Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Kole opened the door to reveal two fae, a male and a female.
They stood in the hallway, side by side, and both wore uneasy expressions.
The female was of similar height to me with blond hair and green eyes.
She wore a beautiful but simple, brightly colored gown made of cottonum and lace, yet it was without embellishments or jewels.
Nothing like the extravagant gown I wore.
The male was tall and lean with red hair and brown eyes. Breeches and a woolen tunic adorned his wiry frame.
Their attire hinted at a healthy income, yet not one of wealth or status as the royals or families of the ten Houses were known for. Their status was similar to Gwenery and Timith, which wasn’t surprising considering who they were.
“Aunt Opalin and Uncle Roosep? What are you doing here?” Shock barreled through me, but just as fast, my heart felt as though it’d stopped because I could only think of one reason for how their presence was possible.
Opalin rushed forward and hugged me, her embrace familiar. Roosep did the same, and his spicy aftershave reminded me of home.
But I couldn’t move.
Or hug them in return.
They both released me and stepped back, attempting reassuring smiles in the process, yet anxiety clouded around them like prickly thorns, making my heart sink even more.
“Our dearest, Primelle.” Opalin laid her hand on my cheek, her palm soft and warm.
She did that gesture often. She’d been doing that to me for as long as I could remember.
“Let’s sit down. Roosep and I have a few things to tell you.
” Opalin waved to the couch where I’d had breakfast, but her hand trembled.
Beside me, Kole shifted, causing his sword’s pommel to catch the light. An unreadable expression had descended upon his face, yet his aura roiled beneath his skin.
Stiffly, I walked toward the couch, and I avoided the urge to twist my fingers.
This couldn’t be Opalin and Roosep’s home.
I’d been there many times. They owned a quaint dwelling in the Creofill District on the north side of the capital.
I was certain that nowhere in their home was a chambers even halfway as elegant as this one, or the hallway outside of it, for that matter, which could only mean that if they were here, they were somehow involved in my imprisonment and the Stone being taken from me.
My heart began to crumble all over again as another flash of betrayal washed over me. Not you two as well.
I silently pleaded to all of the gods and goddesses to have mercy on me. I didn’t think I could handle another fairy using me or tricking me, especially not Opalin and Roosep.
Feeling as fragile as glass, I lowered myself to the couch. Opalin and Roosep sat across from me, their auras anxious and heightened, reminding me of someone who’d drunk too much coffee or was high on peteesium.
I clasped my hands in my lap, my shoulders slumping, and the couple shared a troubled look.
“What we have to tell you may be shocking,” Opalin began tentatively. “But please understand that it was never our intention to deceive you or hurt you.”
My heart shattered at that simple statement. They had betrayed me. For whatever reason, two fae I loved were involved in this, which meant they also had a direct hand in Timith’s sick state.
“Just say it,” I rasped. “Whatever you’ve done, just tell me.”
A low sound of discontent came from Kole, and Roosep shot him a sharp look. “Perhaps you should wait in the hall.”
Kole didn’t move, and a long moment of silence filled the room.
Roosep continued to eye the warrior, and with stiff movements, Kole finally turned on his heel and strode out the door.
It closed with a loud thump, making me jump, but I gazed in shock at my adopted uncle.
He’d just issued an order to an Imperial Warrior, and Kole had actually followed it.
That one act totally and completely confirmed my suspicions. My aunt and uncle were definitely involved in whatever was going on if Kole obeyed him.
Alone with the two of them, I said in a resigned tone, “Whatever it is you’re here to reveal, just get it over with.”
Opalin’s face fell, and she reached across the table to grasp my hand, but the comfort that gesture would have brought me even a day ago evaporated, and I drew back, not allowing her to touch me.
Moisture misted over her eyes, and she clasped her hands tightly in her lap. A brittle smile lifted her lips. Voice shaking, Opalin said quietly, “You’re our daughter, Primelle.”
Whatever I’d expected her to say, that had not been it. “What?”
“You’re our daughter,” she repeated.
It felt as though the realm tilted off its axis, and I was spinning and twisting through the galaxy.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Hands were gently gripping my shoulders. Large hands. And a scent drifted around me. Pine, cedar, and the sea.
“Prim?” a male said, as though far away.
My eyes fluttered open.
“Prim?” Kole said again, his voice quiet yet urgent.
I blinked and realized the warrior was hovering over me. Dazed, I took in the couch I lay on. “What happened?”
“You fainted.” His voice was rough and laced with concern, but he helped me to sitting. “I came back in when I heard your parents’ shouts for a healer.”
My parents. Kole knew who they were. Of course he knew, I thought bitterly. He and Jamie had admitted as much last night when I’d been in a similar state of shock after Gwen had admitted that my parents were alive.
My gaze cut across the table, and my mind sharpened as my fainting spell passed. Opalin and Roosep were still there, but they sat on the edge of their seats, their expressions coated in worry.
“I’m fine.” I shrugged Kole’s hands off, suddenly needing to put distance between him and me. Distance from all of them. Distance from everything that was happening in my life.
Magic roiled inside me, heating and growing. This was all too much. What’s next? My bitter thoughts grew. Is Ree going to betray me too?
I shoved myself into the corner of the couch, shaking. The star-studded gown I wore caught on the couch’s fabric from my rough movements, but I didn’t care. I angrily wrenched it free.
A knock came at the door.
I straightened. “Who’s that?”
“That should be the healer.” Opalin shot to her feet, but before she could hurry to the door, I frantically shook my head.
“No, I mean it. I’m fine. It’s just this stupid gown. It makes breathing hard, and what you said—” I shook my head again. “I don’t want a healer to see me. Please.”
Opalin and Roosep shared a troubled look, but after a second, both nodded, acquiescing.
“Kole?” Roosep said gruffly. “Would you dismiss them and then stay in the hall?”
The warrior’s aura still pounded into me from where he hovered beside me, but once again, he did as my supposed father demanded.
Straightening, I managed to regain my wits as Kole disappeared into the hallway again.
“Why?” I demanded, my voice hard and laced with the stinging feel of betrayal coursing through me. “Why would you lie about that for my entire life?”
Tears filled Opalin’s eyes, and she balled a hand to her mouth.
“It was the only way to protect you,” Roosep said hoarsely. “It was the only way to keep you alive.”
The two fae sitting on the couch across from me, whom I’d always considered my family yet I had never actually believed to be my family, began to tell me the story of a young child who had been persecuted since the day she was born.
They spoke of an infant who’d been born at the exact moment of a great celestial event, to a powerful king and queen. The infant was their third daughter, a true blessing, since they didn’t believe they would be able to bear any further children.
But as the child was delivered, something happened to her at birth. Magic was unleashed upon the land as the celestial event imbued the realm with new power.
Yet that magic had sought the child and emboldened her with abilities that were whispered to be of the gods.
Opalin dabbed at her eyes as she wove her tale, but she didn’t stop, and I could tell that she wanted me to hear the entirety of it before commenting, so I sat stiffly. Listening. Processing.
The parents were overjoyed at their third daughter’s arrival, and while the magic that had thundered through the chambers at the time of her birth had seemed frightening, their little girl appeared whole and healthy, and they began to believe their concerns had been for naught.
But not long after her birth, strange events began to occur.
The queen, the infant’s mother, began to experience lapses in her memory.
She would be in one chamber, speaking with the servants or doling out instructions to the guards, and then she would find herself in another room entirely, with her tiny daughter in her arms that she had no recollection of ever picking up.
And as the months passed and the infant grew, others began to experience things that were similar. Blackouts. Strange actions nobody could explain. Objects being moved from one location to another.
Rumors began flowing through the palace. Whispers of a curse carried down the halls. Scared fae, who believed they were being controlled by another, grew too frightened to enter the palace’s doors.
And as the royal daughter grew and began to toddle on two legs, the level of frightening events dramatically increased.
The young princess would often grow angry and demanding, as all children of that age were, but instead of her nannies scolding her or distracting her, they would turn into dazed puppets, walking around and doing whatever the toddler commanded.
The royal’s two older daughters began to be affected too. The child’s adult sisters, who for the most part ignored her or had little interest in the young princess, would oftentimes find themselves locked in closets or unconscious in chambers they had no memory of ever entering.