Page 94 of What did you do?

“King Thanes,” I whispered, feeling foolish. The multitude of puzzle pieces began to fall into place, answering decades-long questions.

“Never in your life, Calypso, have you seen a pair more in love.” She smiled softly as she spoke.

Something in her eyes turned my stomach. “What about your husband? Eli’s father?” I asked wearily. The strange glassiness in her eyes warned me to tread carefully.

Her smile faltered, and she stared off into the empty corner. “She killed him,” she whispered. “Because of Mendax’s mother, I lost everything.”

“You forget who you converse with, my queen. You’ve already told me it was your hand that ended King Felix’s life,” I reminded her.

“You will kill Queen Tenebris, the Unseelie queen, or you will be killed,” she stated sharply.

“I—you can’t kill me; I’m tied to Eli. And I can’t kill Tenebris.” I gripped the chair.

“What is a loyalty task if it doesn’t prove one’s loyalty?” she bit out. “You want to be a Seelie royal, then kill Tenebris.”

“You know I can’t kill a Smoke Slayer. I’ve already proven that. But I know you well enough to believe that even you wouldn’t hurt your son,” I said.

She smiled so wide, I saw every one of her beautiful, white teeth. “You think youknowme?” she laughed. “Not even my kingdom knows me. You will wish for your death, child. How long have you and the dark prince been working together?”

“We haven’t been working together, Saracen! I thought he was dead! We were bonded?—”

“That explains why you still hold his powers,” she said, nibbling on her lower lip. “It’s a shame they got to you, Calypso, though I can’t say I’m surprised. You were always a monstrous little thing. I loved you like my own child—perhaps more than my own children. An unascended Artemi with no one but me and my son?” A frown pulled at the corners of her mouth. “I had imagined you would be powerful, but I was naive to think that your evil could never be turned on me. I had such hopes for us. Too bad you’ll be of no use to anyone now.”

“You—what?” I thought the faerie mead was mostly out of my system, but I was struggling to make sense of what she was saying. “You don’t mean that. You’re upset with me, and I’m sorry,” I stated firmly. “I messed up, but you can’t just kill me because I couldn’t complete an impossible task! I have done everything you have ever asked of me just so I could be here with you and Eli and become a Seelie royal. You can’t take that away because you sent me to kill a fucking Smoke Slayer and I failed!” I shouted. “Family doesn’t do things like that.”

“I am not your family, Calypso,” Saracen said. “Your family is dead. Their remains disintegrated into the soil after the crash. You have nothing and no one, and do you know why? Becausefate gifted me an opportunity, and I took it. I killed your little human family,” she said.

I was trembling. Hearing her words made my insides fill with explosive, hair-trigger anger. “Why did you have to kill them? Why not just steal me away?”

Flashes of Saracen telling me about the accident played like a movie in my mind. The way her vibrant wings fluttered slowly behind her. How much it hurt my ears and heart when I hugged her. The knit purple hat with the cartoon ninjas I wore.

I remembered everything.

“How else was I going to get you pliable and willing? I’m no imbecile; take a powerful creature and use them against their will, and they will hate you, turning on you the moment their leash slips.” Saracen straightened proudly. “Take that same powerful creature and become the only one they rely on for everything, craft and knead their little clay mind until they love and cherish you, and they will do anything for you—including dominating all the realms.”

Her words struck a thousand nerves as they poured into my head. I was going to be sick. I couldn’t let everything fall apart like this. Not when I was so close!

“Send me to Moirai with the Ascendants. Let them deal with me!” I tried.

“You would have made Thanes’s and my dreams a reality. You could have salvaged what was lost to the Fallen.” She turned and ran her finger over the books on the shelves to the right of her desk. “You could have been everything.”

“You’re upset with me, and I understand, but the plan isn’t over. I’m not working with the Unseelie. I-I can still take them out!” I cried, scrambling to fix things. In the end, I would destroy anything and anyone if I had to.

“The plan is over.” She nodded. “It has been for a while. I was just too set in my ways to realize that. I am old and tired.The time for a new generation is upon Seelie. Tarani will take the throne as queen. She has the guile needed. We will exist within our own realm. I’ve decided after all these years, I am without the need of an Artemi weapon.”

Tears blurred my eyes as angry panic surged through me, threatening to still the mangled heart in my chest. I threw myself to the ground at Saracen’s feet with a frustrated scream while salty tears ran down my cheeks..

“She screamed, you know.…your mother. She sounded a lot like you,” she whispered.

I couldn’t take any more of this.

“I remember bracing myself to see what horrifying wrath your father would send down upon me for killing his lover and child.” Her smile widened as her head canted to the side. “I suppose that’s foolish though. Why would he care? His Artemi blood only went to you, and he obviously didn’t want you either. Though I suppose without your full heart, there’s nothing he can do anyway.”

She patted my head like a dog before walking to a shelf and running her fingers over the old leather tomes there.

My hand instinctively skated over my hip for my karambit, only to graze bare skin—I was still wearing only a tank top and underwear. How could I kill her?

I knew she was stronger than she looked. All fae were.

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