Chapter 16

PAST: Winter Court

"You, my son, will become your father. And you will be king of this land."

The Queen of Air and Darkness runs her pale hand gently across my cheek. I want to smile, to share in the only enthusiasm I have ever witnessed from this woman who gave me life. But I cannot. The word “king” feels like a noose around my throat, slowly drawing tighter with each passing day.

"Are you not pleased, son?" She stares at me with unsympathetic eyes. Eyes that have never held any trace of fondness or caring, and I've come to see her lack of affection as a symbol of her love. Sick and twisted are the ways of the Fey, and even I am not immune to it.

My mother once long ago gave me a bangle, meant to keep me safe when I traveled outside of Faerie. I treasured it as a child, thinking it a gift of love. However, I soon came to learn it was no more than a device used to track my whereabouts and record whatever I saw and said and heard, so she could use the information to her greatest advantage. Yet even knowing that truth, I continued to wear it for years afterward.

I lift my chin and answer her question. "My nobles will be pleased. If I rise in station, so do they."

"Ah." She nods, understanding my omission. "So then you are not pleased." She waits for my reply and I swallow it whole.

"It is alright, love. You can tell me,” she coos. Her attempts at kindness sicken me. "Be truthful, son. You are safe here."

But I know better, there is no such thing as a safe truth. No such thing as a secret safe to set free. But I am bound by my blood, unable to tell a lie. And so, I speak the truth as I feel it. A truth I know she will cut me down for.

"I do not want to be king. I have never wanted it," I say to her gaping mouth, already filling with a slew of hateful, incensed words. And since I have never done what I did not wish to do, I decline my future role.

Abdicating the throne is not an option in my world. It is a treasonous act, punishable by swift and immediate death. Before I can move, I feel the sharp bite of her Faerie hellhound as its jaw closes around my flesh, tearing the bangle from my wrist.

I pull away from its clutch and send it across the room with a swift blow.

My mother takes hold of my elbow, gently but firmly.

"You are the one who must live with the choice you are making," she says. "And there will come a time when you will realize the grave mistake you have made and all that you have thrown away. So I will ask you this but once." Her mouth pulls into a hard line. "Are you prepared for the consequences of your choice?"

Quiet fury silences the excruciating pain. The external wound would heal, even if the internal ones never would. My hands clench into fists. I pull my mangled arm to my side, and with cold, hard eyes glare back at her. "Yes," I say. "I am prepared. The question you need to answer, Mother, is—are you?"

As the words leave my lips, we both know this is to be my last day spent living within the Winter Court.

Queen Mab's eyes gleam with malice and contempt. "Children obey their parents," she snaps. "It does not work the other way around."

Blood drips down my arm, forming a sticky crimson trail behind me as I walk to the window, open it, and leap out.