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Not right now. Vojalie blinked more than usual and held her hands in tight fists. Even her breathing was erratic.
“It’s about Stone. He’s in terrible danger, which means our world is as well. I don’t know how to say this, but I’ve seen one version of the future in which he bonds with Margetta.”
Rosamunde gasped, her hand flying to her chest, just over her heart. “What? No. That can’t happen. I won’t let it.”
“I know you’ll do everything you can but the surest way to avoid it is if you bond with him. And I don’t think I need to tell you what happens if Stone falls to Margetta.”
Dizziness assailed her as well as a fae certainty that Vojalie had translated her vision accurately. “I know. I feel it was well, that the Nine Realms will be lost for a thousand years.”
“Exactly. And most everyone we know and love will die within the first decade of her reign.”
Rosamunde turned slightly then sank into a tall wing-back chair to the right of the window. She closed her eyes. She was weary from the events of the night and all she wanted right now was a good day’s sleep.
Now the pressure for her to bond with Stone was stronger than ever.
But after so many centuries of isolation and service as the queen, Rosamunde’s temper spiked. She rose once more and faced the powerful fae. They were both tall women so she met her eye-to-eye. “How can you lay one more burden on me? Have I not done enough, sacrificed enough, suffered enough through the years? Must the fate of the entire Nine Realms also lay on my shoulders? Must I bond myself to a man who despises me?”
Vojalie shook her head. “Again, you need to talk this through with him, to help him understand that he’s completely mistaken about your natural ability. And on what exactly does he base his summation of your powers?”
“Do you remember when I first met Mastyr Quinlan and Mastyr Seth? And that Quinlan had brought his woman, Batya, to the castle along with Margetta’s daughter, Lorelei?”
“I remember. Was Stone there?”
“No. But he heard about how I’d put both mastyrs in stasis because they were about to kill each other over Batya. She hadn’t yet bonded with Quinlan and Seth was drawn to her. I froze them in the air.”
At that, Vojalie smiled. “Right. I taught you that trick.”
“But I was only able to do it because of the elf-lord power and it hurt like anything though I made sure no one saw the pain I was in. Because of this, Stone seems to believe that I have so much ability that I could have taken on Margetta at any time over the past thousand years. And as I’ve said before, as Aralynn I tried to explain the truth to him, but you know how stubborn Stone can be.”
Vojalie chuckled softly. “Men.”
“And I have too many secrets. You know I do.”
“I know. And it doe
sn’t help that Davido has sworn you to secrecy about his own involvement in Stone’s life. But the time for revelation on that front is coming soon. Never fear.”
“But don’t you see that when Stone knows that I’ve been party to the secret, he’ll resent me for not telling him?”
Vojalie seemed to relax a little, though she suddenly appeared very sad. The light in her eyes had dimmed. She stepped forward and settled her hand on Rosamunde’s shoulder. “I apologize for laying this on you because you’re right. The fates have not been kind to you and I can see now how deeply complicated your relationship with Stone is because of these secrets. I know him as well. He will hate the restraint, the lies, the deceptions. All of it.
“I also think until this moment I didn’t quite understand what you were up against. The worst, of course, has to be Margetta’s visions and the terrible burden you’ve born because of them.”
Rosamunde shuddered. The truth of what she’d endured because of Margetta was the hardest part of her life. Only Vojalie and Davido knew what she’d suffered over the centuries at the Ancient Fae’s hands.
Margetta had a way of sending her very specific visions designed to cause Rosamunde tremendous distress. In each vision, Margetta would show her exactly what she intended to do within the next few minutes of the vision and it always involved death. The same words would accompany the vision: Respond to anyone telepathically, dear Rosamunde, and these lives will be spared.
The message had a specific meaning that Rosamunde understood very well. If Rosamunde so much as whispered to another individual with her pathing ability, Margetta would be able to get a fix on her position and teleport straight to Rosamunde. Once within Ferrenden Peace, Margetta would have complete access to the elf-lord power.
Yet each time Rosamunde held her ground, refusing to deliver the warnings of impending tragedy, Margetta would make good on the visions. Hundreds of realm-folk had died because Rosamunde had refused to give up her location and therefore access to the elf-lord power. She knew she’d saved tens of thousands of lives in the process, but the inevitable attacks slayed her soul every single time.
The catalog of these terrible events went as far back in Rosamunde’s history as she could remember, so far back that Rosamunde knew of the slaughter of Stone’s adopted parents before the event happened. She therefore could have warned Stone of the impending attack and he could have saved his mother and father from being killed. And that was one of dozens of terrible visions Margetta had laid out for Rosamunde over the centuries with the purpose of torturing her into giving up her location.
Vojalie and Davido knew of the visions and Vojalie would counsel Rosamunde whenever the ensuing tragedies became too great for Rosamunde to bear.
She turned to look out the window that overlooked the eastern part of her kingdom. The castle bedroom was at least three stories in the air and because the entire structure was perched on a higher elevation, she could see the town laid out before her to the south, lights twinkling, and troll laughter drifting along the air currents. She remembered vividly Quinlan, Batya’s and Lorelei’s visit and how much she’d envied the way Quinlan had already become devoted to Batya.
Now Stone was devoted to Aralynn. She put a hand to her chest again. She felt the new heaviness that indicated her heart had already increased its blood supply for him.
