What does my father look like?
They readily showed me an image of him. He had blond hair, like my sister, and a mouth shaped like mine.
Tears threatened to form in my eyes. I had a real blood family.Thank you, I said to all of them.
The semelees bowed as one.Yes, my queen.
I shot back through the galaxy and came awake upon Jax’s bed. A smile danced upon my lips, and I couldn’t wait to tell him about it.
I didn’t have to wait long. Jax stepped over the threshold into his chambers a short while later, looking as irritated and angry as I’d felt initially arriving here.
“Gods, they’reimpossible,” he groaned.
Laughing, I launched myself at him and wrapped my arms around his neck. I kissed him frantically, excitedly, my energy so exuberant that he instantly started laughing too.
“I take it that you had a better evening than me?” he said, chuckling between my kisses.
“No, not at all. Your mother was absolutely horrendous to me, but I don’t even care anymore because I have the most exciting news.”
I quickly told him what the semelees had revealed to me, and his eyes grew wider with every sentence I shared.
“And not only do I have a father, but I have a sister too, and her name’s Lorasbelle. She and my father still live in Ironcrest Kingdom, and they’ll be at the ball next week. I can go there, and I can meet them. I have a family, Jax, a truefamily!”
A wide grin burst across his face. He whooped and picked me up, spinning me around the room until I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe.
Finally setting me down, he cupped my cheeks and kissed me soundly. “Then next week we’ll be at the ball, my love. We’ll attend Ironcrest’s Ball together, and you’re finally going to meet them.”
CHAPTER 32
It felt as though a thousand dancing butterflies were flapping in my stomach. The carriage we rode in had all of the windows open, and music from the outdoor Ironcrest Ball carried to us on the country lane.
Ahead of us, many fae were also arriving, since it was the first official day of the ball. A whole line of carriages traveled on the narrow road as fae from all of the kingdoms ventured here for the huge Ironcrest Ball that took place every hundred summers after the Centennial Matches.
The supreme winner of the Matches, a fairy from Mistvale, would also be in attendance. She was to be awarded a noble title on the last day of the celebrations, and all of the other Match competitors would likely be wearing their medals and posing for many portraits in the coming days.
A part of me mourned that I hadn’t been able to see any of the actual Matches since I’d been on the Isle of Song in my first reality and then imprisoned and under the effect of potions in my second, but I figured in another hundred summers, I could actually attend the next one.
Jax slipped an arm around my waist as we drew closer to the ball. Our carriage rolled along, slowing as the area to depart from one’s ride grew closer. This far south, the heat pressed in on all sides, making my gown stick to my lower back. A burst of cool air abruptly filled the carriage, and I shot a grateful look at my mate. His air element chilled the breeze, soothing my heated frame, while a small smile curved his lips.
“You look as though you’re about to jump out of your skin,” Jax said with a smile in his voice.
Bowan laughed. He sat beside the prince and wore Stonewild colors, just like all of us did.
“Don’t worry, El.” Trivan clapped me on the back. “Surely tonight will go fine. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? Your sister or father tells you that they want nothing to do with you? Totally won’t occur.”
Jax cut our friend a sharp glare, and Phillen rolled his eyes. Even Saramel made a face at Trivan while Cassim jostled on her knee.
“Subtle. Real subtle,” Lander said in a bland voice.
“I’m joking. She knows I’m joking, right, El?” A moment of guilt stole over Trivan’s face, and I didn’t have the heart to chastise him.
“Even if they don’t want me in their lives, at least we’ll have met.” I smoothed my cobalt-blue gown and tried not to think about that or the fact that the king and queen of Stonewild Kingdom followed in the carriage behind us.
It was only Jax threatening to reveal Bastian’s lineage to all of Stonewild that had made his parents finally back off on their attempts to get rid of me. Still, the past week had been tense, to say the least.
My relationship with his parents probably also hadn’t been helped by the fact that Jax had paraded me before all of the kingdom as often as he could—at every meal, at every outing, at every noble event in the past week. He’d told anyone who would listen that I was not only his mate but his upcoming bride, and he’d further declared that if his parents didn’t like it, then he would choose abdication versus taking the crown.
I sighed. It’d definitely been a tense week.
