Chapter 35 #2
The High Lord’s eyes glistened with something that looked like his soul cracking open. “And all this time…” he whispered. “All this time you’ve been here?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t left since the day he took me,” she said, voice breaking.
“He used my ancient blood-high healing to his advantage; he glamoured me to look like a Fire Fae and stationed me here as a High Healer.” She looked down at the truth stone in my hand as if it were sacred.
“But the truth stone from our lands broke the spell. We can go home, Follie.”
She looked to me, "Thank you child, I am forever in your debt." He rose slowly, and the softness vanished from him the way flame vanished when it was starved of air. What replaced it was cold and lethal.
His fists clenched, and the room trembled again—not with grief now, but with fury.
“Guards,” he said through his teeth, each word carved. “Take the Lady of Land to my dragon. We are leaving immediately.”
One guard gently moved toward her.
Foliade’s gaze snapped to me, sharp as a blade.
“For defending my mother and breaking the spell, I will spare your life,” he said, and there was no gratitude in it—only the terrible promise of what came next.
“But I suggest you flee this kingdom because there will be nothing left when I’m done.
Not a structure. Not a Fae. Not even ash to remember it by. ”
Then he turned and strode out, and his guards followed, and his mother—his queen—went with them.
The door shut.
The silence he left behind was worse than the shouting.
My heart raced hard enough to make me dizzy, because the truth was already taking shape in my mind like a nightmare becoming flesh.
I had just set a war into motion. And Titus didn’t even know it yet.
I needed to tell Titus we had to evacuate the kingdom and ready ourselves for attack. I waited until I saw them leave—he’d glamoured her to look like a male guard to get her past our guards unnoticed.
I ran to Titus’s room. Seeing it for the first time, I wished I had more time to look around and study it, but this was a full-on emergency.
“Titus wake up!” I hissed.
He rolled over and rubbed his eyes. “Hmmm, ready for round two so soon?” He groaned.
“Titus something is very wrong you need to get up. I was in Gleeda’s room, and she was cleaning my mate mark, when Folliade and his guards barged in,” I began to explain.
He blinked hard, like he couldn’t get his mind to catch up with his body. For a disoriented heartbeat, he stared at me as if he were still dreaming, then he sat up fast, suddenly alert, giving me his full attention.
“Are you ok? Did he see your bare chest? I’ll rip his fucking eyes out!” He interrupted.
“No, Titus, that’s beside the point. Gleeda was under some kind of spell from your dad. She was the missing queen!!!—and Folliade knows and he thinks you have been hiding it from him and he told me to flee because he is going to destroy the kingdom!!” I explained rapidly.
“The Lady of Land was glamoured by my father and hidden here as a healer through a spell?” he asked, almost unbelieving.
“Yes! She said she was spell bound and she couldn’t say who she was or reveal her true form or leave the castle!” I replied.
His eyes widened in stunned disbelief, the color draining from his face as the weight of it settled in.
For a split second, he looked like something inside him had fractured—like the last fragile illusion he’d carried about his father had finally shattered.
The realization was deeper than shock; it was devastation, hollow disappointment that there had never been any good left to salvage.
"My father cast a forbidden bind?” His voice dropped dangerously low. “Where are they now?” He asked sharply.
“They left, probably already in the air back to their kingdom. We have to evacuate the kingdom or something!!!” I pleaded with urgency.
He got out of bed and whipped his bedding back in anger.
“And where do you suggest we go Princess, please tell me with all your infinite wisdom, who would take us in? The Kingdom of Terrain was our last chance at an alliance, and soon they will be marching in on us for Folliade’s revenge.
It doesn’t matter now whether I can convince the council to free the slaves or not before the deadline the other kingdoms gave us, because we will all already be dead! ”
His flames erupted, singeing his shirt off in threads. “FUCKKK!” he shouted and threw a wine glass at the wall.
“Don’t you get it? All three kingdoms are coming and they will destroy us, and there is nothing I can do. Fire-kind will die, our dragons will die…I am just like him, worse than him!... I failed...everyone.”
He dropped to his knees and covered his face.
I rushed to my mate’s side and held him. I wrapped my arms around him, and his bare skin was almost too hot to the touch. I couldn’t tell if he was crying—he would never let me see if he was, but I held him anyway and gently stroked his back.
“You are nothing like him, Titus, you tried to be better, there must be something we can do.” I said encouragingly.
“We are far too outnumbered; it will be a slaughter.” He slumped into his hands.
The shame he wore on his face killed me.
“Then we go to mount Orid, let’s get the dagger and free the God Dragon, no one would dare invade you then.” I suggested, but I said it like an order.
He lifted his head and looked at me lovingly. “No, I can’t lose you too.”
His voice was sweet and fragile, almost making me reconsider— but I couldn’t let my friends die. I couldn’t let the dragons be sent to their slaughter by warring Fae. I could do something.
“A month ago, you were practically forcing me to go,” I shouted.
“A month ago, things were different, WE were different!” He scolded, and his words warmed my heart.
Yes, he was different. He was not the complicated Danny/Titus blend that he is now. But I was different too. I was stronger, braver, and more confident. I could communicate with dragons, and I could do this.
“There’s no other way Titus!” I shouted.
“But, my shield…what if I fail at that too?—I won’t be able to live with myself.” He replied with so much emotion that my brain had a tough time registering that his words came from his mouth.
“I believe you, I believe in you…Titus.” I declared.
He closed the distance between us, and in an instant, he snatched me up in his arms. He pressed his lips firmly on mine, and I held him tightly around his neck.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“I meant what I said, … I would burn for you, Titus.” I whispered lovingly.
He looked at me like he wanted to forbid it, like every instinct in him screamed to lock me away and burn the mountain down himself.
His smile was pained with love and regret.
I knew he didn’t want this. But this was my choice, my life to risk, and I choose to save them all.
With quiet devastation in his voice, he sighed, “Then you need to select a dragon from the keep.”