Just then, Maya returns with her son and sits on a chair by the fire, adjusting Maxwell and her tunic. The little boy fusses for a short while and then starts to drink.
The attention goes back to Sebastian, and despite everything between us, something in me aches for him in this moment.
“Isla cleverly got the information out of her mother. That diary is damning. I could hardly believe it myself. For years, I detested the shifterfae. All this time, it was Tarro. He sat at our table. He was my father’s friend.”
“Why did he do it?”
“He feared that if my parents fostered relationships between the fae species, he would become irrelevant,” Sebastian says. His voice is flat. “Tarro believed the shadowfae would lose their identity if that happened. He didn’t want peace. He wanted power, and he was willing to destroy everything, including my parents, to keep it.”
“Kakara’s cat,” Damon mutters under his breath.
“It was easy to plant the seed,” Sebastian continues. “Tarro put lies into my uncle’s head, and next thing, the finger was pointed at the shifterfae. There was already bad blood between our species. My uncle ran with it, and an entire kingdom believed the lie.” He pulls in a breath and lets it out slowly. “Including me. To think that I was getting ready to wage a war against them when Snow took over. How stupid and short-sighted of me.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” I say before I can stop myself.
“You were young and naïve. We all were,” Damon says, but Sebastian keeps his eye on me, so I look down at the table.
“The shifterfae declared their innocence right from the start,” Orion says. “But no one believed them.”
“I know.” Sebastian holds his gaze. “They were right about all of it.”
“So Salvorne has not been found, then?” Damon asks.
“No,” Sebastian says. “His sister Kilara rules in his stead.” He pauses, his eyes moving to me for the briefest moment before moving back to Damon.
Sebastian leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. He looks at Damon, then at Orion, and something changes in his expression. The mask he wears, the one I’ve seen him put on a hundred times, loosens.
“There’s something I need to say to the two of you,” he begins.
Damon nods once, as does Orion.
“The fae have always been divided. It is how Snow conquered us. We were too busy looking down on each other to see the real threat coming.” He pauses. “The shadowfae are…” He laughs, but it’s humorless. “We’re an arrogant bunch. We’ve always thought ourselves above the rest. We’ve seen ourselves as superior.” His voice roughens. “I have been the worst. I’ve always been arrogant and conceited. I believed my court, my kind, sat at the top of a hierarchy. That every other fae species was below us.”
Orion’s jaw tightens, and Damon sits back in his chair, his gaze hard and focused on Sebastian.
“I was wrong,” he says simply. “About all of it. About the shifterfae. About the way I treated others. About the assumptions I carried.” He meets Damon’s eyes, then Orion’s. “I hope, in time, to build a friendship with each of you. A real one. Not born of politics or desperation, but of respect. I hope we can work together, because I know now that it is the only way forward. I have changed, and I hope you will forgive me my ignorance.”
He says it quietly, with no performance in it. Just a man who has swallowed his pride and let the truth come through.
For a moment, just a moment, something in me weakens. I see the Sebastian I once thought he could be. The one who held me. The one whose broken soul, in those quiet moments, reached for mine.
No. He can say all the right things to Damon and Orion. He can humble himself before kings. But I can’t forget how he hurt me, how I’m sure he’ll hurt me again if given half the chance.
There is no future for us. I know that now with a certainty that sits like cold iron in my chest.
Damon speaks first. “I appreciate your words, Sebastian. And your honesty.” He stands and extends his hand across the table. “It takes courage to say what you just said. I accept your apology.”
Sebastian rises and takes his hand. They shake and then let go just as Orion pushes to his feet as well.
“I second what Damon said.” His deep voice fills the room. “We’ve all made mistakes. What matters is what we do next.”
He takes Sebastian’s hand, shakes it once, and then pulls him in for a hug that lasts all of a second or two, ending with a soft thump on the back. Orion releases him and steps away, clearing his throat as if the gesture surprised him as much as it did Sebastian.
“I’m sure the others will feel the same,” Orion says. “Both Xander and Kian.”
“That’s good to know.” Sebastian nods.
“There is much work to be done,” Damon says.
