Page 122 of Valpar

“Not so fast. We’ve got some things to discuss.” Ivy polished her nails with her dress and blew on it.

“Yeah, and what is there to discuss other than you being a sore loser?” I crossed my arms. “The only reason you have me here is because you’re sad you don’t have an orc.”

Ivy growled and stomped her foot. “It isn’t fair that a human gets a mate while the rest of Bergarians are still waiting for their mates. Why?” she yelled. “I’m fifty years old. I’ve been patient!”

I huffed in annoyance. “There are other Bergarians that have waited longer for their mates. Uncle Osirus waited eight hundred years! King Kane waited over a hundred. What makes you special?”

Ivy huffed through her nose. “And what makes you special? You are twenty-five! And human! Humans shouldn’t get such luxury! The gods chose us to be their favorites. Humans ruin everything. Your realm is slowly dying because you can’t take care of it.” Her face turned red, and her voice grew louder.

Like that was my fault. I didn’t even remember Earth.

Karma flew toward me and crossed his arms. “And why do you have to have the king so close to you? Why not someone else in the realm that is of his people? Why a human?”

I rolled my eyes. “You guys are racists to humans. I don’t understand why. I don’t have any power over any of you. I’m not the prettiest. I hold no powers. King Osirus gave pity on me because of my past that I—”

“—don’t know,” Ivy interrupted. “Yes, we are aware you don’t know of your past. We’ve done our digging. You’ve been tainted with magic to forget who you are so you can be the ignorant,happy, little human. The little sunshine to the king and queen’s eyes, who they can spoil. They only keep you around for your innocence, you know, because they can’t have children of their own.”

The harshness of her words pierced my chest.

It was well known that Uncle Osirus and Aunt Melina may never have children. Melina was stabbed in her womb during the war, with a sword imbued with deep, dark magic. She may never have children, but they don’t let that come between them. They love each other. They wouldn’t spoil me because I act like a child. I wasn’t a child. They said so themselves.

I didn’t believe her.

“I—”

“They are getting bored.” Karma interrupted. “They need someone else to baby and to spoil. Like a real child. Birch and Theresa are pregnant now, you know. Once they get rid of you, the king and queen can spend some time with a real baby. Not an adult that acts like one.”

My eyes widened and I clutched my hand to my chest. “W-what?” Why didn’t they tell me?

“That’s the whole reason they left for the mountains, isn’t it? To become pregnant?” Karma cooed, flying around my head. “They are starting their own family now. Think about it, Calliope. They were trying to get you to that ball all along. Valpar hasn’t claimed you yet, because you aren’t really his.”

“Liar!” I screamed and reached to grab him.

Karma darted away and flew to a height where I couldn’t reach.

“That’s enough,” Ivy said, waving her hand. “Here is what’s going to happen, Calliope. Listen real good, now, because I’m explaining this once and if your little head can’t get it, then I guess it’s over for the both of you.”

She pulled out a piece of a worn envelope. It looked like it had been folded multiple times. It was discolored and even had drops of some sort of liquid dried on it.

I instantly knew what it was before she explained.

“This is the letter to you wrote to yourself.” Ivy waved it in front of her. “Such a sad story where you came from. Tragic… almost made me feel sorry for you. No wonder you wanted to forget.”

She read it. That bitch read it!

Rage surged through my veins, a fiery torrent. I felt like Valpar and his emotional turmoil to uproot a tree. The desire to extract her very life from her body, to squeeze her insides so they were on the forest floor, consumed me.

Dang, I got dark real quick.

Simon turned his body to kick her, but Ivy was on alert and jumped in the air to float above him. She tsked, shaking her head. “We’ve planned this too well to let it all go. Not for a stupid goat to mess it up. Karma, do you have it?”

Karma came fluttering down from the tree, carrying a bottle the size of him. He was stronger than he looked and held it, leaning it up against his body while Ivy took the time to tie Simon to the base of another tree.

“Stay there, Calliope, or I’ll slit Simon’s throat and let the rogue vamps come find the both of you.” Ivy glared, daring me to step away from my spot.

It was useless. I stood there and watched as she tied Simon’s neck to the tree, his legs kicked into the dirt, his grunts ripping my heart out.

“Hang on, Simon, I’m gonna make it better.” I pleaded with him. He stilled and his went body stiff. He was tied so tightly to the tree I didn’t know if he had fainted or not, because he couldn’t move.

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