I sighed and she released my neck, straightening her blouse. She was right. I reached out and touched the woman’s cheek. It was soft but cold.
“Does that make my mom … royalty?” My mind spun with what this all meant.
Indra frowned. “No. The mother they shared was a garden tender Fae. Dahlia’s father was the Spring prince with royal blood, but your mother’s father was a warrior Fae tasked with guarding the Spring prince. It was a big scandal.”
Damn.
“Why is she sick now?” I remembered the tree branch—the black ashy branches.
Indra shook her head. “Your mother’s energy was helping her, helping the tree, now without it … I don’t think she can hold on for much longer. We need the crystals.”
The queen was alive … this was so huge. “The people don’t know?”
Indra shook her head fiercely. “I love our people, but they cannot be trusted with this. Not while she’s in this state and cannot protect herself. We have no warriors. She could be too easily assassinated and then Faerie would surely fall.”
I hated that what she’d said was right. You just couldn’t trust everyone, and many blamed the royal court for not acting swiftly enough to mitigate the damage to Faerie. Their followers were few and far between in the end.
I stood, brushing my sweaty palms off on my pants. “I’ll find the next crystal and bring it back, no matter what.”
But if she told me one more deep dark secret, I was going to lose my mind.
Indra nodded. “I’m sorry you had to find everything out in this way. Your mother wanted what was best for you … I think she assumed she had time to let you grow into a woman before throwing this at your feet.”
I was sick of hearing that excuse, even though I understood it. I just nodded and walked out of the room, away from the dying tree and back to the blue door.
The biggest thing on my mind right now? Where the fuck was Liam?
When I reached the door, Elle was there, fully suited up. “What’s with the earthquakes?”
I shook my head. I knew I could trust her with anything, but now wasn’t the time to delve into the freaking queen being alive and me being related to her.
“The Tree of Life is dying. We need to get that seventh crystal, stat.”
I reached for the handle and threw the door open. Mara was sitting on her desk, looking right at me.
“Oh good, it’s just you. I thought it might be another Son of Darkness!” she snapped.
I winced as I shoved Elle in the door and slammed it closed. “He came through here?”
She nodded. “Kindly asked me how he could get back to Seattle.”
Elle looked like she was going to have a heart attack. “Holy fuck, he opened the door?”
Exactly my thoughts. “How?”
Mara shook her head. “Isn’t it obvious? It makes so much sense now. Something your mother never could quite figure out. How do they always know where the crystals are, even when they have moved, or we take one?”
A stone sank in my stomach. “No way.”
Mara nodded. “He’s a seeker.”
My soulmate. A fellow seeker and a Dark Fae. The gods must be sitting on their thrones laughing at me. How was this possible?
“Take me to Seattle,” I ordered Mara, clipping into the seat.
If Liam was a seeker, then I was in deeper shit than I previously thought. He would be on to the next crystal and I was way behind.
My only question was: who was he taking them from? Was there another enemy I needed to worry about? His father … who was he exactly?
