Page 27 of Detonation
I lick my finger and hold it up in the air. “It’s a bit stagnant. Also, you can just call me Lana.”
“You’re an idiot, Oslana. Stop letting your guard down. The second you think you’ve hurt someone; you leave yourself open to check on them. You think your opponent will stop to check ifyou’reokay? Your moves are becoming predictable and I can promise you, that will get you killed.”
Or don’t call me Lana and scold me, that works too.
Time to take a trick from her book. She wants to be unpredictable? I’ll be unpredictable. “So, how do you know me?”
The smug, self-righteous expression drops at the sudden change of topic. I’m interested in her answer but I also need her to let her guard down. She probably thinks I wouldn’t take her advice so quickly.
Her shoulders deflate. “My sister was Mika.”
My heart comes to a standstill at the unexpected blow. My eyes wet with tears at the name of my fallen best friend. She and her mates died with me on that battlefield, believing in me until the bitter end.
Fuck. I wasn’t prepared for that.
“I was a young child when the battle occurred. Before that, I had looked up to you. You were so beautiful, soradiant. It was like you glowed with an aura of your own. At night, I’d sneak into my sister’s room, begging her for stories of you. She’d stroke my hair as I fell asleep next to her, dreaming of being just like you.”
I look for the hatred that she must feel for me but come up empty. That doesn’t make sense. “Why do you not hate me like the rest? I deserve it.”
A corner of her mouth tilts up in a ghost of a smile. “Because the rest of them didn’t hear all the stories that I did. My sister would tell me how you would disguise yourself in a ridiculous, yellow wig and flamboyant men’s clothing, just so you could pretend to be normal for a day. That you’d buy sweets for the kingdom’s kids and helped the elderly with their bags. How you led that blind man all the way from the castle grounds to his home at the other end of the village because he lost his cane.”
My heart feels like it’s shattering all over again, hearing how highly she spoke of me and how I failed her and Mika in the end.
She continues, either oblivious to my tears or uncaring of them. “I know how you fought with your parents over the castle’s rules in the privacy of the meeting room, advocating in favor of opening the castle doors to the public if they needed a place to stay. You didn’t care if they held a title or if they could donate to the crown’s treasury.”
She pauses for a moment, shrugging with one shoulder. “You weren’t perfect, Oslana. You made mistakes. But you loved all of your people equally, man or woman, adult or child, no matter what their status or role. You lived and breathed peace and acceptance. You don’t deserve hatred forty years later for a choice that you made when it was the only choice you knew how to make. I stopped hating you decades ago. I never really hated you at all. And I see you now, desperate to change and right the wrongs of your past. I see you fighting against your nature, committed to growth for the good of the kingdom. Those are the qualities I want in my queen.”
The urge to hold her closely overwhelms me and, before I know it, she’s tumbling down into the hole with me, vines with teal flowers holding her tight to me, thanks to my powers.
Both of our eyes are wide as saucers but I take the quiet, private moment to hug her tightly before letting the vines retreat into the ground.
She stands as still as a rock for a moment, before placing her arms around me as well, squeezing lightly, “I still think you’re an idiot, Lana.”
Not one to dwell on intimate moments, huh?
With a chuckle, I trap her feet in boots of rock as I propel myself to the top with a tunnel of wind propelling me. Looking down at her in the hole now, I send her a wink and remind her, “Don’t let your guard down, for anything.”
She laughs. “Touché.” The earth beneath her rises until there’s no more pit and she’s level with me again.
“Finley!” their leader shouts. “Team up with Noreen and take Oslana down.”
What the fuck did I just hear? Are my ears working properly?She sounds way too delighted about that.
The only tag team I’d appreciate right now is my mates giving me orgasms.
* * *
“Fucking hell,” I gasp out, wanting more than anything to sit my ass on the ground and chug a gallon of water.
This is the most I’ve exercised in all my years combined. I really should have taken the guys up on their offer to help me exercise but hindsight is 20/20. Instead, I snuggled up in the hammock to read a book and stuffed myself with my salt and vinegar chips.
Clapping sounds from behind me and I whirl around as fast as my tired limbs will allow me to—which is at the pace of a snail. I don't trust my back being exposed after the double team from hell. They taught me very quickly that leaving yourself exposed could be fatal. I may have escaped with only a busted lip, but it’s a constant reminder that the dark fae won’t go as easy as me.
I’m currently wondering where I can find a healer and if they’ll help me if I ask. Is that cheating? Will they even heal me without the leader’s permission?Worth a fucking shot.
Speaking of, there she stands in all her rested glory, once again seemingly impervious to the heat. Someone needs to get her to run laps, just so she can stop making me feel so inferior in my sweaty disaster.
That could just be my cranky inner bitch talking though.
