Page 40 of Fake Fae-Ancée

I looked down at my knees. Yeah, he had told me. But he had also once told me he’d love me forever, so what the hell what I supposed to believe now?

The Witch leaned back into the soft leather sofa, giving a discontent huff.

"Where's the tea?"

Right this second the butler returned, wheeling a tea cart into the living room, loaded with sandwiches and a giant silver samovar that gave off a beguiling scent of herbs. Yuri had also returned. His sharp gaze let my already sweltering anger bubble up some more.

"Ah, excellent." The Witch clapped her manicured hands. "It’s a lot easier for me to talk when you're eating and not interrupting. Sit down, Yuri darling. Here, have some of those salmon-thingies."

Yli-Pekkala handed a plate full of tiny sandwiches to Kalinin, who sheepishly sank down onto the other sofa and accepted it with a crumpled expression. Guilt coiled in my stomach. Kalinin was a pain in the ass, alright, but he did look beat — and not just because of his patched up arm. He had obviously drained his powers just to save my ass.

I gave myself a mental shake. No! There was no reason to pity him. And it wasn’t like I had asked him to save me or anything…

Still, the twinge abated somewhat when he popped the first sandwich into his mouth. Shifting was getting to him every time, I knew that. He was most likely on the verge of starvation.

"Well," the Witch sipped her tea, stirring the spoon in her cup. "I will give you an explanation,devushka. But I must urge you to not doubt a thing I say."

I huffed, but didn’t object, sipping on the steaming hot tea the butler had offered me.

"So, the whole business is linked to Prince Yuri’s prophecy colliding with the reign of the acting King Yegor I. Who wants to establish his own dynasty," the Witch said. "You know about the King of Bears, no? Leader of all Clans? Ruler in the North? No?"

I shrugged my shoulders, not looking at Kalinin. I knew not much about the royal house of Bears residing in Helsinki and the greater part of Northern and Eastern Europe. I’d lost interest in the entire thing the day I had found out a few facts about the man I had married in a hurry…

"But you do know that to the Clan of Bears, prophecies are very important?"

I shook my head.

"Hm," Yli-Pekkala took another sip from her teacup. "I have to spell things out, then."

"Yes, please," I gritted. Finally, some answers!

"That Ravenshifter, Nox, an assassin of the Dark Guild, has orders to prevent Prince Yuri’s prophecy being fulfilled," the Witch said. "A prophecy that involves you, Kayleen McKenn."

"Me?" I asked sheepishly.

The Witch frowned, shooting eye daggers at Kalinin. "You really didn’t tell her anything."

"It didn’t come up," he mumbled, looking down on the plate he was balancing on his knees. Didn’t come up, right. I smelled a pattern here.

"Well then. Here’s the story, my dear. When young Prince Yuri was still a boy, he was being sent to the forests. An initiation journey. All younglings of the clan have to survive for several days. Prince Yuri, however, received a prophecy."

"By whom?"

"The Saint From The Stars Above, Sankta Polina, sends each Bear a prophecy during their lifetime. The one defining thread of fate that will coin this Bear’s life from then on."

"What does it say?" I asked. And I could feel Yuri tense in his seat.

The Witch put down her cup.

"She is your queen," she said in a strangely detached voice. "She must survive."

Silence stretched through the living room. I looked from the Witch to Yuri, and back.

"A little cryptic, isn’t it?"

The Witch nodded. "For long years, nobody knew exactly what the Prince’s prophecy meant. Who she was, the woman who was to be his queen. She, who needed to survive. I myself have stewed my head over that one. And then, ten years ago, during his service in the European Army, he met you."

"Me." I put down my own cup of tea.

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