Chapter 24
Caeo
Istare out my bedroom window at the forest canopy above.
Deep greens, with a vibrant blue peeking through the gaps.
Compared to Haven, this place is paradise—even though it’s colder, the air smells better.
Sweet, like honey and flowers. Its beauty is the only thing keeping me from bolting, other than the armed guards.
And the fact that I have no idea where I am or how to get home. And that my glowing eyes and pointy ears would get me lynched within minutes of crossing the border. The only person who might look past that is Reid, but I’d be dead long before I found him.
So yeah… There’s a lot of reasons to make the best of this, despite everything.
I don’t even remember how I got here. I had returned home from the Academy, and Mother was there. I told her I’d been kicked out. She made me some tea—
Did my own mother drug me?
That shouldn’t surprise me. Not after finding out she’d deceived me my entire life. What she’d done to my father. Just taking what she wanted from him.
Drugging me is nothing in comparison.
I swallow the nausea forming in my throat. Just breathe. Breathe and think about something else.
I’ve never wanted some speckled long leaf more in my life.
A light knock interrupts my brooding. A young-looking fae woman stands at the door, her face tight with nerves as she wrings her hands. “Pardon me, Your Highness. Her Majesty has requested your presence.”
Wonderful. And if I don’t go, I’ll just be causing problems for this poor girl. My mother probably knew that when she picked who to send.
The servant leads me through what I’m just calling ‘the castle.’ While the upper levels appear to use tree branches for structural support, with wooden walls that clearly originated elsewhere, the lower floors are mostly constructed from the trees themselves.
Their trunks twist and curve unnaturally, as if someone shaped them into walls and columns.
Smooth stones fill in the gaps, cut to make a perfect seal.
It’s an impressive display of fae craftsmanship. Then I enter the throne room.
Hundreds of tiny windows speckle the walls of the expansive space. Rays of sunlight pour through, reflecting off curved streaks of polished gold that weave between the slats of white wood making up the floor, with more gold amid the stones and tree trunks of the walls.
A large wooden throne—the only chair I’ve seen so far—stands on a dais on the far side of the room. Likely sculpted from a tree trunk, it’s adorned with golden antlers. The queen, someone I barely recognize as my mother now that she wears her full regalia, sits upon it.
My annoyance swells as I take in the golden crown, made of those same antlers, resting upon her dark hair.
She wears a lighter green dress than yesterday—more like the color of a meadow on a sunny day, matching her eyes.
Pristine white fur lines her shoulders and neckline, and while her hands rest on the arms of the throne, the flood of green and white cloth surrounding them makes it clear that if she stood, her sleeves would hang to the ground.
“His Royal Highness, Prince Caeo,” a guard at the door announces. Like the others, he wears dark green and brown under a cream-colored coat lined with fur.
With a cringe, I follow the serving girl to the throne. She gives a low curtsy, which my mother nods to, before scurrying out of the room.
I don’t even tilt my head. “You wanted to see me?”
Mother taps her fingers against the arm of the throne. “I appreciate you need time to adjust, but we must begin preparations for your coronation.”
I hate standing here while she speaks down to me, and my hand twitches as I struggle to keep my exasperation from showing. “What if I don’t want that?”
She narrows her eyes, then slowly rises. Stepping off the dais, her dress trails behind her.
“Walk with me.” Her voice echoes through the chamber, and I find myself begrudgingly falling into step beside her.
She leads me through a passage at the side of the room into the chilly air of an outdoor garden. “You cannot change who you are, Caeo. You are a prince of Aedys, whether you wish it or not. With that comes responsibilities that cannot be ignored.”
I close my eyes against the bright sunlight. “I don’t want anything to do with that. I want to go home.”
“I told you: this is your home now. Accept that.” Her words seem to echo again, despite being outside, and they hit like a boulder crushing my chest—I’m stuck here, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
It should be fine. I did want a fresh start after the Academy, after all. But there’s an itch in the back of my mind, something clawing its way out. It flails, then goes still.
“Fine,” I sigh. “What kind of responsibilities?”
Mother smiles, then pulls me along the grassy path. Bushes dotted with every flower imaginable line our way, the earth beneath them rolling with small hills to show off each type.
“I will be sending tutors to educate you in our history and our ways,” she says.
Perfect. More classes. The one misery I thought I’d escaped.
Wait a second…
“What about magic? Can I learn that?” Since being fae is the reason I failed horribly at incanting, maybe that means I can do whatever it is fae do?
Mother pats my arm. “You should have a better understanding of our relationship with the Land before you attempt to wield Her gifts.”
“I guess that makes sense.” My brief spark of excitement peters out as I stop, brushing my fingers on the soft petals of a thorny blue rose.
“Unfortunately, there is another item to discuss that may be difficult for you.”
I straighten, my ribs cramping in warning. “What’s that?”
She folds her hands together. “In order to return, I needed to form an alliance. With King Dryfid of Ystyr, to be precise.”
“Ystyr is…?”
“The southern realm. You will need to pay better attention to your studies here than you did among the Fallen.”
“I’ll try.” For once, the pain in my throat almost makes me chuckle.
Mother’s face presses into a frown, but in a blink, a smile releases the tension. “In order to seal the alliance, I agreed to your betrothal to his daughter, Princess Owena Briarwood.”
An avalanche crashes through my gut. “What?” I can’t have heard that right.
“I’ve already begun arrangements for the ceremony. Dryfid and his daughter arrived this morning.” She continues walking, as if that settled things.
“No.” I hurry after her. “You can’t just tell me I’m getting married to someone I’ve never met and expect me to be fine with it.”
She stops so fast I almost collide with her. “I can. This is your responsibility as Prince.”
Tension burns through my limbs, down to my fingers, itching to wrap around her neck. “No. I’m not doing it.” I glance around the garden. If I ran, could I find my way out of here before the guards caught me? Probably not. I need to actually plan an escape to have any chance.
Mother seems to grow taller with her inhale. “What did I tell you? You need to accept your responsibility.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, digging my palms into my skull, as her words echo through my mind. My anger slips away, despite grasping desperately for it.
The burden weighs on me, my shoulders sagging. She rests her hand on my arm, and I shrug her off, but she clamps down firmly.
“Perhaps you’ll feel better once you’ve met her. I’m told she’s quite beautiful.”
I rub my throbbing temples. “You’ve never even met her?”
“She was a child the last time I saw her.”
Which would make her anywhere from two to fifteen years older than me, probably. Not that it matters for fae. I drag my fingers down my face with a groan.
My voice comes out muffled through my hands. “When do I meet her?”
“I will take you now if you stop moping.”
Seriously? I drop my hands, shooting her a glare. After all the shit she’s thrown at me in the last day and a half, she’s gonna act like I’m the unreasonable one?
Of course she is. That’s pretty much been standard throughout my entire life.
I take a slow breath before straightening myself up. My mother fusses with my hair, and I shove her hands away.
She chuckles. “If it makes you feel any better, I doubt she’s any happier with the arrangement than you are. Perhaps you can bond over that.”
Fantastic. She gestures for me to follow, and I trudge behind, not wanting to go, but what else am I gonna do?
The garden connects to another wing of the castle, built around a separate grove of trees from the larger structure, but they lean together and reconnect several stories up, like a gigantic tree whose trunk split at the roots.
The guard at the entrance dresses differently from the others, wearing a brighter green and peach, with a light jacket that’s probably left him much colder than the rest.
He bows at our approach, then opens the door.
“Her Majesty, Queen Esyllt,” he announces.
We stand in an entryway similar to the rest of the rooms I’ve passed through, with walls of tree trunks and stone. A simple staircase of smooth wood planks curves along the side to the upper floor. A fae man appears at the top, casually descending toward us.
“Queen Esyllt,” he says with a jovial voice. “Have you come to see how we’ve settled in?”
His light peach tunic, embroidered with white flowers, seems too soft for his imposing presence. Leather pants cling to thick legs beneath a crimson robe, while the crown of small, iridescent pearls sitting atop his reddish hair hardly distracts from his assessing, burgundy eyes.
My mother smiles as he approaches. “King Dryfid.”
They each raise a hand, pressing their palms together.
“I’ve come to introduce my son,” she says as their hands drop.
The king looks my way, clearly sizing me up. I could attempt to impress him, but why bother? The best-case scenario is that he decides I’m unworthy of his daughter and cancels our betrothal.
Mother rests her hand on my shoulder. “This is Prince Caeo. Be nice—he’s only had a day to settle.”