Page 137 of Promise of Darkness
They came to enslave us.
They came to take what was ours.
They served the Horned One, who’d grown in stature among his people and commanded two of the queens.
They wanted to destroy us all.
Is any of it true?
“You fought for the Seelie Alliance during the wars, but you don’t consider the Unseelie to be monsters. I don’t understand.”
“Of course, they’re monsters,” he replies, with a bitter twist to his smile. “But are they the monsters we consider them to be? Whataremonsters, Vi?”
I don’t have an answer to that.
“What drove them south?” he continues.
“The Horned One,” I mutter, though now I’m not sure.
“Aye. He conquered most of the north and turned his gaze south. Do you know what he called us? The bright and shining ones who sought to steal the Unseelie’s lands and magic. And maybe he was right. The Seelie had begun to eye the rich, fertile lands across the mountains. Long before my time, there were clashes. The northern half of Mistmere and Evernight were once Unseelie. When the Horned One turned his hordes south, they came to reclaim what had been stolen from them.”
“You sound as though you almost feel sorry for them.”
Thiago slips through the forest on a wraith’s feet, barely even disturbing the leaves. “I don’t know what to think, Vi. There were atrocities committed on both sides. And which side is right? Which side is wrong? It depends what you believe. It depends what you’re heard and seen with your own eyes. As I said, stories change, depending on the one speaking them. Wars are woven with lies. They’re fought with weapons and swords, but they’re started with words. I know what words can do to a person, or even a people.”
I think of everything my mother has said of the Prince of Evernight.
Monster. Bastard. Usurper.
Unseelie, she’s even whispered, when in her darkest mood.
And before I was given to him, I called him those names too. I feared him and hated him, and I had no reason to do so, beyond that which I was taught from the cradle.
“My mother said you overthrew your queen and then killed her sons. She said you came from nowhere to serve your queen as her warlord, and then you betrayed her.”
Thiago’s shoulders stiffen. “Is that a question?”
“Yes.”
I need to know.
Because I don’t think I can see the truth for lies anymore.
This wicked prince can be both cruel and kind. And I married him. I loved him. I don’t know what I feel right now, but there’s hints of those feelings still left inside me. If I’m to make sense of everything I feel, then I need to know the truth.
“I was Araya’s warlord,” he replies, eyes focusing on the forest as if he can’t look at me right now. “I was never her lover, no matter what the stories say.”
“She granted you favors beyond those she gifted others.”
His lips twist bitterly. “Yes. But I think I’ll keep the reason why to myself, if you don’t mind.”
“And if I do?”
He grants me a firm look. “Then I’ll tell you. One day. The day you cast your mother’s lies aside and choose me in the gathering.”
The next rites are only a month away, but I can feel them looming like an executioner’s block.
“I’ll hold you to that bargain,” I warn.
