She sobers, glancing to the curtain that hides us. I hear my father call for me, most likely to boost more. My accomplishments are his accomplishments and he never wastes a moment to enjoy them.
“We’ll do this, right?” she asks, warily. “Everything will work out?”
“With you at my side, we can do anything.”
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
MAX
Ispend the next two days in Kaden’s arms, pretending the outside world doesn’t exist, that we met under different circumstances, that we are just two individuals finding themselves in love. But alas, it doesn’t last and he leaves before daybreak on the third day to make the dangerous trek into Griffin’s territory.
My heart feels his absence immediately. The claim might twine our lives together, but it’s the Heartbond—my other half—that’s missing from my soul now and it aches, fiercely.
We were always meant to be, it seems.
Oslo collects me, the Hadeon on my heels. He’s spent his time hunting the grounds, eating birds and other wildlife. Whenever I feel lost, he’s there, a steady presence in the dark.
I’m not sure why he was given to me, but I take it as a sign that the Gods are with me. I’ll need it.
Like our previous mediations, he leads me to the garden, gesturing for me to sit on the hot sand. Dressed in training leathers, I cross my legs and wait for his instructions.
Before it was imaging myself opening a door on a glass lid.Another time, pouring from a chalice into the abyss. I wonder what today will be and how I will fail this time.
“Let me tell you a story, my dear,” he begins kindly, sitting before me. He may be dressed as a general, but he looks relaxed as the dry air blows the red haze overhead. “One I think you might find interesting. Perhaps even relate to it.”
I stay silent but raise a brow. A story? No meditation?
It’s odd, but really, the general is… unusual. He doesn’t yell, keeps his words soft, never puts me on edge. If not for the many metals on his uniform, I would think him a simple librarian than a man who has fought in hard battles.
“Once, there was a powerful Fairy, beautiful but wicked, who fell in love with another. This Fairy was strong and brave, but he was promised to another. Broken hearted, she cursed him, turned him into a mindless monster, who in a fit, killed his true love.”
A hand falls to my lips, and my eyes widen in shock. Fairies were the ancestors of Fae. They had wings and could fly, but their children, the Fae could not. There were limited myths surrounding them.
“Do I have your attention now?” I nod, and he continues, “That’s not where the story ends, though, because as the Evil Fairy was casting her curse, something that took many months to make, the male Fairy, impregnated his love. And she bore him a child before she was killed.
“That child grew and when they came of age, started showing signs of the monster awakening within them.” Realization settles over my shoulder like an old cloak.
“This is the story of how the royal family was cursed, isn’t it?” I ask, mouth dry. “Everyone born was cursed.”
“Only the firstborn.” He holds up one finger. “My family learned to always have two children by the same couple. The first is for the curse, the second is for the throne. When I gained control over my beast, harnessing him into chains so I could remain me, my father had already given the throne to Zelos. I was thought to beexpandable.” He shrugs, sword adjusting on his hip. He doesn’t seem bothered by the casual dismissal of his birth. “Instead, I became the general and a testament to what proper training could do for others with the same affliction.”
Licking my lips, I glance around the gardens, my protector in the shade of the castle walls. “Like Kaden?”
“Zelos trained Fee from an early age to take the throne. Lessons, meetings, obstacles. It was customary for the second born to be the next heir. He had little hope for Kaden even though I learned to handle the curse and petitioned to teach him. Unfortunately, there has never been much love between them.”
“But you were able to train him. Taught him to control the beast.”
He nods, smiling softly. “I did. It took many years, but he was a quick study. He learned it faster than I did. He was so fast indeed, that Zelos did not have time to name Fee as his successor—something that happens on a Fae’s one-hundredth birthday. So Kaden, by birthright, was given that honor. He had to earn it—” Oslo looks away, clearing his throat. “But he prevailed. It’s how we find ourselves here, today.”
Tilting my head, I regard the general and frown. “Alright. And what does this have to do with me?”
“It has to do with you and with your prophecy, actually.” Grabbing a blue parrot tulip, he lays the petals out, fanning against the red sand. The purple it creates is beautiful but morbid. “The correct prophecy translates to:
‘The cursed beast will meet its destruction,
not from flames or ice, nor war or pestilence,
