Uncle ran a hand over his face. “I didn’t have a choice. You see, your parents wanted to take away the magic powers of other magical races. In order to do that, they experimented with wild magic and—something went terribly wrong.”
Uncle was there through it all to guide us through the aftermath of my parents’ passings, and now, he was confessing to everything. I forced myself to ask the next question. “What happened?”
“The wild magic they tried rebounded and exploded.”
“You sensed their experiment,” I said, reimagining that night through Uncle’s eyes. My uncle possessed a strong ability to sense magical energy.
He nodded, his gaze sorrowful, his shoulders a little hunched. “I’d seen magical curses before, though none this powerful, this dark. I knew it would be bad. I knew people would die. A lot of people.”
“And you murdered them?” Lizzy gripped my hand, her blue eyes wide with horror.
He looked between us with something like regret and resolve flickering across his expression. “Sometimes when the caster of a curse dies, the curse dies with them. The moment I felt the dark energy go out, I knew what I had to do. I phoned a former witch friend and purchased the thornlace potion. I understood that a fae coroner wasn’t trained to find minor signs of witch magic. Using my powers, I traced the source of the curse to your parents. So… you see, I had no other option. I needed to kill them to try to stop the curse before it was too late.”
“You touched them with the potion,” Lizzy whispered.
“I put on gloves and poured some thornlace on them. One touch did it for both of them. After that, it was simple to use my powers to lift their bodies into their car and animate it to drive at a rather high speed for a bit. When my magic wore off, thewinding, mostly deserted road I sent them driving on would do the rest.”
A faint buzzing began in my head, growing louder as the truth settled like ice in my veins. All this time, I’d believed Moonrot was the consequence of someone killing my parents. But I’d been so impossibly wrong. It wasn’t born from their deaths.
The curse had been createdbecause of my parents.
“But it didn’t stop the curse.” Lizzy whispered.
Uncle shook his head and sighed. “No. I was too late. The damage was already done.”
I was back at the night I’d found out the news of my parents’ death all over again. The initial belief that I was in a nightmare, followed by the numbing disbelief, the thought that this had to be a huge misunderstanding, and the horrifying realization this was terrifyingly real… and permanent.
My world was crashing to pieces. “You’re saying my parents created Moonrot.” I held Lizzy’s hand like a lifeline even though the buzzing in my ears and deadness in my chest only increased.
“All of the patients I’ve examined have the same magical energy of the curse your parents released.” Uncle watched me carefully.
“And do you have any idea of how to cure it?” Lizzy asked.
“No. Nothing any of the fae healers have done has worked.” He reached out to comfort me. “This is a lot, and I’ll step down from my position as king regent, and you can take the throne.”
I pressed the button so that the soundproof wall between us and the driver retracted. “Pull over.”
Pain showed on my uncle’s face. “Son, please.”
“Pull overnow.”
The limo swerved to the side of the road, and I burst out of the car, walking out into the trees with no idea where I was going.
I heard Lizzy’s voice behind me. “I think we’ll walk into town. It’s not far. We’ll be in touch.” Her feet crunched in the snow. “Darcy… Darcy, stop, you’re going the wrong way.”
I halted and spun toward her. “Lizzy, do you understand? Your father is sick because of what myparents did. He may die because of whatmyparentsdid.” So many years they’d talked about public image and being good enough for the throne, and they’d been the greatest hypocrites of all. Agony slashed through my heart.
“I do understand. But Darcy, that doesn’t make it your fault. Maybe now that we know how it started, we can figure out how to fix it. Come”—she held out a hand—“walk with me. We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
I stared at her offered hand, knowing it meant more than a sign of comfort. For all the times I’d pulled away from Lizzy due to her family, she refused to do the same to me. I didn’t know what to say. Somehow I’d messed things up so badly I’d lost my chances with an angel. I swallowed back the pain and took her hand, letting the warmth, the touch ground me. She led me toward town.
After a few minutes of silence, she said softly, “I wish there was something I could say to help.”
I shook my head. “You being here is enough.”
“How could it be enough after all you’ve done for me? You confronted your uncle even though you knew it might reveal a terrible secret. Throughout everything, you’ve only been thinking about how to help me and my father, no matter the cost to you.”
We continued to move through the trees toward town. With the branches above gently swaying and Lizzy’s constant presence, it restored some level of clarity to my mind and cleared out some of the turmoil.
