Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Selene’s POV

By the time we returned to the packhouse, the body had already been taken away. Lyra had ordered the area secured until they could determine what had happened, but she hadn’t told anyone about the mark I mentioned.

Neither had I. Except for, well, her.

“Are you going to tell Kade about it?” I questioned.

“It’s not really his business,” she shrugged. “Seemed closer to the Outbounds than SilverClaw. He’ll still get to know, though. But I am handling it.”

“Speak of the devil,” I muttered with a soft smile as Kade appeared out of nowhere, donned in his royal robes.

“I am no devil,” he grinned at me and turned to face Lyra, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. They both smiled at each other, blushing like two young teenagers in love. My heart warmed for them, and I wished I could have something as beautiful as what they had.

We were halfway through the main hall when another guard approached. “Alpha.”

Lyra and Kade stopped.

“What?”

“The Fae delegation has arrived,” he announced with a bow.

Lyra’s expression immediately changed. “Already?”

“Yes. They’re waiting in the council room,” he said, shifting on his feet nervously. “We thought after what happened, a warm welcome would be best.”

“Fae delegation?” I asked, furrowing my brows. How the fuck did they know that one of theirs was dead? And how did they know it happened on our lands? Unless someone had tipped them off, but who? Lyra hadn’t even gotten herself together to send word to them.

Lyra nodded. “Probably here about the body.”

“Probably?”

She gave me a look. “You know how Fae are.”

I snorted.

Unfortunately, I did.

“But still,” I continued, walking with her and Kade towards the council room. “How did they know so fast?”

“Magic,” she told me, as if it were the most obvious thing. “Someone close to her probably felt it. That she was gone.”

“Oh.”

If I had to guess, I expected some ancient Fae councilman with a long speech and maybe a royal official. Someone important enough to make a fuss, but not important enough to make me care.

I was wrong.

The moment Lyra opened the doors, every conversation inside stopped.

There were six Fae standing around the large table who were all dressed in dark, formal clothing, and they seemed very tense. They weren’t angry or frightened either; it was just tense.

One of them stepped forward immediately. “Alpha Lyra, Alpha Kade.”

“Welcome,” they greeted, walking further in.

His eyes moved briefly toward me before returning to Lyra. “We apologize for arriving without notice.”

“You’re here because of the body,” Kade said, although it seemed more like a statement than a question.

“Yes,” he said. “It is a matter of great concern to the crown.”

I barely paid attention as my mind was still on the corpse, until another Fae spoke.

“We should inform Her Majesty before any further action is taken.”

I looked up. “Her Majesty?”

The Fae glanced at me as if I were stupid. “Yes.”

I frowned and looked at Lyra, who said nothing.

The first Fae continued. “We cannot allow this incident to escalate without the queen’s approval.”

Queen.

I stared at him. Something about the word felt strange.

The Fae began speaking among themselves.

“The queen must be informed immediately.”

“She may order the patrols to return. Her Majesty will decide whether—”

I looked at Lyra, who was listening calmly. “Wait. Did you just say queen?”

One of the Fae nodded. “Yes.”

I looked at Lyra again. “Since when do the Fae have a queen?”

Lyra blinked. “They’ve always had royalty.”

“No, I mean…” I stopped. “Thorne… he returned, right…”

Something suddenly clicked. The Fae were discussing their queen as though she were someone I should already know.

I looked back at them. “Who is your queen?”

One of the Fae opened his mouth, but Lyra beat him to it. “Violetta.”

The room seemed to tilt at those words. I stared at her incredulously. “What?”

Lyra looked at me. “Violetta is the queen. She has been for four years now.”

I laughed, and it wasn’t even because it was funny. There was absolutely no way I had heard her correctly. “Violetta? For four years?”

“Yes.”

I stared at her. “The Violetta? Thorne’s right hand?”

Lyra’s eyebrows lifted. “Do you know another one?”

I couldn’t speak.

Violetta.

The woman who had walked away from me four years ago… The woman who had been a warrior… The woman who had carried a sword at her hip and stood beside the former king.

That Violetta was a queen?

I looked at the Fae delegation; none of them looked surprised. Apparently, I was the only person in the room who had somehow missed this very important piece of information.

“What?”

Lyra sighed. “Selene—”

“No.” I shook my head, staring at her in disbelief.

My heart was pounding.

Four years.

Four years, and apparently the woman I’d spent all this time trying to forget had somehow become a queen, and I was the only one who had no idea.

Once we were done with the initial meeting and the maids had shown the Fae delegation to a place to rest, Lyra and I were still in the council room.

“How?” I finally blurted out, as the question had been eating me up since.

Lyra sighed and then took a seat at the head of the table. I took one adjacent to her.

“It happened after the war,” Lyra said. “Thorne left the Fae realm during the war to help us out. You know that.”

I nodded.

“He fought alongside us. With the wolves. With me.”

“I know.”

“What you probably don’t know is what happened afterwards…” Lyra paused. “When Thorne returned to the Fae realm, things weren’t exactly… pleasant. A lot of the Fae were angry with him. He was their king, but he’d left them to fight alongside us. Some believed he’d betrayed his own people. But it was more complicated than that. He knew there was going to be a rebellion.”

“And there was?”

She nodded. “Eventually.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

Lyra shrugged. “You weren’t exactly asking me about Fae politics.”

“I asked you about Violetta.”

“Four years ago.”

“Still.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “Anyway, the rebellion got worse. Thorne realized that if he held onto the throne, his people would keep fighting over him. He didn’t want another war.”

“So he stepped down?”

“Yes. He even told me before he left that he was going to step down.”

“Just like that?”

“Not exactly. He had a conversation with me before he left.”

“With you?” I questioned, raising my brows.

“Yes.”

“What did he say?”

Lyra was quiet for a moment. “He told me he’d made his decision. He was leaving the throne.”

I stared at her. “And then?”

“He told me who he was giving it to.”

My brows drew together. “Violetta.”

Lyra nodded. “He trusted her. Because she’d been his right hand for years. She knew the kingdom. She understood the people. And more importantly, Thorne believed she could keep them from tearing each other apart.”

I slowly shook my head. “So he just gave her the crown?”

“He did.”

“And then left?”

“He wanted to travel. See other realms. He’d spent so long being king that he wanted to experience a life that didn’t revolve around a throne.”

“Well, at least they didn’t kill him.”

Lyra smiled faintly. “Thorne didn’t lose his crown, Selene. He gave it away.”

He’d always been willing to sacrifice what he had if he believed it would protect someone else.

“So that’s what you two talked about before he left?”

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t think it was important enough to tell me? Especially after me going crazy because Violetta left without a word? You could have at least explained it to me.”

Lyra shrugged. “I didn’t think it was important.”

I stared at her, feeling angry.

“Besides, I thought you and Violetta were close.”

I felt something twist painfully in my chest. “Yeah. Right.”