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This is where I’d come from. There was no mistaking it.
I just…didn’t want to accept it.
“We should prepare,” the man said.
His wife pouted and bounced me on her hip. “I don’t want to. I want to stay here with my family. Do we really have to entertain a foreign emissary tonight?”
“As much as I would like to stay here and enjoy my time with the two greatest loves of my life, I fear we have no other choice.” He ran a hand along his wife’s hair. “We need to discuss options for our daughter’s future. Her hand in marriage can assure a peaceful future for everyone.”
The woman scowled, her upper lip curling in disdain. She quickly turned and set me down onto a pile of pillows so she could drag her husband away. Still, I could hear their hushed whispers in the corner.
“They do not want an arranged marriage,” the woman hissed.
Her husband gently gripped her upper arms. He rubbed his thumbs along her ivory skin. “The Unseelie have promised. Their intentions are clear.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Then why are they sendingher? The Unseelie are not sending their princeling. They have sent my devious cousin, Beryl.”
Beryl? I’mrelatedto her? I mean, it made sense, but I still didn’t like the idea of it. The thought of shared blood between the two of us made my stomach turn.
“She wants to take my position,” the woman continued. “She has been jealous of me since the very beginning. Our parents were siblings who went separate ways. Her mother went to the Unseelie while mine went to the Seelie. She has never forgiven me for that, or for the position it has afforded me.”
Her husband gently tucked his bent knuckle beneath her chin. “No one can take this life from you. I will make sure of it. You are safe here with me, my darling. Nothing may hurt your or our daughter here.”
A broken promise. It would curdle between the two of them. I could already feel it coming. Beryl would arrive and take everything from them, breaking the King’s promise to his Queen.
Poison curdled in my stomach. I scowled. I’d thought it was the unsettling revelation of my kinship with Beryl, but this was more than that. Queasiness washed over me. It rose up and dragged me down into the darkness. I tumbled away from the memory and found myself scrabbling to get back.
A frantic need to return hit me in the gut. I cried and screamed for the world and family that a lost part of me desperately missed. There was still so much more that I needed to remember, more that would give me the answers I needed.
But I was dying.
I’d consumed too much poison.
Shit.
This hadn’t worked the way I’d wanted. My lungs turned feeble. My heart slowed. The poison turned my body off. What would happen when I died? Would I fade away? Would I turn to ash and fly away on the wind?
Rhoan
I crashedthrough the in-between and barreled through Cerridwen’s living room. She was slumped on the kitchen floor just like the little ferret promised. Alcohol sang through my veins and made the room wobble, but the moment I saw her, it all bled away.
I dropped to my knees and tapped her cheek. I didn’t want to slap the poor woman, but when she didn’t respond, I was sorely tempted. My heart thundered in wild fear. I couldn’t lose the last member of the family I’d sworn to protect.
“She did this to herself,” the ferret said with disdain.
Jars were scattered all across the countertop. I recognized most of them, and all were mildly poisonous on their own. Together, they created a concoction that would tear through her body. Thankfully, she was fae. This shouldn’t kill her.
Shouldn’t…
I spun on him. “You let her do this?”
He puffed up, clearly aggravated. I was going to aggravate his ass across the room for allowing this.
You know what? I gave in to my anger and snatched the rodent off the floor. With a flick of my wrist, I tossed him across the room. Like a cat, he would land on his feet. Or not. I didn’t give a fuck.
“Cerridwen,” I said softly. Then I recalled her request the night before. “Cerri. Come on. Come back to us.”
My heart stuttered. Her pretty pout was turning blue. I had to wake her up.
