Page 41 of Fated Unkindness
“What are you saying?” She trembles as she pushes back to get a better view of me.
“The parents you grew up with, the family you grieve. They are not of your blood, Raelle. They may be parents and a brother to you, but not in the way you’ve been taught to believe. Your blood is not that of the Apus line.” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
“I know.” Her response is not what I expected, and my brows shoot up at her words. She smiles as she takes my face in. The warmth in her eyes forces a smile to my face as well, and as I do, she pushes her fingertips into my hairline at the nape of my neck. “I believe I’m going to have wings when I ascend, Dax; I saw it.” An elated glow paints her face as she looks deep into my soul. “We will fly together one day.” She says this as she closes the distance between our lips once more.
Chapter thirty-nine
The vision I waspulled into at the fountain was something surreal. I could sense Dax's presence there for a moment, but when the vision rippled and changed, I knew he was no longer with me. No longer able to witness what I was seeing. I was flying with my own wings. Large wings sat at my back, just like Dax’s, but they were not black like his. My wings were a beautiful, stark white with an iridescent sheen that made the feathers look as though they were glowing in the light of the eclipse. I spread them wide, catching an updraft, drifting with the wind. A freedom so sure took over my entire being. It was as if I had never lived before and was finally alive. I knew at that moment that I was a shifter, just like Dax. Agene that neither of my parents nor my brother carried. That fact should have been apparent, but I didn’t put it together until Dax spoke the words. There is no way I could be an Apus if the vision were to come true.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t mad about the fact. Confused yes, but regardless of who my biological parents were… the parents who raised me showed me love. They taught me to be compassionate and fierce, and my brother taught me wit and grit. I will always love them for what they each had given me, but I did want to know why they never told me. I wouldn't love them any less.
My bond with Dax is something I can't explain completely, but there is a pull to him in every single way I could ever imagine. In the short time we have been bonded, the energy that surrounds me, the feelings that pulse through me…Every fiber. I never thought it would be possible for me to feel this way. Especially with what I’ve been dealing with as of late. However, in times like this, when I’m in Dax’s arms with nothing but the night surrounding us, when the calm outweighs the chaos, I can truly just be…I lay in his arms, my head pressed to his chest, and I listen to the steady beat of his heart. I am growing to love a man I barely know, and while that scared me, it also enthralled me.
“What are you thinking?” He rasps, and the deepness of his voice vibrates through me.
“I want to know why my parents never told me they were not my biological parents. I want to know what family I come from.” I sit up, still straddling his lap. “I want to know what powers I am to expect when I ascend. It makes me question so many things.”
“Raelle, when I—When you said your mother’s name, Lilith. I knew, as you said it, that she could not have been your mother.My family knew Lilith. She only had one pregnancy. After the kingdom fell, she and her husband and son disappeared. Only to resurface the year before you showed up at Ravendene. I’ve not heard their names since. Not until you mentioned them to Maki. When we talked in the library last night, that is what we discussed. We have an idea of who you may descend from…” He brings his hand up to my chin, and his thumb pulls my bottom lip from being trapped under my teeth, and a coy smile surfaces on my face. “I need to concentrate on this conversation.” He smirks, and his dimple appears on his cheek, sending a jolt of heat to my core.
“Sorry.” I was not sorry. I smile, biting my lip again. His nostrils flare as he closes his eyes and smiles wider.
“You are my Queen,” he murmurs. I press my lips together, but can't stop the giggle from escaping.
“That is not a pet name I think I could get behind…” I raise an eyebrow at him teasingly, and he laughs.
“No, Raelle, you are the last living Heir. The Queen of Aldramani. The last of the fallen.” The words he speaks echo through my head. Words from the prophecy. My face falls as I realize that he's being serious.
“You think my parents are the late King and Queen of the kingdom? They died…” I trail off.
“They died the day you were born, Raelle.” He finishes my thought. “The same day the kingdom fell. You are the last of the Aberra line, not Apus.” I shake my head in denial of what he's saying. “That means you are a shifter as your father before you. Algerone Aberra was a Raven shifter as I am, Trent, Maki. You seem to have some of the gifts of either sight or empath too, possibly both. Your mother, Queen Selene, was a great seer.”
“I knowthe history, Dax.” I cut him off quietly. He stops talking and lifts my chin with his forefinger. His eyes flicker between mine, searching. “Sorry,” I whisper.
“No, you’re not.” His lips quirk up to one side. “But that’s what I love about you. Your inability to be sorry about something you are not sorry for. Your stubbornness and strength of your own mind.” He kisses my lips, then pulls away, looking into my eyes. “Among other things.” He winks. “It's your choice who knows about this. Maki has sworn his silence until I was to speak with you and know your thoughts on how to proceed.”
“How to proceed?” I ask as a frown pulls down my brow.
“Yes, you are the last living heir, and you are about to ascend Raelle. Once ascended, you would typically take the throne, as the King and Queen no longer sit upon it.” I'm shaking my head before I even realize I'm objecting to what he is saying.
“How? How do you know it's true?” I ask him.
“Many years ago, Lilith, the woman you know as your mother…”
“Sheismy mother, Dax. Blood or not,” I interrupt, my brows pulled down at his way of addressing the woman whom I've known as such my entire life. The woman I love and miss more than anything. I close my eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to keep the tears from falling.
“I know.” He squeezes at my hips gently. “ I'm sorry, I didn’t mean that she wasn't your mother—your mother came to Loema to seek aid in protecting you. I was obviously very young then, but I remember hearing my parents talk of a baby born to the king and queen on the day of their deaths. The day the kingdom fell. I never heard anything else about it, obviously, the secret was kept quiet, but when you weretwenty years old, your parents, Lilith, and her husband—your parents—noticed that your gifts were emerging and came to ask for guidance, help really... Being the eldest in the Ravendene line, I was expected to learn the ways of my father, so I was privy to such meetings, as was Maki. There was no mention of your name. Only that you were studying and that you had begun tactical training. Your parents were supposed to bring you to Loema the following year after their trip to Castenelle, where they were to secure some sort of package that the King and Queen left for you.”
“Then they died,” I say absently as I look to the stars that shine brightly above us now. The darkness of night now blankets us where we lie near the water's edge.
“I assume they didn’t want to tell you until the time was right. It was for your safety; you have to understand that. I'm sorry, Raelle.” And I know he is. I can feel it in the hum in my chest, the emotions bleeding into me. His sorrow, his pain for my own, his trepidation.
“This is so weird.” I laugh, and his eyebrows skyrocket.
“I could probably think of different words to use… but yeah… it's weird.” He chuckles, pulling me closer.
“When I saw you down in that arena…” My words trail off as I think about the vision. A slow exhale leaves me as a shudder works down my spine. “Fighting with your fire and that sinister smoke trying to consume and overpower you? I felt a fit of anger so white-hot it was all-consuming. The thought that something may happen to you… and you leave me in this world alone was agony, Dax. I could not bear it. Even with just getting to know you… again…” I smile at him. “I know in my heart that I would choose you; even if my memories are intact, I feel it in my bones.Nothing would change this feeling.” His eyes shift to the molten copper that is lit from behind, and I realize that this is something that happens only when he feels intense emotions. Like an uncontrollable reflex of his shifter nature.
“After everything you’ve learned today, you're concerned about me?” His brows draw together, and he slowly trails his hand up my spine beneath the thin training tunic, sending shivers all over my body.
