Her features were conflicted, and I knew why. Like Draven, she loved me. And like Draven, that love did not extend to my people, even less so after they took me.
“I’m going to go now. You should get some rest,” I said, easing the window open as Batty darted into the cold air.
She bit her lip but nodded, and I swept into Draven’s rooms, my claws already biting into my palms as I clenched my fists.
He was at his desk, sitting like he was bracing himself for battle.
“We can’t fight a war on every front.”
I scoffed. “And if my family comes to make sure that I’m safe, you’ll just obliterate them before they get the chance.”
He rose to his feet in a single fluid motion with all the warrior’s grace he had honed for the sake of his people, the skills he had needed to fight against my own blood.
“The family who sent you to the mages?” he demanded with a lethal calm. “Who took you against your will and let that despicable bastard hurt you?”
Who killed his parents. The unspoken addition hung in the air between us.
Frustration coursed through my veins. It was almost worse that I understood where he was coming from, that some of that hatred still plagued me as well when I thought about wings looming over me and chains around my wrists. A blade slicing into me over and over again.
My mana was threatening to emerge, shadows and ice clouding my vision just before Draven stepped into view. He gently pried my fingers open before they could draw more blood.
He didn’t release me, but instead, slowly siphoned away, my skin humming with each point of contact.
Sometimes, it was worse knowing that the bond didn’t sway our feelings. Maybe fate would have brought us to one another time after time, and every time we would have caved to the ways we fit together and ignored all the ways we didn’t.
Or maybe there was a version of us somewhere that got to meet in a world with unity—the one that had felt far more attainable in the middle of a cave that existed out of time itself.
“They aren’t all like that,” I reminded him quietly. “And what about my mother? She did protect me.”
Sometimes too much.
His hands clenched around mine, a muscle working in his jaw. “We can offer her sanctuary,” he said after severalheartbeats. “Though I doubt she would be foolish enough to risk coming here.”
I stopped just short of reminding him that she had been exactly that foolish once before, though I wasn’t sure how true that was. Had she come to the Seelie lands or had my father gone there?
Had either of them known the truth?
“How are we supposed to do that if she can’t even come here without her life on the line?” It was a roundabout way of asking him if he had a way of getting in contact with her.
He narrowed his eyes. “We both know that a common soldier poses no risk to your mother, so ask what you want to know, Morta Mea.”
“I need to talk to her about my mana… and whatever you think of her or the Skaldwings in general, she is my mother. I need to know that she’s safe.”
His eyes darkened to the deepest shade of the winter sky lights. “I will not take you back to that place.”
I opened my mouth to argue, and he shook his head.
“But if it will keep you from hurling yourself into unnecessary danger, I will send my spies to make contact with her.”
It was better than nothing, for now. I nodded my consent, studying the tense line of his features. He had been upset before the part of the conversation I overheard, enough that an icy spike of rage had come through the bond.
“What else did Eryx say?” I asked him.
“Enough to convince me he knows about your heritage.”
The blood drained from my face. I had buried the secret so deeply for so long, it was hard to remember that the king of Winter already knew the truth.
For all the good it did the Skaldwings.
