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“You say you go by Lina?” she asked, as she led me down a corridor lined with more guards who stood straighter as we passed.
“Yes, that’s what my mother called me,” I told her.
This time, I was not mistaking the fear that flickered through her eyes.
“The woman who birthed you?” she clarified, in a quiet voice.
“No,” I answered, slightly on the defensive. “My mama, the woman who raised me.”
Her lips parted, a small whoosh of air escaping them. My skin glowed a confused sort of teal at her relief.
“Not a fairy, I presume.” The corner of her lips tilted up as we rounded a corner and headed for a grand staircase. We began climbing the steps before I answered her.
“No, a human.”
Does she find that lacking?Her expression had gone blank again, and she only nodded like that was the answer she was expecting.
After leading me to a large door, she gestured, and the guards in the hall were quick to open it. We walked through, and the sound of the door closing shut behind us seemed to echo off the walls.
Surely, she wouldn’t bother to walk me to this room just to kill me, especially after she greeted me in front of all those people. In spite of the things she was supposed to have done, she didn’t quite seem evil.
“Why did you come back?” She broke the silence, abruptly.
I stopped in my tracks. Just this morning, I had thought I knew exactly why I was coming here. Now, the answer didn’t seem so clear.
“I wanted to find others like me.”I didn’t want to be alone, but somehow, I still feel that way even surrounded by my own kind.
She fixed me with another of her coolly assessing glances before speaking again.
“Do you remember your birth mother at all?” she asked.
The room was dark with a few rays of the setting sun peeking in through the windows. Flowers and vines covered the walls, making it feel as if we were back in the forest… or the meadow. I turned in a slow circle to take in the rest of the room, in awe of its utter perfection.
There was a massive wooden bed on one side, with a gauzy cream-colored canopy hanging above it, and a seating area on the other side. Every piece of furniture was made to fit someone my size. Each hand-carved or painted item practically took my breath away.
How long have I dreamed of a room that was just for me?
The queen cleared her throat, and I realized the time that passed since she asked her question.
Centaurs.
She repeated her question, more tensely this time.
“No,” I answered honestly, and she seemed to relax. “But I know that she was Queen of Ellaria.”
“She was.” She seemed to be waiting for me to go on.
“I know that she sent me away, because she feared for my life.” I forced myself to meet her eyes before I said the next part. “Because of you?”
The queen squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. “I imagine so.”
“Did she… did she have a reason to?”
“I suppose that depends on who you ask,” she said, with an unexpected gentleness.
“And what about now?” I barely got the words out.
“There is much you do not understand, Ix—Lina,” she said. “I know that you have no reason to believe me when I tell you that you have nothing to fear from me.”
