Page 67 of Silent Secrets

“We were young when we met, only in our twenties.” He shoots me a smile when I scoff, something that I’m not used to seeing on his face. He’s even more attractive when he smiles, making me wish he smiled more frequently. “Yeah, I know, you’re only twenty. Which, for a mortal, isn’t so young, but you need to remember that you’re a Fae, not a mortal. Twenty is still very young to us when we’ll live for hundreds of years. Possibly thousands in your case.”

I shrug, not saying anything. Honestly, I’m afraid that if I do say anything, he’ll remember who I am and stop telling me his story. And for whatever reason, I really want to hear it. Maybe I’m just hoping that it will help me understand him better. I can’t help but wonder if this is what Caiden was referring to when he’d said that Hunter had been hurt because of a woman in the past.

“Yana—that was her name—was a year younger than me. Her magic was very weak. She could barely move water from one place to another, but that didn’t matter to me because I loved her. But it certainly mattered to my family.”

Hunter falls silent again before laying back in the grass and staring up at the sky. I lay back beside him, but watch him instead of the sky. Emotions flit across his face as he speaks and I can’t look away. I’m desperate to understand him.

“My father demanded that I end things with her, but I refused. Not only did I refuse, but I asked Yana to marry me. She said yes, and I’d never been so happy in my life—nor have I been since then.”

A tear slides down Hunter’s cheek and obviously I know he isn’t married, so there is no way that this story has a happy ending, but I’m almost afraid to hear the ending now. What could have happened to hurt him so badly that he seems so unfeeling most of the time?

“One night she went out with some friends and she never came home. It took them weeks to find her. They found her here at the palace, right here in this very lake. They said she killed herself—just walked into the water, using her magic to drown herself.”

I gasp before I can stop myself as Hunter squeezes his eyes closed, tears streaming down his cheeks. I inch my hand across the grass until it brushes against his. He sucks in a breath and I think he’ll pull away, but instead he grabs ahold of it and clings to me.

“She had no reason to be at the palace and no reason to kill herself. She was happy.” He pauses. “We were happy. She didn’t kill herself. She wouldn’t have done that, and I don’t think her magic was strong enough for her to control the water well enough to drown herself.”

I’m not sure what to say to that. We obviously never know exactly what’s going on in anyone else’s mind, but also… he probably would’ve been the one to know best. If he thinks she wouldn’t have killed herself, then I believe him.

“So what do you think happened?”

Hunter squeezes my hand before he turns to look at me. “You should run now, Hadley. Sorlphi will blacken your soul—it will destroy you. Go now, while you still can.”

I yank my hand from Hunter’s hand and scoff, hurt and anger rising within me. How did I let myself fall for this? I know how Hunter is, and still I let him fool me. “Of fucking course. This was just another attempt to keep me from taking my crown. Was any of that even true?”

“What?” Hunter sits up as I jump to my feet, confusion written all over his face. “Of course it was. What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that I thought for once that you were trying to tell me something about yourself, something true. That you were trying to show that you weren’t actually an asshole. But then you, once again, turned it into a chance to try to force me to leave. I understand that you don’t think that I’m good enough to be the Fae Queen, but guess what? It doesn’t matter what you think.”

There’s a moment where I feel bad for accusing him of making up the story of his first love—of Yana. I know even he wouldn’t do that. Not to mention that I’d seen his pain, and that isn’t something that you can fake. At least not at that level.

But it’s there and gone within seconds as the anger pulses through me, overwriting everything else. I ignore the voice in the back of my mind, telling me I’m overreacting again.

“In less than two days, my powers will emerge and you will all see that I’m exactly who Grace thinks I am. And then I will take the throne that belongs to me—that should have always been mine. I might not have grown up in Sorlphi, but this is my home and these are my people. I will rule fairly and justly, which is more than I can say about the rulers of the past—especially over the minor courts. So you need to get the fuck over yourself and accept the fact that I’m not going anywhere.”

I stalk away, ignoring Hunter as he calls out after me. I don’t know what I was thinking, forgetting that Hunter doesn’t give a shit about me or getting to know me. Forgetting that he’s an asshole who doesn’t want me on the throne. Well, he can go fuck himself, because for the first time I actually believe my words.

I know that I’m going to be the Fae Queen. That when my powers reveal, I will have access to all four elements and prove to all of these assholes that they’re wrong about me. For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I can do this, but now I know that I can. And Hunter Valentino will not stop me.

No one is going to stop me.

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