Page 78 of Foretold

“No, he didn’t,” Bane says, stepping forward, his hands out like he’s trying to calm an angry animal. “Ikilled your mother. Rave didn’t do anything to her.”

Vale screams, charging forward as if to avenge his mother. Rave grabs him with one hand, throwing him to Bane so he can use his shadows to catch Vera’s friend, who is now running away through the forest.

Their plan was simple.

Declan was the distraction, and the woman was meant to kidnap Vale.

If I didn’t see Vale, they likely would have succeeded, the woman filling Vale’s head with hate for Rave.

“Milana!” Vale calls out to the woman.

“Declan’s daughter,” Rave growls, disappearing into black smoke, going after her.

It all comes together.

Declan’s daughter, the one Zython wants Axe to marry, is Vera’s friend. The one who helped her hide Vale when they escaped. But not only that, she’s the woman I once saw in a vision that now feels like a lifetime ago.

August’s fated mate.

Bane takes a kicking and screaming Vale back inside, and I follow him.

Rave returns without Milana, saying that she must have zipped away, and Declan and his army also disappear, not getting what they wanted this time.

They will probably be back.

But for now, we are all safe.

Rave spends the night with Vale, trying to calm and help him through his grief.

Grief we caused.

Soren comes into my room and lays down on the bed with me. He doesn’t touch me or even make his usual jokes. He simply lays there so I’m not alone, and I appreciate it.

It’s been a long fucking week.

In the morning, Soren is gone, but in his place is Vale, his beautiful blue eyes red from crying.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice a sleepy rasp.

He scoots closer, and I wrap my arms around him. “Your Dad loves you more than anything, you know that, right?”

“I know,” he replies, sniffling. “I wish he told me the truth that Mom was dead.”

“He didn’t want to hurt you.”

He sighs, snuggling his face into my neck. “I know. I didn’t want to cry in front of him, but I couldn’t stop. I don’t think the future fae king should be crying like a baby.”

“Crying is good, Vale. It’s worse to hold it all inside. You can cry as much as you want. Trust me, even kings cry.”

He then lets go, sobbing against me.

I hold him through it all, telling him that it’s going to be okay, he is loved, and his mom loved him so much too.

Eventually, Rave crawls into the bed and joins us, holding us both.

I guess, in a fucked-up way, my vision about Vale was right.

He is my son now.

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