Page 36 of Winter Goddess
“Excuse the personal question, but do you know who your parents are?”
She frowns. “I knew my father, but what business of yours is that?”
“I’ll explain in a moment. Did he ever tell you who your mother is?”
“No.” A look of pain draws over her face. It seems to be a sore point. “I was raised by my father in a dragon commune on Earth. When I was in my mid-twenties, he brought me here. Until then, I didn’t even know I was royalty. My father’s brother had been the King, and as he’d died, my father took over. I was suddenly a Princess…”
Her voice trails off and I grimace. “I know the feeling.”
She looks at me as if she sees me for the first time. “Yes, I suppose you do. We have a lot in common.” She pauses, then asks quietly, “So, who’s my mother? Even on his deathbed, my father refused to tell me.”
His deathbed? Does that mean dragons aren’t immortal? A question for another day.
“I believe it was a Goddess. She married later, but back then, she was with your father…”
“Who?” Dewi asks sharply.
“Bridget. The Summer King’s wife.”
She gasps. “That cannot be. That simply can’t be true.”
I don’t say anything, giving her time for the news to sink in.
“How can you even know that?”
“I found several books mentioning a union between a dragon shifter and a Goddess. One of them mentions Bridget by name. And you being a demigoddess, it makes sense. You’re like me, you suddenly became a Goddess.”
Dewi smiles. “Yes, it was a bit of a shock. I didn’t even know I was a demigoddess before. I always knew I was different from everybody else, that I was a lot more powerful and had skills they didn’t possess, but nobody ever told me that I was a demigoddess. I just assumed that it was because I was royalty.”
She frowns. “Bridget? Seriously? Angus’s wife? Haven’t they been together for ages?”
“Strangely enough, no. It’s only been a few centuries since they met. How old are you now?”
“Five-hundred-and-twenty-two.”
Wow. I still haven’t got my head around how old everyone in the Realms is. Centuries, millennia, it’s nothing special here. For them, I must seem like a mayfly.
I try not to show my surprise. “That corresponds with what it said in the books. I believe that Bridget has no idea of your existence. She’s been trying to have a child, but it’s not been successful so far. If she finds out that you exist, she might be tempted to take your side. Our side.”
“But she’s Angus’s wife! She’s the enemy!”
“For now.” I smile. “I’m hoping we can change that. We’re going to leak the news to her, hoping that she’ll bite. She’ll probably send some spies into your Realm, or even try and come herself. It goes without saying that you should let her. She might even try to keep this a secret from her husband for now, in case he thinks she cheated on him.”
“You want me to let our enemy into my Realm?” Dewi asks incredulously.
“I do. And hopefully, by the time she leaves it again, she won’t be our enemy any longer.”
“Do you really think she can sway Angus to switch sides?”
That’s the critical point that I don’t have an answer to. Tamara believes so, but I don’t know Angus and Bridget. I have no idea what their relationship is like.
“It’s worth a try,” I hedge. “And wouldn’t you like to meet your mother?”
It’s a cheap shot, but I don’t have time for her to think about it for days. This is war.
Her aura brightens a little. “Of course. Alright, I’ll tell my border guards to let in any spies that might come.”
“Good.” I give her a grateful smile. “Keep me informed if that happens, or if Bridget herself turns up. That would be the best-case scenario, of course. But there’s something else. Something about your magic.”
