She struggled to breathe, a lump trapped in her throat. What business did the Darkened One share with her mother? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. “Why?”
“She cursed him.” The words rolled off his tongue with zero emotion, as if he were merely reciting facts instead of life-altering news.
“Cursed him?”
Damien nodded, sighing at the scrunch of Luna’s brow. “There are many territories in the realm of Eloria. The unicorns occupy the lands of darkness and light, each separated into several kingdoms. The Solar Kingdom and Dawn Kingdom belong to the light, and they were once allies—”
“What does that have to do with Nina?”
“Her family used to rule the Solar Kingdom. And to strengthen an alliance between the kingdoms, Nina’s parents sent her sister—Fara—to marry the King of Dawn, Terrick.”
“I have an aunt?!”Am I royalty?
Damien grimly shook his head. “Had . . .”
“Oh.” Luna deflated. “What happened?”
“Well, instead of bedding with his new wife, King Terrick took a mistress. She gave birth to his first child—an act of humiliation for all involved, especially Fara. Her parents wouldn’t stand for such a slight and sent their army to kill not only Terrick and his mistress but his entire family, leaving Fara as Queen of Dawn. They would’ve killed the child as well . . . had they found him. That child was the Darkened One.”
“I still don’t see how this has anything to do with Nina?”
“Once he came of age, he came out of exile and overthrew not only Fara, but the Solar kingdom too.”
“He killed them . . .”
Damien nodded. “He only spared Nina. He gave her the same fate he had been given and sent her into exile, but not just exiled from her home. Exiled from the entire magical realm of Eloria.”
“And she cursed him for banishing her.”
Once again, he nodded.
“For the past twenty years, the Darkened One has sent his men into Ghelvina to find her, to have her end the curse, because he can’t travel far without losing a significant amount of power. He had hoped to lure her out of hiding by causing destruction. Obviously, that grand plan failed.”
Had Damien rescued Nina because she was the rightful heir to the solar throne? But why wait twenty years? And if Nina was royalty, what did that make her? Damien had explained to Luna, back when she first transformed, that her dad had to be a unicorn for her to be one, so who was he? And when had Nina gotten pregnant? Luna didn’t honestly know how to ask any of those questions. Instead, she asked, “Now that Nina is returning to Eloria, what’s going to happen?”
She felt Damien shrug. “That’s a question only she can answer.”
“Would you help her fight against the Darkened One . . . if it came to that?”
“No,” Damien said firmly, with almost a laugh. “I have my own problems to worry about; I don’t go searching for more.”
She sat up, and he shifted away from her; the distance cooled much more than just her skin. “What do you mean?”
He stayed quiet, his fingers balling into fists. Noticing Luna watching, he relaxed his hands and let a gentle smile spread across his face as he took her hand, offering a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll figure out a way for you two to get some time together. Don’t you worry.”
With that, he rose and unfurled two separate blankets, placing them next to the dying flames of the fire. Luna crawled to the closest one and stretched out, but her mind wouldn’t quiet. What wasn’t he telling her?
“Does the Darkened One know about me?”That I’m technically a threat to his throne.
For a moment, she thought he hadn’t heard her, then his voice came, low and drowsy, as though sleep had already begun to claim him. “Nina . . . kept it quiet. The pregnancy.”
A pause. His breathing deepened.
“Don’t think anyone knows you exist.” The last word was barely more than a whisper followed by a soft snore, quiet but steady.
His words brought her little comfort, but she knew that was all she was getting. Damien kept secrets, yes, but his presence still anchored her—a frustrating contradiction she didn’t want to untangle tonight. Staring into the sky above her, she tried to convince herself she wasn’t tired, but doing so only highlighted how truly exhausted she felt. She prayed dreams wouldn’t come; they only led to nightmares, and she wasn’t sure if she could handleanother. Not after all that information . . . but as soon as she fell asleep, the dreams came.
Chapter 25
