by Leia Stone
Rage rose inside of me so sharply that my hands glowed.
Liam was trapped under three dead bodies. They were piled on top of him, and in his right hand, he was clutching a blue crystal. The Sword of Night was nowhere to be seen.
Lost it already?
A thin trail of blood dribbled from his mouth.
Elle helped Cam out from under the couch, and he sat up, and then she went to pull the bodies off of Liam.
“Stop!” I commanded Elle. “He is a traitor to the crown of Faerie. Help him, and you are against me,” I declared as the anger in my heart grew.
She froze, peering back over her shoulder at me with complete and utter shock. I stalked closer, pulled my dagger from my waist belt, and Elle stepped backward.
“Lily.” She frowned. “You can’t just… leave him like this.”
My head snapped to my best friend. “Like he left my mother to die? To die in a bathtub with her stomach opened up?”
She bowed her head in shame and took another step back.
I looked Liam in the eyes, not caring that they were lined with tears, not caring that he looked hurt by my words. Leaning forward, I plucked the crystal from his hand and put my dagger to his throat. “I can’t believe I ever loved you,” I whispered and dared myself to drag the knife across his neck.
I hated him at this moment. Absolute hatred. He took my mother from me and lied about it. He made me fall in love with him and held this dark secret. I fucked him. I fucked my mother’s killer, and he said nothing.
I hated him, and yet I still loved him, and that was maybe what I hated the most. Maybe I hated myself right now. I couldn’t hurt him. I couldn’t pull that knife across his neck, and it made me hate myself more.
When I pulled back, the emotional agony on his face was undeniable.
“Let’s go,” I snapped, clutching the crystal and heading for the door.
“Come with us,” Elle whispered to Cam, but the wolf shifter just shook his head, looking at me like I was the devil as he cradled an injured arm to his chest.
“Elle!” I barked, and she trailed after me. When I got to the door, Liam spoke.
“My dad… took the other crystals to Montana. The sword too.” His voice was breathless, and for a second, I wondered how badly hurt he was.
I spun. “Stop helping me!” I snapped at him. “If you want to help me, then you’ll die and forget I exist!”
Elle sucked in a breath behind me, and I stormed out of the abandoned house, wondering if I’d turned into a monster.
We drove the short five minutes back to the safe house in complete silence. Other than telling Mara to take us back to Faerie, we were silent in her office as well.
In fact, I didn’t speak to anyone until I clicked the crystal into the baseplate at the Tree of Life.
It wasn’t until my eyes fell on the second one, the one that Liam had placed there a mere few hours ago, that I felt my heart thaw the tiniest bit. He and his brothers needed this to survive on Earth, and yet the first crystal he found, he brought to me.
Although not all the crystals in the world could atone for my mother’s death… it was a step in the right direction.
“Elle,” I called for my bestie, my voice cracking.
“Yes, Princess?” She was pissed at me. I could hear it in her mocking voice.
I took a deep breath. “Take Kira to North Carolina, and heal Liam and his men. We may need them as allies later on.”
Her body sagged with relief. “Right away.”
She took off running, and I started to pace the elders’ previous home, wondering what the hell I was doing and if I was ruining everything.
An hour later, I had all of my personal effects moved into Indra’s old room. She’d stripped the bed and taken everything out of the drawers and off the walls. Trissa had delivered my letter, and the elders had moved out without a fight. So now that I was moved in, I just sat there and stared at the baggie holding Liam’s hair.
Did I want to know what memories this contained? Was I ready? Could I ever be?
Padding across the hall past where the Queen slept, I slipped into Kira’s room. She had already started to half-unpack her tinctures and herb jars. It only took me a moment to find the ones I needed for the memory spell. I stuffed them into the mortar and pestle and then padded back out into the hall, past the Tree of Life, and into my room. I was just about to shut the door when I heard the slam of the front door.
I popped back out into the hallway, anxious for word about Liam. Elle entered, her shirt covered in blood, and my heart lodged in my throat.
He killed her. He killed my mother. I had to remind myself.
“Will our ally survive?” I tried to keep my tone cold, uncaring, but failed.
Elle’s gaze was still filled with anger. She was mad at me over the way I was handling the situation, but I didn’t care.
“Yes,” was all she said before waltzing to her room and slamming the door.
I was ready now, ready to see if Liam was worth saving. Did he kill my mother in cold blood? With her back turned? Or was it self-defense? A scuffle?
Would it matter?
No.
He killed my mother, and nothing would fix that.
Nothing.
Chapter 4
I stared at the spell paste I’d mixed with a wary gaze. The grief over my mother’s death was fresh, brought back to the surface by the knowledge that the man I’d loved had killed her. I wasn’t sure if I was mentally strong enough to go through with this. But I had to know, I needed to see the truth. Wiping a thick glob of paste on each of my eyelids, I muttered the memory incantation and lay on my back, prepared to be in Liam’s mind.
My heart pounded in my chest as I was sucked into the memory.
Liam ran down a city street, the Seattle skyline dancing behind him, a crystal clutched between his fingers. I could feel the anxiety spike through him and therefore into me. I lay on my bed, looking through Liam’s eyes as he burst through traffic and down a dark alley. A motorcycle stood at the end, propped near a trashcan. Looking over his shoulder, he cursed as he saw my mother. Her long pink hair trailed behind her as she ran after Liam.
Reaching out, he shot a block of ice at one of her legs, causing her to trip and fall.
“Leave me alone! You don’t understand. I need this. My brother is sick,” Liam begged her as he started up the bike.
My mother’s face looked murderous. “Those crystals belong to Faerie!” She raised a sleek black gun, and Liam gunned the bike and took off down the alley as the shots of gunfire pinged off the walls around him.
Holy shit.
Liam’s heart pounded against his chest, and I could feel his anxiety as if I were inside of his body. He hated my mother, hated all fae, hated being born. Why couldn’t these creatures just leave him alone to live his life? He was just trying to live, just trying to keep his brothers alive.
Without the crystals, they get sick. Didn’t the fae understand that? Why did they want to annihilate his race? He didn’t ask to be born into this. He didn’t ask to be a halfling.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I gripped the edges of the bedsheet but stayed in the vision.
Liam reached the safe house just outside Seattle, the little farmhouse that I’d first met him at. It was in disrepair, but I could sense Liam’s relief as he pulled up and nodded to the two guards out front.
“I got it!” he told them and held up the crystal. “How’s Cain?”
One of the men was Cam, and upon seeing Liam, his lips pulled into a frown. “He’s not good, man, barely breathing. You need to get that inside now.”
Cam threw open the door, and my heart lodged into my throat.
Cain.
Sweet little Cain lay draped over the couch, eyes glassy and skin pale. Thick beads of sweat rolled down his forehead onto his cracked lips. Liam fell to his knees before his little brother. The other four brothers were there too, all huddled around Cain with worried expressions.<
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“You’re gonna be okay buddy.” Liam tucked the crystal into his brother’s side, against his shirt, and the little boy gave a shuddering breath as tension released from his face.
“Feels better,” Cain mumbled.
“Watch out—,” Cam yelled from behind Liam.
He spun around just in time to see the Winter King walk through the door. The guard that had been standing outside was now dead, an icicle pierced through his abdomen. Rage boiled softly under Liam’s skin. Liam hated his father, hated that he would sabotage and harm his own children, and yet… there was a small measure of love still there. A sadness and sense of loss concerning the father Liam had wished for himself and his brothers.
“I believe you have something of mine?” The king asked Liam.
Liam stood, hands at his sides. “Really? You would steal the life away from your own child? Are there any limits to your cruelty?”
The Winter King gave his eldest son a devilish grin. “Of course not.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant he wouldn’t steal from Cain or he had no limits.
“I’ll take Cain and the crystal with me. It’s about time my boys spent some time with their father.” The Winter King stepped forward, and Liam moved to position himself in front of Cain, letting a growl loose from his throat.
His other brothers shrank back, huddling around Cain protectively as fur rippled down Cam’s arms.
“They’re my boys now. I take care of them. I feed them. I keep them safe.” Large icicles formed out of Liam’s palms like swords.
I was just beginning to wonder how this scene had led to my mother’s death when a blur of pink streaked behind the king, and then my mom knocked him over the side of the head with her gun. He crumpled to the floor, right at Liam’s feet.
“Give me the crystal!” she barked, eyes roaming over Liam and his brothers, over Cam. She looked… disgusted…
I felt sick. I wanted to stop the vision now that I knew what was going to happen.
Liam looked at her incredulously. “Look at him!” he shouted at my mother and pointed to Cain. “He’s five years old, and the crystal is the only thing keeping him alive. Would you really take that from him?” Liam looked at her with wide eyes.
I was not prepared for the cold, hard gaze that entered my mother’s eyes, “It. It’s five. A demon that shouldn’t be allowed to live.”
A whimper lodged in my throat at her response. How could she look at this beautiful boy and think he was a demon?
The elders… they poisoned her mind.
I felt the moment that Liam gave up on trying to reason with my mother, it slid over his body like a sheet of ice—self-preservation, protection for his kin. There was no reasoning with this woman. “I can’t let you take the crystal.” He sounded sad. Tired. Like he didn’t want to hurt her but knew he must.
My mother shrugged cold-heartedly, but I could see the slightest falter in her gaze as she stared at little Cain. I didn’t think she’d met a Son of Darkness this young before.
“Then, I’m sorry for this.” She raised her gun, and all of the contents in my stomach lurched into my throat.
Everything next happened so fast, and yet, time felt like it stopped.
The Winter King rose up into a standing position behind my mother, and I watched from Liam’s perspective as a shard of pointy ice pierced right through her lower abdomen. Her eyes widened, and at the same time, she squeezed the trigger, aiming right for Cain.
“No!” I shouted at the same time as Liam, feeling him seize up in fear. I simultaneously wanted to protect Cain from the bullet and protect my mother.
Liam raised his hands and shot two icicles right into my mother’s stomach, causing her to fall backward in a puddle of blood. Then, he erected a wall of ice, blocking out his father from crossing farther into the room.
“Cain!” Liam’s hands shook as he spun around.
Although my heart tore in two for my mother, relief spread through me as I looked at Cain, unharmed. A bullet had been shot into the sofa an inch from his head.
Holy fuck.
How could she? How could my mother try to kill a child? Did she squeeze the trigger out of reflex after getting stabbed? Or would she really… I didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Liam scooped Cain up as his dad rained down blows on the sheet of ice. Liam, Cam, and his other brothers ran out the back door, but he took one last look behind him at my mother.
She lay on the floor, melting icicles goring her abdomen, and Liam actually felt sorry for her. He thought of her no longer with hatred but with pity.
She was brainwashed. All fae were, and all he could do was keep him and his brothers alive. At all costs.
Bashur’s bark and Trissa’s shout of alarm were the last things I heard before Liam burst out the back door, and I felt the vomit rise up in my stomach, becoming too much.
I ran from the bed, stumbling to the bathroom where I spun the tap on and scrubbed the thick paste off my eyelids. When I opened my eyes and saw my own haunted gaze staring back at me, I vomited into the toilet.
Lying down on the cool tiles, I let the sobs of fresh grief wrack my body. This time, I wasn’t just crying for my mother. I was crying for the loss of Liam as well. I’d called him a murderer, kicked him out, and all he’d done was do what I would have. He’d protected his family against a monster.
My mother, although the sweetest and brightest light in my life, had been a nightmare in his. She’d drank the kool-aid, bought the story about the Sons being evil or demons. She didn’t think for herself. Who knows what memories Indra planted in her head over the years? The memory of her holding that gun to Cain’s head caused me to shudder. Deep sadness poured into my heart and throughout my bones. My mother was a good woman, a loving mom, but how she treated the halflings wasn’t right. She was turned into a monster by the elders.
I sobbed for over an hour, grieving the loss of Liam and my mother simultaneously.
The heaviness of sleep pulled on my limbs after lying there for what felt like ever.
As I started to fall asleep on the bathroom floor, tears trailed down my cheeks and dropped onto the tile.
There was only one question replaying in my mind over and over again.
Would Liam ever forgive me?
Chapter 5
I woke the next morning with red-rimmed eyes and a stiff neck but with more determination than I’d ever had in my life. The cold hard fact was that, yes, Liam dealt a fatal blow that ended my mother’s life, but if he hadn’t, he would be dead. Cain too. He did what anyone would have done, and his father, the Winter King, was the one to strike my mother first. The Winter King was the enemy, along with Indra, who taught my mother that the Sons of Darkness were evil.
Indra who cuffed Mara for following her heart and loving a halfling. We should have been working with the halflings as a team a long time ago.
“Trissa, will you bring me Indra please?” I tipped my chin up as I entered the kitchen where Trissa was sitting with her tea and a book.
She froze, tea to her lips, eyes wide. “Like, just tell her that you want to speak with her or… ‘Bring me Indra.’” She said the last part with a firm tone.
I nodded. “The latter. She’s wanted for questioning.”
Trissa set the mug down and bowed her head. “Right away then.” I could see a slight nervousness dance behind her eyes. Indra was powerful, no doubt, but she’d been allowed to run freely without checks and balances for too long.
Trissa slipped into her room, grabbed her sword, and then left.
Next, I knocked on Elle’s door.
“Go away,” she yelled.
That was fair… I’d been heartless in my treatment of the boys yesterday, and I could see she had a thing for Cam, so it would hit her extra hard.
Without waiting, I opened the door.
She was sitting at the window seat, flipping through an old book. Rules of Royal Reign shown in gold filigree at the spine.
Before she could speak, I opened my mouth. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I was blinded by my grief and the betrayal by Liam.”
Her mouth, which had been open to speak, snapped shut. She breathed in and then out. “After everything we went through with them, you just… left them to die yesterday. You questioned my loyalty to you!” Her voice shook.
My throat pinched with emotion as I stepped closer. “I should never have done that. I’m so sorry, but Elle, what would you do if I died, and then next month Trissa admitted it was her who killed me?”
Her nostrils flared. “I’d take off her head,” she agreed.
I nodded. “So, I acted… before I knew the truth…”
Elle set the book down and faced me. “The truth?”
I sat on the edge of Elle’s bed. “Liam left me a piece of hair to do a memory spell. He killed my mom… sort of. But it was self-defense.”
I quickly recounted the whole memory as Elle sat there, lips turned into a frown. “I’m sorry, Lil. It’s awful, but I knew Liam was someone we could trust.”
Yeah. Me too.
Deep down, I should have known… but still, he did kill my mother, and I wasn’t sure how to get that out of my head. Maybe I needed to stop making my mother perfect. She was amazing, and I loved her. But what she did, threatening to let Cain die and trying to shoot Liam… it wasn’t right.
My mother was wrong.
“I’m sorry too.”
I stood, and we embraced before I pulled away quickly. “Now, help me. I just summoned Indra here to question her about Mara’s cuffs and the memory stuff.”
Elle’s eyes widened. “An official summons?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t send it in writing, but I sent Trissa to get her… armed with her sword.”
Elle’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “Okay, if she lies to you in front of witnesses, it’s treason. Are you ready to kill her?”
My throat went dry. “Over lying?” I gulped.
Elle tapped the book in her hands. “Lying to the Queen is punishable by death.”
Whoa.
That was a little harsh… but now I wondered if I should question her about the sleeping potion too. That was punishable by death in my book.