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“What else?”
“What else? She told me stories of Scotland. I remember her rocking me while regaling me with tales of the beauty of it. Sometimes she’d tell me about the Fae. It doesn’t matter, she was there, then she was gone.” The bitterness that I keep locked away in the deepest corners of my mind tries to break free, but I push it back down. “Whatever. She has nothing to do with anything.”
“If that was true, then you would not be lashing out with such anger.”
“I’m not angry,” I yell and rise to my feet. “Not about her at least. I’m angry about this. This place. This situation. You. All I want is a chance to explore these feelings with Duncan. I—”
“You what?”
My mouth moves but the word won’t come. It’s so hard to admit it. I love him. I can’t, by any logic in the universe, love him, but I do. The way he makes me feel like I’m special. The way he looks at me, even when he’s being a stubborn ass and not listening.
“I think I love him.”
The Queen nods then she laughs which sounds like sleigh bells bouncing across a winter field.
“The choice is yours, Destroyer,” she says, wiping a glistening tear from her eye. “As it always is. As it always will be. You can go back, you can try to save him, but to do so you must drink.”
Watching her as she nonchalantly waves at the spread of food and treats, I replay the conversation in my head. Something about it sticks in my mind.
“Why did you ask about my mother?”
“You need to make your choice.”
She motions at the table once again but now I notice she’s the one not meeting my eyes. She’s avoiding the question.
“No, wait. You asked about my mother. Why? What do you know about her?”
She places one delicate, impossibly white finger over her rosy lips and makes a shh sound.
“Hush, child. Even here, the darkness is listening.”
Chills crawl down my spine and I look around, trying to identify the creeping sensation but there’s nothing visible. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being watched now that she has called attention to it.
“What do you mean?”
She only smiles in answer.
“You can save him,” she says. “Maybe, but your opportunity is slipping away.”
“If I eat or drink, the story says I’ll be bound to the Fae realm. Is it true?”
“Are you not already bound to us?”
“Can you not ever answer a simple question? Is everything a question back?” I move closer to her until I’m right up in her face. “I can’t make a decision without knowing the truth.”
“Truth is simplicity. A simplicity you are not ready for.”
“Cryptic. Great. Does it tie me to you?”
She smiles and nods. “You are already bound to us but yes, it will strengthen your ties to the fae.”
“Then what?”
“You are the Destroyer, Quinn. The choice is, and always will be, yours.”
“And if I do this, can I save him?”
“I did not say that.”
