“Right. Because they killed her parents.” He placed his palms on the wood table, his shoulders bowed as he muttered a string of curses under his breath. I would have been impressed by some of them if I wasn’t sensing the pain underlining each colorful word. “How the hell are we going to tell her that? She’s going to hate us.”
“She won’t,” I promised. “We didn’t do it.”
“You’re right. My fucking grandfather did.” He shoved away from the table to begin pacing, his long legs eating up the small space of the room quickly. When he nearly hit the wall, he turned and walked back to me, then rotated again, and did several laps while continuing to shake his head.
“She won’t blame you,” I said softly, meaning it. “She knows it’s not you.”
“You say that like you’ve already seen the outcome,” he replied, pausing to look at me. “Are you working with a Fortune Fae? Is that how you know so much?”
“Yes.” No point in hiding an obvious deduction. I just wouldn’t give him details, something he must have known since he didn’t bother to ask me for information on my source.
Instead, he looked at me and intelligently asked, “What can you tell me, Shade?”
“There’s a war coming,” I said, feeling that was pretty evident now based on everything that had already happened. “And Aflora is going to be forced to pick a side. Retribution or reformation.”
“And what side are we on?” he demanded.
“That remains to be seen,” I admitted honestly. “I’ve seen the potential for both avenues.” I realized the mistake in my wording the second his eyebrows flew upward into his hairline.
“Seen?”
Yeah, that’d be the word I shouldn’t have mentioned. Rather than reply, I remained silent. I’d already said too much.
“Explain,” he demanded.
“I can’t.” Not without risking everything. “One day, I will. I promise. But for now, I need you to trust that I have Aflora’s best interests at heart.”
“It’s hard to trust someone who is constantly hiding things and withholding important details, Shadow.”
“Just as it’s hard to trust someone related to the male who got us all into this mess to begin with,” I tossed back, tired of this bantering act. “You’ve studied Fortune Fae. You know that prophecies can change depending on the actions of others. If I touch or influence the wrong strand in the web too much, it could sever and end and land us on a completely new string of fate.”
He didn’t reply, just watched me with a tick in his jaw.
I sighed. “I’m walking a tightrope, Kols. I’m trying to help where I can without interfering too much, and it’s fucking exhausting. So rather than hold it against me, why don’t you try to have some fucking respect and workwithme? I provide hints as I go along. If you’re smart, you’ll catch them. If not…”
Then we all fail, I thought with a shrug. I knew I was being infuriating, but I had no choice. If I gave him all the answers, our destinies would be strongly impacted and all the predictions could change.
Fortune Fae weren’t supposed to interfere too heavily in the fates of other fae, and I’d plucked Aflora’s strands several times within the notorious web that dictated our destinies. My meddling had already impacted the futures for Kols and Zeph, causing their strands to cross Aflora’s in the process. It was a consequence I knew about ahead of time, having chosen to go that route anyway, but that wasn’t the point.
I’d already altered destiny several times. The more I told him, the stronger the risk that our current strand would end in the web.
And then fate would change.Again.
Which would be very bad for all of us involved.
“Tell me you care about her,” Kols said after a long, tense beat.
“I more than care about Aflora,” I replied. “She’s my reason for everything and the driving motivator for many of my decisions. And if I could, I’d take her away from this situation, but I know that’s not how any of this works. She’s a pivotal element in the future with a destiny only she can choose. And I’ll support her, even if she makes the wrong choice.”
Because that was what I was destined to do.
And the same with Kols.
“Our futures are aligned, Midnight Prince,” I told him softly. “It’s time for you to accept it, just as I have, and stop looking for who to blame in all this. Because, trust me, you won’t like what you find down that dark alley.”
“More cryptic bullshit,” he muttered.
“That’s never going to change,” I replied. “Now go home. I’ll let Aflora know we’re okay.” She’d told me about an hour agothat she was in the Human Realm with Zeph, something about heading to the park. Sounded like a date to me, which had made me smile.
