Page 15 of A Promise of Peridot
But Kane merely scowled.
“Why did you agree to marry our daughter if you only planned to humiliate her?” Queen Isolde pressed.
I was still reeling from the prince’s comment. Maybe the entire Kingdom of Citrine knew of the Fae Realm? But how could that knowledge never have spread to the rest of the continent?
“You can do with me whatever you wish,” Kane said, ignoring her question. “But do not punish these people for my mistakes. The kind of evil we are up against threatens to destroy every mortal soul. What Eryx has yet to inform you is that King Gareth and KingThales are allied with my father. Surely, you won’t let your pride stand in the way of all the lives in Evendell?”
Queen Isolde’s face gave nothing away. Nothing but that splintering rage in her stark eyes. But King Broderick—all I could hope was that he might save this rapidly deteriorating situation. He took his wife’s hand in his, though she wriggled against the gesture.
“Personal feelings aside, we cannot risk our kingdom’s safety. You may stay here for the night, but we insist that you all leave tomorrow.”
No, no no—
What now? I couldn’t bring Leigh and Ryder back to Onyx, knowing Lazarus might be waiting for us. And I knew too little about the rest of the continent to even fathom which other kingdoms might offer safety.
Kane persevered. “I may have wronged your family, but—”
The queen’s voice was piercing. “Humiliated. Devastated our daughter—”
“I know.” Kane’s eyes were severe. He was done begging. I swallowed hard. “Give me a private audience to convince you both. What I have to say will be worth your time.”
Before his wife could sink her claws into Kane once more, King Broderick said, “Fine.”
6
kane
It had been six years since I was last in Azurine, yet the throne room was just as manicured and glitzy as I remembered. Not really my style—I preferred my décor to have a bit more depth to it—but if opal and gold accents on every single door handle and candlestick worked for them, who was I to judge?
Whathadchanged was the way both Broderick and Isolde regarded me. As if I were an asp in their garden. The last time I was in their throne room was the night before I planned to wed their daughter, and the royal couple were drunk with bubbled wine, cheering to the union of our kingdoms, dining on giant crab and the roasted tentacles of purple squids.
Their energy today was slightly different.
“All right, Kane. Spit it out.”
Broderick looked supremely bored sitting on his gilded throne. And I didn’t blame him. He had a kingdom that couldn’t be breached. He didn’t need to aid our suffering or put any of his people in danger. If I were in his shoes, I likely wouldn’t, either. Whichmeant I’d need to convince him and Isolde the way I would need to be convinced.
“Firstly,” I started, looking around at the throne room, empty save for the three of us and their single, exquisitely armored guard. “Among friends—” I winced at the queen’s expression. Fine, perhaps notfriends.“What do you already know?”
“We know about the girl,” Isolde said. “Thehealer.That she is the last true Fae from the prophecy.”
Arwen was in enough danger as things stood. The thought of anyone knowing who she really was made my hackles rise, familiar along my spine as if I were in my dragon form.
I reminded myself that Citrine royalty had always known of the Fae Realm. Many of the people of Citrine were Mer, a race bred in the depths of the ocean itself. The royals were mortal, but their people—those who could live and breathe underwater with no spells at all—were the lifeblood of their kingdom and had ancient knowledge of Lumera.
Citrine wasn’t the only kingdom that knew about my homeland. I had my suspicions about the Pearl Mountains knowing of the Fae, too. It didn’t seem possible that the floating city—so focused on the pursuit of knowledge and the worship of the sacred Stones—was entirely unaware of Lumera, but I had never been able to get a straight answer from their ruler, Yervan. And I had no interest in spilling my secrets if he was unwilling to share his.
Aside from Pearl, and my father bringing Garnet and Amber into the fold, for many, many years it was just Citrine, Onyx, and Peridot who knew of the Fae Realm, and thus, the prophecy.
When I arrived in Onyx fifty years ago, I had narrowly escaped a rebellion gone catastrophically wrong and had promised safety to hundreds of Fae. At the time, King Oberon held the Onyx throne,but the wily, liver-spotted man was in his nineties and near death. He was childless, and rumors of civil war were brewing. He had hoped it would be one of his brothers who succeeded him, but he had outlived them all, the old rascal.
I told him of my realm and convinced him of its legitimacy with my lighte. Shared with him the lengths to which I was willing to go to dethrone and kill my father once and for all. And while all I asked for was safe refuge for my people, he had offered me his kingdom instead. He said I was a prince in my own right, and it was time I became a king. Three months later he passed away, and we told the land I was his bastard son.
One of the few lessons of any value my father taught me was to only make one or two allies you can truly count on. Too many, and someone was bound to betray you; too few, and you’d have no support. To the credit of Eryx’s far more brilliant heir, Amelia, Peridot and Onyx formed exactly such an alliance.
About eight years ago, when Amelia was only nineteen, she invited the young king of Onyx to Siren’s Cove without even asking her father’s permission. Amelia had laid out very clearly why our kingdoms were valuable to each other, from our proximity to our crop disparity. Both a partnership and genuine friendship were born from there, and revealing my Fae heritage came only a few years later.
Citrine was my next—and last—attempt at an alliance. Once I met Broderick and Isolde and realized they had secrets of their own, I shared with them my hope of freeing the Fae Realm. They didn’t balk—it was a realm they had been aware of for decades. Longer than I had even known of them.
