Chapter 20

Dried tears crusted the corner of Brea’s eyelids as she tried to pry them open. Footsteps sounded against the stone floor, and she froze. Someone was in her room. She’d never get used to servants constantly being around and having very little time on her own. For once, she wished everyone would just leave her to feel sorry for herself.

She rolled over to see a figure illuminated by the silver glow of the moon. The intruder stood looking out the big windows at the sprawling Eldur palace.

Another palace. A different queen. Still not the human world.

She cleared her throat and the woman turned, revealing the face of the Eldur queen who’d only given Brea a moment of attention when she first arrived.

Brea pushed herself up in bed and scooted back against the headboard. Queen Faolan had the windows open, letting in the warm night air. It blew dark hair away from her face, revealing blazing yellow eyes that cut through the darkness of the night.

“What do you want with me?” The whispered words were the first Brea could think of. For some reason, two queens abducted her, and a king tried to kill her. None of it made any sense. She didn’t know if she believed Griff’s words about a prophecy any longer, not after finding out they really only wanted her to give him legitimacy.

There had to be a real reason why she—normal girl Brea Robinson—was such a hot commodity to the royals of the fae world. She cringed at the thought.

The queen’s eyes swirled before settling into a more natural amber color. “You’re not Alona.”

Brea’s brow creased. “I’m Brea Robinson.”

She nodded. “Yes, yes, I know that. But I expected some… feeling that would make me believe I had my daughter back. She’s been gone for months now, and we’ve had no request for ransom. That’s why I sent Lochlan into the human realm. I had to protect my daughter no matter what. Everything has been to protect the lineage.” She carved a path across the room and back again, her footsteps heavy as she paced.

Nothing she said made any sense.

Her entire body stilled, and she turned back to face Brea. “You’re not her!”

Queen Faolan’s fiery gaze burned yellow again, and Brea could hardly breathe. Dragon queen. Dragon queen. Dragon queen. The words repeated in her mind, stirring fear in Brea’s gut. Her magic latched onto the emotion, refusing to let it go away. It built up, begging for release.

She tilted her head to the side, trying to hold it back, knowing blasting the queen with magic wouldn’t win her any favors.

The queen’s eyes widened. “Your magic… your eyes.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Yellow.”

Brea couldn’t handle her scrutiny any longer. “My eyes are and have always been blue.” It was one of the only traits she inherited from her mother. “You’re the one with the yellow eyes.” Dragon Queen, she called her in her head.

Lochlan and Finn trusted this woman, but Brea barely knew them, and she’d been burned before.

Queen Faolan moved closer to the bed. “My eyes turn yellow when I am controlling my magic—which I’m trying very hard to do right now despite the sun not being out at this hour.”

“Right, well I won’t be your prisoner. Been there, done that.” She shoved the fear she felt away. There was nothing to lose anymore because everything had already been taken from her. “I am only here because your dog Lochlan tied me up, took me into battle, and said some very grumpy things. The human world sucks, but it’s better than this place, and I expect you to take me back there.”

The queen’s eyes flashed, and she turned away, crossing her arms over her chest. “I sent Lochlan to bring you here from the human world. Do you know what that cost? My most trusted man wasn’t here to protect my daughter when she was taken.” She looked back over her shoulder. Tears shone in her eyes, but she blinked them away and strode from the room.

Kicking the thin sheet off her legs, Brea scrambled from the bed, half expecting her door to be locked.

When she pulled, it clicked open, revealing a long, dark hallway, deserted in the dead of night. Starlight spilled across her path under archways leading to the outside. In the still of the night, everything was quiet save for the slow trickling of fountains.

As her feet hit warm bricks, she realized she’d forgotten to put on anything other than the pale pink silk sleeping gown draped over her shoulders. She stared down at her legs peeking past the trim, remembering what Lochlan said about her human modesty. The fae didn’t care if she revealed herself here at court because they wouldn’t look. A body was not the fascination to them that it was for humans.

Still, she’d have killed for a razor and gigantic bottle of shaving cream so she didn’t feel like a woolly mammoth in the short gown.

Archways led from courtyards to doors she hadn’t yet seen behind. The Eldur palace was larger than the one in Fargelsi and even more grand. Everything seemed to be centered around the outdoors—something she hadn’t expected in a desert kingdom.

Stepping into one of the many courtyards, a grand fountain depicting two male fae in a state of… erm… bliss had her face heating again. She averted her eyes from their naked bodies and lifted them to the clear sky above, wondering if they were the same stars hanging above her home in Ohio.

She expected to see dragons flying overhead, their giant wings silhouetted against the moon. Okay, expected was probably the wrong word. She’d hoped to see them, for them to be real.

“What do you think you’ll find in the stars?” Finn’s voice startled her out of her dream of dragons.

She looked back over her shoulder to where he stood leaning against the doorway into what looked like a library. “Dragons.” It sounded stupid after she said it.

He shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly what a dragon is, but I hope you find it.”

She laughed at that. “Well, there’s my answer. No dragons. They’re these giant winged reptiles that breathe fire and destroy cities.”

“Ah, now I remember. Alona was obsessed with such creatures. She read about them in Lochlan’s human books he brought back and always said a desert kingdom should have such animals.”

Brea crossed the courtyard to him. As she got closer, she could make out the tired expression on his face. His lips drew down into a frown, but it was his eyes that spoke of hidden pain. “Are you okay, Finn?”

“I should be asking you that. You’ve arrived at yet another palace—injured I might add. Are you feeling okay? I wanted to make sure you don’t take anything the queen says personally. She isn’t in a good place right now, so she’ll come see you soon, I’m sure.”

“She already did.” She’d never forget the queen’s desperate words or incoherent babbling.

Not giving him a chance to respond, she walked past him into the library, her breath rushing out of her lungs at the sight before her.

Finn lifted a hand, illuminated the room, revealing bookshelves as high as she could see. Painted ceilings depicted grand adventures to preside over what must be thousands of books. Leather-bound tomes crowded the shelves in the circular room.

“This was Alona’s favorite place in the entire palace.” Finn ran a finger along a line of embossed spines. “She and Lochlan spent many hours together sprawled across the benches along the back wall.”

He led her through the shelves to where a reading nook sat against a window overlooking a garden. Bench wasn’t the right word. It was more like an extra-wide couch carved right into the wall, shielding it from view of the rest of the library. Pillows lined the surface. It was built up over a row of three-shelf bookcases.

Brea bent to examine the books. “Harry Potter,” she whispered. “Game of Thrones.” And on it went. Lord of the Rings. His Dark Materials. The entire collections by Robin Hobb and David Eddings.

Finn sat on the bench. “Every time Lochlan went to the human realm, he returned with stacks of books. For weeks, he’d spend every spare moment with Alona devouring the words.” He picked up a book sitting on the arm of the bench and held it out to Brea. “This was what she was reading right before she left.”

“A Court of Thorns and Roses.” Brea took the book. “Myles read this, and I had to hear endlessly about it.”

“Alona thought it was quite funny the humans were writing about fae as if they knew anything about us except old lore we allowed into story books many generations ago.”

She offered the book back, but he shook his head and she set it on one of the shelves.

Finn lay back, his eyes focusing on the beautiful ceiling overhead. “Here in the desert, we don’t get a lot of rain, but when it does come, it stays for days, sometimes weeks. In the past, if my training was cancelled, I’d join Alona. We laid here and talked of fantasy futures, so different from the ones we could have.”

“You can have any future you choose.” It was a stock line humans said to each other, but rarely was it true.

“Come now, Brea, do not start lying to me now. Look around. We are in a palace. Do not for one moment think any of us have a choice in our path.”

This wasn’t the boisterous happy man she’d traveled with from the Vatlands. “Has something happened, Finn?”

He sighed. “Just being here… Everything reminds me of Alona.”

Brea climbed up next to him and lay back. “She’s not just the princess to you, is she?” She looked sideways at him and watched a tear curve over his cheek.

“Have you ever loved someone so much it killed you when they were gone?”

She wanted to say no, to ignore that kind of pain. She knew now she’d never loved Griff. It had been a trick she played on herself in her desperation to not be alone in a foreign world. But Myles? He was her person, her other half. It wasn’t a romantic kind of love, but it was just as strong. When she spoke, her voice was no more than a whisper.

“You feel as if you’re no longer alive, like your heart refuses to beat until you see them again.”

Finn’s hand found hers, threading their fingers together. “We wish the pain away, but in the same breath we hold onto it as a reminder of what they were to us.”

“Are.”

“What?” He rolled his head to look at her.

“What they are to us. Alona was taken, but she might yet be alive.” Just like Myles.

“She has to be. If she comes back to us, I’m going to lose her again, but at least she’ll be safe.”

“Why do you have to lose her?” Brea would never understand a world in which people could love each other and not be together.

“Because, Brea, Alona has no magic.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

His voice shook as he explained. “Fae born without magic cannot remain among the noble or royal classes beyond coming of age. Upon her eighteenth birthday, she must join the servant class, leaving her family behind.”

Brea sat up. “But that’s not fair! It’s cruel.” She suddenly felt for this girl she’d never met, the one mourned by both the queen and this soldier beside her.

“It is our way.” He sat, turning to face her. “Magic is everything to the fae.”

Her respect for the fae dwindled to nothing. “It isn’t right. Magic isn’t more important than family.” She’d never turn her back on Myles no matter what happened to her, and she refused to let this missing princess suffer her fate. “Alona will be found, Finn. And when she is, you and I will find a way to save her from such a stupid fae tradition. Maybe we can even convince douchey Lochlan to help.”

One corner of his mouth curved up. “Maybe you are just what our kingdom needs. Someone to challenge what we all think we know.”

“If you’re telling me to be a pain in the butt, I can totally do that. It’s basically my personality. But you listen to me, Finn. You and I are friends now.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she shushed him.

“I don’t care if Loch tells you to leave me alone, you will not do that. I’m a bit short on friends at the moment. You can be my fairy whisperer, making sure I don’t embarrass myself. And one day, we will get to see our people again—the people we love don’t get to just disappear from our lives.”

His eyes glistened with unshed tears as he nodded. “I’d very much like us to be friends. I just have one question first.”

“Go for it.”

“Lochlan told me you’re calling him douchey Lochlan because you think him noble, but that isn’t what the human word means, is it?”

She flashed him a grin and scooted to the edge of the bench to climb off. “Goodnight, Finn.”

She turned to walk around a shelf, colliding with a giant wall of flesh. Gripping her shoulder as pain seared from the contact, she looked up into Lochlan’s stormy face.

“Did you love my brother?”

~~~