Page 34 of Fae Exile

Roan nodded and, brandishing the new burning branch, with high steps to avoid sinking into the muck, marched around the part of our haphazard circle that Reed’s torch didn’t cover, holding the umbracs at bay.

“And then she killed ‘er son,” Roan said.

I gasped, even though I couldn’t have truly been surprised.

“That’s why she never found the assassin,” Finnian added, leaning over Dragon Xeno with a small pot of something—healing ointment, probably, perhaps even the same he’d used on me when I’d been lanced by arrows.

I sucked in a breath deep enough to push away my disbelief that she could be that heartless, that vindictive, that ambitious as to kill her own flesh and blood. “Okay, so what do I say next, then? That I want to do good, so let me be its steward? Will it matter that I don’t have the crystal or potion?”

Roan shrugged. “With or without props, if it worked for Saturn, you gotta try...”

“I told my granddoody,” Pru said tentatively, softly enough that I could barely make out her words above the incessant chittering and the crackling of the fire.

I dipped forward and smiled, though I didn’t figure there was all that much to smile about. “And what did he say?”

“That Prince Saturn should’ve said he offered himself as a ... a channel for the land’s will to bring through light to ... to overpower the darkness.”

“That sounds like a right smart granddoody ya got there, Pru,” Roan commented.

With a timid smile I’d never seen on her before, she nodded and rubbed her bulbous nose on her upper arm around Saffron, who tried to lick her neck before she pushed him away.

Finnian stood and reached into a pouch hanging from his weapons belt, and while he rummaged for a different ointment, he told me, “Tell the land you wish to be an instrument of light, and that you’re willing to channel its power to bring down the darkness that’s overtaken the mirror world. Tell it you wish to honor the true nature of Faerie and that, if it chooses you as its representative, you’ll do everything in your mortal power to restore a proper balance between light and dark in the mirror world.”

“That should work,” Roan added.

Reed waved his torch in wider arcs than before and warned, “Whatever you’re gonna do, you’d best get to doing it. The umbracs feel extra restless, like they’re about to break loose.”

So, before I could think any of it through or what this kind of commitment might entail, and if I was prepared for whatever ramifications it would deliver, I spoke.

“Dear, land…” What, was I writing a damn letter? I rolled my eyes at my foolishness. “I stand before you”—I hesitated; I also stood on top of it...

“Just keep goin’, lass,” Roan encouraged. “I’d bet the land feels into yer heart more than yer words.”

Right, my broken and pierced heart...

“I desire to right all the wrong in the mirror world. To deliver fairness and wellness to all fae of all kinds and all sizes, and to the shapeshifters and the dragons too”—Pru squeaked, but if I was going to make a deal with a powerful, invisible force that had the potential to bite me in the ass, why wouldn’t I look out for everyone and everything deserving of compassion that I could think of?

“I wish to be your”—I gulped before I could get myself to say the next bit—“your channel of power and of light, to...”

“Defeat the darkness that’s claimed control of the mirror world, especially Embermere,” Roan supplied.

Once more grateful for the help, I echoed.

“I intend to defeat the imposter queen Talisa Zafira Tatiana,” he added, “and to rule in her stead with fairness, care, and the interest of my subjects as my priority.”

My heart thumped in my throat; my pulse suddenly whooshed through my ears loudly enough to drown out the horrid chittering. What was Roan thinking? I had no intention of ruling Embermere! To kill the asshole queen, abso-fucking-lutely. But to become queen in her place? I hadn’t considered my fate beyond surviving the Fae Heir Trials. It was Rush who was to become king.

Rush. What would Rush do in my place?

Immediately, I knew the answer. To save the fae, he’d do whatever it took, sacrifice whatever he must.

“You’re worthy, lassie,” Roan offered gently when it wasn’t that I’d been wondering. Or had it?

Pru scooted closer, but when Saffron reached for me, she backed away. “I’d follow you, Mistress.”

I half-smiled, half-grimaced. “I don’t want anyone following me. I just want to live, that’s it. Well, to live without a queen trying to kill me at every turn and to get the chance to choose what I want for my life.”

“When it’s time for our essences to depart the Etherlands,” Finnian said while bent over Xeno, tending to his patient, “and to incarnate into these bodies, we arrive with a destiny, with a purpose only we can fulfill.”

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