He chuckled quietly. “You know, I’ve never witnessed your kind before, not in all my years. But I’ve heard the stories that were told among the higher orders and the seers. Beings of balance. Light and shadow in one vessel.” He tilted his head, eyes narrowing slightly. “But I never believed it was real.”
Lucy frowned. “What exactly have you heard?”
“That your kind were the ones who stood between realms when the first wars began,” he said, stepping closer. “The only ones who could bridge the energy of heaven and hell without burning alive. You shouldn’t exist and yet here you stand.”
Lucy let out a small breath, unsure whether to laugh or be afraid. “And what does that make me? A miracle or a mistake?”
Jared’s lips curved faintly. “Maybe both. But that’s what makes you dangerous. Power like yours doesn’t follow rules.”
“Neither do I,” she said quietly.
Their eyes held for a moment a silent exchange of understanding. There was no threat between them, only curiosity, and something like respect.
Jared nodded toward her hands. “When you forged that weapon earlier, you didn’t summon it, did you? It just came to you.”
Lucy nodded slowly. “It did. It was instinct. Like I didn’t need to think, I just… reacted.”
He smiled. “That’s what they used to callsoul magic.The rarest kind. Power that answers emotion. It’s beautiful.”
For a while, neither of them spoke. The silence between them wasn’t awkward. It was full of thought and unspoken things.
A loud moan broke the quiet.
Davina. They both entered the room Davina was laying in, she was stirring, her fingers twitching. Her eyes opened but the confusion they displayed, you could tell she was disorientated. Her body convulsed, every muscle tense. She clutched her head and screamed as flashes of her past assaulted her, images, faces,pain. The lights flickered once more, reacting to the flood of emotion.
Lucy reached forward but Jared raised a hand. “Don’t touch her. Her memories are overwhelming her, I’ll try my hardest to slow them down.”
He placed his palm over her forehead and whispered softly, his voice steady and rhythmic. Gradually, Davina’s thrashing eased. Her breathing slowed. The lights steadied.
When it was over, she lay still for a long while, chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. Then, slowly, she sat up and looked around the room. Her eyes locked onto Lucy’s first.
Without a word, she threw her arms around her. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “You freed me.”
Lucy hugged her back gently, tears stinging her eyes though she didn’t fully understand why.
Davina pulled away and looked at each of them in turn. “I remember everything,” she said, her voice trembling but sure. “All of it.”
She took a deep breath and spoke. “I am Dark Fae.”
Corey shifted in his seat but didn’t move closer. Davina noticed, her gaze softened. “Not evil,” she said quickly. “I use dark magic, yes, but it isn’t what you think. I’ve never hurt anyone.”
Barnaby leaned forward, curiosity overcoming fear. “Then why were you… subdued?”
Davina’s expression broke. “Because I loved someone I shouldn’t have.”
The words came in a torrent, each one heavier than the last.
“I was engaged to the Dark King. I didn’t want it. It was forced. I tried to run, they found me. I tried to kill myself; they revived me, force fed me when I refused to eat and, in the end, I was chained and kept like a pet. I fell in love with one of his guards, the only man who ever showed me kindness. We tried to escape together. and I should have known better.”
Her voice cracked. “He killed him in front of me. Made me stay with his body for months, trapped in the same cell. He clipped my wings.”
Silence.
Even Jared’s expression faltered.
“He cursed me,” she continued, tears spilling freely now. “Said I would never love again that every man who touched me would turn cold, that I would live among humans, powerless, forgetting who I truly am.”
She looked at Corey, “And I did forget. For ten years. Until you. You made me feel something again, something that broke the curse just enough for the voice to notice. Every time I got happy, it whispered that I was worthless. That no one could ever love me. I pushed you away because I thought it was true.”
