“Adara,” she croaked in a voice like rusted nails. “I’d hoped you would stay away.”
“What are you talking about?” I wanted so badly to close the distance between us, to take her too-frail body into my arms and hold her close, but Aolis’s unspoken threat hung in the air behind me. He wouldn’t kill Mother, not when he was using her as a bargaining chip, but he certainly had the power to inflict more pain on her, and she had suffered enough. “I couldn’t stay away. How could you think I would leave you?”
She shook her head, sadness overtaking her features. “I’ve fought my whole life to keep you hidden and safe, so King Aolis wouldn’t be able to use you as a pawn. To see you here in his clutches now, after all I’ve sacrificed…”
She trailed off, and though she looked absolutely wretched, some of the pity I felt for her faded as my anger and frustration found its way to the surface. I knew she’d only been doing what she felt was best for me, but she’d lied about so many things…
“How foolish,” King Aolis scoffed, his tone full of derision. I glanced behind me to see him curling his lip at Mother, looking down at her as though she were a dog unworthy of licking his boots. “You obviously heard about the prophecy, so you must have known this was inevitable—”
“I’ve told you and your minions a thousand times,” Gelsyne snapped, “I knew nothing of a prophecy! Olette begged me with her dying breath that I would keep Adara away from you when she was born. She feared you would kill her once you realized Adara was Daryan’s daughter, and with such strong fire magic, there was no way for us to hide her heritage!”
The words echoed through the room like a slap, and I stared at my mother, rooted to the spot. “D-Daryan?” I stammered, unable to believe what I was hearing. “The dragon prince was my father?”
“Of course he was,” My mother—no,Gelsyne—said wearily. She scraped a manacled hand over her face, trying to collect her thoughts. “Olette had eyes for no one else, and the two of them were mated. The bond between them was so strong that she nearly joined him in the afterlife when he died—a foolish decision on your part, Aolis,” she snapped, her eyes sparking fire as she glared at the king. “The only thing that kept Olette alive was Adara growing inside her. Once she was born, Olette passed within minutes. She barely had a chance to meet her daughter before she died.”
King Aolis flushed. “How was I to know dragon mate bonds were so potent?” he snapped, his tone riddled with anger and embarrassment. “It isn’t as though they’ve ever taken the time to explain their primitive ways to us!”
“Oh please,” Mother said in a scathing tone. “You were too blinded by jealousy and hatred to ask those kinds of questions, and even if you weren’t, it wouldn’t have mattered. Olette was only ever a possession to you. You never loved her, or cared about her happiness. If you had, you would have let her and Daryan live out the rest of their lives in happiness. Instead, you risked the entire future of Ediria by ordering his assassination, and look where we are now!”
I glanced back and forth between them, trying to grasp everything that was being said. My world was tilting on its axis, everything I thought I knew about myself crumbling to dust beneath the crushing truth of the words being hurled back and forth across the room.
My mother was the princess, Olette.
My father was the dragon prince, Daryan.
King Aolis had assassinated my father.
And Gelsyne—who wasnotmy mother—had hidden me away not because of my strange powers…but because I washalf-dragon.
My legs threatened to buckle, and I gripped the table behind me, trying to steady myself. “Adara?” a voice asked, but it sounded so very far away, as if from a lifetime ago.
No, not a lifetime. A life. Another life, that had belonged to another person.
Because the old me, she wasn’t real. She was a lie.
“How could you keep something so important from me?” I asked Mother. Stabbing pain radiated through my chest—the knife of betrayal twisting deep. “Something so vital to my identity? You let me believe my entire life that I was magically incompetent…that I was broken. That my only option was to follow in your footsteps as a healer, and to live my life out in a tiny village where everyone hated me for being different!”
All the repressed anger that I’d shoved back down rose to the surface, burning my eyes and filling my throat until I felt like I was choking on it. My vision blurred, and I blinked tears away as I clenched my hands, impotent rage eating me alive. I wanted to lash out—at Mother, at Aolis, for putting me in such an impossible position. For forcing me into the box I’d lived in my whole life and allowing me to believe I was weak and unworthy.
“I’m sorry,” Mother choked out. Tears streamed down her cheeks unchecked, and there was such a stricken look on her face that some of the anger bled out of me despite my best efforts to hold on to it. “I see now how wrong I was to handle things the way I had. I should have known Aolis would find you eventually, should have prepared you so that you would have been strong enough to hold your own. I was blinded by my fear, and my promise to Olette…” she trailed off, letting out a shuddering breath.
“Well, this is all very touching,” King Aolis drawled, drawing my attention to him, “but as much as we all wish we could have done things differently, the past can’t be changed. And as the situation stands now, the kingdom is only going to continue to be overwhelmed by shadow magic. You are the only one with the power to truly fight back.”
He softened his tone as he looked down at me, but though he looked perfect and magnificent as only a royal fae at the height of his power could, there was no mistaking the inky darkness shifting behind his eyes. Shadow magic, rooted deeply inside of him.
“You are the source of this corruption,” I said quietly. “Do you really think that cleansing the land isn’t going to involve cleansing it of you, too?”
King Aolis gave me a smile. “You’ll find it a little difficult to do that once we’re bound by the marriage covenant,” he said, “which is the only way I’ll agree to perform the ritual on you and unlock your magic. No one else will do it for you, not so long as I rule,” he said when I opened my mouth to protest.
“You evil bastard,” I hissed. “If you had even a shred of decency, you wouldn’t force me to do this.”
“You’ll find that decency is a luxury those in power can ill afford to indulge in.” King Aolis’s smile turned vicious as he spread his hands, as if weighing something on each of his palms. “So, what will it be, Adara? Will you agree to marry me, so you can save your precious ‘mother’ and be a hero to the people? Or will you reject me out of spite, and let the entire kingdom rot for the sake of your pride?”
I stared at him, caught between two impossible choices. To marry him, and enslave my magic to his whims, or remain free at the expense of the kingdom. I knew which choice the hostages would want me to make…but could I really go through with it? And what assurances did I have that King Aolis would keep his word?
Before I could make a decision, the castle walls began to rumble. My breath caught at the sound of explosions outside, followed by distant screams.
“What is that?” King Aolis demanded, striding to one of the floor-length windows. I hurried over to them as well, pressing my nose to them, and my heart leaped in my throat as I caught sight of a cloud zipping around in the sky. There was no mistaking the white-haired youth, or the bolts of lightning arcing from his fingertips as he zapped guards straight off the walls.
