“You left me alone for decades in a strange world,” I said. “Without any answers. Not once did you come to check on me.”
“Kane. I—”
“I don’t care to hear your excuses, Mother.” The words felt like ash in my mouth.I dropped my gaze to her hands, slick with blood. “Why is there blood on your hands? What has happened?”
She didn’t answer. Of course she didn’t. She never had.
Tallis stepped in, a fae I used to trust with my life,histone firmwhen he said,“The king has been attacked. You need to go to your father’s chambers. Right now. He doesn’t have much time left.”
I didn’t waste any breath responding. They didn't deserve it.
Spinning away, I raced toward the raised wall, shadows shifting into claws from my fingers. With a powerful leap, I embedded them into the stone and began climbing toward the castle.
Toward the man who had made me.
Toward the throne I never asked for.
And away from the woman who’d left me behind.
Everything after finding my father, stabbed and dying in hischambers, blurred inside my head, except key parts, which I did not want to re-think about now.
Kane. What troubles you?
Axelia wasn’t in sight, but her soothing voice found me.
Thinking about the past.
I’m coming to you.
The sunflowers reached for me, and I extended a hand, brushing my fingers along their soft petals. A joyish warmth flooded me before I continued on toward the only place that had ever truly felt like mine.
For years, I’d avoided the Dryad Realm, afraid to lose time again. But when the magi sealed the Rift into the Never, the temporal imbalance had healed.
Axelia came to the royal courtyard herself to tell me:It’s safe to visit.If you want to.
Now, time here moved only slightly differently. An hour, maybe two. Never forty years again.
The Dryad Realm was where I came so I wouldn't be bothered or bugged or questioned, and I could just sit with my thoughts.
Lush vegetation crowded the forest floor, humming with unseen life. Some of the plants could speak; others only shimmered with emotion. Their magic was quieter than most fae would bother to notice. But I always did.
I climbed the hill where Axelia had built my home, the silent river below gleaming like twilight. My cottage had grown from the bark of an old tree that welcomed me each time I returned. One window overlooked the forest. Vines curled around the wooden frame.
Stepping through the open doorway, a sense of longing filled my chest. Everything had remained untouched: the viny table with chairs, the corner table where various tools and bowls sat among jars packed with mushrooms, different jellies, and nut butter.
I sank onto the mossy bed in the corner and stared out at the forest beyond.
Axelia appeared in the doorway.
The dryads were unlike any other race, their bodies almost like living bark. Her long green hair covered her naked form, which was comprised of patterns of bark and vines. Her skin was the rich color of olives. She was slender and tall, like one of the city elves, and I wondered if at one time the dryads were elves.
Ducking as she entered the home, she gradually moved toward me. She sat on the moss, her greenish skin almost swimming with life, and placed a hand on my leg.
Speaking to me with her mind, she asked,What has happened?
I brought the human to the castle, killed her husband in the process, and when I thought the unicorn would kill her, it not only blessed her, but seemed to bond with her. Once the priests find out, the wedding will happen immediately.
Why is this bad?
