Page 69 of His Dark Delights
“Thank you for sharing your burden with me, my sweet rose. I’m sorry that you met with this fate. Yet I am so grateful that you were there to save Lunaric.” My mother grabbed my face and swept away my tears with her thumbs. “If you still wish for it, I will honor the deal you made… I will unlock your essence.”
I grabbed her arms, breathing sharp and shallow breaths. “I do. Give me my power, please. I want to live up to my full potential.”
She brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. Her eyes followed the shape of my ear and her eyes glistened as she stroked her fingers through my hair. Cherishing me and comforting herself with my presence and the fact I didn’t flinch away. She admired me as if she’d longed to for years and wanted to weep anew from the freedom to do so.
“It will hurt, Lilly. More than childbirth, and more than dying—it will hurt,” she warned.
“I’ve been hurt, and I’ve wished I was dead. I need this,” I said, urgently.
And inside, I whispered to myself that I neededthat power to end the war. When the time came, I’d need that strength to face the Butcher, because he was coming. He was crossing the Mistwood, and he’d reach the Fae Wild soon.
Soren was coming for me, and by the time he arrived, he wouldn’t recognize me anymore.
The mood shifted rapidly over the next day in ways I had no words to explain. A gradual, familial thread wove through me, tying me to Ellaria and Lunaric. It was strange to find myself in the presence of the mother I’d always felt just out of reach, and a brother whose life I’d saved.
We spent a day together, planning to unlock my essence and coming to terms with one another. Ellaria and Lunaric already had an established mother-child relationship. I was the outsider once again, but they didn’t make me feel like one. I felt embraced and whole-heartedly welcomed among them.
And the whole of the Fae Wild came to know who I was. The odd part was when passing, the fae would respectfully dip their head. Stranger still when they titled me “princess”.
Later in the night, when I’d bathed and dressed in the silken gown offered, I sat with Lunaric. We were in the family chambers of the forest palace, a great round room loaded with cushioned chairs, low tables of fruit, and grand open windows and balconies. From that high in the palace, I witnessed fluffy clouds tumbling over the dome of the fae woods.
“They shouldn’t call me princess,” I told him. “I’m abastard daughter. Not trueborn like you.”
Lunaric shrugged a shoulder and sank deeper into his plush seat. “The fae aren’t concerned with things like that. Nymphs especially love having babies, so there’s not really a concept like bastards among our kind. Your mother is the queen, and that’s all that matters.”
“I’ll always be a farm girl at heart.”
“What’s in the heart is what matters most. Of course, that’s something you’d say.” He winked before popping a chunk of apple into his mouth.
“I suppose it is.” My fingers twiddled with the necklace I wore. Each time my thumb brushed over the moonstone, memories of what lurked in my heart washed over me.
Two weeks apart and the Butcher was coming our way, yet I couldn’t bear the thought of taking it off. Soren and I weren’t so different. He was a bastard son of the human king, and I was a lost daughter of the fairy queen. Those thoughts only strengthened my belief that the gods were cruel in how they played with our fates.
The Butcher knew the truth about me now. Did he despise me and the memories we shared? Was he coming to the Fae Wild to seek more of his self-righteous revenge?
Ellaria swept into the room with her loose, opaque gown made of spun spider silk flowing behind her. The sight of her copper-pink hair bundled into elegant braids and the prominent tips of her ears paused my thoughts.
How fae would I appear after tonight?
She paused, poised and graceful. Yet her lipsthinned to hide a tremble in her smile. “Oh, my darlings. I’ll never grow tired of seeing the two of you simultaneously. Both my children are together at last.”
Lunaric leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “You only say that because we both look like you. You birth little copies of yourself, and we’re very pretty for it.”
“Oh, you hush,” she tutted. Then she grinned. “Although you are lucky that all you got from your father were his wings. Gods, he was not a pretty man. May he rest in peace.”
“You never loved him, did you?” I asked, then paled from the inappropriate question.
Ellaria glanced at Lunaric before answering. “A sort of love formed between us. We’d been promised to one another since we were children. I was heartbroken after leaving you and Eddard, but Oberyn became a friend to me, despite his faults. He eased my grief.”
“He would have killed you and your father if he’d known about your existence. It’s better we met when we did,” my brother stated.
“Yes, well, let’s get on with this. Come, my darlings. We’re going to the temple.” She changed the subject but didn’t seem pleased either way. The last thing she wanted to do was unlock my fae essence. It would cause untold agony, but I needed to be whole.
I’d face the storm to come without flinching. That’s what the Fae Queen who charged into battle would do, and I was born of her blood.
The temple to the gods was another chamber nestled in one of the forest palace’s trees. A large circular room with stained glass depictions of the gods encircling the ceiling. Ethereal floating lights driftedaimlessly through the air, casting strange shadows and a mystical glow on the silver-blue wood.
Mother waved her hand, commanding the nature of the earth beneath our feet. A bed of flowers in every color wriggled from the ground, curling and bundling together. I held my breath, watching the ease of her magic as she built an altar from nothing.
