Page 54 of A Kingdom of Magic and Rain

“Yes, Adrian is a Fae,” Thea said quietly as if the low volume of her voice would make the truth any easier to bear.

A whimpering sound left me as I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor, surrounded by my skirts and my misery. At once suffocating in my cloak, I clawed at the clasp until the garment glided off my shoulders.

This can’t be happening. Was this a nightmare I needed to wake up from? I brought my trembling hands to my face and patted my cheeks to wake myself up. When the action had confirmed I wasn’t dreaming, tears rose up and forced their way out.

“I’m so sorry,” Thea rasped, dropping to her knees in front of me.

I didn’t want her apology; I wanted an explanation. My mind flashed back to my father standing on the border, resolute despite the crippling weight on his shoulders, and I channeled his strength, trying to calm my racing thoughts and my hammering heart.

“Have you been weakening the wards?” I looked at Thea, suppressing a shudder upon seeing her true form.

“Yes,” she admitted, quickly wiping away her own tears. I was perplexed by her reaction. Why was she distraught when their plan had succeeded?

“How did you get through the barrier in the first place?” I asked, trying to collect as many pieces of the puzzle as possible.

I resolved not to allow shock to override my senses, no matter what revelations came next. I would gather the information and process it as much as I could. The rest—the heartbreak, the betrayal—I would let all that truly sink in later.

“The wards have weakened enough for the strongest of us to slip through. Lady May was the first one to come over.”

“Lady May?!” I exclaimed a second before my world became muted. I was underwater…drowning. “But she has served the royal family for years!”

“She has created that illusion using magic. She is a very powerful sorceress, even by Fae standards.”

“She deceived my father into trusting her?!”

“Yes. She positioned herself in Zalie and began chipping away at the wards. When your father noticed the barrier deteriorating and asked her to move to the capital to train your brother, she agreed, not wanting to raise suspicion by refusing. Adrian passed through the wards to take her place in Zalie, and he brought his guard with him.”

“So the Fae can sense the magic of the wards… Wait, his guard? Do you mean Killian?”

She nodded. “Tom and I came over as well. We wanted to help.”

“Help,” I bit out. “You wanted to help make my kingdom susceptible to an attack.”

“We had no choice! Our kingdom is dying.”

“What do you mean it’s dying?” I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Aubrielle is bound to the royal bloodline. The king has to release the ancient magic flowing through his veins into the land, but he is killing it by doing so. Our climate has been deteriorating, with rising temperatures affecting our agriculture. We’ve struggled for years and now have barely enough harvest to feed our population.”

“But our climate is also changing,” I said, pondering what she had revealed. Emeraldia had been experiencing climate change like Aubrielle, but while my kingdom had been losing magic, the Fae kingdom had been gaining a surplus of it.

“Our king believes that invading Emeraldia will alleviate the pressure of the excess magic on our realm because then the ancient power will be dispersed over more land.”

“But that solution will be temporary,” I pointed out.

“It’s the only solution we’ve got.”

“Invasion of my kingdom is your only solution? What kind of twisted logic is that?” I spit out bitterly.

“We’re desperate.” Thea’s eyes were pleading with me to understand. She was asking for the impossible. I could never understand how overtaking one kingdom could be the only way to save another.

Using the wall for support, I rose to my feet. Thea stood up as well.

“Where am I?” I demanded, folding my arms over my chest.

“We’re in my bedroom in Vasara, the Dellari Province. This was the first place my mind conjured up when Adrian yelled to get you to safety.”

“Safety?” I scoffed. “I’m on the enemy’s territory. I’m not safe here.”