Page 83 of Fated or Knot

“Is she trying to get extra attention? Hey, Lark! You’re not crippled!”

And on and on. Others spoke about my Unseelie side, asking where my gills had gone. Why was I different now?

I touched my neck, feeling the sealed ridges that hadn’t been there before. What the fuck? My fingers were tipped with super sharp nails too. I pulled my hand back to look at it and screamed, flicking it away like I could get rid of the extra membranes that extended between my fingers.

Kauz looked bewildered. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m—” I nearly barked out “I’m Unseelie!” like it was some kind of horror but caught it just in time. My heart hammered as I twisted to look at my wings. They seemed like their normal selves, except individual pinpricks of purple were starting to form on them. My color was returning!

I was tugged between great unwanted surprise and a surge of excitement, two reactions that did not blend well. I inspected myself for any more changes. Kauz figured out what I was doing quickly, saying, “You’re half nixie, sweetheart.”

“How is this possible?” I mumbled. I stared at my hand, watching the webbing ripple up and down my fingers dependingon how I flexed them. If I did this long enough, I hoped to figure out how to get them to recede completely.

“You just forgot,” he said gently. “C’mon. Let’s see if we can find a happy memory.”

We couldn’t. Kauz picked out random memories from the pit. I remembered the day Cymora had sold my aging mare, Meya, after we’d won a third-place prize together at the blossom festival. I’dlovedthat horse. My stepmother made me forget her, though my affection for horses had remained despite her cruelty.

I’d also forgotten taking long, luxurious swims in the lake. In my younger years, I was a more athletic swimmer than Laurel, who’d been awkward with her mermaid tail. And I was not allowed to be better than her at anything, so Cymora ordered a creeping dread of water into me. No wonder I thought I’d nearly drowned in the lake once. I’d never jumped into the water again.

I wasn’t allowed to be better than Laurel at singing, either. An order had silenced my budding singing talents and trapped my perfect pitch in my spoken voice. Since then, I never felt compelled to sing along when others carried a tune.

“I hate her,” I said heavily after watching that particular memory. There were bound to be more just like it, whittling me down until I was the silent, head-bowed servant my stepmother had molded me into by my adulthood. But I was just tired on a bone-deep, exhausted level. “She just…erased anything about me she didn’t like. Who does that to their stepdaughter?”

Kauz was quiet next to me. He wavered where he stood, looking just as tired as I felt, with bruises forming under his eyes. I followed his line of sight to a cloud of black threaded with silver appearing in the tunnel of memories. It unfurled with the spreading of another pair of bat wings. Thalas flapped them hard as he gained his bearings and circled downward with a string of muttered Serian.

“It must be nighttime,” Kauz mumbled.

I hoped this meant we were going to take a break and sleep. Except, what was this, other than sleep? My head hurt. I was definitely thinking about this too hard.

We made room in the alcove for Thalas, though it was a tight fit when he landed. He drew me in for a tight hug. “You’re Dorei’s girl. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you,” he murmured.

I didn’t quite know what to make of his sudden affection. He was a stranger to me, though I may not have been one to him. Maybe this was buried in my lost memories somewhere, too. Thalas eventually let me go and hugged Kauz next. “And my boy. You were absolutely right. This is an emergency.”

“What’s been happening?” Kauz asked.

Thalas sighed heavily. He didn’t answer until we negotiated the small space and ended up on either side of him, with an arm and a wing around us. It still seemed strange to be pressed close to him like this, and I was too rigid to relax. “Too much for one discussion, I’m afraid. I caught the end of an interrogation yielding results that’ve left your mother nestbound. The grief and rage she’s feeling…” He shuddered. “I’m glad she’s resting. As should you both.”

Thank the stars, we were going to take a break.

“I’ll help repair your mind while you dream, Metalark. You will have to stay asleep until your memories are fully restored,” he continued. “And Kauzden, your body is too depleted to continue on here for much longer.”

Kauz lifted his chin. “I’m not leaving Lark to do this alone.”

“Then rest,” Thalas answered and gave him a little nudge. The other winged fae disappeared in a puff of essence, and I whimpered at how quickly he’d been dismissed. “I’ll guide him back to you once you rest as well. Do you remember me, Metalark?”

“Maybe not like you remember me, Your Majesty,” I answered.

He blew out a scoff. “I hope you never feel the need to call me that again. I’m going to give you a very specific dream so you remember your first trip to Serian.” His gaze down at me glimmered with a constellation of gentle stars. “You were three. But trust me, no one in my pack has forgotten you.”

Before I could ask how that was possible, or how I could’ve possibly made such a strong impression almost two decades ago, he nudged me too and sent my mind into the relief of dreaming sleep.

25

LARK

“First, you should see this,”Thalas whispered before the dream fully formed.

It was one of his memories. Somehow, I could sense that, like his presence in the room was a little firmer than the other fae. I stood behind his seat at a circular table, where seven fae ate and laughed together through a generous dinner. Queen Nemensia gave her full attention to another nixie seated to her right. She was smaller and daintier than the queen, but considering how Nemensia’s presence commanded a room, it wasn’t hard to seem little next to her.

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