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For a moment, she couldn’t do it. The tears had started and she couldn’t stop them. “You’ll hate me.”
“I could never … I won’t … I don’t get this.”
She closed her eyes and transformed. The dress sort of fit her though it was much tighter in the bodice. As Rosamunde, she had bigger breasts than Aralynn.
Stone’s mouth fell agape. He looked her up, then down, then back up. He took a step away from her. “What does this mean?”
“I’m Queen Rosamunde and I’m Aralynn, the wolf-shifter. I’m both women. Davido came to me a year ago and showed me that I was capable of being both persons. He then taught me how to use my powers and become Aralynn. He said ‘Aralynn’ would have an important role to play in the war against my aunt. My cousin, Lorelei, has a similar ability.”
“Fuck. Me.” He took another step back, his hand to his gut. “But this isn’t possible. Aralynn is nothing like Rosamunde …” No other words followed.
Rosamunde remained silent and very still, giving Stone time to adjust to this new reality. Her only movements involved swiping at the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing down her cheeks.
Finally, he shifted to sit down on the side of the bed. “You’re Rosamunde? All this time? But what the hell kind of trick was this to play on me? How? Why? What the holy fuck did you think you were doing? Sweet Goddess, all this time.” His gaze fell to the rumpled sheets. “And I made love to you last night.”
“That’s the selfish part because I didn’t want you to know. I knew how you felt about ‘Rosamunde’.” Goddess help her, she did air quotes. “Then once you kissed me in the mine out at Charborne, I was lost. And if you remember, I was trying to tell you even then, but Margetta showed up. Then at Joseph’s, you needed my blood and everything got out of hand so fast and, oh, Stone, I couldn’t help myself. I’ve wanted you so badly, almost from the first time you came to the castle.
“And I’ve loved being Aralynn and battling beside you. For the first time in my life I was doing something, actually doing something real and tangible. I mean besides holding the veil of mist intact. I always knew how important that was, but when Vojalie and Davido came to the castle—”
“Wait. Then they both know who you are and what you’ve done? About this ruse?”
“You can’t blame either of them. Keeping my identity a secret is on me alone. I knew your opinion all too well.”
“Your aunt is Margetta.”
“Yes. Lorelei, Mastyr Seth’s woman, and I are cousins.”
He shaded his face with his hands. “You left Ferrenden Peace to heal Lorelei. I remember.”
“It’s the only time in recent history I’ve left my kingdom. Even then, Davido took my place to support the mist as best he could. But she would have died without my healing efforts.”
“If you healed Lorelei, why didn’t you heal me? Why did Kaden have to do it?”
“Stone, your wound was beyond anything I could have treated. Your liver was destroyed and part of your intestines. I got you back to Ferrenden Peace, but Kaden saved your life, or at least he restored your body and apparently my blood cleansed you of the poison.”
His mossy-green eyes appeared as though she’d crushed him. He’d never looked more hurt. “I just don’t understand how you could have done this.”
“It was utterly and completely selfish. I … I knew once you learned the truth you’d never forgive me for the deception, so I chose to have one night with you. And it was amazing and beautiful and everything I’d always wanted with you.
“But I know what you think of me.” She couldn’t continue.
She moved to sit down on the tall chair opposite the bed. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
~ ~ ~
Having learned of Rosamunde’s existence in recent years, and knowing that she had sufficient power to create a veil of mist around Ferrenden Peace, Stone had believed from the outset she’d used the Nine Realms badly. Any person with that much power, could have fought Margetta with her own two hands. For the Goddess’s sake, she’d put both Mastyr Seth and Mastyr Quinlan in stasis so the men didn’t kill each other.
From the time he’d learned she had stasis ability, which to his knowledge no other realm-person did, he’d become convinced she was the one person who could have made a difference in the war against Margetta. And she could have done it a long, long time ago.
Despite that she sat across from him weeping into her hands, he still believed he was right about her, that she had the innate ability to defeat Margetta if only she’d put her mind to it. That she hadn’t made the effort resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of realm-folk who had died because of her indolence, including his own adopted troll parents.
Even now, with the undeniable proof that she could be both Aralynn and Rosamunde right in front of him, he was convinced more than ever that he was right about her.
“You should have been straight with me, Rosamunde, from the first. Why didn’t you tell me you were Aralynn when you first came to the Com Center? Hell, I probably would have come around right away since you were finally doing something, just as you said. You’d gotten off your ass at long last.”
At that, she rose from the chair and went into the bathroom. He heard her blowing her nose.
When she returned, she moved straight up to him. “You’re wrong. That’s all I can say. You’re fucking wrong, Stone. I’m not indolent or uncaring. Every fae part of me knows that I don’t have enough essential power to battle Margetta, not even when I access the elf-lord power. In fact, all I’ve really accomplished where she’s concerned is that I can outfly her, thank the Goddess.
