Summer Princess (Dark Fae Book 1)

by Sloane Murphy

  “Your father is a brilliant man. If he thinks this is for the best, then we must do as he wishes.” Her voice is weak and timid, and for the umpteenth time, I wonder who she would’ve been if Edimere were still here. If she hadn’t married my father.

  “This is insane. Cade will never believe that I would choose to marry him. We may have been friends once upon a time, but times have changed and so have I. With others to choose between, there is no way he is going to pick me.”

  “Well, I suggest you work it out,” my father says as he stands, my mother following his lead. “You have three days to get something together because that’s when you leave for the Winter Court.” He leaves the room, and my mother scurries behind him, and I swear to myself to never become the person she is.

  “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” My voice screeches in my desperation. “Where is the man who acted like my father? The man who picked me up when I fell and told me to follow my dreams and my heart, no matter the cost. Where is the man who was my hero? The man who would slay any demon for his children.”

  He spins on his heel, and the burning hatred in his eyes breaks me all over again.

  “That man died the day Edimere did. And again, the next day when Erion left us because of it. All I was left with was you, an ungrateful, spoilt little whore. You could have stopped it, stopped Cade from killing my boy. Every time I look at you, all I see is everything I lost, and I can’t stand to look at you. My boys were my heirs, they were strong, fearless, and above all else, loyal, and while Edimere had his cruel streak, he was still a great man. You are nothing like them; you never were. That’s what happened to me. You happened.” He spits on the floor, making sure I know just how little he thinks of me, before storming out of the room. I hear the slamming and crashing, followed by screams as my father’s anger befalls the house again.

  I catch my head in my hands and let my tears fall onto the dark shine of the table. I didn’t think my father could hurt me deep down, not anymore. Not more than he already had. The shock of his words isn’t enough to numb the wounds he caused, and the ones he reopened. I fear this has been coming for a long time, a way for him to punish me for what he blames me for, and now he just has the perfect circumstance. I have no idea what to do. I do not want to be the cause of Oberon’s death, but there is no way I will convince Cade that I want to be his wife.

  Fuck.

  ***

  After Father’s meltdown, my presence is ignored throughout the palace. At the same time, everyone takes cover from the overflow of his anger, and I take the opportunity and escape to my last safe place: to my best friend Lily’s. Her home has been my sanctuary more than once, and sometimes I come down to the stream behind her house even if she’s not here.

  “What did they do now?” she asks as she sees me approaching from her seat beside the flowing water. She stands, worry etched across her features. I lose the strength I’ve been holding on to, and let down all my walls, throwing myself into her open arms; we fall back to the grassy ground, opening the dam of emotion that I’ve been holding back, spilling every detail.

  “I get that this is a shitty situation, Emmy, but Cade Vasara isn’t exactly a bad catch. I know how much you hate him, and I wish I could do something to help or stop it, but we both know your father. And we both know he won’t hesitate to kill Oberon. What your father is doing is diabolical—no two ways about it, but considering it’s him, it could be worse. He could have just killed Oberon and still forced you to do what he wants. We both know he has ways of making you do what he wants. He’s a vile, despicable asshole, but he’s manipulative as fuck and knows how to get what he wants. I don’t want you to do this; I wish you could be happy. I want nothing else for you. I just don’t see any other way,” she says, sadness tinging her words. She lies back onto the grassy verge beside me, staring up at the stars. I sigh and stare up at the vast darkness, wishing I could focus on how beautiful the sight is. Lily might be the person who knows me the best in the entire world, but her taste in men is beyond bad.

  “He killed my brother, and there is no way in this reality or the next he’s going to believe I actually want to be his wife. He knows how I feel about him, and if he doesn’t, he’s a fool. I’m pretty sure most of the courts know how I feel. No one is going to be expecting me to be there; it’s a joke. All I want is to find a way to get Oberon free and get away from here.” I get up and dip my feet in the stream, cooling down.

  “Not to play the devil’s advocate here, because your dad might as well be a goddamn Demon, but you’re not getting Oberon out of the cages if your father has him locked down. He’s a devious asshole, but he’s a clever one. No one has ever, in the entire history of our race, escaped the cages. As much as I love you, you can’t do this. You’ll get yourself killed, which would kill Oberon too. Marrying Cade would be easier. It means that everyone gets to live. I’m sure Oberon would understand, he knows your father. We could try to get word to him somehow. It’s a shitty path, but it’s the one of least resistance, I guess. The easy option is to do as your father asks. I wish I had a better option for you.”

  I lay back down beside her. Realistically, I know she’s right. Even if I had a plan, I’m not the hero type. I’m not physically strong, well not compared to the guards at the cages, and plotting an escape isn’t exactly in my repertoire, but I don’t want to give in and give up hope.

  “Again, that depends on your definition of easy. He killed Edi. All over some stupid lesson King Earon was trying to teach Rowan. It broke the cease-fire for fuck’s sake. I’ll never forget the look on Edi’s face when Cade betrayed him. When Cade’s blade pierced his heart. Edi wouldn’t have really hurt Rowan, I believe that.”

  “Fae are a fickle kind; we’re rash and passionate, but cruel and brutal. Sometimes these are our greatest powers; sometimes they’re our biggest weaknesses. Have you ever considered what would’ve happened if Edi had killed Rowan? You guys are royals, but so is Rowan. Edi likely would’ve been killed anyway if he had killed Rowan, so they’d both be gone. Plus, this whole insane thing affected everyone, not just you guys. The cease-fire was broken, the war restarted, and hundreds of lives have been lost to the war in the last few years. Hell, that’s how you lost Erion because his anger got the better of him and because he is a Lieutenant of our armies. He ran off to avenge his brother in the only way he knew how. I get that what happened was awful, but what I’m saying is that it’s not a simple as you make it out to be. Have you spoken to Cade since? It’s been over five years, and you were all so close before it. The five of you were inseparable, and one day, one moment, one act, blew it all to hell. I understand your pain, Em, but sometimes you need to let stuff go before it swallows you whole. I say this as your friend because I hate to see you holding on to so much anger and pain, but you held your grudge against Cade and Rowan when it was their father who orchestrated the whole thing. Anyone can see that he plays with them like he does the rest of his court. The boys were merely just pawns in yet another of his twisted games. You should think about it—talking to and forgiving Cade, I mean. Maybe he feels guilty, regret even.”

  “Of course, I haven’t spoken to him, and if it weren’t for this ridiculousness of my father’s, I wouldn’t ever have to. And why would you even suggest it wasn’t his fault? Nobody made him pick up that sword and kill my brother. The circumstances are irrelevant. I can’t believe you’re saying all of this after all this time,” I cry out in frustration. “I hate feeling so fucking helpless, so trapped. I also hate being so fucking whiny, why couldn’t my father just leave me alone. God knows he has plenty of outlets for his anger.”

  “Ah, yes, I heard you guys are hosting again tonight.”

  “Oh, the delights.” I roll my eyes. You’d think that considering everything that happened, my father would hate those horrific monthly parties, but no. Now he revels in them despite the tension it adds to our lands, even if he thinks it boosts the spirits of our people. “But seriously, Lily, what am I going to do?
”

  “You’re going to suck it up, that’s what you’re going to do. If you love Oberon as much as you say you do, you’ll make this sacrifice for him.”

  “Do you have any idea how tormenting it is to both love and hate someone at the same time? Especially when the reason you hate them is now a gaping hole inside your chest. I loved Cade, even if it was stupid, young puppy love, but regardless, I loved him, and then in an instant, he broke me. His actions tore my world apart, and I could do nothing but hate him. Those emotions warred for years, and now, when I’m finally in a place where I can be happy, my jackass of a father does this to me. I don’t want to see Cade again; I don’t want to have to deal with that conflict. I buried it with Edimere, and that’s where it stayed. Deep and buried and in the past.”

  “Hey, I’m not saying it doesn’t suck, it definitely does, but you’re a grown-ass woman now. You can handle Cade Vasara and his cute ass. Just because you hate him doesn’t mean you stopped loving him. It’s a fine line to walk, you know.” She laughs, and I push her over, making her laugh more.

  “You’re so much help!” I roll my eyes and lay next to her.

  “That’s why you love me. But seriously, imagine if you could stop the wars, stop the barbaric parties. Our entire world would be transformed.”

  ***

  The sound of my heels bouncing off the walls of the corridors is the only thing I hear as I walk towards my mother’s day-rooms and try to temper the nerves that feel like they’re going to shatter me into a thousand pieces. The silence is a stark reminder of just how empty this place is now that my brothers are gone; there’s no life here anymore. I hear the soft sound of violins as I get closer to the room, it sounds so heartbreaking, so haunting, but so beautiful all at the same time. My mother’s soft voice sounds as she sings to the melody. I don’t remember the last time I heard her sing. Maybe this will go better than I hoped. I push down the sickness that threatens to overwhelm me with a small amount of hope that this might solve all of my problems. This is my last chance, my only hope.

  “Mother?” I knock once, peek through the door, and see her standing on the balcony. She visibly startles from my presence before she stiffens and enters the room.

  “What are you doing here, Emilia?” My shoulders drop at the change in her, and the hope I had, dwindles to almost nothing.

  “I came to ask for your help.” I take a few more steps into the room. It’s been so long since I was in here, I’ve not been welcome anywhere near here since Edi died. “I know how much Edi dying broke you, and I know how much Father holds over you, but I’m still your only daughter. Please help me reason with Father. This madness isn’t going to fix anything for anyone.”

  “You stupid, selfish little girl!” The sting from her hand on my face knocks me backwards and pain shoots up my spine from colliding with the door handle.

  “What the hell!” I cradle my face; I can’t believe she hit me.

  “You come in here like you’ve done nothing wrong and ask me for my help, saying it’s not going to fix anything. YOU’RE THE REASON THIS IS ALL HAPPENING! If you’d kept hold of Cade that day, he never would’ve killed Edimere. Erion wouldn’t have left us. We wouldn’t be at war. WE WOULD BE HAPPY! But no, you just stood there like a stupid fool, and then cried when it happened. Because you did nothing, Erion left. Now you can finally redeem yourself a little and bring him back, and you ask me to change your father’s mind. Are you insane? You were practically in love with the Vasara boy once; I’m sure you can fake it again. God only knows you followed him around like a pathetic lovesick child before.”

  I have no words. I knew my parents blamed me, but for my mother to lay it all out like that . . . I turn on my heel and rush out of the room, not stopping the tears as they fall, I don’t stop until I reach my room. I’ve been subjected to my mother’s silver tongue before, but she’s never been so brutal. So direct. There was no love left in her eyes for me. I thought she was weak and feeble in front of my father, scared of his wrath, but now I know the truth of it. She truly blames me. I knew my father did, but I never knew why. Now I do. My revelation hits me—I truly have no one left at all.

  I sit and cry for the loss—for my brothers, for my family, for Oberon, and for a chance at love in the future. I can’t let Oberon die because I wanted a chance to be reckless, and if I can bring Erion home, then I will. Even if my parents still hate me. Maybe I’ll get to see him again. We haven’t seen him since the day he left, with only sporadic letters to let us know he is still alive. If I can change this for him, then I will. I have to.

  Chapter Three

  Music hums through the room, dulling out some of the whimpers and groans imprinting their agony into my soul as I smile and play the role expected of me.

  I pluck a glass of Berripagne from the tray as the server walks past me at the latest monstrosity of my father’s imagination. He’s having a party—if you can call it that. I sit on the outskirts, using the burn of the alcohol to make this scene bearable as I watch the debauchery of the upper-class Fae delighting in and bathing in the pain of the lower classes and the humans kidnapped from beyond the veil—the forced entertainment for tonight’s show. This is the reason I do not belong here. I take no pleasure in the pain of the others, which makes me barely one of our kind if you ask the people here.

  I watch as those with the upper hand clap and squeal in glee, covered in their finery and jewels as they watch those not as fortunate. Both Fae and the human fight, bleed and die before they, quite literally, bathe in the blood of the combatants, getting off on the death and the power they hold.

  My eyes cast to the thrashing of naked skin on skin, two bodies writhing together as they fuck in a bath filled with the blood of their kill, the tortured lifeless body still in there with them. Deep cuts decorating her once perfect flesh. She’s been shredded until her veins drained every drop from her, her lifeless eyes stare wide open at me and a shiver races up my spine. What a waste of such a life. The worst part is that that’s not even the worst thing happening here. Gut-curdling screams echo from thick black curtained partitions, causing my stomach to coil. My instincts are to go to their aid, stop this sadistic fucking shit once and for all and teach the people of the court, these sadistic bastards a lesson in compassion and decency. It’s not our way, however, and I can’t intervene and live free to tell about it.

  Am I one of them if I just observe? If my body is in this room, but my soul, my heart is in those baths, behind the curtains with the victims of circumstance? No matter how much I tell myself I’m forced to be here, it won’t stop the memories and terror keeping me awake at night. I’ll never be able to burn these images from my mind.

  I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t forced to be, but I can try and think of how to save Oberon whatever the setting, just because I’m here physically, doesn’t mean I condone or take pleasure in such brutality or that I have to be present mentally.

  One part of me, the part stuck on the dilemma I still have to work on, knows that if I were queen, I could help the lower classes. It would take time, and I’d never be able to stop it completely, but I would have more power to try. More power to do something—anything.

  Right now, I can do nothing but sip my Berripagne, let the buzz chase away the deflation of my soul, and just stare at the walls so that my absence isn’t noticed. Not that I’m sure it would be, I’m pretty sure demanding my presence here, making me wear this ridiculously heavy dress that blinds me each time the light bounces off the gems on the corset, is just another form of punishment. Tonight would be the perfect time to try and break into the cages to free Oberon, most of the security has been pulled here for the event, to keep the unwilling participants in line, at my father’s decree.

  He never used to be this way. Be this man. But it’s hard to marry up the man he was to the one before me. I seek him out amongst the throng of bodies moving and grinding with each other. A slither of disgust and guilt crawls through the marrow of my bones as I witn
ess him holding a girl not much older than me by the throat, his long fingers cradling her life with such ease in his grasp. The curling of his lip opens up a pit within me as he turns her small frame and shoves her forward into one of the large baths laid out throughout the hellish room. Her blonde hair becomes swallowed by the crimson flood of blood as she disappears beneath its fury. Her slender frame begins to convulse, her hands splash and struggle as my father delights in the poor underserving girls battle, making her choke and swallow the thick liquid, restricting her oxygen until she can’t take it anymore. Her fight begins to flee, and her limbs become limp before he pulls her free. A red waterfall streams down her face as she gasps to fill her burning lungs. Just when her chest settles from heaving, he plunges her back into the depths of the tub. I wilt on the inside; he’s not just killing her, he’s killing me, the child inside me that calls him Father. What sort of sickness is this? My mother stands beside him, her tall stance proud and inspired. She’s wiping the blood drops that have spattered over his face like she’s cleaning a child’s face after dinner.

  The escapism of it all isn’t lost me, the rush of power they feel, knowing how much control they have in their hands.

  Life and death, pain and pleasure, mercy or condemnation. It’s all in their hands. And by the look on my father’s face, he gains a heady rush from such things is almost foreign to me after the man I thought I knew. Seeing the remorseless horror at the hands of the Winter Court Fae was one thing, but this . . . Shit like this party is why Edimere died, the revelry in brutality and pain, and it’s why I avoid these things as much as possible.

  “Emilia, come here.” I jolt from my frozen spot where I’d been standing in for the last ten minutes. My mother’s voice is spoken with a shrill ring inside my mind; I hate that she can get inside my head, while I build my walls to stop people prying around in my thoughts, I’ve never been able to block her from projecting her thoughts into my head. I look back to the women who gave me life and swallow the dregs in my glass to stop my throat from closing up. I want to ignore the request, but her eyes tell me before her voice returns in my head that she wants me to go to them right away, and she better not have to ask twice.