If he intended to wound me with his words, they hit their mark. My grip on my emotions loosened. “How dare you? I practise the art of healing at significant personal risk. It is an act punishable by death where I come from. Despite that, my door has always been open to those who seek my help. I found your son beaten and left at death’s door. I took him into my home and gave him the best care I could provide. I have magic, but I use it for healing humans. I am not familiar with fae healing, or arcana. It may have been a simple fix for your healers, who are trained on how to heal fae, but I did the best I could with what I know. Because of thatlimitedknowledge, your son is now able to sit next to you, drawing breath.”
I turned to Sterling, my anger roiling like a raging storm. “And you! You couldn’t muster the decency to come see me and let me know that you were all right? After everything we’ve been throughtogether, all the weeks I spent caring for you, you’re just going to sit there and let them speak to me this way? Is that the thank you I deserve?” My fists were balled up at my sides as I waited for Sterling to look me in the eye and acknowledge me.
Sterling tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes finally making their way to me, roaming slowly up my body and back down. A chill ran down my spine as he assessed me. It felt akin to a predator sizing up its prey.
“My apologies, Aurelia,” he purred. “It was rude of me not to have thanked you earlier for your attempt at healing me. Given your limited knowledge, it is impressive how much you were able to accomplish. Although not as impressive as you are in bed.” A gut-curdling smile spread across his lips as he winked at me.
The sliminess of shame oozed over me as he brought up our extracurricular activities in front of his parents.
Queen Oriana huffed. “How do we know she didn’t purposely avoid healing his amnesia so she could keep him locked away as her sex slave? Her disgusting smell was all over Prince Sterling. It was almost impossible to wash away.”
Sterling laughed. “Mother, calm down. It was completely consensual. Right, Aurelia?” he asked as he winked at me again.
Humiliated, I averted my gaze to my feet. Why was he behaving this way?
King Julian raised his hand before either one of us had a chance to speak again. “That’s enough. I am over this perverse conversation.” He looked at me and continued. “Quite frankly, I don’t trust you. I don’t believe you are being honest with us about who you are or your ‘magical’ abilities. I believe that your abilities may be more powerful than you are either aware of or willing to admit. I would prefer to have you removed from my court immediately.”
The king paused for a moment, and my heart sank. I straightened my stance, accepting my fate like the grown woman I was.
“For all I know, you are part of the group I believe kidnapped our son. That suspicion alone is enough to have you dealt with, permanently.”
No. There was no way he could think that I had anything to do with Sterling’s kidnapping. Not after everything we had gone through to get here. If I were working with whoever was responsible for this, why would I be standing here, enduring this humiliation?
The king continued speaking, interrupting my thoughts. “My son, on the other hand, disagrees with me, as he has personally spoken for you and your character. He is quite adamant that you do not possess the ability to harm another being. As such, I have decided against my better judgment to let you stay, provided one condition is met. You will have your abilities tested by our arcana master to determine the extent of your power and identify the areas of arcana in which you are most proficient. The results of those trials will provide me with a better understanding of who you are. I recommend giving your full effort to them, as your existence in this realm quite literally depends on them.”
The outright threat settled over me and rattled me to my core.
The king abruptly stood and turned to walk away, Queen Oriana following. Sterling remained seated lazily in his throne, staring at me with an unsettling gaze. I crossed my arms, as if to hide my heart from him. Something significant had changed within him, and it was disconcerting. He was no longer the man I had saved from the forest clearing; he was now something foreign and uncertain.
The king stopped and turned around to come back to the dais. “Oh, one last thing, Aurelia. Make yourself available tomorrow morning. There is something important I’d like you to see.” He smiled, sending shivers down my spine.
He took his leave immediately afterward, leaving me with the unshakable feeling that I was not going to enjoy what he wanted to show me.
Everett stepped up beside me, clearing his throat. “Aurelia, come. I’ll escort you back to your room.”
I turned to Everett and nodded, and we began our exit from the throne room. As we walked away from the dais, I fought off the urge to look back to see what Sterling was doing. When we made it past the throne room doors, my curiosity won out. I peeked over my shoulder to find Sterling still seated, his bright, dazzling azure eyes locked on me, as if he were stalking my every move.
He playfully waved to me and called out “Bye, Aurelia!” as he stood up and walked behind the dais.
Unease settled deep within me.
“What a prick,” Everett muttered under his breath.
“Please get me out of here,” I said.
Everett nodded while offering his arm for me to hold on to as we made our way down the grand hallway and back toward my suite.
*
“I need you to tell me everything about Prince Sterling and who he was or is, and I want to hear it now,” I said to Everett when we returned to my suite.
Everett grabbed a chair from the small dining table and brought it over to the foot of my bed. “Get settled,” he said as he gestured toward my bed. “You remember how I mentioned to you that I had a nanny while growing up? Well, she’s human. She’s the human who gave birth to me. My parents are both scholars who work closely with Leni at the royal library. They are always so very busy with their work, so they hired Annika to look after me, and she did so until I turned eighteen. You asked why I treated you as an equal. It’s because a human raised me, and I see humans for who they actually are—generous, loving, fun, and thoughtful people. Not what the elite fae think they are: animals who lack self-control.”
I interrupted Everett. “Wait, I have a question. What did you mean when you said that Annika gave birth to you?”
“It’s the curse that was put on our people by the Obsidian Court. Our people cannot procreate on their own. Our scholars have spent years searching for a way to cure the curse, but no solution has been discovered yet. They were able to figure out that a fae man and fae woman could use their arcana to create a baby with the help of an arcana master. All that was missing was a proper vessel to carry the pregnancy, as fae women could not. This was where the human women came into the picture. After the atrocities of the war with the Obsidian Court, some of the human women volunteered to carry fae pregnancies. For hundreds of years, this has been the way the fae have created their families. All because of the humans’ generosity.”
Silence fell between us as I tried to digest what Everett had just told me. For hundreds of years, they had let human women sacrifice their bodies so they could have children, and they had the audacity to treat them like they were second-class citizens.
