Chapter 32
Dean kept vigil at Fawn’s bedside, watching her chest rise and fall. Other healers arrived and helped Cali finish her work. They praised her for keeping a level head and saving Fawn’s life.
Dean owed her everything, and whatever she wanted—other than him—he would give in abundance. They’d given his mate a tincture to keep her unconscious so the patch over her wound wouldn’t be disturbed. A temporary valve, they’d called it. Dean didn’t care what it was called, as long as it saved her.
He dipped a clean cloth in a nearby water basin and continued to clean the blood from Fawn’s face. A heavy presence entered the room, and he knew without looking that Lilith stood behind him.
Once they told him Fawn would be okay, he’d started piecing together Lilith’s riddle.
If Cali had moved out of the palace, she might not have been there to save his mate’s life.
And all those years ago, he’d wondered who Lilith wanted Cassandra to stay with.
Cali . Had she not followed her, she couldn’t have kept Emi from stopping Cali from saving Fawn.
There were other pieces to her cryptic messages he didn’t understand, and only one person had the answers.
“Why couldn’t I tell Fawn that Cali had to stay to save her life?” Dean dropped the bloody cloth in the basin and twisted around.
Lilith approached Fawn’s bedside with measured steps and peered down at her sleeping form. “She would have reacted differently to seeing you and Cali in the gardens.” Lilith’s brows squished together. “I don’t know how. That part isn’t clear, but she wouldn’t have gone with Emi.”
“Going with Emi is what almost got her killed,” Dean ground out. “How is that bad?”
“If Emi hadn’t been the one to attempt to kill her, someone more skilled would have. No matter what course of action you took, she would have been killed. This was the only scenario where she lived.”
Dean scoffed. “If you don’t want her dead, why was death her possible fate?”
“Death is everyone’s possible fate. Some I see, some I don’t. In the aether, I have no power to stop it, but here, I can make a difference.”
Lilith’s chin lifted, the pride and defiance in the stance so utterly mortal that it took Dean by surprise. “Is a Fate supposed to care if people live or die?”
“No,” she responded softly, “but living among mortals makes it hard not to.” Her slender lips pressed together. “Fuck the gods and the rules of the aether.”
Dean sputtered a laugh. He’d never heard her speak with such emotion, let alone curse. “For what it’s worth, Eden is better with you in it, and I’m not just saying that because you saved my mate. You saved me years ago, and you do what you can to protect our world.”
Dean detected a slight sheen in the Fate's eyes. “Dean Hawthorne, are you trying to get your picture on my wall?”
He grinned wide. “You were going to put me up there anyway.”
“May I come in?” His mother poked her head into the room, and Dean’s blood simmered in his veins.
Lilith’s eyes thinned. “I’ll give you two some privacy.” At the door, she ignored Anne and told Dean, “Fawn will wake up tomorrow.”
He tipped his head in thanks, and his mother entered the room, the picture of concern. The urge to kill her overcame him. “Why are you here?”
She recoiled and stumbled back a step. “I’ve come to check on my daughter-in-law. What has gotten into you?”
Dean had asked Cali about what happened in the gardens to upset Fawn and send her into Emi’s arms. She’d admitted to his mother approaching her with a plan to send Fawn running. Emi was supposed to help Fawn leave, not take her to their estate to kill her.
“Why did you lie about Fawn’s death?” Anne blanched, and he lifted a hand. “Do not attempt to lie.”
The queen’s chin trembled, and she searched the room for another chair.
Falling into one in the far corner, she met his furious stare.
“Your father and I would visit the other kingdoms periodically to discuss political matters. After you were born, on each trip, I collected the birth records of every child born on the same day as you.” She settled her gaze on Fawn, a wash of regret encompassing her.
“When you heard Fawn’s name, I knew who she was—a half-human girl in the garden region of the Human Kingdom. ”
“What do you have against humans?” he demanded. “There is nothing wrong with her heritage.”
His mother’s hand shot to her chest. “Nothing!”
“Then why?” Dean fought down the emotion clogging his throat. “Why did you steal her from me? And once you saw how much she meant to me, why did you try to take her again with your bullshit glamour act?”
“I knew a half-human girl was too weak to be a fae queen,” she replied, all traces of remorse gone. “You need a queen who matches you in strength and knows the ins and outs of our politics. You think a weak maid with no training has what it takes to rule at your side?”
“You will die for what you’ve done,” he vowed, and she stood quickly to run but he beat her to the door and wrapped his hand around her throat.
“You took her from me. Fate brought her back, and you tried to take her again.” He squeezed tighter until she turned blue.
“Don’t worry, Mother. I’ll not sully her room with the piss and shit you’ll release when you take your last breath.
” Dean dragged her to the door and handed her to the man guarding the hall. “Take her to the dungeons.”
“ Dean ,” she screamed and ripped out of the guard’s hold. Her strength outmatched theirs, a fact Dean had overlooked.
He snatched her around the neck again and spoke to the guard. “Get a healer.”
His mother tried to fight him, but thanks to her lack of interference growing up, he was stronger than even his father. She couldn’t match him. One of the palace healers, an older man who’d treated many of Dean’s childhood wounds, jogged down the hall with the guard on his heels.
Dean jerked his chin toward Fawn’s room. “Get a sedative for my mother.”
Anne fought harder against his hold. “You can’t do this! I am your mother !”
He laughed bitterly. “You’re nothing but the bitch who stole my mate and stood by while your husband abused me for years.
” The healer appeared with a damp cloth and placed it over Anne’s nose.
Her body sagged and Dean tipped his chin to the guard.
“Take her. Remember, she is a royal and can make you see whatever she wants you to. Once her cell is locked, do not under any circumstances unlock it until I tell you to.”
Did someone pour sand down my throat? Fawn thought groggily as she blinked open her eyes. Pain radiated through her chest and abdomen, and her head throbbed like crazy.
“Fawn?”
Dean ? A warm hand caressed her cheek. “Wake up, darling.”
Her eyes roved until they landed on his face. “What’s going on?” Why did her mouth taste of copper?
“Get a healer,” Dean ordered someone Fawn couldn’t see. He turned his handsome face back to hers. “What do you remember?”
Her brows bent as she searched her memory. Everything came flooding back. The hedge maze. Emi led her away to kill her. Cali walked away. “You were kissing Cali in the gardens.” She laid her head back and forced the burning in her eyes to subside.
“That wasn’t me.” He grabbed her hand, but she snatched it away. “My mother glamoured Cali and another man to look like me. Did you hear him say anything?”
The queen used her royal glamour to make Fawn think Dean was unfaithful? “No. Well, you— he said fuck, but it came out like a growl. You do growl from time to time.”
He reached for her hand again, and this time she let him. “The fact that you doubted me means I don’t show you I love you enough.” She tried to sit up and hissed as a sharp pain shot through her torso. “Don’t try to move,” Dean said, panic edging his voice.
Fawn rolled her head to look at him. “You show me you love me more than enough.” Her eyes filled with tears. “You really do, but I had no way to explain what I saw. I saw you, and it looked as real as you do now. Why would I ever think your own mother would glamour me just to sabotage us?”
Dean’s lips brushed against her cheeks, kissing her tears away. “I understand. I don’t blame you.”
“I wasn’t leaving,” she whispered.
He pulled back. “What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t running away,” she clarified. “I told Emi I planned on fighting for you. I knew you loved me, and even if you loved her too, I was going to fight.”
A blinding smile spread across his face and love pulsed down the bond. “I love you and only you.”
She swiped her nose with the sheet—gross, but better than snot running down her face. “I love you too.” Fawn looked around the infirmary room. “How am I alive?”
Dean smoothed her hair out of her face. “Cali saved you.”
That couldn’t be right. “Emi told Cali to let me die so she could be queen, and Cali left me on the floor.”
“She came back and told Cassandra to kill Emi,” he said softly. “Were it not for her, you’d be dead.”
“Why would she do that?”
“I’m not as evil as I pretend to be,” Cali teased as she walked into the room. Fawn swallowed a gasp. The woman looked haunted. The look in her eyes didn’t match her playful tone. “I need to examine you.”
Fawn couldn’t figure her out. “You walked away.”
“To get my healer bag,” Cali replied without looking up. “I wouldn’t have let you die without trying to save you first.”
Words escaped Fawn as she stared at the woman listening to her chest. “Thank you.”
Cali nodded slightly and glanced at Dean. “Do you mind if I speak with Fawn alone?”
Fawn didn’t bother protesting; she knew Dean wouldn’t let her out of his sight.
“I’ll be right outside,” the traitor said to Cali and Fawn. She gawked after him, too stunned to yell and too sore to throw anything.
Cali checked Fawn’s wound, and when everything checked out, she set her supplies aside and folded her arms across her chest. “I need to apologize for how I’ve treated you.”
Great, now I feel guilty for not wanting to be alone with her. “You’re forgiven. I was going to fight you for him too when I thought you were having a secret affair.” Cali had the good graces to look ashamed. “That was a terrible thing to do, by the way.”
Cali bit her lip and dropped her gaze to the floor. “Look,” she started. “I am sorry for how I acted. I thought you were the villain in my story.”
Fawn huffed out a laugh and groaned with the movement. “I guess in a way I was.”
“No.” Cali dashed at a tear. “Fate is the only true villain in our lives.”
The infirmary door burst open, and Naomi and Monroe ran in.
“You’re awake,” Monroe cried and hurried to her bedside.
Cali and Fawn exchanged a loaded look, both conveying their regrets.
With a tip of her chin, Cali slipped from the room, leaving Fawn to wonder if there would ever be a day they could be friends.
Probably not; there was a lot of hurt on both their ends, but anything is possible.
Naomi dropped into Dean’s chair with a small box in her hands. “Did you hear that Cassandra ate that little bitch that tried to kill you?”
Fawn’s eyes bugged out of her head. “She ate her?”
“She bit her,” Dean chuckled, sauntering through the door. He frowned at Naomi now occupying his chair and stood by Fawn’s feet. “Cassandra’s venom kills instantly.”
“I brought you a surprise,” Naomi said and handed her the box.
“I’ll open it for her,” Dean offered and intercepted the box. “She can’t sit up.”
Monroe shook his head quickly. “I don’t think you want?—”
Dean’s scream startled everyone, and his face turned a shade no living person should sport.
Tickles had jumped from the box onto Dean’s chest and hung on for dear life.
Braddock ran into the room looking around.
Dean’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body dropped like a rock.
Braddock dove forward and saved the king’s head from smashing against the ground.
Everyone stared at Dean’s limp form and burst out laughing.