Page 183 of Court of the Fae Princes

“It all just felt like a bad dream. Even now, it still does when I think about it. They proclaimed that you didn’t have magic and asked her if she wanted to give you back to the woods… and she did. Without thought. Without an ounce of love. You were just something… to be rid of. To be forgotten.

“I argued with her, but that was when I realized what she was. A person as dead inside as the dead she commanded. She never loved me. She never cared about me. Your mother wasn’t capable of it. She simply saw my untapped magic as something that could finally give her the powerful child she desired. So… I stopped fighting, knowing that I couldn’t win against who she really was, the Keeper of Death. She told me I could stay around as someone for her amusement because she liked me, and that was it. Like I was one of her dead, she simply expected me to obey her.

“But I was different from who she imagined. My parents had raised me to follow my heart, and my heart was with you. So I waited, and I pretended.” His expression had grown hard then. Determined. And I was bespelled by his story. “I followed the fae into the woods… I left my chair. I crawled. For a time, I lost them, and I thought I lost you. But then they were gone, and it was just me in the woods, crawling, trying to find you, when I heard you cry. You hadn’t cried from the moment you were born, so it felt like you were crying to lead me to you, and you did. Just a tiny thing. Those big blue eyes. That strong cry. Your grip on my finger, holding on like you never wanted to let go.

“Nothing mattered after that. Not how much it hurt to crawl and carry you through those dark woods. Not how much I had to beg and sell to get those farmers to let us in their cart, and how many people I had to beg after that to get us back to your grandmother. None of that mattered, because all that mattered was you. You were worth… everything.”

I’d cried when he’d told me the story. Picturing my father really believing my mother loved and cared about him. Imagining the moment he realized that she didn’t, and that she was just going to throw me away. And everything he did after that to make sure I survived.

My father was a good man. He might have made a mistake never telling me about my fae-side… not just about my mother, but my grandfather, who had been like him, a powerful fae with no powers. But he’d been afraid that if he told me about any of it, I would want to be acknowledged as a fae, and that it might lead my mother to find out about me, which would end in my death. Since the House of Death believed each couple could only have one living child, which is why they sacrificed weak children, he was worried that my mother would kill me if she found out I was still alive.

And maybe she would have.

I still wish he would have trusted me with all of this, but I understood he was just trying to protect me, like he’d done my whole life. I couldn’t be angry at him for that. Especially when it led me to all of this happiness.

And we were happy. Him. My grandmother. Me. And my men.

Life was good.

I spin faster, although I’m aware that my sense of gravity is off and don’t push it too far. The fireflies move around me, circling me in the wind as I laugh. Changing colors with my encouragement.

Thoughts of the changes I’ve been implementing come to me, making me smile. Raises for all the humans had been met with happiness from the humans and minor grumbling from the fae. Making it a requirement to feed any human working more than a four-hour shift had been met with more happiness from the humans and confusion from the fae. The fae sincerely didn’t seem to know whether or not their human workers were already being fed.

Big surprise, huh?

There were other changes too. Far more than I can count. But it’s just the beginning. By the time this baby arrives, our kingdom will already be a far better place for them to grow up in.

Cobar’s voice reaches my ears before I see him, but I hear the smile in it. “Be careful with my baby in there.” He approaches, and I stop spinning, watching him coming toward me.

He looks amazing. All my men do nowadays. They’d healed from their time with the Keeper of Death, both in body and in mind. Most of the time in their minds, at least. Watching them heal and change, becoming happier and lighter has been one of the highlights of my life, along with the baby growing within me.

He waves away my fireflies, wrinkling his nose. “Are these air bugs bothering my lady?”

I glare at him, then laugh, conjuring up more fireflies to hover around his nose. “Don’t worry, I love them, and our little one is safe with me.”

I hear a cacophony of noise and stare as my kings emerge from the woods, out into the clearing, heading toward me like a rumbling pile of puppies. They’re all finely dressed, their long hair left loose and their feet bare, meaning they’ve gotten free from the terrible meeting they were in and are now ready for fun.

They converge on me with smiles and laughs. Their skin is sun-kissed. Their smiles are wide. Even Sulien’s.

“Whose baby did you say this was?” Sulien asks as he bends down to place a kiss on my stomach. The baby kicks his hand, and Sulien’s eyes light up. “You see? This baby’s mine.”

I lean in for the kiss he offers me, then Zane kisses my cheek and whispers in my ear. “You can lie to them all you want, but we both know whose baby this is.” He places both hands on my stomach and holds them there, looking down at me as if in awe.

Forrest’s eyes twinkle, and he smiles widely, running his hand down my back. “I won’t have to say a word when my green-eyed red-headed baby is born. You’ll all know the truth.”

Their laughter fills the air, a symphony of pure joy that warms my heart.

Time for some fun. “Guys, I can’t keep this secret any longer,” I tell them, a conspiratorial grin tugging my lips. They freeze and stare at me, waiting for my next word. “The baby is all of yours.” At least in my eyes.

They break out into cheers, giving each other high fives and laughing loudly. Sulien’s eyes twinkle as he says, “Our baby will be the most loved in the world.”

All of us nod in agreement.

“Along with any more that might come,” Zane adds with hope and longing in his voice.

The wood spirit did imply I’d have four babies, one for each of my men. I can’t do anything but smile so much my face hurts. Whether that happens or not, I’m so in love with my family. We could have this one baby or we could have six more. I’d be happy all the same.

“You were smart to take a break from the meeting,” Cobar says, wrinkling his nose. “The elders do not seem to be getting the message that they control absolutely nothing.”

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