Cassius’s voice is quieter now. “The fae you chose. The one you want dead.” His gaze holds mine. “Why them?”
The room feels smaller.
Sylvian leans forward slightly, his usual teasing gone. “You never told us.”
Oberon’s voice is low, steady. “You don’t ask for a life without a reason.”
My chest tightens. I could lie. I could brush it off. But I don’t. I don’t want to.
The memory is already there, clawing its way up.
Closing my eyes, I try to ignore the flashing images that appear behind my eyelids. I feel the men drawing closer, andtheir presence, for some reason, calms something inside of me. Makes it easier to speak.
“I was six,” I start, and my voice is paper. “My mother and I were foraging near the edge of the forest. We weren’t supposed to go so close to the fae border, but she said the best mushrooms grew there. She was right, but I didn’t care. I was just a kid. I decided it’d be more fun to hide in the bushes and see if my mom could find me.”
Something found my mom instead.
I force the rest out. “A fae man appeared through the veil. She barely had time to scream before he sent his bare hand through her chest and ate her heart. Right in front of me. I could hear it, even when I covered my ears. I tried not to look, but I saw everything. The way his face smeared with her blood. The way her face never changed. The way my mother’s smiling face went from alive and healthy, to horrific pain, to nothing.”
Taking a shaky breath, I continue, “I waited until it was dark, until I was sure he was gone, and then I went home. My life was changed forever by a monstrous fae. They buried what was left of her, but the rest of my life, every time I close my eyes, I see it.”
The silence after my story is thicker than the stone that surrounds us. My eyes burn, but I don’t want to cry in front of them. I rub my face hard, trying to rub away the urge to sob.
“It’s okay though. I’m fine,” I say. “It was a long time ago.”
Sylvian’s voice is rough. “You’re not fine. No one would be fine after that.”
Ashton is staring at the floor, fists clenched. “Do you remember what he looked like?”
I shake my head. “It was dark. Just… tall, and the eyes. Blue. Brighter than the sky.”
Oberon says, “There’s a fae who does that. Eats hearts. He’s not right in the head. The other courts exiled him, but he wanders, sometimes, near the border.”
Cassius nods. “Jarrah.”
The name lands like a hammer.
“Is that him?” I whisper.
Oberon’s jaw tightens. “Probably. He’s been at it for centuries. He’s never gotten caught, because he’s too smart. He likes it, the hunt.”
I close my hands into fists. “I’ll kill him when this is done. I don’t care what happens after.”
There’s a pulse in the room, a shared current of violence. The men are all bristling, but it isn’t at me.
Sylvian says, “We’ll help you. All of us.”
Cassius adds, “He’ll die screaming.”
Ashton leans in, eyes fierce. “He won’t ever hurt you again.”
I can’t speak, not at first. The warmth in my chest is so sharp it’s almost painful.
“You don’t have to—” I try.
Oberon squeezes my shoulder. “We want to.”
It’s the first time in my life I believe it, that I’m not alone with the old nightmare. That someone else wants vengeance as much as I do. And it feels good. Better.
