Page 52 of Scars and Burns

“Yes, I know.”

“You’re not worried?”

I give him a curious look, “Why would I be worried?”

He glances down to my hands. I’m twirling a black dahlia between my fingers. It’s the same shade as Dinalia’s eyes. Fitting her name and the flower her soul seems to represent.

“Can I be frank with you?”

“Haven’t you always been?”

He laughs, “Well, yes. But I fear you really aren’t going to like what I have to say.”

“What is it?” I say curtly. Beginning to lose my patients. Even for him.

He joins me. Sitting on the balcony of my room at the billet. Looking out to the gardens down below. “You are more powerful than you have ever been. And you are ready to take the throne. Our dwellers are strong. Fed up with your Father’s poor rule. Over taxed and living in poverty. But you’ve changed.”

“Changed? How so?”

“You’re distant. Not that that is unusual for you with your peoplefor the most part. But even with me you have been distant. I don’t know what transpired between you and The Lady Dinalia but you seem lost. You haven’t had another woman since your last encounter with her. And unless we are planning and speaking of matters of states I know your mind drifts to her. We never speak of her but the last time we did you said you both had the same Goddess mark and there was a pull to her. I believed her to be your mate but no one would be able to cope being away from their mate the way you’ve stayed away from her. I just need to ask and make sure that you will be alright when you see her? That our plans will not go awry.”

I told Aemond I saw her. I told him I tried to have a conversation with her. Offering to get to know one another. I didn’t tell him of our physical interaction, the lust I felt for her but he can guess. I didn’t mention to him the specifics of why I pulled away from her. Why her very touch was what I longed for but also what sent a raging frenzy over my burns. I just told him it wasn’t going to work. By my tone and aggression he knew not to press the matter.

“I do not intend for our plans to go awry. It will be easy. They will all be in the palm of my hands and the three realms will be ours for the taking.”

He gives me a look that says he doesn’t quite believe me. But her relents, “If you say so, Your Grace.”

“There is something I do need to tell you though.”

“Yes?”

“It’s not a big deal but in the event that it comes up. I told Lady Dinalia that my name was Aemond.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Things had happened and I wasn’t in my right mind. She asked me what my name was and I said the first thing that popped into my mind. Thinking I couldn’t tell her my real name in the event she knew about the monstrous son of King Perseus.”

“So, my name was the first that popped into your mind. I’m flattered.” He smiles at me.

I glare at him. He’s such an ass.

“Well it’s going to come up. They are going to make a formal announcement when we arrive.”

Throwing my face into my hands. “Yeah, I know. What am I going to say to her?”

I sound like a teenager with a crush. Not the most powerful Fae in the world that I have grown into. If anyone saw me this way other than Aemond they wouldn’t believe the reputation I have made.

Before Aemond can reply we are interrupted by his wife, Estelle.

Estelle is originally from the Celestial Realm and was raised to be a priestess of our Goddess, but left for unknown reasons. She uses her magic to conceal her true features, just as Queen Freya did. It didn’t take her long to reveal her true form to Aemond and myself. Something between the two of them just clicked.

It’s the same female that was perched on his lap the night after the raid. They married shortly after that.

She was also saved not long after by Dinalia. She ventured to one of our border villages to seek a dweller who had reached out for help.

Confident, she could handle it herself, Aemond did not accompany her. Caught off guard she had been beaten and raped. She most likely would have died too, if Dinalia had not shown up. She returned to the billet with the news. And I took it in fully.

Hearing how she defended the innocent. Murdering a rapist. Giving him just as much venom as he was giving her. Not standing down. She’s embracing the darkness inside of her and I didn’t have to do a thing.

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