I was told she’d died during childbirth from complications she knew were a risk, that her lover—my suspected father—had also passed. Before she died, she’d arranged for me to be hidden as a precaution, knowing how cruel the Ferie Realm, specifically Hallow Land, could be to orphans. Told that I was hunted down and nearly executed by the Skell King’s men because it was forbidden for Ferie kind to live among humans.
That’s what they’d told me—what David had said.
Lies. It was all lies.
I clutched the paper to my chest, knees cracking as I collapsed to the floor.
It was breaking—myheartwas breaking.
The next sob nearly shattered the windows. The panes started to rattle. Lights flickered.
Then, David burst through the door, heaving. His eyes were storming, sword sparking as he searched the room for the source of my pain, for the enemy who had me in a chokehold. He didn’t realize that the source was him.
I rocked, back and forth, holding up the damning letter.
“How.” I gasped for air. “Could.” More tears poured. “You.”
The paleness of death swept over his features.
“Carwynn,” his voice broke, like the fractured organ in my chest. “I—I’m?—”
He cautiously walked over, dropping down to his knees beside me, eyes teary. He reached out a hand.
“Don’t!” I—the darkness inside spat. “Don’t touch me!”
A hand covered his mouth as he held back his own sob. But it didn’t halt the tears that fell.
My skin prickled with ice and my breathing slowed, steadying.
“She was—” I drew in a shaky breath. “She was the Hallow Land Queen—theSkellQueen.”
I gazed out the window, trying to remember what light looked like. But the room had dimmed and my soul was withering.
“He murdered her,” I whispered, throat thickening.
“Yes.” He used the back of his hand to wipe his eyes. “Quietus tea. An incurable poison. She loved you so much, Carwynn.” His voice wavered. “The Skell King is pure evil. Cruel. So she sent you away to the Human Realm—to protect you. But he killed her for it.”
A truth.
It took breaking me to finally hear a truth.
I had felt the darkness in me since I was a child. The whispers, the anger. Was that fromhim? From a monster?
“The Skell King had me hunted. Tried tokillme.” My fists clenched in my lap. “Is he—ishemy father?”
David’s face pulled tight and hardened.
“No.”
There was an unwavering strength in his tone.
“You are nothing like him. Willneverbe anything like him. Your mother made sure of that.” David’s eyes darted away. “She took lovers. The Skell King demanded an heir, so your mother did everything in her power to make sure you wouldn’t be his.”
How would I know if this was another lie? How could he be so sure that the darkness within me wasn’t the cruel King’s blood?
“I only wanted to protect you,” David said softly, his eyes silently pleading.
My entire life I’d felt like an outsider, living in a world where I had to wear a mask.
