Page 70 of Fated or Knot

Someone else spoke up in Serian from one of the armchairs by the fire. I was so pulled in by the queen’s presence that I hadn’t even realized he was there, though a short gold crown gilded his head. One of the kings—Queen Nemensia took hold of my cheeks and turned my head before I could figure out whose father he was. Her fins slowly settled along her back as she took me in.

Every greeting I’d practiced slipped straight out of my head. I curtsied, and my cloak parted with the motion. “Take that off for a moment. Let me see those wings,” she said before I could stumble over a hello.

I unclasped it, and Fal took it from me, revealing my anxiously flicking pixie wings. “A gray pixie, hmm? You will fit right in with the Serian winter,” she remarked. “Tell me your name,mo stóirín.”

I swallowed thickly. “It’s Lark. Um, of Osme Fen. It’s a ple?—”

“Lark of Osme Fen!” She took hold of my shoulders, and my eyes widened to twice their size at the sudden exclamation. “Are you a ghost?” With strength I would’ve never expected, she spunme around to face her sons and pointed at me, speaking Serian, presumably asking the question over again.

Kauz looked baffled as he shook his head. Marius, next to him, had an expression of grim concern.

“Because,” Queen Nemensia said heavily. “I remember the awful day when I opened your father’s letter detailing your sudden passing when you were still a babe. Six years old, if that.”

So many questions piled up in my head, one on top of the other. Was this somehow a dream? Surely I’d knocked myself out this morning when I hit my head on the table. There was no other explanation I could think of as I watched the queen’s eyes well with tears.

“Mother, there’s something else we need to tell you—” Kauz began.

She turned away, waving dismissively. “Not now, Falindel.”

“It’s Kauzden,” he corrected patiently. “And it really can’t wait?—”

“Not now,” she repeated in a hiss. “I know who you are. My errant son that leaves me to worry with no word for nearly amonth.”

“You knew my father?” I asked quietly.

She sniffed and shook her head, scattering her head of dark blue curls. “Oh, I knew him. How could I not? He was mates with my best friend, Dorei. Stole her from Serian and the beauty of Once Else to live in a farm town in another country. She said it wastrue love, and I still think she was crazy. She died there, without me.” A tear leaked down her cheek as she reached up, cupping my face. “But here you are, in her spitting image and back from the dead. What happened to you,mo stóirín? You were purple. And a seamless little mix of pixie and nixie.”

Her voice fuzzed into a ringing in my ears. “What…what did you say?” I mumbled.

“You don’t remember me? I’m your godmother. I took you to my nest like my own child,” Nemensia continued. “I need every answer you have, Metalark!”

My full, forgotten name hit me like a blow to the head. I reeled, dizzy, and stumbled back from her. Color washed out to white, covering my sight in lines so bright that I saw them behind my shuttering eyes. There were several masculine shouts of alarm. Air kissed my wings as I fell into the arms of unconsciousness.

22

LARK

Icame back to the waking world to completely different surroundings. My cheek was pressed into Kauz’s padded vest, my body swaying as he carried me at a fast walk through a corridor. I shut my eyes again with a groan. It felt like someone had buried an iron spike in my head. It hurt to even think.

“Welcome back,” Kauz whispered.

“What happened?” I croaked.

He hesitated. In the meantime, we passed by several fae that greeted him in Serian. It sounded like he was asked several questions, none of which he responded to.

I viewed the world through a crack in my lids, slowly sliding them open more as the pain receded. The hallway he strode down was more open than the former fortress, lined with windows that let in cold light to play across the purple reflections in Kauz’s eyes. His brow was drawn and his teeth slightly bared, giving him as unapproachable a visage as he could make.

I whined. Was he unhappy with me? I couldn’t remember what I’d done to upset the calm prince.

“I’m taking you to someone who is going to help you, sweetheart,” he murmured.

Hopefully someone who could heal away the headache threatening to split my skull.

“Wait…the queen?” I asked. I’d just met her, right? The more I tried to recall what she looked like, the worse the pain behind my eyes became.

“Don’t worry about her right now.”

I sighed and bared my throat in a sign of trust. Though it probably looked like my head was lolling. Kauz would talk to me about what’d happened when he was ready.

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