“They’re my boys now. I take care of them. I feed them. I keep them safe.” Large icicles formed out of Liam’s palms like swords.
I was just beginning to wonder how this scene had led to my mother’s death when a blur of pink streaked behind the king, and then my mom knocked him over the side of the head with her gun. He crumpled to the floor, right at Liam’s feet.
“Give me the crystal!” she barked, eyes roaming over Liam and his brothers, over Cam. She looked… disgusted…
I felt sick. I wanted to stop the vision now that I knew what was going to happen.
Liam looked at her incredulously. “Look at him!” he shouted at my mother and pointed to Cain. “He’s five years old, and the crystal is the only thing keeping him alive. Would you really take that from him?” Liam looked at her with wide eyes.
I was not prepared for the cold, hard gaze that entered my mother’s eyes, “It. It’s five. A demon that shouldn’t be allowed to live.”
A whimper lodged in my throat at her response. How could she look at this beautiful boy and think he was a demon?
The elders… they poisoned her mind.
I felt the moment that Liam gave up on trying to reason with my mother, it slid over his body like a sheet of ice—self-preservation, protection for his kin. There was no reasoning with this woman. “I can’t let you take the crystal.” He sounded sad. Tired. Like he didn’t want to hurt her but knew he must.
My mother shrugged cold-heartedly, but I could see the slightest falter in her gaze as she stared at little Cain. I didn’t think she’d met a Son of Darkness this young before.
“Then, I’m sorry for this.” She raised her gun, and all of the contents in my stomach lurched into my throat.
Everything next happened so fast, and yet, time felt like it stopped.
The Winter King rose up into a standing position behind my mother, and I watched from Liam’s perspective as a shard of pointy ice pierced right through her lower abdomen. Her eyes widened, and at the same time, she squeezed the trigger, aiming right for Cain.
“No!” I shouted at the same time as Liam, feeling him seize up in fear. I simultaneously wanted to protect Cain from the bullet and protect my mother.
Liam raised his hands and shot two icicles right into my mother’s stomach, causing her to fall backward in a puddle of blood. Then, he erected a wall of ice, blocking out his father from crossing farther into the room.
“Cain!” Liam’s hands shook as he spun around.
Although my heart tore in two for my mother, relief spread through me as I looked at Cain, unharmed. A bullet had been shot into the sofa an inch from his head.
Holy fuck.
How could she? How could my mother try to kill a child? Did she squeeze the trigger out of reflex after getting stabbed? Or would she really… I didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Liam scooped Cain up as his dad rained down blows on the sheet of ice. Liam, Cam, and his other brothers ran out the back door, but he took one last look behind him at my mother.
She lay on the floor, melting icicles goring her abdomen, and Liam actually felt sorry for her. He thought of her no longer with hatred but with pity.
She was brainwashed. All fae were, and all he could do was keep him and his brothers alive. At all costs.
Bashur’s bark and Trissa’s shout of alarm were the last things I heard before Liam burst out the back door, and I felt the vomit rise up in my stomach, becoming too much.
I ran from the bed, stumbling to the bathroom where I spun the tap on and scrubbed the thick paste off my eyelids. When I opened my eyes and saw my own haunted gaze staring back at me, I vomited into the toilet.
Lying down on the cool tiles, I let the sobs of fresh grief wrack my body. This time, I wasn’t just crying for my mother. I was crying for the loss of Liam as well. I’d called him a murderer, kicked him out, and all he’d done was do what I would have. He’d protected his family against a monster.
My mother, although the sweetest and brightest light in my life, had been a nightmare in his. She’d drank the kool-aid, bought the story about the Sons being evil or demons. She didn’t think for herself. Who knows what memories Indra planted in her head over the years? The memory of her holding that gun to Cain’s head caused me to shudder. Deep sadness poured into my heart and throughout my bones. My mother was a good woman, a loving mom, but how she treated the halflings wasn’t right. She was turned into a monster by the elders.
I sobbed for over an hour, grieving the loss of Liam and my mother simultaneously.
The heaviness of sleep pulled on my limbs after lying there for what felt like ever.
As I started to fall asleep on the bathroom floor, tears trailed down my cheeks and dropped onto the tile.
There was only one question replaying in my mind over and over again.
Would Liam ever forgive me?
Chapter 5
I woke the next morning with red-rimmed eyes and a stiff neck but with more determination than I’d ever had in my life. The cold hard fact was that, yes, Liam dealt a fatal blow that ended my mother’s life, but if he hadn’t, he would be dead. Cain too. He did what anyone would have done, and his father, the Winter King, was the one to strike my mother first. The Winter King was the enemy, along with Indra, who taught my mother that the Sons of Darkness were evil.
Indra who cuffed Mara for following her heart and loving a halfling. We should have been working with the halflings as a team a long time ago.
“Trissa, will you bring me Indra please?” I tipped my chin up as I entered the kitchen where Trissa was sitting with her tea and a book.
She froze, tea to her lips, eyes wide. “Like, just tell her that you want to speak with her or… ‘Bring me Indra.’” She said the last part with a firm tone.
I nodded. “The latter. She’s wanted for questioning.”
Trissa set the mug down and bowed her head. “Right away then.” I could see a slight nervousness dance behind her eyes. Indra was powerful, no doubt, but she’d been allowed to run freely without checks and balances for too long.
Trissa slipped into her room, grabbed her sword, and then left.
Next, I knocked on Elle’s door.
“Go away,” she yelled.
That was fair… I’d been heartless in my treatment of the boys yesterday, and I could see she had a thing for Cam, so it would hit her extra hard.
Without waiting, I opened the door.
She was sitting at the window seat, flipping through an old book. Rules of Royal Reign shown in gold filigree at the spine.
Before she could speak, I opened my mouth. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I was blinded by my grief and the betrayal by Liam.”
Her mouth, which had been open to speak, snapped shut. She breathed in and then out. “After everything we went through with them, you just… left them to die yesterday. You questioned my loyalty to you!” Her voice shook.
My throat pinched with emotion as I stepped closer. “I should never have done that. I’m so sorry, but Elle, what would you do if I died, and then next month Trissa admitted it was her who killed me?”
Her nostrils flared. “I’d take off her head,” she agreed.
I nodded. “So, I acted… before I knew the truth…”