“I’m sorry for killing your mother,” he finally spoke. “Not a day goes by that I don’t look at your face and see her. I wish I could change it, but I can’t. If I had to do it all over again, I would. My family is the most important thing to me in the world.”
Tears ran down my cheeks.
What a juxtaposition. My family was the most important thing to me, too. I understood him. But in order to protect his family… mine had to die.
I wanted to burst from this room and take flight, flying far, far away from here.
Where did we go now? We’d both apologized, but nothing felt better. It felt broken with no glue in sight.
“Why are you here?” he asked finally.
“We have three crystals. Two of them, thanks to you. I can’t do this without you and your men. I’d like to formally invite you and your men, your brothers, to come stay in Faerie. You will be safe there. Your brothers can have the regenerating abilities of the crystals, and we can hunt for the rest. Together.”
Silence.
“I’ve already had the fae start to build you all a village across the river, so you could have your own space and come and go as you please,” I added.
He said nothing.
“Your mother could also move back in with Mara, and she would be safe.” I was rambling. This was me begging, and he knew it.
He was silent for a long moment before he sighed. “I’ll think about it.”
That was fair. “If you decide not to, you can keep the second crystal you brought us. Just let me know, and I’ll get it back to you.”
Turning, he finally faced me, and there was so much emotion swimming in his eyes it nearly brought me to my knees. “If you took my mother from me, even in self-defense, I would never be able to look at you again,” he said. “How can you look at me?”
I realized, this entire time, that he hadn’t faced the wall because he was so mad at me thathecouldn’t look atme. He’d done it to sparemefrom any pain from looking at him.
Fresh, hot tears rolled down my face. “Because before I knew you took her from me, I fell in love with you, and I guess love is stronger than hate.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and one single tear rolled down his cheek before he wiped it away and turned back around to face the wall. “I’ll send you my answer in the morning.” His voice was full of emotion.
Reaching out, I squeezed his ankle lightly. “I don’t know where we go from here… you and I, but maybe we can just start over. It won’t be perfect, but if we work at it every day, it will be something new, something we create together.”
Without waiting for a reply, I got up and left the room. Love was messy and hard and, at times, ugly, but I was learning that just maybe… love was enough. Because being near Liam again had made me feel at home. He was my family now, and we had to find a way to fix what was broken.
Together.
The next morning,I chugged my second cup of coffee and tapped a nervous rhythm on the dining table. Trissa, Elle, and Kira all sat around the table, staring at me. After leaving the Vegas hotel, Elle and I had gotten drunk on the Vegas Strip and come back here where I rambled to all my roommates about how I still loved Liam and hoped he’d pick me. Shitty thing about being fae was that the alcohol didn’t last long, and soon I was just sober and spilling my guts, which was less fun.
“Think they’ll want to help us again?” I asked, holding my cup.
Trissa set down her coffee. “I hope so, but if not, we will go city to city and put out feelers the old-fashioned way. Your mother and I did it for twenty years.”
I nodded. “But I’m not sure we have that long. There could be a dark attack from the forest at any moment, and with the king turning the crystals dark… I need Liam.”
I couldn’t touch the dark crystals; only he could. Maybe if I brought a jar of the healing water and threw it over the crystal before grabbing it, that would work—
There was a knock at the door.
I jumped up so quickly that my coffee sloshed all over the table. Getting to my feet, I hurried for the door. I’d sent Mara to Vegas early this morning to await word and now…
Pulling the door open, I felt my heart flip over when I saw Liam standing there, leaning against a crutch to help steady himself.
But his family wasn’t behind him, neither were his men. He’d come alone.
Oh, gods, please don’t let this be goodbye.
