Chapter 29
Monday passes by in a relatively uneventful blur. I didn’t see any of the princes, much to Elle’s annoyance. You don’t have the time to waste on breaks when it comes to getting to know them. I fired a ball of water at her in response.
“Your Highness, it’s time,” the guard says, startling me from the memory. A portal stands open in front of me, wide enough for Marik and me to step through together onto Willa’s front lawn.
“Where are we?” Marik asks beside me, eyeing me cautiously.
I told Marik we were going out to dinner but didn’t tell him where. He had made it clear that he wanted to meet Willa, so I thought this would be the best way. Willa also has no idea she’s meeting Marik tonight. She thinks I’m bringing Cally instead.
The moment I see my childhood home, I’m reminded of the sheer magnitude of the way that my life has changed. I always assumed I’d bring a serious boyfriend home to meet Willa, but I never pictured it under these circumstances.
For the last two weeks, I’ve felt so distanced from my previous life. It’s hard to think that less than a month ago, I was going to work every day, my biggest concern being what to have for dinner.
I reach for Marik’s hand as we step toward the house, giving it a quick squeeze. He returns it and throws me a quick smile.
“I’ll be here, Your Highness,” the guard says from behind Marik and me.
I thank him, and we walk up to the front door together. Before we even get the chance to knock on the door, Willa throws it open.
“Who is this?” she asks, looking at Marik. There’s a smile on her face, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
Shit. Maybe this was a bad idea. I glance at Marik, shooting him an apologetic look, but he’s not looking at me. He’s staring at Willa, his eyes wide, panicked.
Yes, this was a bad idea.
I gather all the bravado I have and say, “Willa! This is my boyfriend, Marik!”
“Prince Marik?” she says, her eyes wide.
“Well…Yes,” I say, once again reflecting on all the poor choices I’ve made in the course of my lifetime and realizing this was definitely one of them.
He holds out his hand and says, “It’s so nice to meet you. Mae’s told me so much about you.”
She raises an eyebrow, looking at him, but takes his hand. “I take it you had no idea you were meeting me today, either.”
He laughs and says, “No, you could say I’m just as surprised as you are.”
They both look at me, and I force a big smile on my face. “Surprise,” I say, elongating the word and holding up my hands to wiggle my fingers.
We make our way into the kitchen, Willa sitting us both down at the kitchen table set for three. The smell of freshly baked bread fills the kitchen, and my mouth salivates as I sit at the table, my back to the bay window overlooking the backyard.
“Well, Prince Marik, in my own home,” Willa says as she pulls the bread from the oven.
I grimace and say, “Yeah, I thought this would be a better idea.”
She hushes me, saying, “No, no. I’m thrilled. Just surprised. Does this mean you have something to tell me?” She looks down at my hand excitedly.
What is with everyone expecting me to get engaged so quickly? “No, not yet,” I say, but I smile to soften the news.
Her face falls at my answer anyways.
“My same reaction,” Marik says as he pulls me in for a side hug. I lean into it and return his smile.
After transferring the bread to a serving plate and three steaming scoops of baked chicken onto individual plates, Willa floats each plate to the table, which shocks me a bit.
Growing up, she didn’t use her magic like that.
I wonder at the power that lurks inside of her that she must have worked to hide from me as a child.
“So, Prince Marik, tell me about the Serpent House,” Willa says, sipping from her glass of wine.
“Marik is fine, please. There’s not much to know. It’s hot there,” he says with a shrug.
She nods slowly as if she’s thinking about what other boring, get-to-know-you questions she should ask next.
This is going to be great, I try to convince myself.
“So, you’re telling me that Mae punched him?” Marik asks, his jaw dropping as Willa tells him her favorite, albeit embarrassing, story of me punching one of my human neighbors when I was four years old.
“He threw up on me!” I exclaim. “It was my first reaction.”
“He didn’t mean to,” Willa says as she laughs.
“His mom never invited me back,” I mumble to Marik.
Willa dives into another story about how I tried to keep a rabbit as a pet when I was six, and I drift off, retreating into my thoughts.
Throughout dinner, all I could think about was how happy I was. I know that learning of my true lineage and right to the High Throne were shocking and have been a period of adjustment for me. But it’s starting to feel more comfortable and right.
Even though I feel this way, something else has been niggling at me throughout the night.
Willa. I can’t stop thinking about her lineage and title.
She’s technically a High Fae Princess and has a right to her court’s throne, yet that was all stolen from her.
What would it feel like to grow up knowing I was in line to be High Queen one day and have it all ripped away to instead live this life?
It makes me feel guilty to even be here, if I’m being honest. Rubbing my new position in her face, a handsome prince on my arm. This is the future she was supposed to have. Not me.
I wince as I recall how upset I was with her when I found out she knew my true lineage.
She was probably trying to save me from the pain of learning I was the bastard child of the High King, the pain of trying to connect with him and learning I’d never be like Etta.
There would never have been a true place for me within the High Court.
I was certainly never supposed to be the High Queen.
Not unless the entire royal family died.
I stand up, excusing myself, saying something about needing to use the bathroom. Really, I need a moment to breathe.
I go to my old room and sit on the bed. I loved this room so much.
Willa’s kept everything the same. My bookshelves are still overflowing, filled with young adult romances and adventure novels.
My favorite chair sits in the corner of the room beside the large window that overlooks the backyard, where I used to sit and read for hours.
I stand from the bed and look out across the backyard.
Willa and Marik are still on the patio. I watch them for a moment, feeling guilty for leaving them behind. But if Marik is going to be my future husband, I need to know that he and Willa get along. Willa says something, and they both stand as she makes her way past Marik to head back inside.
As Willa passes him, he places a hand on the small of her back and smiles at her.
I expect Willa to ignore it, but she looks back at him and smiles, saying something else before heading back inside.
To anyone else, the action would likely go unnoticed, taken as a friendly gesture.
For some reason, it gives me pause, but I can’t figure out why.
I go into the attached bathroom and splash some water onto my face. My thoughts are running away from me and going in a direction that I don’t like, which usually ends in one way: me crying on the bathroom floor. I need to stop drinking.
I head downstairs and grab a glass of water from the kitchen. Something flashes in my peripheral vision, and I whirl around. But there’s nothing there. I walk slowly to the glass doors that lead to the back porch and almost drop the glass of water.
Marik and Willa stand side-by-side, facing a line of a dozen cambions. They stare at Marik and Willa, smiles on their faces.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Panic overcomes me.
The cambions must not be able to see me otherwise, they’d be trying to get in. That must be why Marik and Willa have stayed there. I have no idea how to make a portal, and Willa can’t make a portal into the castle. Marik’s the only one who’s able to do that.
Fuck.
I reach for the back door, but something yanks me from behind. I drop the glass of water, and it shatters as it smashes to the ground.
Marik’s head whips to the door. With his attention diverted, the cambions attack.
“Hello there, pretty High Queen,” something whispers in my ear.