Page 42 of Finding Closure

“That’s quite a statement to make, Your Highness,” she whispered, not able to hide her shock well.

I snorted and opened the journal of the villain I was most focused on and read a passage. “‘Teaching her her place as I have the other heirs and queens was just as enjoyable but even more so because Meira is so much more beautiful than her mother. Watching her stand there and have to disrobe in front of me was perfection.

“‘She came to me pure and had to stare into my eyes the whole time I spoke, taking off another layer when I ordered her to. She was cold and shivering, but I knew she felt my heat. She saw I was hard for her, and it made her understand she would always be prey—my prey. Her demigod mate can only protect her as much as I allow it.

“‘And someday I will taste her as I have many in her bloodline. There is nothing more thrilling than having a queen and showing them they have no power but the power I allow. She stood there wet, and I spoke so slowly to make her suffer more for invading my dreams. I mapped and memorized her every curve that I will have some day and we both know it.

“‘She knows I’ll win and taste her. She knows that if she dares to talk against any of the ancients, the people of the light realm will willingly toss her to me for their peace or selfish desires. They never respect the queens. They’re a tool they don’t take care of. But I will. I will take care of her and the heir she births from the demigod.

“‘Meira’s biggest mistake was mating a non-fairy. Her daughter will be mine. From the moment that child is born, I will make sure she is trained and her power will be mine to wield as I finally control the royal family completely. I bet she will be evenmore beautiful than Meira with the power of a demigod racing through her.

“‘I will bed her before any have a chance, and that way none of this idea of finding mates will save any more heirs from me. I will bed her and train her to be obedient, and if Meira tries to intervene, I will have the light realm sacrifice her as they have her ancestors to appease the gods and continue their perfect ignorant judgmental lives. Poor fools killing the ones who could save them.’”

“I feel ill,” Essie admitted.

I snorted. “It gets so,somuch worse.” I nodded when she seemed green. “The whole coronation is set up to tenderize an heir and humiliate her, demean and sexualize her—abuse her before predators. While they all know that and laugh at her. Andthenthey steal power from the new queen over the next few weeks.

“My mother wrote about how she came out of her ‘communing with the gods’ time-out to find the ancients had completely redone her new government. They had enacted laws in her name and made changes. And she couldn’t go against them or what? What would have happened if the new queen argued against the ancients? You were alive then. Tell me.”

Essie swallowed loudly. “They would have put her in seclusion until she saw reason or the power didn’t drive her to madness. Someone would have taken over as regent until she birthed an heir or something. It was once proposed for our queen after her coronation when she objected to something the ancients did.”

I reached over and grabbed another journal. “Yes, they did. And they never forgave Elora for trying to taketheir powerand actually doing her job. Luckily, she was smart and figured out how to show they went off the path of the original agreed-uponidea. The ancients didn’t just abuse the heirs and queens, but traumatized them at every turn.

“The government was setbeforeeither of them became queen. It’s part of how the heirs are deemed ready to become queen. It’s why so much of my government has been outlined before my coronation. Except it’s not normally this transparent because the ancients would give the heirs false hope and then snatch it all away and screw the queens over after.”

“It’s so sadistic,” she rasped as she took the journal from me. “I’m glad you are sharing all of this with us, but—you want to change the coronation.”

“Not for me,” I clarified. “I can’t legally even. But the moment I become queen, you bet that I will. No more heirs will ever be treated this way, and Faerie will start having tofightto protect their shield and take better care of theirtoolinstead of always fighting each other.

“So for everyone who will rail against me changing tradition and complain that I would dare change such a sacred ritual—it wasn’t sacred. It was grotesque and meant to abuse the one person who swore to protect all of you. Except none of you did your job to support them and protect her back as you should have. I won’t allow that to continue.”

We talked for another two hours and I read more passages, promising copies of all of it for people to be able to access and read for themselves. People needed to truly understand how bad it all really had been or there was the risk it could happen again.

And I wasn’t going to allow that to be the future for my descendants. So as much as I wanted to defend our mothers, I was mostly doing this for our daughters and granddaughters.

No more abusing the women of Faerie no matter where they ranked.

The craziest miracle that I didn’t see coming happened. I was cleansing when portals started opening all around me andsnapped me out of my trance. I blinked out at people and locked gazes with Talila of all of them.

“People are protesting all over Faerie, Your Highness,” she told me.

“Why? Protesting what?” I gasped, rubbing my hand over my chest and trying to shake off the magic of cleansing.

“Your coronation,” Shael answered.

“But she won the vote of confidence,” Hudson chuffed. “Why are they changing their minds now?”

“No, you misunderstand, Prince Hudson,” she clarified. “They don’t want the princess to go through the current tradition. They want a new one so she doesn’t have to suffer as her ancestors did. They want a new tradition for the Queen of Faerie.”

I couldn’t even make my mouth work as my head practically exploded.

“We felt the same when we heard,” Iolas chuckled before picking me up in a hug. “They’re all on your side, Tamsin. They don’t want you to suffer. They want you to be happy and to flourish as Faerie should. It’s everything your mother always dreamed of for you.”

“What are they saying they want?” I asked once it seemed to really sink in.

“A bunch of different things,” Talila admitted. “Some are saying to go back to the original coronation of the queen when there was only one, but we don’t really know what that was. It’s mostly ancient passages of how the gods originally blessed your family—whichever family or original queen.”

“Others are saying that water should be used as that’s a needed element of baptizing an heir to become queen but having you undress and not wearing undergarments is just obscene,” Shael added. “Most of Faerie had no idea that was part of it. Inever saw that part given where my seat was for your mother’s coronation and I wasn’t part of the planning.”

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