Page 16 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
I had given my mother every chance to find me and give me some shards-blasted answers, but she hadn’t yet sought me out. Hadn’t offered a single shards-damned explanation for any of it.
Her lips parted, her brows knitting together like she was prepared to speak, maybe even to stop me before I could.
“Everly—”
“I want to know about my mana,” I cut her off quickly, directing my words to my uncle instead.
If I thought it had been quiet before, it was nothing compared to the silence that fell at my words, a poisoned arrow sinking into flesh.
“To what end?” He asked after a beat.
Disbelief flooded through me. To what end??
“It meant enough to have me tortured for weeks on end but now matters so little that it’s below your notice?”
He sighed, sitting back in his chair.
“It’s past time you let that go,” he gently chided, as if I were little more than a petulant child. “We all do what we must. Had your mother been forthright, there would have been no need to go to such measures.”
My mother’s hand clenched around her fork in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. The Thane tracked the motion, but continued on as though he hadn’t.
“As it stands…now that we know you have mana, that the Shard Mother has not cursed you, that will be enough.”
“Enough for who?” Certainly not for me.
“For a potential match, obviously.” He waved his hand dismissively and returned to his meal, as if the conversation was over.
My ring seared into my skin, like the very notion was offensive to it. All of the sudden, too many pieces came tumbling into place.
Why he had wanted me to come willingly.
Why it didn’t matter that I was a Hollow in practice, as long as I wasn’t one in truth.
Because Hollows could only breed Hollows, but my child would be perfectly normal—for a Seelie abomination, anyway.
Was it a small price to pay, knowing you had stolen the bride of the Frostgrave King? Unseelie only mated with their own kind, but there were plenty of Skaldwing clans in the Wilds. Had the others bid on the right to own me?
“I can’t match with anyone,” I bit out, trying to quell the unreasonable panic rising in my chest. “The bond can’t be broken.”
“All marriage bonds can be broken,” my mother cut in, her tone reassuring.
“No, this one is different,” I assured them.
My uncle scoffed through a mouthful of charred meat and root vegetables. “Who told you that?”
“Draven did.” As soon as I said the words, I heard how they sounded, even before my mother’s gaze filled with something close to pity, my uncle’s with scorn.
But I felt the veracity in my soul.
I am many things, Morta Mea, but I have never once lied to you.The ring would have vibrated if that had been a lie.
Whatever else he was, Draven was not a liar. Could not have been.
“You don’t understand?—”
“That’s enough, Everly. You might have fled from your duty once before, but you’re old enough now to know better.”
An anger like I never knew before flared to life. All I saw was red, the color of flames. The color of my blood staining the floor and the mage’s pristine robes.
