CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Astrid
A hundred men surround our wards, with one man leading them. He’s tall, lean, muscular, and has a brown beard with a smattering of gray. He’s decent-looking enough, even though he’s old enough to be my father, but there’s a look in his blue eyes I don’t like. Declan must have a pair of balls on him to march right up to our fucking gates, trying to intimidate us in our own kingdom.
Bane storms into my bedroom, catching me looking out the window at the army of misfits Declan has brought with him. “We didn’t know,” he promises, bending at his knee. “I swear to you, Princess. I would never betray you. I didn’t know… Zython—”
“Stand up, Bane. I know,” I assure him, allowing him to wrap me in his arms. “Why would he do this to me? He loved you, and you aren’t even his. But me? He just wanted to use me.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, kissing the top of my head. “He knew how special you are and chose to utilize that instead of appreciating it. Your brothers had no idea either. They are working out how to play this. He’s still their father and their king.”
“I know,” I reply, taking a deep breath.
It’s not as simple as Rave thinks it is, although I suppose to him it is.
He quite simply wants to kill everyone.
“Why would Declan come here? Rave is going to destroy his whole army,” I say, letting go of Bane to peer back outside. “We’re missing something. He has something up his sleeve.”
“Why are you here alone and not planning for war with everyone else?” he asks, standing next to me at the window. He holds his hand out, hitting Declan with a sudden pour of heavy rain, hail, and booming lightning strikes.
Storm-fucking-daddy.
“I forget you can do that,” I murmur, my lip twitching.
And then I see something that has my stomach twisting in horror. Vale, walking through the wards, running into the arms of a woman. She hugs him warmly, and they both smile at each other.
“They have Vale,” I yell, zipping outside and running to the wards to get him. “Vale!” I scream, and he turns his little head to look at me. He can’t see the army on the other side of the grounds. For him, it’s just him and this beautiful woman.
A beautiful woman I’ve seen before.
She’s holding him, and although she can’t zip with him because of his void magic, Vale is strong enough to zip himself, which is how he got away with Vera.
“It’s okay, Astrid!” he calls back with a smile. “This is my mom’s friend.”
Oh fuck! This keeps getting worse.
“Your mother is dead, Vale,” she tells him, her long, blonde hair blowing around her face in the wind. She pushes her hair back, revealing a striking pair of blue eyes.
Rave and Bane appear behind me, on either side, Rave holding his hands out to his son.
“Vale, come here now,” Rave calls out.
“Mom’s not dead. She just didn’t want to live here anymore,” Vale says, looking at his father and back at the woman. “Why would you say that?”
“She’s dead, Vale. Your father killed her. Now come with me, and we can go away just like Vera wanted,” she says, holding him tighter.
Darkness surges, and soon, the woman is choking on her own words. She lets go of Vale, who steps away, looking at Rave with tears in his eyes. “That’s not true, is it, Dad?”
Fuck.
“You don’t understand—” Rave starts, but Vale cuts him off.
“Did you kill Mom?” Vale screams, his hands clasping into fists. I can only imagine the emotions he is feeling. He is just a child, and hearing this must be heartbreaking. He loves his mother, and nothing will change that or break the bond they shared. I selfishly never wanted to be around him when he learned the truth—the truth I had hoped would have come from his father’s lips.
“No, he didn’t,” Bane says, stepping forward, his hands out like he’s trying to calm an angry animal. “ I killed your mother. Rave didn’t do anything to her.”
Vale screams, charging forward as if to avenge his mother. Rave grabs him with one hand, throwing him to Bane so he can use his shadows to catch Vera’s friend, who is now running away through the forest.
Their plan was simple.
Declan was the distraction, and the woman was meant to kidnap Vale.
If I didn’t see Vale, they likely would have succeeded, the woman filling Vale’s head with hate for Rave.
“Milana!” Vale calls out to the woman.
“Declan’s daughter,” Rave growls, disappearing into black smoke, going after her.
It all comes together.
Declan’s daughter, the one Zython wants Axe to marry, is Vera’s friend. The one who helped her hide Vale when they escaped. But not only that, she’s the woman I once saw in a vision that now feels like a lifetime ago.
August’s fated mate.
Bane takes a kicking and screaming Vale back inside, and I follow him.
Rave returns without Milana, saying that she must have zipped away, and Declan and his army also disappear, not getting what they wanted this time.
They will probably be back.
But for now, we are all safe.
Rave spends the night with Vale, trying to calm and help him through his grief.
Grief we caused.
Soren comes into my room and lays down on the bed with me. He doesn’t touch me or even make his usual jokes. He simply lays there so I’m not alone, and I appreciate it.
It’s been a long fucking week.
In the morning, Soren is gone, but in his place is Vale, his beautiful blue eyes red from crying.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice a sleepy rasp.
He scoots closer, and I wrap my arms around him. “Your Dad loves you more than anything, you know that, right?”
“I know,” he replies, sniffling. “I wish he told me the truth that Mom was dead.”
“He didn’t want to hurt you.”
He sighs, snuggling his face into my neck. “I know. I didn’t want to cry in front of him, but I couldn’t stop. I don’t think the future fae king should be crying like a baby.”
“Crying is good, Vale. It’s worse to hold it all inside. You can cry as much as you want. Trust me, even kings cry.”
He then lets go, sobbing against me.
I hold him through it all, telling him that it’s going to be okay, he is loved, and his mom loved him so much too.
Eventually, Rave crawls into the bed and joins us, holding us both.
I guess, in a fucked-up way, my vision about Vale was right.
He is my son now.
***
“Zython was seen meeting with Declan again,” Bane announces, glancing around the table. We’re having a council meeting about the whole situation. Axe and Kai visited me and promised they had no idea about Zython’s plans. Even so, I know they are now put in the middle between their father and me, whom they haven’t known for long. My heart hurts to be given a family only for them to be taken away, but I need to let them all go for now. Bane, however, has chosen a side and gone against Zython. “They are going to announce that Axe will be marrying Declan’s daughter.”
Milana.
As soon as the meeting is over, I pull August aside and ask him to walk with me to the stables to see Willow and Bear, making sure no one is around to overhear our conversation. “I need to tell you something.”
Running my hands over Willow’s mane and then Bear’s, I wonder what’s the best way to tell him.
“What?” he asks, pulling me away from the horses, cupping my chin, and lifting my face so I have to look at him.
“We can’t allow Axe to marry Milana,” I say, looking into August’s chocolate-brown eyes. The eyes that were once my safe place, and still are, just in a different way now.
“Why?” he asks, looking confused as to why I would be telling him this.
“Milana is your fated mate.”
He stills, his brow furrowing as he processes this. He lets go of my face, his jaw tensing. “The woman who tried to kidnap Vale?”
Wincing, I nod, reaching out my hand to comfort him.
He takes a step back, ignoring me, his face etched with confusion and pain.
And disappointment.
He walks away, and I let him.
Because my heart hurts with his.