And in the next breath, we weregone.
Chapter Five
Réalta Avermont
“What do you mean you attacked Solace?” I sprang from my seat, the legs of the chair screeching across the glossy marble floor. Leaning forward, I placed my palms on the smooth mahogany of the war council table, heart thundering against my chest. “That was foolish! How many were lost?”
“Princess—”
My voice was low, consumed with rage. “This is unacceptable.”
Captain Wyndfall’s gaze remained set on the marble floor beneath his bent knee. The steady-burning fire crackling in the hearth behind him filled the thickening silence.
“Captain,” I said, my voice breaking. “You went against my command to fall back. Why?”
Ryder Wyndfall and his wife, Isolde, were my closest confidants. After my mother died giving birth to my brother, they stepped in to help look after me. With my father lost in his grief and preoccupied with ruling the kingdom, I was often left alone.
When I turned thirteen, Ryder became my personal guard and one of the few people I trusted completely. And Isolde, a healer and once my mother’s dearest friend, gave me the closest thing I had to a mother’s love.
“No, my princess—” Ryder’s voice was barely a whisper. “I was ordered to rally troops and attack Solace.”
“By whom?”
“Me.”
I turned, eyes wide with shock as my father, the king, stood in the doorway to the council room.
“Réalta—”
“Why?” I asked, rounding the table to face him. “I understand the threat we face with the shifters and High Fae united, but why would you attack Solace? I’ve sent word to request a meeting with the high king of the fae and his alpha queen here in Zircon City.”
He tilted his head to look at me. “Yes, I’m aware.”
“Then—”
“You are not queen, Réalta.”
The finality of his words stopped me in my tracks.
“You will not need to burden yourself with these matters much longer.”
I swallowed heavily as Ryder Wyndfall, my loyal captain, stood beside me. “What do you mean by this, Father?” I asked.
“We needed to make a stand and ensure that our people were safe.”
“Safe?” I couldn’t believe what my father was saying. “After hearing Istar and Minaeve’s accounts, we both agreed gathering our forces would be the priority in preparation for war at our gates.”
“But we finally have the Heart of Valdor. We have the upper hand.”
I stilled. “Yes, but—”
“For once, the shifters and High Fae fear us, despite their magical might. We hold the power they tried so desperately to keep for themselves, and I believe it is time we make a stand and take control of Valdor.”
I stepped back, inhaling a sharp breath as I searched my father’s eyes for any inkling of an alternative fate for our kingdom.
Minaeve and Istar had revealed that the wilt was born from the shifters’ desperate attempt to conceal the Heart of Valdor from humans. In doing so, they unleashed the dark magic on the land, with the help of the High Fae, who utilized the magic of their rulers to create a barrier around the Inner Kingdom and the Heart.
Anjani, High Fae ruler of Aelius, stepped forward to confirm Minaeve’s tale their first night in our throne room. Explaining that once the truth was discovered, she and others were compelled to aid Minaeve in her escape. To survive, Minaeve had to disguise herself as a High Fae.
