“I tried everything, and in reality, you were out in the human world. Completely at the hands of survivors, and those cruel bastards. Meanwhile, I was here pining over a woman who wasn’t mine.” The wolf within roared, my hands ripping the broken section of tree. I threw it as far as I could.
“Rune, I did what I had to. Verin wanted magic gone and it was the only way I could save everyone. I didn’t do it to spite you. I became a human and went through it all to save you.” She took a confident step closer, the only person on the damn planet that would approach me with such ease while I was pissed. She’d never been afraid of me.
“I’d do it again, if given the choice. I took a wild gamble to protect my kingdom and the people I love most. I was willing to become human for our people to have a fighting chance in the future. We would have been ruined if I had stayed.” She took one last step, and I trembled from the heat of her body caressing me.
“You done?” I snarled and watched her face pinch with regret.
“We could have figured it out. Together. Instead you plotted without me and you suffered while I pined for that pretender in onyx. I failed as a mate to protect you. Those dirty creatures touched you, violated you while I talked to a sleeping woman about what we’d do when she got out.”
She reached out with tears brimming her eyes to touch my face. I shifted away. Betrayal stung and I needed space.
“Fine, you need your time. I can see it. But know this. I lost all my memories when I took out my core, and even without knowing you existed, I felt the mating bond the whole time. Somewhere out there this unyielding force waited for me, called to me. I’m sorry for the pain I caused you, but I won’t regret doing what I did. Now I’m gonna save us all again and carry the weight of my choices as I go.” She quickly turned, and my hurt slipped through the crack of my lips.
“Despite whatever you felt, you still left me, and fell in love with Tor.” It was a poisoned barb but my anger was too far gone to take it back.
She didn’t stop walking or face me. I was too pissed to play nice, and she needed to think about her next steps. In that onyx room she’d mentioned she didn’t remember everything. Depending on the memories she saw clearly, her attachment to me could be less than hers to Tor.
I stomped off, wishing I could shed my skin and become the beast, who rattled within, wanting to reunite with its mate. Guilt ate me from the inside with every gaze I’d let linger on Sapphira, every time I wished to kiss her while she looked like the answer to a prayer I should have asked for. All the signs were there, and I’d been too stubborn to listen to what my core tried to tell me. I knew Sapphira was mine, down to her very essence, even before I knew I had the right to claim her. I looked at the early morning sky, ready for moonlight to come and set me free of these thoughts for one more night. With heavy steps I walked farther into the Hallowstags . . . and my pain.
Chapter Three
Sapphira
His words stung like the slice of a blade in my heart. I walked through the city of Crysia as people began their morning routines. I feared their recognition of me, and the fallout from our deception. We needed to make a statement soon, but not while I meandered the cobblestone paths toward the palace. My perception of this Fae realm had changed once I resumed being Princess Sapphira.
Well . . . not completely. I couldn’t remember everything. I remembered my mother as a strong and fierce ruler, which her diamond core gave her. I remembered my father as the strongest Fae male in the land with his dragon and onyx essence.
I made it to the palace and meandered through the stone hallways to the room that housed me before my memories returned. Conflict chewed at my thoughts. I know this room wasn’t mine anymore. Princesses don’t sleep in servants’ quarters, but it was still home.
I opened the door and walked to sit on the one-person bed.
“I had a feeling I’d find you here.” Nyx smiled at me.
“It feels weird going anywhere else,” I admitted, and she plopped down beside me.
“I was in the onyx for twenty years pretending to be you, but it feels like it was only yesterday I laid on that altar. I didn’t experience anything new, and my memories aren’t muddled.” She rested her head against my shoulder, and I reached for her hand. Being a survivor of the apocalypse had left me constantly craving touch from other humans.
“It’s a mess in my head.”
“Well, you’ve always been off in the head,” she teased and I laughed. Nyx “got” me, and I had missed that.
“Thank you for—”
“I am honored to have done my duty, but it’s not over, my princess.”
She was right. The overwhelming destiny ahead of me seemed impossible: figure out where the Heart Tree rested; return magic; fight in a potential war with the Dramens; deal with Verin; win my mate back; and return to princess duties and training.
“Fuck.” I groaned, wishing I had fifteen of me right now.
“You have people behind you, Sapphira. You are not alone.” Her powers emanating from her amethyst core, comforting me.
Changing the subject, she asked, “How did it go with Rune?”
“He’s pissed, and rightfully so. The warrior is stubborn. I had hoped he would be happy that the princess in the tomb and the human he was drawn to were actually one person, but he feels betrayed.”
I longed to run into his arms and feel his strength and love.
“He’ll come around. He’s just being normal, grumpy-ass Rune.” Nyx squeezed my hand and I took a deep breath. Nyx had never feared my mate. She had helped me sneak around to see him and kept my secrets when I was technically engaged to his brother.
“I hope so.”
“Girl, you don’t need hope. That wolf pined over you for twenty years and never gave up. He never let anyone else in until you landed in his lap as a human. And you were really his mate the whole time, so the only other person he cared for was you both times. Human or Fae princess, he loved you either way.”
My lavender-haired friend knew what to say to lift my spirits. I needed to keep the faith of our bond burning within me.
“Thanks, Nyx.” She hugged me then stood, her hand still holding mine.
“You’re welcome.” She pulled me up slowly, and I stood, begrudgingly.
“Unfortunately, now that you are the princess again, we have to get you back into the swing of things. First step is getting your room ready and you clean. You’ll be expected to speak tonight in the throne room.”
I just wanted to sleep and did not want to go back to that terrifying tomb of a room. I sighed again and left the room I’d lived in for the last month. No one bothered us on our way up to the royal wing. The rooms on this floor of the palace were lavishly decorated in carpets, art, and metal, unlike the stone walls where servants stayed.
“Gross.” Nyx looked around, and I shared her sentiment.
The room was covered in cobwebs and dust. When I had vanished from the realm and Nyx laid in the onyx, my mother had closed the door to my suite and never opened it.
“This is not a room for a princess.” She waved her hand in the air, and I felt the essence within her spread throughout the room.
The dust seeped away, and the cobwebs disappeared. Seconds passed, and my room slowly turned into the beautiful suite it was before years of solitude had taken over.