Hippolyta smirked. “Hardly. She tricked Mariaat into a bargain that allowed her to chooseanywarrior from his delegation as her advisor. She chose me because I was the smallest, the most pathetic-looking, and she wanted to get a rise out of Mariaat. But we quickly discovered how much we had in common…” Hippolyta trailed off wistfully and I fought down my burning curiosity, not wanting to be rude.
“Oberon mentioned some tension between the Pallasian Court and the Arden…” I said after a moment of silence. “Is that why?”
“Yes,” Hippolyta laughed. “Mariaat never got over the fact that she was able to outsmart him, even after he took the throne. And you can imagine how much worse it got when Oberon abandoned him for Titania too.” Her smile was soft and pleasant, without a trace of bitterness, so I swallowed hard and tried to ask the question I had balanced on the tip of my tongue.
“But…you and Titania…”
Hippolyta gave me a knowing look. “Oberon and I certainly had our differences,” she said, “especially at first, but Titania chose us both, and then the Arden chose him to sit on a throne beside her.”
“Why not you?” I asked quietly, no longer caring if my questions were too direct.
“I never wanted a throne,” Hippolyta said with a shrug. “All I ever wanted was her, and Oberon understood. For a long time, the three of us had our own little version of a family, and the day your mother was born was…the happiest…”
“He told me the story,” I muttered, “but…he left you out of it.”
“Oh, I don’t blame him. We haven’t exactly been on good terms all these years, and you were probably overwhelmed enough as it was. I am just glad that—” She stopped walking and turned to face me, her hand drifting up to my arm. “I am just glad to know that you lived, and grew up somewhere safe and peaceful. None of this waseveryour fault, Marina, and I would ask you to remember that…when you speak with Titania.” She turned, and I looked past her into the trees. Barely visible through the gloom and the close-set trunks were a pair of delicate yellow wings.
Fear and apprehension gripped me by the throat as Hippolyta moved forward again. When I could finally make out Titania’s figure, sitting on the low-slung branch of live oak, we stopped, and Hippolyta motioned for me to stay while she continued. Shadows twisted and tightened around my hands while I waited, running through all the things I could say. None of them were right. None of them were enough.
Titania turned as the commander put a hand on the small of her back. They spoke together in hushed tones for a moment, using the fay language, then Titania’s amber eyes shifted onto me for only a split second before looking away. Finally, she said something that made Hippolyta smile and touch her cheek tenderly. By the time Hippolyta beckoned me forward, I felt as though I might fall to pieces there on the forest floor. My knees weakened as I walked, and nearly gave out when Titania did not turn to face me. Her beautiful, yellow wings drooped behind her, brushing the ground, and she wore a simple, white chiton, belted around the waist with thin, green vines.
“Thank you for…agreeing to speak with me, my lady,” I said, automatically dropping into a low curtsey.
“What is it you want?” Titania asked sharply.
“I…I am here to…” The words failed, dissolving into an oozing pit of hot anger in my belly. “I want you to look at me.”
A breathy laugh left Titania and she shook her head. “I looked at you not three weeks ago.”
“And did you suppose that would be the last time?”
“I hoped it would be, yes,” Titania hissed, and Hippolyta put a hand on her knee. I clenched my fists and planted my feet, unwilling to tuck my tail between my legs and crawl away defeated.
“I am not leaving here until you speak to me civilly,” I told her.
“And what exactly do you consider to be civil, Marina of Locksley?” Titania asked as she pushed herself off the branch and dropped to the forest floor, still facing Hippolyta, who now watched me closely from the corner of her eye.
“Treat me like a gods-damned human being!” I cried without thinking. In a split second, Titania had somehow moved around the branch and was only inches from my face, her amber eyes now engulfed in burning orange, flames shooting from her hands. I stumbled backwards, blinded, and slammed into a tree trunk.
“Have you not heard how I treat human beings?” she snarled, showing a pair of deadly fangs. “Have you not been told how I pull them apart at the seams and use their limbs to decorate my forest? How I delight in their screams and paint my body with their blood?”
I turned away and squeezed my eyes shut, trembling from head to toe. But Hippolyta was there quickly, moving between us, arms wrapping around Titania to pull her away. Terrified as I was, the fury inside me exploded in a burst of jagged shadows.
“Then treat me as your flesh and blood, for that is what I am!” I screamed. “Whether or not you accept it,I amyour daughter’s daughter, and I would have you look at me! You owe me that much!”
The flames in Titania’s hands flickered, then went out as she took in the sight of my power. “Shadowspinner,” she whispered. “You have inheritedhispower, then.”
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth, allowing more of my magyk to spill out. “But I think I have inherited your anger, my lady, and the only way to quell it is for you to speak to me.”
She still would not look at me, but finally rasped, “If I do as you ask, will you go?”
“Yes, I will go,” I said, battling the lump in my throat.
With Hippolyta’s hand on her back, Titania walked toward me slowly, eyes pinned to the ground. I tried to steady my breathing, but the closer she got, the easier it was for me to see how alike we were. Her hair, her nose, the shape of her lips—they were all mine. By the time she stopped, only a few feet away, there were tears rolling down my face, but I didn’t dare move a muscle to rid myself of them. Shaking her head slowly back and forth, as if battling herself, Titania lifted her eyes to meet mine. Their brilliant amber color burned into me, but it was her own tears that almost caused my knees to buckle again. I stayed perfectly still as she lifted a hand and brushed it over my cheek.
“Oh, beautiful girl,” she murmured. “You are hers…but you are not her.”
“And I would never try to be.” I choked out the words between sobs. “But do I not still deserve a-a family?”
