Page 45 of Knowing Trust

I handed her back the tablet and really didn’t know what to say.

“That man is seriously so in love with you it’s—he gushed about those crystals you invented, Tams,” she said gently. “Every time he gives an update, he gushes about you. I’ve heard Ara and other female Guardians talk about how women in Faerie giggle how romantic it is. How he’s setting the new standard to be in love and support a woman.”

I nodded. “I’ve heard Taeral say several times that Neldor would make his father proud for how well he supports me like Prince Alok did Queen Elora. He doesn’t think I’ve heard or—I get it.”

“The question is what are you going to do about it?” She shrugged when I shot her a less than friendly look. “You can’t leave this alone forever, boo. You know you can’t.”

“No, but it’s not all we have going on. There is more than just us on our plates and I’m buried. We—a few years ago we fucking hated each other. The fate of a world is on us, and it could fall apart if we fuck up, Izzy. So yeah, we have to be careful. For now, we agreed we’re fine with having sex.”

She blinked at me. “That’s super romantic.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth, and then faster than she could keep up with, grabbed a pillow and started beating her with it.

She was smart enough to get the hell out of my room before she had bruises.

I couldn’t worry about romance when I had the lives of millions on my shoulders. I had to worry about keeping us all alive. Fed. Healthy.

Practical things like that.

Maybe later when I knew for sure the basics were covered I could worry about something more.

13

A miracle happened and no one was an asshole about me being able to have children earlier than “real” fairies or giving me crap about it. I only received congratulations that my healer was able to confirm I was healthy and the human vaccines hadn’t left any lasting damage. That I could have a family when I was ready.

Everything healthy and normal. I was beyond shocked how gracious and nice people were.

And not just fairies. Once we announced it across the board, even other leaders and communities.

Sure, there was the occasional jerk who was upset that it would probably strengthen my chances of being the ruler of Faerie, but no one was cruel.

When had that ever happened? Seriously?

And it was dropped fast. It was like a quick blip.

Yeah, I hadn’t seen that coming either.

People were way more focused on the information we were putting out about the study to heal witches and warlocks. To be fair, we decided to not have Katrina’s store be one of the first five locations to take appointments for the pilot program. And it had been all outlined through the council and with a delegation of fairy healers.

Another miracle happened with the help of the council, and no one just demanded fairies foot the bill or donate our time and magic. Healers were going to be paid to be there twice a week to assess people, and those who could pay for appointments could, otherwise the council would cover the cost. Funds were being raised by them, and their community agreed it was important.

I could have been pushed over by a feather, but White said it was an issue that had plagued their community for generations. Everyone always had someone in their family tree who had gone off the rails or was a bit too dark, and while it was a dirty secret, they all knew it. Now there was a possible solution or at least hope from anyone else they loved doing the same.

Even if it wasn’t discussed, it was a problem they all took seriously.

Awesome. Really. And the two warlocks who had joined Campbell and Mary Craftsman in the original trial had both offered to do a few interviews and speak to the media on their experiences. It was a bit embarrassing how the one mocked me a bit for constantly worrying I was going to make them explode because I was so unsure of my magic, but… He told the truth.

They both did. People were honestly supportive that I took safety so seriously when everyone painted me as such a rebel and always reckless. I deserved the reputation of being a bull in a china shop, but him picking on me made it clear that I took the safety of others incredibly seriously and never risked people when it came to magic.

Edelman echoed that and how from the first moment he’d met me long before I’d known anything about my heritage that the first thing I’d said when I’d been brought to Artemis was I’d agreed to be trained so I would never hurt people. That I hadn’t known where to get help, but the moment my magic had accidentally hurt people, I worried and wanted to learn control.

I appreciated the backup, and it was amazing to see the tone of reports and the news change about me. I also noticed the way fairies treated me get better as well. They had been giving me more benefit of the doubt but even more so.

Hey, I would always take more.

But now that we had a pilot program in place, I had to check in on the original four again. Nothing grinded on me more than having to see Mary Craftsman and Campbell, but their progress was astounding. They were completely different from even when I’d first met them.

They were both still bitches and hated me… But they were different and more like themselves. Mary especially remembered everything and retained everything now. Apparently, she had been having problems even before we’d met and the issues with Julian and the former headmaster at Artemis had been going on.

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