Page 16 of Fractured
Goose bumps rose on my arms.
“That’s…that’s…” A painting came in front of my eyes—that of a king I’d seen in the Gallery of Time, the only king who’d ruled all four fae courts for twelve days.
That’s it—twelve days.
“Possible,” said the man who’d given us the tea—Ergen. “His mind is very sharp. Very bright. He has been planning and plotting from a very young age.”
“Explain,” Rune demanded, slowly bringing the cup to his lips to drink, which I assumed meant it was safe. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to even blink until Merenith spoke again.
“There isn’t much to explain, I’m afraid. The Seelie Queen convinced her son since he was a child, just a few years old, that he was meant to rule all four kingdoms. Helid was there to witness it himself—the teachings and the bedtime stories. His sister’s monstrous ambition,” she whispered, her eyes glazed over as she looked at the golden flames still dancing in between all of us. “He was convinced that the boy understood perfectly well, and it wasn’t long before he took things into his own hands, made his own plans without his mother even knowing about it.” Those wide golden eyes moved to Rune, and she suddenly looked terrified. “Helid believed it was why he savedyou,Rune Kalygorn. He believed that the boy came to the Neutral Lands to find youspecifically when he heard of your banishment because he was preparing since then for when the time came to take the Midnight throne. That’s why his mother agreed to take you in and risk your father’s potential revenge, as no other king or queen would have done.”
Even my heart took a good long pause.
“Son of a king,” Rune whispered, his grip around my hand tightening.
“But…but he was only a kid,” I said because it seemed so absurd to me. An eight-year-old boy—too young!
“Fae grow and develop at a much faster rate than any other creature known to us at this time, which isn’t always a good thing, as we’ve seen,” Merenith said, slowly sipping her steaming tea. Meanwhile, I couldn’t bring myself to even look at mine yet.
“And he was an especially gifted child. He understood things long before anybody else did at his court,” Rune said. “He was always ahead of everyone.”
Laughter, bitter and short, from Hessa. “Just likeyou,”she told him.
Rune gave her a look I couldn’t decipher.
“Regardless,” Merenith said. “Helid believed that the boycould,actually, grow up to try and take over all the fae courts. He had the intelligence, the power—and most importantly, the cruelty of a man who only saw himself.”
“He’s never once had a relationship with a single being that he didn’t have something to benefit from. Even his maids,” Hessa said, this time in a whisper as she looked at the flames. The reflection of them danced in her unblinking eyes.
God, it was so goddamn cold under my skin and so hot in the world. Entirely too much for my body.
“He’s…cruel.” The way she said that word—cruel.Not bitterly—and not with any amount of anger. Just with defeat.
And my God, I believed it.
“I think he did the life bond with me on purpose, too.” The words slipped from me before I could think through just what I was saying. “Something he said at the feast—I say a lot of things.That’s what he said when I told him that he’d claimed to have bonded with me by accident.”
And Rune had been there to hear it, too. “The one thing he never told anybody about,” was all he said.
Just like I believed Hessa, they all believedme.Right away and without hesitation.
Because all our lives were touched by Lyall one way or the other, and we all knew him.
“Not even Helid. He had no idea why the boy didn’t die when he poisoned him,” Merenith said.
My eyes closed—Rune had been right. It had been Helid who’d tried to kill Lyall all along.
“Was he going to killme,too, when he came to my world to get me?”
They all looked at me now, but it was Hessa who answered. “Yes,” she simply said. “We didn’t get the chance to talk long before he left. The queen wanted him on his way the same night the seer saw you. All he told me was that there was something strange about you, something worth exploring, and that he would make sure to either find out what or kill you before you could save Lyall.”
Fucking hell, that hurts.
Of course, I kept those words inside and leaned closer to Rune as if my body wanted to remind me that I was safe. That I was okay—Rune had been there. He’d been there to take care of me.
But God, to think of all that I’d been through, all I’d endured to make it to Lyall. To return the favor. To fucking save a goddamnmonster.
It felt like a cosmic joke, didn’t it? Even the universe wasbullying me, and this time I was half convinced I actually deserved it.
