“There is no reversing the spell. Only the stars can undo an unsee spell.” Gurtten scuttled past us, vanishing up ahead, her skin sage, her intent ill.
“He bit me,” I whispered, touching the painfully cold bites in my neck. “He attacked me. My Maxell would never do that.”
“That wasn’t your etern. That was a vampire with no recollection of who you are.” The king looked after where Gurtten had gone. “And if I know Gurtten as well as I think I do, there is no way to bring him back until the stars decide to do so.”
“That’s impossible. We’re bound.” I seethed at him. “He is my pair bond. How can he forget something that’s inside both of us?”
“You’re in Faierie now, Princess. The impossible is all that’s left.”
“I don’t believe it. I need to talk to him. He’ll remember me.”
“He won’t,” the king insisted. “He’s dangerous right now. Vampires have no control around fairies. It’s a wonder he’s lasted this long. You’re not in the mortal world anymore, and you just burned through the last of your humanity. The Emmie he knew is gone. Perhaps it’s best he doesn’t remember. Perhaps it’s best he let you go.”
I flinched. “Let me go?”
“You’re fae. No princess of the Fire Court—of any Court for that matter—could wed a vampire anyway. There cannot be a vampire king. He would have grown to resent you. Alive forever as he remained undead.” He gazed at me not cruelly, but with eyes that said he thought that true.
I did not think that true.
The fire in me reignited.
I spent my entire life wondering what my purpose was.
And in that moment, in the stone hallway below the Throne of Cinders, with my father the king gazing upon me like he knew who I was, and my pair bond chained up with no memory of me, I finally knew what my purpose was as abruptly and completely as I had spent my life without it.
I would uphold my end of the bargain. I would be his princess, so that one day I would be queen.
And Maxell Heathestone would be my king.
EPILOGUE
Location: WATER COURT
Deep inside THE THRONE OF SALT
“And you’re sure she knows nothing?” Queen Aeriia Glace double-triple-quadrupled checked.
He didn’t need to sigh. It wasn’t conducive to his kind. But he wanted to do so. Showing any ounce of frustration with the queen, however, wasn’t wise. “I am sure,” he insisted. “She is completely in the dark.”
“Tell me again how King Tealson managed to nab her before we did?”
He had gone over it a hundred times. The story hadn’t changed. How could it? He wasn’t the only one writing it. “The Warrior sent to retrieve Maxell and Emmie defected. At least long enough for them to get away. Phare is his name. He is sincerely apologetic. He brought bartering pieces. We’ve established that in order for King Blaese to have grabbed them, he had to have a fae on our side, or at least someone in the raiders with enough insight to inform him where Emmie and Maxell were. I will do everything in my power to retrieve them.”
She turned her nose at me. “Leave them.”
He froze. “What?”
“Leave the princess to be and her undead lover for the time being. They are in Faierie now. We can kill them when we go forward with the takeover. I have the entire Immortal Society behind me. The Water Court cannot lose.” Her cold blue eyes, dark blue in some places and clear as ice in others, met his. “And your powers better be everything. Your bargain has taken years to come to fruition, Masters. I was starting to think saving you wasn’t worth the trouble.”
Masters didn’t react. It was true. It had been sheer luck or even fate that Queen Aeriia Glace had been on the Titanic the night it sunk. The history books and movies had gotten most of the tale wrong. There had been no iceberg. There had however been a vampire on board. And a fairy.
Queen Aeriia had risen out of the water. Never one to turn down a deal, she offered Masters his life in exchange for his undying loyalty. On the edge of death, he hadn’t had much of a choice. He hadn’t known that making a deal with a fairy was the same thing as serving a life sentence. That when she offered to save his life, she’d really meant turning him into a bloodthirsty monster. Queen Aeriia was always one step ahead. A master chess player. Masters also hadn’t had much to lose when he made that deal. He didn’t know he would meet Reowna. He didn’t know that his love for his pair bond would become the only weapon Queen Aeriia would ever need against him.
Masters would do anything to keep Reowna safe.
Even if that meant betraying every single being he knew.
“When will the Water Court move forward?”
Queen Aeriia faced him head on. Her skin was tinged blue, as if she spent too many hours in the water and needed sun. Her ears ended in a perfect point, those points decorated in silver jewelry that looked like ocean waves cascading into the stars. Her hair was past her hips, and it was long, black and wavy. Curved seashells and salt coated the long strands near her hairline. Her eyelashes were forever coated in ice droplets and on the nights the moon was fullest and the night darkest, she could be seen controlling the Seas of Salt.
“As soon as Emmie Tealson is princess. The War of Salt and Ashes will begin. The entire Court of Water will join forces with The Immortal Society. We will conquer fire, and then earth and air. Until the entire realm of Faierie is under water.”
Vampires didn’t shiver.
Didn’t even feel cold.
But a shudder raced through Masters’ body.
He was glad for one thing.
He had chosen water.
Emmie and Maxell’s story continues in the thrilling, heart stopping sequel, Throne of Stars and Cinders, coming to Amazon fall of 2021 from Leeann M. Shane.
Leeann M. Shane escapes through reading and creates escape routes for others. She writes edgy, beautiful, and moving young-adult titles.
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Other titles by Leeann M. Shane
The Tomboy & the Rebel
The Rarity of Falling
Romeo and the Angel
The Importance of Raincoats
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Court of Frost and Embers (The Pair Bond Chronicles Book 1) Page 28