I nodded to answer the question in her tone. “Yes, they were together for five years before she was murdered.”
“Holy fuck,” she said, blinking at me. “How is it that none of us knew your sister was Louis’s mate?”
I’d completely blindsided her with that. The funniest part was that Louis had been my best friend for years before he had anything to do with Regina. I’d been the idiot who had feared ruining the friendship, so I never pushed for anything more. Regina had no such qualms when she finally noticed how amazing Louis was. I hadn’t been surprised when they fell for each other. But it had hurt. More than I thought anything could hurt. From then on, I’d just done my best to hide the attraction I’d always had for Louis. I never questioned their love, or that she was his chosen mate.
Even when it killed me.
“He blames himself,” Jessa said as we started to walk again, faster this time.
I nodded. That was definitely no secret.
Thankfully, we seemed to have reached their home: a very impressive log cabin that bordered the back of the huge forests of Stratford. Conversation about Louis dried up, and I was grateful not to have to keep picking at old wounds.
Jessa led me inside, into a huge space they had set up as a living area. The doors and windows were open, allowing in cool breezes from the forests beyond. I could smell the wildflowers and the scent of our mother. Nature was everything to magic users. We communed with it all the time, and I missed this sort of greenery.
A large group of supes waited inside, and I forced my expression to go blank. Socializing was going to take some getting used to.
“Hey, everyone, gather around,” Jessa said, waving her hands toward her face. “We’re ready to head out now to save Louis, and I need to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
A devastatingly handsome shifter crossed to her. He had tousled dark hair, blue eyes, and dimples in both cheeks. He also had that look in his eyes that scary-powerful supes got, the one that said “do not mess with me or mine.”
At the moment, though, he mostly seemed amused as he devoured Jessa with his gaze. “You know I love it when you’re bossy,” he rumbled, his arms wrapping around her as he pulled her closer.
Jessa’s eyes closed as she sank against him, and I turned away because there was too much emotion there. It was almost painful watching that sort of true love.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Tyson Compass said, distracting me when he stepped closer. At his side was a tall, willowy redhead. She was beautiful, her eyes an arresting icy blue, her skin scattered with glittering pigment.
“The diamond princess,” I breathed, unsure if I was actually seeing the truth.
She let out a tinkling laugh. “I prefer Grace,” she said, her voice low and husky. “The wholediamond princessthing is going to take some getting used to.”
“I thought you were a myth,” I admitted. “Glad I was wrong about that, because keeping the shadows out of Faerie is a very important job.”
Grace’s expression turned confused as she tilted her head to the side. “You actually know about us?”
“Yeah, how the heck did you know about us?” I turned to find another beautiful woman stepping out from where she’d been perched in a nearby doorway. “We were a secret hidden for over twenty years.”
“Ruby princess, I assume,” I said, taking in her long legs and dark jewel-toned skin, so striking against her light hair.
“Justice,” she admitted, her arms crossing over her chest. “And yes, apparently I’m a ruby princess. Like Grace, I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around it.”
“Justice, Gretley, and Cam were all hidden as humans,” Tyson explained to me, and I turned a smile on him, realizing I’d ignored his greeting from before. “So they’re just starting to learn about the history of supes and their new fey side.”
Gretley and Cam, the emerald and sapphire princesses respectively, were opposite in many ways. One blond, the other brunette, one tall, and the other short, but they held hands and looked at each other in a way that told me they cared nothing for these differences. Another true love.
In fact… I glanced around the room, and other than Jacob and Justice, everyone else was clearly paired up. And judging by the way Jacob and Justice were shooting angry glares at each other, those two definitely had something going on.
There was a very fine line between love and hate.
Again I was alone, watching others live their lives while I just existed. Maybe Jessa had a point; maybe it was time for me to stop mourning what never was and start living for what could be. I just had to save Louis first, and then for the first time, maybe I’d finally be ready to let him go.
“So I think we need to go over the plan one more time,” Mischa said, moving forward. I realized none of the babies were there, and I wondered if they had somehow managed to get three children to nap at the same time.
There was no possible way, right? Not even magic could pull off that miracle.
Jessa nodded. “Yes, right. The plan… Okay, so we head back to the jeweled lands in Faerie, and then the princesses should be able to use their energy to open a brief portal to the land between. We also need to remember to take some of the stones with us, just in case.”
“What are you going to use to escape detection by the demons?” I asked, thinking the plan was a little too sparse for my liking.
