“You’re expected to be in the throne room in an hour. Don’t be late.”
With that, Thalos walked off toward the tower, leaving me in a wake of uncertainty and anxiety.
“Oh no. Oh no.” I kept repeating the words. My head started to spin, and my vision blurred. My chest started to ache, and my breath became more rapid.
Everett put his hand on my shoulder, grounding me. “Aurelia, it will be fine. Go inside. Wash up and get dressed. I’ll wait for you out here.”
I looked at Everett. His smile was genuine and reassuring. I suddenly felt awful for our earlier confrontation. “Everett, I’m sorry for blowing up at you. I just—”
Everett held his hand up. “It’s fine, Aurelia. Please go and get ready. The king and queen do not like to wait for anyone.”
I nodded. Picking up my heavy, soaking wet dress, I ran into my suite to get ready for the discussion regarding my future in this realm.
Chapter 21
Imanaged to get cleaned up and dressed in what was a record time for me. With several minutes to spare, Everett and I made our way down to the throne room. Every inch of my body was reacting to the looming meeting with the king and queen. My skin was on fire, and my stomach was barely holding on to lunch. I hated the unknown. It made me anxious, and when I became anxious, my mind would wander in all sorts of directions.
“Are they going to have me imprisoned?” I asked Everett as we neared the throne room entrance.
“No. I don’t think they’re going to go that far just because you splashed around in the fountain.”
I looked up at him. “How do you know? You said it yourself: I’m the first human to stay here in the palace. What if the punishment for embarrassing them is to be locked away?”
Everett stopped and held my hand. “I’ll be honest. They probably aren’t going to be very nice to you. Your actions have essentially confirmed some of the awful things the elite fae have said about humans for thousands of years.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
“That you are all ‘animals who lack self-control.’”
“Excuse me?”
“Their words. Not mine. This was what I was going to talk to you about later.”
We had finally arrived at the doors of the throne room. I stared ahead at the translucent white crystal. My fate lay waiting on the other side.
“Go in there and hold your head up high, Aurelia. I’ll be right here with you.” Everett pushed on the throne room doors and escorted me inside.
Sitting on the dais in the centre was King Julian. To his left was Queen Oriana, and on his right was Forrest, although he didn’t look like himself. His demeanour had changed. His eyes were dark and despondent. The usual hint of mischief on his face had been replaced by a cold nothingness. I knew the man I had loved was no longer there. Who I was looking at was Prince Sterling. I tried making eye contact with him as we walked into the throne room, but he stared straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge my existence.
“Aurelia, thank you for taking the time to join us,” King Julian announced, as if I’d had any choice in the matter. “I hear you had quite the day today. Did you enjoy yourself in the gardens?”
My cheeks flushed as an overwhelming amount of shame swept over me. “My apologies, Your Majesty. I acted improperly today. It will never happen again.”
“It should never have happened in the first place,” Queen Oriana chided. “There is a certain level of decorum we expect our guests to observe when staying here. But I suppose we can only expect so much from someone like you.”
“From someone like me?”
“Yes. A human.” Disdain dripped from the last word Queen Oriana spoke.
Anger and frustration grew within me at the queen’s words. I made a huge mistake today, letting my emotions get the better of me; I couldn’t let them slip now and make matters worse. “I understand” was all I could muster in response.
“Yes. As disappointing as that display was, that is not why wehave asked you here today,” King Julian continued. “We wanted to discuss your future in this realm.”
I swallowed the small lump forming in my throat. It was the moment of truth.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, Prince Sterling was seen by our royal healers and had his memories restored successfully. Unfortunately, the prince could not identify who was responsible for this heinous act against our family. Whoever is responsible would have to be quite advanced in their use of arcana and have equally intimate knowledge of the forbidden dark arcana.” King Julian paused, looking at me like he was waiting for something to happen.
After a few moments of silence, he continued. “During our previous discussion, you admitted to having used ‘magic’ and that you used those powers to heal the people of your village. For someone supposedly so adept at healing, I do have one nagging question—why were you unable to heal the prince’s amnesia? Our healers were able to reverse the effects quite easily. It makes one wonder if you tried at all.”
