You worry you can't belong amongst the fae.
“What if it breaks me? What if staying here…trying to fit into this place isa mistake?”
All the strength and magic to stand on your own is there within you.
No one can take that from you.
“Everyone has always seen me as less than what I am. King Ardyn couldn’t love me, Agan couldn’t bring himself to understand me…Because maybe they both knew what I was.”
It is their loss to never know your strength.
Do not carry that with you here—release it.
My fae heritage revealed a side of me too raw for me to accept. Everyday felt like I was pretending to be something I wasn’t—pretending I fit in when I didn’t. Pretending Lioran could have feelings for me, when maybe the truth was, he didn’t.
Fear hovered over me; it controlled my thoughts—controlled every word I said. A part of me was still the hurt little girl, looking up at her father, begging for love he could never give.
I was her still—always looking for someone to approve of me.
That life, that hurt, lingered even after I left it. Maybe it always would. I never sat with it, never truly felt it until now.
If I continued to live in that story, it would break me.
It was time to change it all—to rewrite it.
To breathe, to run—to embrace everything that made me, me.
If Lioran couldn’t see it, or Fyn, or Cora…then I would accept it.
At least I would see me.
Chapter 16
Agolden sliver of sunlight gleamed on the horizon. Gaia whinnied as I gripped her saddle. My hand settled in her silky mane. He wouldn’t want me out here alone, but this morning I slipped out unnoticed.
Gaia’s hooves pelted the ground as I commanded her—we darted down the path toward the forest edge.
Pyrran enjoyed taunting Lioran too much. If their parents didn’t know I was here already, Pyrran would be sure to tell them.
Gaia slowed to a stop—her ears bent backward.
A chill rushed through my veins. The land was quiet, but I felt its ache course through me.
My eyes scanned the edge of the forest, until I saw it. Cracks etched into the bark of an old oak tree. Pigment drained from its limbs. Its leaves had fallen. Not from a change in the weather, but something more desperate.
I dismounted.
As I gripped the bark a solemn hum crescendoed, slicingthrough the silence. Moisture leached from my palm into the tree.
Magic slipped from my fingertips. Its light circled the tree. As I gave, my body grew weaker—my grip slipping with it.
Then I felt it—the same steady energy I felt at the willow. I couldn’t see Lioran, but his magic called to mine. It strengthened mine.
He ran up behind me and placed his hands around the oak, around my hands. Our golden light wove together—it encompassed the tree.
The cracks shifted beneath our touch until no trace of them remained. A simmer of heat flickered through the onyx.
He struggled to catch his breath. “You shouldn’t be here alone.”
