient kings went to you, not me, because you are the heir.
You are the true heir. And you could not give me the power without first formally being anointed and then abdicating because the crown should have been yours to begin with.
I was wrong. So wrong. You weren’t a thief.
You were claiming your birthright.” Davien runs his hands through his hair, shaking his head.
He vibrates with disbelieving laughter. “For the past few days, I’ve been thinking that I would never find the heir.
That our people would have to compromise with me and be condemned to uncertainty on my death.
All along I’ve been thinking that I have to let you go, but it’s not true.
None of it is true!” He runs over to me and sweeps me into his arms. “Katria, you were born to be the queen of the fae.”
I laugh again. “You’re too tired. You can’t possibly believe what you’re saying.”
“You know what I’m saying is true,” he whispers in my ear. “You know it deep within you.”
I ignore the nagging feeling that he’s right, the feeling I’ve been trying to ignore for days. “You’re desperate.”
“Fine, then.” He pulls away. “If you don’t believe me, come and put on the crown. If you’re right, and I’m wrong, then you have nothing to fear. It will fall from your brow like it has for all the others.” Davien starts for the door but I’m frozen in place.
“And what if you’re right?” I ask in a very small voice.
He glances over his shoulder with a smile. “Then you will rule, as is your birthright.”
“But you still have the magic.” I rush over to him. “I abdicated.”
“These things can be undone. Remember, abdication was only meant as a placeholder until the true heir was ready. You are ready and I will give you back your power gladly.” He grabs my hands. “Come with me.”
“I can’t.”
“No matter what, Katria, I will be by your side. If you are the lost heir, then I will be with you as your most faithful servant. If you are not, then you are still half fae and we will spend our lives together in bliss. There is nothing but joy before us, I promise you.”
I drift through the castle, led by Davien. My mind is still churning through his words, trying to make sense of them. And yet I feel like my logical thoughts are catching up with what my heart already knows and has known for a long time.
I never belonged to the world I was born into. I never fit in there. And in Midscape, I found purpose—I found love.
The second we cross the threshold of the main hall, Oren is upon us. “Your Majesty, there are more here who would—”
Davien waves him off. Wordlessly, before all that have gathered, he guides me to the throne at the top of the dais as though he is guiding me to the bed. He motions for me to sit and I hear whispering erupt around the hall.
“Your Majesty?” Vena steps forward. “What are you—”
“Many years ago, we lost the woman we believed to be the last true heir of the Aviness bloodline. Though she never held the throne, she was rumored to have lived in the High Court right underneath Boltov’s nose, keeping the relics of her ancestors safe.
When Boltov finally discovered her, she escaped with a book, and it was the pursuit of that book that led me to Katria.
” Davien addresses the room. “The book was found across the Fade in the Natural World. And when I used it in a ritual to regain the power of the ancient kings, that power did not flow to me but to her.” He motions to me.
More whispering and glances are exchanged.
“It did so because she is a child of two worlds. Talahani fled and made a new life where Boltov could not find her. She fell in love with a human and gave birth to a daughter.”
Davien comes to stand before me. He looks down at me with eyes full of love and admiration. It’s enough to make me feel brave. To make me, well, honestly, a little foolish.
“Sit, Princess Katria, on the throne that you saved and that is rightfully yours.”
I oblige him. The throne doesn’t feel different from any other chair. But I’m keenly aware of the moment that the glass crown hovers above my head. I glance up at Davien, stealing whatever bravery I can from his loving gaze. He lowers the crown to my brow.
It stays.
A perfect fit.
“All hail Queen Katria, true blood heir to the fae throne, last of the Aviness bloodline,” Davien intones, and the gathered fae in the hall repeat it. He gives me a small smile, love glittering in his brilliant eyes. “Long may you reign.”