AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I loved your mother.” That gets their attention immediately. “You know that. But I respected her wishes until the end and stayed away after your father died, despite the pain that it caused me. I was angry at you because I believed you kept her from me and were an obstacle to the future I wanted—a future with her by my side. Human or fae.”
It hurts to hear him talk of Evelyn. I can’t deny that. No matter that she’s dead and he professed to love me, the lingering scar she left on him pains me too. But it’s in the past. I told them to let the past lie, so I have to do it as well. Move on. Look to the future, to the injured male pouring out the last of his heart in an effort to stop a war—to save us.
“But Wren,” he says, his arm tightening around me ever so slightly, “helped me see the error in my ways, the selfishness of my desires. She—” He pauses, staring at me, the corner of his bloodied lip lifting ever so slightly. “She saves me from the worst of myself.”
Sigurd…As if I didn’t already love him, and he goes and says something like that, which only makes my heart beat for him even more.
“I know you blame me for your father,” Sigurd continues, focusing back on Riven. “But his death is not my fault. I hesitated on the battlefield. For one brief and fleeting moment, I saw a future without him, where Evelyn was mine. But I chose to defend Lutheon. I could have been at his side sooner, but it would not have stopped the blade that ended him. He was my friend. A dear friend, and he died in my arms. Despite your mother’s love of him and the way that wounded me, I did not wish him harm.”
Tears sting at the corner of my eyes, and I’m not the only one affected. Riven seems to have shrunk in on himself, no longer able to look at Sigurd. Lia leans into him as if to offer support, all her focus on her king. Solona and Ambrose share a look full of grief.
“You didn’t know that part, did you?” Sigurd says with a heavy sigh, letting a little more of his weight settle against my side, which I embrace. “I killed the Unseelie who slew him and then held Lutheon as he died. For all my skills, I could never heal. Not to save myself or those I cared for. I felt his power leave and pass to you.”
It’s hard to hear, and I wasn’t even there. I didn’t know Lutheon, but I know Sigurd. I know the grief in his voice is real, that this is true and cuts him deeply. Even if he could lie, no one could mistake this for anything other than painful reality—a scar that’s lingered for far too many years.
“I ask for peace,” Sigurd says. “This new Unseelie king is a threat to us both. Let us—” A deep coughing, choking sound cuts off his words.
“Sigurd!” I screech.
Blood dribbles down the side of his mouth. Sharp nails claw into the ground for purchase, but he somehow manages to keep his other hand, the one on me, normal, clinging to my shoulder so he doesn’t collapse.
Dear God. Help him!
“Please!” I turn, looking for tangible help and finding only surprised and wary looks. There’s no time left, and I know the card I have to play. Keeping a firm grip on Sigurd, I twist toward the King of the Forest and yell, “The Court of Air, Sigurd, will be a threat to you no more. As the future Queen of Air, I vow it!”
“Future queen?” someone asks.
Over my pulse pounding in my ears and the panic racing through my veins, I couldn’t tell you who it was.
“It’s been foreseen,” I say. “Now heal him!”
I gasp as Solona appears next to us. I panic as she reaches for Sigurd’s still struggling form and try to pull him away, but her hands are on him in an instant. His choking cough ceases. Blood stops flowing from his wound. Something tingles across my mark—Sigurd’s mark—and all at once, I know what’s happening.
“You’re healing him,” I say.
Her eyes flutter closed then open again, the mirror of Sigurd’s. His body shudders, but he’s twisting in my arms, half sitting up and rubbing at the blood trickling from his lips.
Solona pulls away. “He’ll keep until more healing can be provided,” she says to me. To Sigurd, she says, “Evelyn would not have wanted to see you hurt and suffering.” She places her hand on mine, and I gasp at the warmth of it. “Take care of him.”
“I intend to.”
In a blink, she’s standing back beside her king. Solona looks at Riven, but he only nods.
“Peace then,” Riven says, though his lips twist as if he tastes something bitter.
“An alliance,” Sigurd corrects. He pushes to his feet, bringing me with him. “Against the Unseelie.”
Riven crosses the space to us, his look impassive. Sigurd steps forward without me to meet the other king. There’s a moment of tense silence where the two stare at one another, neither moving nor speaking.
A tingle of dread slides down my spine as I wonder whether this meeting will turn to bloodshed once more. But finally,finally, the two clasp hands, their palms on each other’s forearms.
“Agreed.” They say at once.
Magic pulses out from them in a shimmering wave that even I can feel.
“A promise sealed in magic,” Lia says with awe, answering my unspoken question.
A true alliance. A reluctant one, to be sure, but it’s so much more than I could have hoped for.Thank you, Lord.
