Page 26 of Fates Fulfilled
“She will live,” Zirel agreed.
“Are you sure?” Lex said. “Because now that I think about it, I feel like crap.” She rubbed her temples and looked around, her gaze landing on her mother again. “Mom, what is going on? You were dead.” Her voice quavered. “I saw it, didn’t I? The avalanche? But Jas said I wasn’t there…” She shook her head as though confused.
“Not dead,” Isle said. “Sleeping, one could call it, until I was reunited with you and Jasper.” She looked around. “Where is he?”
Lex sent Garrin a cynical look.
“I left him in the Earth realm,” Garrin admitted.
Isle dropped her daughter’s hand and stood. “You what?”
Both Lex and Isle were intent on making him explain himself. It was an odd experience. “We sought the prophesied one, and Jasper got in the way.”
Isle moved close enough that her toes nearly touched his. He cocked his head, curious at her temerity. “I don’t care whose son you are.” She pointed at him. “How dare you take my child from her guardian?”
“Guardian?” Lex said, trying to stand and getting nowhere. “Uncle Jas?”
“Not your uncle,” Isle said, still staring at Garrin. “That was what Jasper told you until I could return. With your powers…it was safest to hide you.”
Lex’s face tensed. “I don’t have powers! Andyoushould have stayed with me, Mom. Do you know how awful things have been?”
Isle flinched, and Garrin did too. He was partly responsible for her troubles. “No one suffers more than a mother kept from her child,” Isle replied. “The king came after me, but not before I had Jasper hide you until I could return.”
Garrin paced nearby. “Why would my father do this? It is madness.”
“Yes, it is,” Isle agreed. “Your father is an evil man, Dark Prince.”
Zirel’s eyes sharpened. He was fully clothed now, though much like his shirt, his coat was torn in several places. He must have attempted to lengthen the durable Fae fabric by tearing it. “The prince deserves your respect, madam.”
Isle’s smile was bitter. “Indeed? What do you know of the son of Casone?” She scanned Zirel. “You are not royalty. Your magic is useful, but you do not possess our strength.”
“I have fought and bled alongside our prince as he risked his life for our people’s freedom.”
Isle laughed. “The Dark Prince is fighting for your freedom, is he? Oh, that is rich.” She studied Garrin. “I wonder, have you any idea what your father is up to? He had the entire kingdom brainwashed the last time I breathed fresh air.”
Garrin sighed. For all he knew, these were the ramblings of a madwoman who’d been entombed for two hundred years.
Isle stared out at the land. “Casone couldn’t kill me without bringing down more punishment from the angels. So he did the next best thing; he entombed me in ice and made me impossible to find.” She looked at Garrin. “Your father is the Ice King, just as you will be one day.”
12
Lex was staring at Garrin in confusion, and he didn’t know how to comfort her.
“Garrin, is what my mother says true? Did your dad do this to her?”
A burning sensation filled his chest. There had to be some truth to Isle’s words, or she wouldn’t have said them. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been tasked with freeing our people. That does not sound like a king bent on harm.” Isle’s tale was filled with holes. There had to be a better explanation. “Others have fallen into the Great Ravine. Why did you not reach out to them the way you did us?”
“They weren’t my daughter, now, were they? They hadn’t her powers, and thus, they couldn’t help me, nor I them. I was as helpless as you in the ravine. Until Lex gave me back my powers.”
Isle knelt beside Lex. “Daughter, I will explain everything. For now, we must get you out of here.” She looked at Garrin. “If your father still rules Dark Fae, it is not safe for Lex to return to the kingdom. Will you risk her life at the hands of the man who imprisoned her mother?”
A pulse pounded at his temple. No—no, he would not.
“Garrin doesn’t care about me,” Lex said, rubbing her eyes as though the whole conversation had exhausted her. “He dragged me here because of some power he thinks I have.”
Lex had been unconscious while Isle and the others had used her powers. She had no idea of what she was capable.
And she was wrong about him not caring. But he’d taken her from her land and forced her somewhere she never wanted to be. Why would she believe anything he said?
