I gasped at that. Marissa Bane, queen of The Gilded City? I could think of nothing more horrifying.
“I carry the monarch’s power.” Solana peeled down the high neck of her dress to show me a glowing red amulet at her throat. “It’s an amplifier of sorts to my magic. The next person in line would get this amulet. If it went to Marissa, she might conceivably be able to amplify her power to breathe life into herpeople permanently. I don’t know if she has that power, but my sources say that she is confident she can do it if made queen, which tells me she does.”
I shivered at that. “What does that have to do with me?”
She sighed. “I went to The Academy with a particularly talented fae who could glimpse the future. She told of an upcoming Nightling war with the people of The Gilded City.”
I remembered her saying something similar the first day I’d regained consciousness in that cell.
“You think Marissa is starting that war now? To try to become queen?”
Solana nodded. “I do. To get this.” She tapped her chest. “So that she can give her people new bodies.”
I frowned. “Why now? Why not ten years ago or five?”
Solana peered at me quizzically, as if wondering how much to tell me. “Because of you. She didn’t have you, didn’t know of your whereabouts until now, didn’t even know if you were alive. Now she’s emboldened.”
“Why does it matter that I’m alive or that she knows where I am?”
Solana laced her hands over her knees. “Royal law states a monarch cannot rule without at least one blood heir, better if you have two.”
She tapped the amulet again. “You place one drop of the reigning monarch’s blood inside and another drop of the heir’s. Only then does it activate. The nine original families encoded it with their blood eons ago. The magic inside would recognize Marissa as a Bane and then you. It would give her all the power of a queen and then some. I imagine this is how she will do it. She must have some type of magic that would give her people permanent bodies once the locket is activated.”
Well, fae.Dread crept up my body from my feet to my chest, settling there like a heavy stone. That was not good but also made a lot of sense.
You belong with me.It was one of the first things Marissa said to me. She didn’t want me. She wanted my blood, my heir status. I’d stupidly held out a bit of hope that she might actually want a relationship with me. Lost to the darkness or not, it was a nice thought that my own mother might want to get to know me.
My face must have betrayed my sadness because the queen reached out and patted my gloved hand. “That is the reason she cursed me to never have children and that my heir would die if I harmed you. She was ensuring that my line would die out, especially if I tried to take hers.”
That was awful. It made my heart break to hear such a thing. Solana pulled her hand back and then looked down at her lap. “Fallon… It’s also the reason I cursed you in her belly. To feel pain when touched. So that you could never fall in love, never have children.”
I gasped, choking on the pure shock that rushed through me at her admission. Solana. It was Solana? Tears rushed to fill my eyes as my heart shattered, but the anger chased them away like a thief in the night.
“Youdid this to me?” I stood, and Yanric materialized in the room, a rush of shadows transforming to feathers and perching on my shoulder.
Solana didn’t look up, just stared at her clasped hands, seemingly in shame.
“I was an innocent child!” I screamed, no longer caring if she liked me or I wasn’t following protocol. I wanted to kill her.
“I’ve never truly hugged my own father. I… I can’t believe you did this.” I stumbled backward, still processing it all. All these years, I envisioned a monster had cursed me. An evil man with acold heart who hated children. I’d assumed it was Ariyon’s father and that he must have been a cruel king.
‘I will peck her heart out from her chest and feed it to the pigs in the stables,’Yanric declared, and for the first time, I wanted to give him the okay to do such a thing.
“Look at me,” I growled at her, knowing in that moment that if I had my magic, I would burn her alive. “You ruined my life. The least you can do is meet my eyes.”
She took a shuddering breath then, tipping her chin up to meet my gaze, and it was like I had been socked in the stomach.
Silent tears streamed down her cheeks, flowing freely as her nostrils flared and she fought to keep composure. Her bottom lip shook as she seemingly forced down a sob. She stood, facing me. “I thought you would be like her. Evil. Unforgivable. Lost to the darkness. I wanted to stop her from spreading her evil.”
“I’m not evil!” I screamed, advancing on her. I was grateful I didn’t have my power right then. I could have burned the entire realm to the ground with the rage I felt.
She swallowed hard but didn’t back up. Instead, she tipped her chin high and awaited whatever I was about to dish out.
I said nothing. I couldn’t speak, my words lost in a sea of pain and betrayal. “I’m supposed to bow to you? You’re supposed to be my leader? My queen? My protector? You’re my nightmare!” I declared.
Her bottom lip still shook, but she grit her teeth and held my gaze, blinking to shed the tears that kept coming. “Fallon.” Her voice held a sorrow that I didn’t think she was worthy of having. I was the one who had every right to be sad, not her! “Your mother is the reason I will never have children. Never know what it’s like to be called mama. Never kiss the forehead of my newborn babe.”
I crossed my arms. “And that’smyfault?Marissacursed you. Not me!”
