Page 77 of Foretold

The darkness is coming, and the Fae Queen is the only one with the power to restrain it.

Long live the queen.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Astrid

A hundred men surround our wards, with one man leading them. He’s tall, lean, muscular, and has a brown beard with a smattering of gray. He’s decent-looking enough, even though he’s old enough to be my father, but there’s a look in his blue eyes I don’t like. Declan must have a pair of balls on him to march right up to our fucking gates, trying to intimidate us in our own kingdom.

Bane storms into my bedroom, catching me looking out the window at the army of misfits Declan has brought with him. “We didn’t know,” he promises, bending at his knee. “I swear to you, Princess. I would never betray you. I didn’t know… Zython—”

“Stand up, Bane. I know,” I assure him, allowing him to wrap me in his arms. “Why would he do this to me? He loved you, and you aren’t even his. But me? He just wanted to use me.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, kissing the top of my head. “He knew how special you are and chose to utilize that instead of appreciating it. Your brothers had no idea either. They are working out how to play this. He’s still their father and their king.”

“I know,” I reply, taking a deep breath.

It’s not as simple as Rave thinks it is, although I suppose to him it is.

He quite simply wants to kill everyone.

“Why would Declan come here? Rave is going to destroy his whole army,” I say, letting go of Bane to peer back outside. “We’re missing something. He has something up his sleeve.”

“Why are you here alone and not planning for war with everyone else?” he asks, standing next to me at the window. Heholds his hand out, hitting Declan with a sudden pour of heavy rain, hail, and booming lightning strikes.

Storm-fucking-daddy.

“I forget you can do that,” I murmur, my lip twitching.

And then I see something that has my stomach twisting in horror. Vale, walking through the wards, running into the arms of a woman. She hugs him warmly, and they both smile at each other.

“They have Vale,” I yell, zipping outside and running to the wards to get him. “Vale!” I scream, and he turns his little head to look at me. He can’t see the army on the other side of the grounds. For him, it’s just him and this beautiful woman.

A beautiful woman I’ve seen before.

She’s holding him, and although she can’t zip with him because of his void magic, Vale is strong enough to zip himself, which is how he got away with Vera.

“It’s okay, Astrid!” he calls back with a smile. “This is my mom’s friend.”

Oh fuck! This keeps getting worse.

“Your mother is dead, Vale,” she tells him, her long, blonde hair blowing around her face in the wind. She pushes her hair back, revealing a striking pair of blue eyes.

Rave and Bane appear behind me, on either side, Rave holding his hands out to his son.

“Vale, come here now,” Rave calls out.

“Mom’s not dead. She just didn’t want to live here anymore,” Vale says, looking at his father and back at the woman. “Why would you say that?”

“She’s dead, Vale. Your father killed her. Now come with me, and we can go away just like Vera wanted,” she says, holding him tighter.

Darkness surges, and soon, the woman is choking on her own words. She lets go of Vale, who steps away, looking at Rave withtears in his eyes. “That’s not true, is it, Dad?”

Fuck.

“You don’t understand—” Rave starts, but Vale cuts him off.

“Did you kill Mom?” Vale screams, his hands clasping into fists. I can only imagine the emotions he is feeling. He is just a child, and hearing this must be heartbreaking. He loves his mother, and nothing will change that or break the bond they shared. I selfishly never wanted to be around him when he learned the truth—the truth I had hoped would have come from his father’s lips.

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