Page 135 of Fated or Knot

Elion wasn’t all that different from my memories either, still a noble fae with noticeable dapples patterning his gray skin. Of the whole royal pack, he was the only one wearing a crown. Itwas understated, resembling golden maple leaves growing from a gilded circlet.

His blue-green hair was long on one side, past the collar of his fine suit, and three braids were spaced through it. The first was thicker, with a length of curly, darker blue hair woven into it. The middle braid had several jeweled rings hanging from it at even intervals, and the last one swung out of my line of sight as he turned his yellow gaze my way.

“Daughter,” he said. Stars, his approval felt like being enveloped in a warm hug. I perked up under his attention. “Welcome home. All of us wanted to share in this moment with you.”

Theodred spoke after him with a voice like a growl, a deep and roughened counterpoint to the kelpie king’s cordiality. “And to ensure no more jokes of war crimes are made.”

“My queen may wish for a certain Seelie farm town to disappear in a ball of fire. Who are we to deny her?” Rennyn said, exaggerating a shrug.

“You’re making our kids nervous,” Thalas said in a warning tone.

He probably meant they were makingmenervous. Why would Nemensia want Osme Fen to burn up? While it hadn’t been perfect and my memories of it were now tainted with reality, it was still populated by hardworking farmers and their families. I wondered what they were doing in Cymora’s extended absence. Hopefully they had a party and put someone else in charge.

“All right. Theo was going to do the honors,” Nemensia said over Rennyn, who had his lips parted to make another remark. She reached over and took my free hand, pressing it between her palms.

The redcap king drew a knife from his belt and offered in hilt-first to Tormund. “I am content to see the results,” he said.

Tormund hesitated before taking the weapon and flashing a grimace toward his father.

“I get to free you, li’l bird,” he said in his too-gentle way when he didn’t want to startle me. He made his way around the furniture and the crowd of alphas. Marius shifted out of his way with his brows knit in the beginnings of a scowl. But he suppressed any other hint of discontent, probably because he stood beside his mother.

My redcap mate knelt in front of my legs, not quite meeting my eyes. I swallowed, feeling my insides knot up. Had I done something wrong? I still wasn’t sure why things between us had become so awkward.

“Be careful?” I suggested. This was before he repositioned my cast so my leg was extended and showed me the knife. It was shaped for this purpose, no thicker than my knuckle, with a dull side to protect skin. I nodded to him with a smile of encouragement.

He cut into the cast from there. It parted with minimal sawing, and he eased it off my leg. I held my breath as it slid away to reveal an intricate wrap of condensed essence. It was black with silver sparks, Thalas’s magic, and the winged fae nudged Tormund out of the way and knelt to take his place.

“Moment of truth. If there’s any hint of essence bleeding from you, you’ll need to go back into a cast.” He took hold of the edge of his essence.

Kauz leaned over to rest his hand on my shoulder. The softest of growls lifted from him when Rennyn mirrored the movement on my other side, and the dark elf king laughed, sounding genuinely amused.

I tried to tune them out and held on to Fal and Nemensia as Thalas slowly unwrapped my leg. Prickles of itchiness hit my exposed skin, which was visibly dry. I’d had an itch hiding underthe cast fordays, and it felt a bit like pain as I forced myself to let him finish before I set my claws upon myself.

Thalas tugged when he reached the top of my ankle, revealing a new scar shaped vaguely like a diamond, or the first spike of the silencing band. He leaned in to inspect it for a moment before continuing to unwrap my foot. My chest froze each time the dream warden king stopped to look more closely at me.

“Breathe, kid,” Rennyn murmured, squeezing my shoulder.

More murmurs of encouragement rose from the group as my foot came free inch by inch, until I was wiggling and spreading my toes with a sigh of relief. My foot looked…normal, not like the swollen and unsightly mess I’d been tricked into thinking it resembled. A pattern of scars wrapped around it, matching the spikes of theolcanusthat’d once been there.

“Your wounds scarred up nicely. You should be able to put weight on your foot,” Thalas said.

But could I walk? My palms were damp with nerves as he indicated that I stand. The room seemed to hold its breath as everyone moved out of the way and I put my weight on both feet. Thousands of instances of agony flashed in my mind’s eye from moments just like this one, when theolcanusdug into my foot and restricted my ankle.

But that awful chain was gone, and so was the pain. I took a step and wobbled. My body was used to compensating, and my ankles were stiff from disuse. Then I took another and another, my gait smoothing out. It didn’t hurt. If anything, I wanted to skip and jump and run around like I hadn’t been free to do in years. Iwastruly free, mind and body alike.

I cupped my hand over my lips to muffle a sudden sob, all too aware of my audience watching. While I didn’t want to cry in front of the royal pack, there was no helping the tears of joy that leaked free. Marius caught and crushed me in a hug a momentlater, letting me hide my face in his chest and get some of my composure back.

“My legs work,” I murmured, echoing one of the first things I’d said to him.

He chuckled and ran his fingers through my hair. “With a bit of therapy, you’ll do more than walk. I volunteer to massage your feet,” he murmured back.

I glanced up at him, batting my wet lashes. I already knew what to ask that would further echo that conversation, which felt like years rather than weeks, ago.You’d do that for me?He’d responded with the full blast of his grumpy demeanor. With that and the doormat comment, it’d been a lot of angry Marius all at once.

How times changed. Now he was covertly rubbing away the evidence of any tears on my cheeks and looking at me like I was the only fae in this room. His ear flicked as he caught the direction of my thoughts. “I’d do anything for you,” he said to the unspoken question.

The roughened texture of his thumb lingered on my cheek. Something shifted behind his eyes, some emotion I couldn’t place, and before I could ask, I was being beckoned to. Nemensia stood a few feet away, her arms out. “Finally,” she said.

I gave Marius one last glance before stepping away and walking into her hug with more stiff steps.

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