Lex was staring at Garrin in confusion, and he didn’t know how to comfort her.
“Garrin, is what my mother says true? Did your dad do this to her?”
A burning sensation filled his chest. There had to be some truth to Isle’s words, or she wouldn’t have said them. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been tasked with freeing our people. That does not sound like a king bent on harm.” Isle’s tale was filled with holes. There had to be a better explanation. “Others have fallen into the Great Ravine. Why did you not reach out to them the way you did us?”
“They weren’t my daughter, now, were they? They hadn’t her powers, and thus, they couldn’t help me, nor I them. I was as helpless as you in the ravine. Until Lex gave me back my powers.”
Isle knelt beside Lex. “Daughter, I will explain everything. For now, we must get you out of here.” She looked at Garrin. “If your father still rules Dark Fae, it is not safe for Lex to return to the kingdom. Will you risk her life at the hands of the man who imprisoned her mother?”
A pulse pounded at his temple. No—no, he would not.
“Garrin doesn’t care about me,” Lex said, rubbing her eyes as though the whole conversation had exhausted her. “He dragged me here because of some power he thinks I have.”
Lex had been unconscious while Isle and the others had used her powers. She had no idea of what she was capable.
And she was wrong about him not caring. But he’d taken her from her land and forced her somewhere she never wanted to be. Why would she believe anything he said?
“She is correct,” he finally said. “I intended to bring her to Dark Kingdom to save my people.”
Isle stomped a few paces away. “I assume your father put you up to this.” She threw up her hands. “My child! Your father wishes to use my child to save him from the mess he’s made.”
Garrin crossed his arms, his patience growing thin. “Dark Fae have lived on the precipice of life and death in a land that is forever winter. Only through our magic have we managed to maintain enough food. I assure you, my father wishes to better the lives of his people.”
“His people or himself?” Isle tilted her head to the side. “Have you never wondered how Dark Fae became isolated and left in permanent winter?”
“They say the land is naturally magical and that the magic has grown, blocking us from leaving.”
“Yes,” Isle said. “Magical. And it only grew unbearable after your father committed a terrible crime.” Isle walked through the snowy mountaintop, her feet sinking into the powder. “You and your mother weren’t alive when the magic befell us; nor was I. But my father was. And he passed his knowledge to me.” She stared at him. “My father was killed in one of our many wars. Or so I was told. I wasn’t allowed to mourn his body. The soldiers were burned in a mass burial pyre above the ice-covered earth.”
“Many have perished in the wars,” Garrin said. “It is a tragedy, but not uncommon.”
“You think so?” Her tone implied she did not. “Most females clamored for a chance at the king’s side, but my father did not like this king. He didn’t want his noble daughter to become a target. He followed orders, but there was no law that said he must hand over his child to the royal court. To make certain I didn’t befall the king’s clutches, my father and mother went so far as to hide my existence—not an easy feat when you’re of royal blood. But they managed it. And then my father died in battle, and my mother died soon after under suspicious circumstances.”
Isle wrapped her arms around her torso, her skin turning pale—from the story or the cold, Garrin couldn’t tell. “The secret of my existence was revealed to the king. By whom, I do not know. It could have been any number of people. Either way, the king learned of me, and then my parents were gone. Soon after, your father sought me out.”
“He brought you into his harem?” Garrin’s stomach turned. He’d always wanted a sibling, but he couldn’t imagine a worse scenario than Lex being his sister. Not with the way he felt about her.
Isle wrapped her cloak more tightly around her small frame. “He would have liked to be my lover. But it would have served no purpose. I already carried Lex in my womb.”
And just like that, he could breathe again. Lex wasn’t his sister.
“I stayed as far from the castle as I could,” Isle said, “living with friends of my parents. Friends who catered just enough to the court, but no more. Many watched over me and Lex once she was born. Yet Casone still discovered that I knew the truth about his first queen.”
Garrin emitted a light groan at the absurdity. “There was no first queen.”
She stared at him, her gaze hard. “Wasn’t there? Even more damning, a dozen or so years after Lex’s birth, your father tried to hide his darkest secret—one more harmful to him than the slow death he’d ordered on his first wife. But he discovered I knew that one as well. From that point on, my life was over. Casone silenced all who were aware of his secrets. Like he did with my parents. Like he did with me.”
“Finding you in the ravine only proves you crossed my father,” Garrin pointed out. “It doesn’t confirm the notion that the king changed our history to suit his needs. You know very well he cannot lie to his people.”
“Not lie,” Isle said. “He manipulated the truth, as we all have at times.” Her eyes narrowed. “The elders retain our past. How many remain, or have they died off in your lifetime? When I was a child, we had hundreds of elders. But by the time I reached my majority, over half were gone. I dare not think how many are left.”
“A handful,” Garrin said, dread filling him.
Isle crouched, with her hands clasped to her head, staring blindly at Lex. “Our history gone in one generation?” She looked up at Garrin. “Your father would have made it appear an accident or a natural passing. But at no time in the past have we suffered such losses. The elders protect the codicils and texts that are thousands of years old. There wouldn’t have been time to train others in the dead languages, let alone teach them how to interpret the information. What will become of us?”
Garrin swallowed. To lose so many elders in such a short period was unprecedented. And also not discussed in his father’s court. The crown had moved on, content to let their history die. And it no longer seemed like a coincidence. “Why did my father leave you in the ravine?”
“I planned my escape with Lex once I heard your father was coming for me.” She choked out a humorless laugh. “Though not well enough. Casone found me, and you know how that ended. My only saving grace was that I had sent Lex ahead. Your father didn’t know of her powers at the time, and I couldn’t risk him finding out. But he must have known…” She wrung her hands. “He wouldn’t have sent you otherwise.”
Garrin racked his brain, thinking back to his father’s every political move these last two hundred years. “He did not know of Lex’s powers. My father only knows of the prophesied one.” Unless what Isle said was true, and his father held secrets…
If there was truth and not simply madness to Isle’s words, Garrin must be very careful with Lex inside Dark Kingdom. No one could know who she really was. Not until Garrin determined the threat. “No one will question Lex’s presence in our land.”
Isle huffed in exasperation. “And how do you figure that?”
Lex was malnourished and thin, but awake, her gaze bouncing between Garrin and her mother. If she hadn’t wanted to go with him to Dark Kingdom before, he could only imagine her hesitance now. “Your daughter is full Fae. Her strength is the same as the rest in our land, and she will blend in.”
“Fool,” Isle said, and Lex moaned, either from the conversation or exhaustion. “She is like no one from this land. Which is why she was hidden so carefully until the time in which I could protect her from your father.” She pointed at him. “And on that note, she cannot use her powers in Dark Kingdom.”
He had no intention of asking Lex to practice her magic until it was safe, but he wasn’t used to being told what to do by anyone except the king. “That is why we sought her. And how she and I were saved from our cold fate at the bottom of the ravine. If she is the prophesied one, she is the only Fae capable of freeing our people.”
Isle squeezed her eyes shut. “If she uses her powers near the castle, the king and his minions will find her. How do you propose to hide her?”
Lex stared at him and raised her brow, as though curious about the answer as well.
“By making her a female of my court,” he said.
Isle visibly bristled, her mouth agape. “You wish to make her one of your harem? My parents didn’t lose their lives and I didn’t lose hundreds of years of mine only to see my child end up as a courtesan! She will become a part of your court over my dead body.”
Lex’s mother was a frustration he did not need right now. “If that is what you wish.”
“Stop!” Lex shouted. She glared at Garrin and attempted to rise—and fell back on the snow. “There is no way in hell I’ll become one of your-your women, Garrin.”
He quirked his eyebrow, admiring the fire in her eyes. Lex already was his woman. When he thought back to their first encounter, she’d been his from the very beginning. He just hadn’t realized it.
Zirel had healed Amund, and Amund was finally on his feet.
“How do you feel?” Garrin asked, ignoring Lex’s comment for the moment.
“Tolerable,” Amund said.
Fae soldiers didn’t complain. Which meant Amund wasn’t well at all. “Strong enough to create a portal home?”
Amund looked off in the distance. “Not all of us at once, and not in one leap. The disruptive magic here causes my portals to be less precise. Once I’m off this mountain and away from the ravine, I will be able to find the kingdom quickly. Two, maybe three portals to the castle from there. I’ll need to eat before returning for the others.”
“Did you hear me, Garrin?” Lex said, her voice an octave higher.
Garrin rubbed his jaw and held back a smile. Lex was much improved if she was raising her voice to him.
“My daughter doesn’t go anywhere near Dark Kingdom, son of Casone,” Isle said. “I am not so weak as you. I have slept a very long time. And I am better at using Lex’s powers. Don’t think I won’t use them against you.”
Garrin picked up his pack. “Amund will take me and Lex to the castle. You and Zirel will stay here until he returns.”
“Absolutely not!” Isle said at the same time Lex shouted, “What?”
He slid his gaze to Lex’s slight form, stiff with indignation. “If there was another way, I would not take you from your mother. You must understand, I do this for your safety as much as for my people.”
She hobbled to her feet, though her balance was unsteady. “You do this for yourself! You care nothing for me or my family.”
Garrin would like for that to be true. It would make his duty easier to tolerate. He flicked his gaze to Amund, and it was enough to communicate his wishes.
The portal creator nodded.
“This is the way it must be,” Garrin said.
Before Lex could utter another word, Amund grabbed her from behind, and the three of them were inside a portal.
