AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"What?" he asks, no anger in his voice, just curiosity.
"I'm just continually surprised by how different your people seem to be from ours."
"Really?" His gaze is open as he looks at me. "How so?"
"I don't know." I rub the back of my neck, suddenly nervous. Things are going well between all of us for once. I don't want to say the wrong thing and destroy this hard-earned peace. And yet, I need to explain. "I feel like I don't have any life skills in comparison to you." I laugh, a little uncomfortable. "Growing up, my family were the most powerful of fae. We had property everywhere. We went to important functions. We had important guests to impress. I never had to learn things like cooking, cleaning, and sewing."
To my relief, Dusk doesn't seem insulted. "Our world is very different. Yours has a lot of strange things... technology, they call it. Things our people don't have. Whereas our world relies more on magic. We're just as likely to go out hunting with bows and arrows as we are to throw wild parties and invite the neighboring royalty."
I smile. "We're equally weird. We're just as likely to watch TV as we are to create strange spells under a full moon."
Dusk laughs.
I laugh too.
It's nice.
Dusk reaches forward and stirs the cooking stew for a minute before returning to his sewing. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
He hesitates, then seems to decide to go for it. “How did you meet Ann?”
It’s an upfront question. Honest. Curious.
“At Royal Fae Academy.”
He frowns. "The place they kept us in cages beneath the school." A harshness flows through his words. "Those fucking fae who lured us, who got those collars on us, who enslaved us."
I wince. "If it helps, most fae had no idea that was going on. We were as surprised as you were when we realized our own people were using you as a tool to kill the dark fae."
His lips curl a bit, but then he blows out a breath. "I don't blame you. I just hope your people don't blame us for killing all those dark fae. We didn't have a choice. We would never... never--" he shudders, "kill innocents."
"We know." I pause, then clarify, "I knew. I figured it out. But I'm sure by now my sister has explained it all to our people. If we ever get back though, I'll make it clear to everyone." I realize there's a bit of a threat in my words, and I realize I'm clenching my hands into fists so I slowly release them. I don't like what the fae were doing, and some small part of me feels strange that I didn't get to finish the mission I was so dedicated to, even though my sister and my friends finished it for me.
Then, I remember what he really wanted to learn about. Ann. "But as far as Ann, we saw each other at the Royal Fae Academy and just knew that we were each other's mates. It was... not what I wanted at the time. I was researching something dark and dangerous and never wanted to involve a mate in my trouble. But with love, we don't always have a choice."
He snorts. "Like when we saw Ann. We were completely under the control of that bastard fae. And we saw Ann and just knew. We managed to ask them to break our collars off. And the second we were free, we ran, with Ann. It was the only thing we could do at that moment, but it certainly wasn't the way we wanted to meet our mate."
"Somehow it suits Ann though," I say with a little laugh. "From the moment I met her, she was like no one else in this world. She seemed so quiet and shy. She seemed to honestly see herself as some kind of wallflower. But she never was. Not just because of our mate bond, but because there was a light inside her that no one could dim, no matter how hard they might try. She seemed to think she was so lucky to have a Bloodmore, to have me as her mate, but I was the lucky one. She was just unique, special in every way. I remember the first time I saw the scars on her hands." I hesitate, realizing that this isn't my story to tell, but then push on, knowing that this bond of ours means that soon we'll all know each other's secrets. "She said that her stepfather used to give her choices. If she made the wrong one, he broke one of her fingers."
Dusk gasps, and the look on his face, it's pure shock. "Is that... is that why she struggles so much with decisions? Why this is so hard for her?"
"Part of it," I say, nodding. "I have so few scars from my childhood. My father was a cold man, but never a cruel man, even with his dark fae heart. Ann, on the other hand, has so many emotional and physical scars. So many triggers. And yet, she seems to think they're nothing. She pretends they aren't there, I think, because it would be too much for her to see herself as a victim to that bastard."
"I'm surprised the man's still alive." Dusk's voice is low, almost a growl. "I would have killed him the moment I found out."
I smile at him, a smile that's all teeth. "There are other ways to break a man than murdering him, although the temptation was there." Again, I pause, trying to decide if telling him this secret I've kept from Ann is something I should tell him. "When I learned of what he did, I sent some of my men to... talk with him. He was out of her manor that day, and I am quite certain that if he ever steps foot on the continent my Ann is on, the man's body will never be found."
Dusk looks oddly impressed. "Good."
"Ann will never have to fear him again." Then, I add, "And what he did to her... I made certain he will have a scar in every place she has a scar. Every. Single. Fucking. Place. It would have been far more satisfying if I had been the one to do it, but I did what I could."
"And her mother?"
"Her mother is a woman I... lack respect for. When the stepfather left, she returned to live in an ancestral home far from the home Ann grew up in. I always thought that when Ann and I were done at the academy, we would remain at her manor, rule from her manor, until my parents were ready to step down. Now..." Now what? If I continue to live in this world, I would never expect to return home and take my sister's place as leader of our people. I would tell my family that I'm alive, because they deserve that, but I believe I would much rather rule over Ann's people than my own. Her lands are smaller, more comfortable, and somehow seem like a place I could grow to be something incredible rather than an empire that can't grow any more. "What will happen?" I manage to ask. "If we can take your father down, will you want to return to your lands and rule?"
Dusk shakes his head. "Honestly, I haven't thought past this war. Maybe once upon a time I did, but not in a very long time."
