Page 102 of Fire of the Fox

I grimaced. “That’s just as disgusting now as it was when you first told me about your make-out session.”

She laughed, and the sound made my chest tighten. This felt like old times, and for a minute, I forgot about Fae and secrets. For a minute, I was a girl about to binge movies and eat junk food with my best friend. But that wasn’t what was happening.

Swallowing hard, I grabbed a throw pillow and picked at the tassels on the edges. No more avoiding this. It was time.

“Where were you really when I called?” I asked, having a feeling it had to do with the secrets she’d been keeping.

She took a deep breath. “I was at my team’s hideout. We were discussing strategies of locating you and how best to get you to come back.”

I flicked a lone tassel and tossed the pillow aside. Hideout. Strategies. It all sounded like some covert military group on a mission. The idea was laughable, but honestly, that could be exactly where she was. Being kept in the dark ended now.

“So,” I started before meeting her eyes again. “You’re Water Fae.”

She didn’t seem surprised by my statement at all. She sat down across from me, and her gaze held mine with absolute confidence. “As are you.”

There it was. The answer I’d been dreading but knew was true. I was Water Fae. Sucking in a sharp breath, all the questions I’d been planning went out the window. All I could think to ask now was, “H-how? How did this happen?”

Dallas ripped into a bag of chips as she took a deep breath. “There’s so much to explain to you. I guess I should start with the most important stuff. You are not just any Water Fae, Bria. You’re the Princess of the Water Fae.”

My mind stuttered, and I had to take a minute to process that. “Excuse me? Princess?”

“It was those Land Fae who told you about Fae and our world, right?” Her voice held so much disgust as she said ‘Land Fae,’ like the mere words alone made her want to vomit.

“Yes. My friends, who just so happen to be Land Fae, told me about their world.”

She recoiled, her face scrunching up with hatred. “They aren’t your friends, Bria. They are the enemy. They are the worst of the worst.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Okay, look. If we are going to have this conversation, there’s something we need to get out of the way. I love him. Rune. A Land Fae. I get it, you guys have a long history where you slaughtered each other, but that’s the thing. Both sides lost people. Both sides are hurting. Both sides have good in them. I won’t sit here and let you berate Land Fae, just as I don’t let them talk poorly of Water Fae. Because I love people on both sides.”

She held my gaze, studying me for a few silent moments. I could see the war between hate and her ability to care about people waging in her head.

Finally, she smiled, her eyes watering with something akin to pride. “You are so much like your mother. She’d be so proud of you.”

The wind was knocked out of me. “My-my mother?”

Dallas leaned forward to wipe a tear from my cheek. “Queen Alesta. She was a fearsome woman who was also capable of great kindness.”

Alesta. For the first time in my life, I finally had a name to put to my mother. She wasn’t a nameless, nonexistent figment of my imagination anymore. She was real. She was Alesta, Queen of the Water Fae. My mother.

Fresh tears spilled over my cheeks, and I squeezed my eyes closed. It was a relief to know who my mother was, but the next question that formed on my lips broke open a new crack in my heart.

“Is she de—”

Dallas grabbed my hand, and she waited until I met her eyes again before speaking. “Your mother and father made some choices as rulers that resulted in a lot of innocent people dying. They knew they were targets because of it, and consequently, you were a target. Days after you were born, they set a plan in motion, one that resulted in who you are today. They took you to the Queen of the Fae, the great ruler of us all, to ask for her help in hiding you. She bound your powers so that you wouldn’t get them unless you were put in life-threatening danger. If all went well, they would awaken on their own on your twenty-first birthday, which is the age at which all Fae mature and grow into their abilities.

“After making sure your powers were bound, they began spreading word of a baby boy being born to the Water Fae Queen and King. They hoped that by spreading a fabricated story of you being a prince, the Land Fae who were targeting them would search for you in vain. The only people who knew the truth were the royal guards and their advisors. That’s when they gave you to me since I’m your personal guard and tasked me with seeing you safely to your human family, Wendy and Greg.”

Head hanging low, I closed my eyes against this new information. I was given to Wendy and Greg to be protected from those who wanted to do me harm. No wonder they never wanted to get close to me. They knew who I was. They knew what I was. They were simply following orders and fulfilling their duty. It was business for them, a task handed over. They didn’t need to love me or welcome me as a real daughter when they knew the truth. That bitter realization stung like acid in my throat.

Dallas gave me a minute before finishing, “Your parents died shortly after having you hidden away.”

My chest squeezed tight under the news, and time itself seemed to draw to a standstill. A crater formed in my chest, an ache that ran deep within me.

All those years of wondering where they were, dreaming of what they were doing at that exact moment, conjuring up ways they’d come find me suddenly shattered like glass. The shards rained down and pierced my heart until it bled with those long-felt hopes. They weren’t coming back for me. I’d never get to know their smells, the sound of their laughs, the way it felt to be wrapped in their arms. They were gone.

Emotion clogged my voice. “How did they die?”

Dallas stared off at the TV for a few minutes. We were both quiet with only the sound of the Disney movie playing in the background. It was clear this was just as hard for her to talk about as it was for me to hear.

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