Page 48 of The Soul of the Dragon

“What do you know about the amulet?” I watched her carefully as she contemplated her words before she spoke.

“Probably about as much as you do. It’s magical and powerful and has lots of applications.”

I shifted my eyes and quirked my lips. That was about the worst non answer answer I’d ever heard. “And?” I was going to draw out some answers from her if it killed me. I’d already failed getting much from the seer and I wasn’t going to fail again.

“And why are you asking me so many questions?”

I finished off the braid and tied it off with a strip of leather from my satchel. I then turned and faced her down. Since I towered over her by at least three feet, it felt like overkill, but I was getting tired of the runaround from everyone.

“Look. You’ve been following me for days. And while I’m grateful for the help you’ve given, I think it’s time you were straight with me. I’m not putting my faith in anyone else who can’t be honest with me.”

She sighed, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “You are more and more like her every day.”

“What? Who?”

A small smile ghosted across her lips. “Your mother, dear. She’s the reason we’re all here.”

I reared back, stumbling until I landed on my bottom in the grass. “Fuck!”

The little demon shook her head. “I doubt your mother would approve of that language, and I have to admit I don’t love it either.”

I glared at her, not feeling an ounce of guilt for my choice of words. “How does my mother have anything to do with this? She’s dead. The sickness took her almost a year ago.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I couldn’t approach you until you were off the castle grounds. They are warded against Imps.”

Well, that explained why I never saw them around unless I ventured farther than I was supposed to ever go. I pulled my knees in to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs. Even talking about my mother was hard, but the idea that Ensley knew her seemed to make it that much harder.

“You knew her?” I finally voiced the question I couldn’t get out of my head.

She came and took a seat on the ground next to me, but kept several inches between us. A buffer I definitely needed at the moment. The last thing I could tolerate right now would be anyone’s touch.

“Aye, I did,” she said, letting some of the old fae accent come forth in her voice. It was a lyrical tone that not many used anymore. “She was a bright and beautiful soul. Also, one of the most powerful fae I’ve ever encountered.”

My eyes widened. “My mother?”

“Yes,” she said on a laugh. “Although she did her best to downplay her abilities. Her husband, the King, was quite jealous over it. But he tolerated it because he hoped she’d bear him a powerful son.”

I sat stunned by these revelations. I’d known how resentful the King was that my mother had never bore him a son, but I didn’t know that my mother possessed unusual power.

“How do you know all this? I don’t remember ever seeing you with her.”

“Your mother was very discreet. She couldn’t let the King know that she was making arrangements for her daughter’s safekeeping after her death. She stopped trusting him a long time ago.”

Tears welled in my eyes as the repercussions of that set in. If she risked going against her King to work with the Imps then he must have put her through her own personal hell.

I stood to my feet and paced into the trees. “What did he do to her?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that.”

I whirled on the woman, the rage no longer hidden inside me. “Why not? I deserve to know. That man has treated me no better than an animal since her death, and if he gets his way I will become his personal breeder.”

Her face dropped and she stared at her feet. “If I could tell you I would. Alas, your mother did not share her personal pain with me. I could only feel the depths of it in her soul where it burned.”

I could feel the wet tears tracking down my face, but as I swiped them away I could hardly believe they were there. Where were they when I needed them the most? The day my mother died. Or the day she was buried in the ground in a circus of an affair. Or even the first night I spent alone in a dungeon cell after being beaten by the King’s guard for the first time?

“What else can you tell me about—?”

I didn’t get to finish because a large dragon appeared out of nowhere, crashed to the ground, and shook the earth beneath us.

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