No,Stellon said.No. My father used his compelling glamour to toy with her for a while, forcing her to humiliate herself in front of the gathering. And then?—
Go on,I urged.
He tired of it and compelled her to take her own life. She picked up the knife, but she wouldn’t plunge it into her own heart. She stood there, her hands quaking the blade in front of her chest as she resisted the compulsion. She kept saying…
He stopped and took a breath before continuing.
She said, “I have a child.”
Tears gushed down my cheeks as he went on.
She was strong,he said.My father was training me to assist him with my Exalting glamour. He turned to me and ordered me to augment his compulsion with my own glamour.
After a pause he said,And I obeyed.
Stepping toward me, he reached for my hands, but I stepped backward to avoid his touch.
You have to understand, Raewyn, I had no choice. It was an order from my father, and he always got what he wanted.
He wanted me dead, and yet here I stand,I countered.No thanks to you.
Stellon wagged his chin back and forth, his blue eyes sorrowful.
I’m so sorry. I was young. I was afraid to defy him.
I blew out a long, weary breath.I understand. But eventually we all grow up and have to take responsibility for our own actions, no matter what our parents did or didn’t do. You knew this all along and never told me.
I only realized it after seeing her picture in the locket, he said, as if that somehow excused his silence on the matter since then.
Don’t you see, Icouldn’ttell you,Stellon said.You would have hated me… as you do now, based on that look on your face.
“I don’t hate you, Stellon.”
I said it aloud, but it was the truth. And I’d realized another one.
“I don’t hate you… but I don’t love you.”
My heart resonated with a new certainty as the strange shell that had encased it all day cracked and began to shatter.
What was happening? I was dizzy and confused.
Looking down at myself in a wedding dress I didn’t choose then up at the two Fae princes, I felt like I was waking from a bizarre dream.
How had things gotten to this point?
Why had I agreed to marry Stellon?
“Perhaps once I loved you,” I told him, “but so much has happened.”
“You meanPharishappened.”
Stellon shot a glare toward his brother, who was listening intently.
“It’s more than that,” I said. “It’s the choices you’ve made. I remember when you found us in Havendor beside the waterfall, Pharis challenged you to tell me ‘the rest of the story’ about my mother, and you chose not to.”
Stellon hung his head.
“Maybe if you had told me the truth earlier…maybeI could have forgiven you. But not now. Not like this,” I said.
