57. Chapter 55 Arden

E veryone's eyes are on me, and while I should feel just as nervous as I did on the dias, the only thing I can feel now is a hot burning rage. A few people left, but most people stayed; initially they tried to help those who died, but then stuck around to comfort the others who survived.

"There have been too many secrets going around this realm and it's time for a change. Secrets and lies are what have allowed things to get as bad as they have. Secrets are what allowed Queen Cyndair to swoop in here, kill our people, and abscond with her treasonous spawn."

There are gasps and murmurs among the people, and they start to grow, but I hold up my hands. "Let me finish! I know that I haven't been here long enough for many of you to trust me. And I know that you think you know what happened between Othorion—my grandfather—" there are gasps among the crowd, "—and Zorvan's parents. I know you think you know what happened between my dad and his.

"But everything you know about that situation was a lie. Falmir poisoned the late king and queen at the behest of Cyndair. Iona attempted to have me sold to hunters in the earth realm. And Cyndair has been behind our people being taken."

The murmurs grow louder, nearly drowning me out. Finally one person shouts "But Prince Zorvan just said that they were working together to get our people back!"

Zorvan steps up onto the stairs with me. "I was hoping that by telling you all that she was helping us get them back that I could force her hand to have them returned. It was a strategic move. She would get to walk away from it, but our people would be home safe. It obviously failed."

"Why were none of us informed of what was going on the second you knew?" Airen asks, hurt flashing in her eyes.

"The queen has been using spies within the castle to spread information to her. We have found a couple of them, but we suspect there may be more. It didn't feel safe to tell anyone anything until we knew who might be working for her, or being blackmailed by her," I answer.

"She is old, and conniving, and capable of horrific things," Zorvan says.

"How do we know any of this is true?" another person chimes in who I don't recognize. I'm assuming they live in Krean. "How do we know you aren't behind all of this?"

"Because I've seen first hand what she's capable of. She forced me to be with men, she starved me, kept me in a filthy cell, and expected me to breed with a vampire to attempt to create a powerful hybrid. Once Camus and I bonded, she intended to have me create an heir, and then have him behead me in the town square. I know because—"

"She knows what Cyndair is capable of because Arden is my granddaughter."

Rupert enters the room behind me, making me jump. His appearance morphs to Esrend as Camus and Tavin step in behind him. The room erupts into loud conversation, everyone commenting on Esrend's sudden reappearance.

"Cyndair is gone, but we brought him back, just in case," Tavin says to Zorvan.

Esrend goes into detail about his mating with my grandmother and Cyndair hunting her down. He explains why I was in the earth realm all those years, and how Grandmother was dead.

Finally with tears in his eyes he says, "I owe you all an apology. I've been lying to you for years. Beyond that, I've been a coward. I lied about my identity to try to keep my family safe, but it seems to have just put everyone— including them—in more danger.

"I swear to you that I will not stop until her reign comes to an end. The way she has terrorized this realm will not go unpunished."

Zorvan says, "Tonight, we grieve. We pay our respects to the dead. And tomorrow, Emyth will return them to the earth. Once our dead are laid to rest, we will come up with a strategy to bring Cyndair down, and keep the rest of Solardin safe. Most of the people of that kingdom do not deserve to go down in flames with her."

Emyth and Jarrah return just as Zorvan finishes talking, dragging a bloodied Falmir with them.

"They left this fucker behind," Emyth says, shoving Falmir down the steps, flat onto his face.

"The Stars are shining down on me for once," Zorvan says with a wicked grin. "There will be no trial. Cyndair killed our people. Falmir killed my parents."

What's visible of Falmir's face beneath the blood goes white. "Wait! I did no such thing!"

"Shut up, Father. I heard you and Grandmother talking about it."

"You traitorous little fuck!" Falmir says, pushing to his feet and lunging at Camus.

I react on instinct alone, outstretching my hand toward him, and a jolt of black lightning emits from my palm, wrapping around him and causing him to convulse. Livarius grabs my other hand, and pulls me to him, the contact distracting me, and my magic fading. As brief as it was, it was exhilarating.

Falmir is a heap of burning flesh and oozing blood on the floor, but somehow he's still breathing. I'm thankful for that. I wouldn't have wanted to take this away from Zorvan. Zorvan pulls a large sword from a suit of armor, and approaches Falmir.

"No more Feldorite blood will ever be shed by you." He stands over him and watches him for one minute, then two, then three. Falmir's breathing is slowing, and he won't make it much longer. When he's close to taking his last breath, Zorvan puts the blade of the sword just below Falmir's Adam's apple. He pushes the blade in a centimeter at a time until finally the tip hits the floor.

Then he yanks the blade out and arcs it through the air, completely removing Falmir's head.

With the rest of the room satisfied for now, we all seem to breathe a collective sigh. Then we set to work on the clean-up.

Two dark-skinned fae approach and offer a bow. I glance behind me for Zorvan but realize that they're bowing to me. That's going to take some getting used to .

Lysander steps up and places his hand on my back. "Arden, these are my parents, Aster and Elduin."

"It's so lovely to finally meet you," Aster says and reaches her hand out and grasps mine. Her face goes blank for a moment, then she glances between me and Lysander with a confused look.

"Mom," Lysander warns, but it doesn't stop his mother.

She wraps me up into her arms and her cool tears drop onto my bare shoulder. "Welcome to the family," she whispers, and presses her lips to my hair.

"Aster, stop it!" Elduin scolds. "You can't just hug the queen."

"She's not the queen yet, and I can hug her whenever I want." She steps back and takes both of my hands in hers. "The Stars have blessed our family so deeply. Lysander, you need to commune with them soon or they will start taking things away from you."

"That's ominous," I say with a nervous chuckle.

"It's meant to be. Keep him in line. Though it seems like you might have your hands…full." She glances at the other keepers.

"Fucking seers," Lysander mutters.

"Language," Aster scolds. "Once things have settled down, please come visit us. Just the two of you?"

"I'll make sure we have time for that," I say.

She kisses me on the cheek. "Your secrets are safe with me. But we need to get back to our other children before word spreads and they start to panic. Stay safe."

Once they're out of earshot, I turn to Lysander. "Are there any more parents lurking around I need to worry about meeting?"

"Emyth's talking to his parents over there, Jarrah's parents couldn't make it, and Tavin's dad is skulking around here somewhere. But I wouldn't worry about them. They're all too self-important to bother talking to you. Let's try to get things cleaned up so we can go rest and talk?"

***

After hours of cleaning up blood off of the ballroom floor, and helping the staff clean up the food and debris, we grab some of the uneaten food and head up to the master bedroom together.

It's more imperative than ever that we stick together. I beg Airen to come with us, but she refuses, saying that she needs some time to herself. Solina and Llewellyn also refuse our offer to stay in the master suite with us, despite our assurances that there's plenty of room in the sitting room.

As soon as we're in the room, I head for the bathroom to scrub my hands for the third time. I still feel like there's blood coating them. The faces of the dead spin through my mind like they're on a rolodex; images of purple faces, bloodshot eyes, and pouring blood haunting me every time I close my eyes.

Then another image takes over. While I was on the dias, and we were about to drink, I glanced out into the crowd, and my eyes settled on my sister. She smirked at me, her glass held down by her side. She knew. She had known that we were all about to die, and she was happy about it.

I grind my teeth together, and when I look at0 myself in the mirror, my eyes are glowing. I try to reel it in, but then it dawns on me that it wasn't just me that she wanted dead. It was my mates.

My body moves of its own volition and my fist makes contact with the mirror, shattering it into a million people as I shriek with rage. My dragon is begging to come out and play. She wants revenge. She wants blood.

The door slams open, and Zorvan runs into the room. He nearly skids to a stop once he realizes that I'm not in danger. Rather, I am the danger. My teeth have elongated, and my skin has begun to shine with the iridescence of my scales.

"Arden," he says, his voice gentle and soothing. "Shifting won't help you right now. It'll make things worse. Please," he takes a step closer, "take some deep breaths, and calm down. You're bleeding. Let me help."

It takes every ounce of will that I have, but I manage to shut down the shift before it completely takes over. Once the threat is gone, my more human emotions take over. I had failed to protect so many people. I had let snakes into our castle.

My own sister wanted me dead .

I collapse in a puddle on the floor, and let out a sob. The threat gone, Zorvan comes to my side, then one by one the others join. Each of them is in a varying state of undress.

Zorvan tips my chin up, attempting to make me look at him, but I can't. The guilt I'm feeling is consuming me.

"Look at me!" he commands.

I close my eyes, and when they reopen, I'm staring into his.

"We're going to get through this. But first I need to fix you. I'm going to pull this glass out of your hand. It's going to hurt. But then I'm going to heal you. Are you ready?"

I nod.

He was wrong. I feel nothing as the shards of glass are pulled from my flesh. The bloodied bits of mirror triggering images of my mother and sister laying dead after the car accident that only I survived; or so I had thought. My sister's face is laying on the glittering glass, pooling blood all around her.

"Someone modified my memory," I say.

"When?" Jarrah asks.

"After my mother and sister 'died' someone modified my memory. They made me see horrific things. They made sure I thought they were dead.

"Is there any way for me to retrieve those memories?" I ask, glancing down at my now nearly healed hand.

"If the person putting the memory modification on you wasn't skilled enough, sure," Tavin says.

"What are you thinking?" Livarius asks.

"Just...maybe there's something in those hidden memories that can help."

Zorvan helps me to my feet and then helps me back to the bedroom. There are night clothes for each of us strewn about the place, and outfits for the next few days. I begin reaching for the ties of the dress.

"Let me help," Lysander whispers in my ear and with gentle hands he begins untying the corseted back.

Once untied, the dress falls to the ground, leaving me in my undergarments. My skin heats, knowing they're all watching me, but I push it aside. As much as I would love to fall into bed with all of them and forget about our problems, I can't do that. I need to focus.

Maybe a good fuck would help you focus .

I tell my brain to shut up, and reach for my nightgown. I strip out of my underthings and pull my nightie on faster than I used to change in the high school locker room.

Once dressed, I begin the tedious task of removing the pins from my hair, and frown at my now ruined dress. Through a series of vaguely connected thoughts, something triggers in my brain. I spin on my heel and face Zorvan.

" You! You giant piece of centaur shit!" I stomp toward him and shove him, my hair still half pinned up.

"What did I do now?" he asks in exasperation.

"Did you hit your head and forget the stunt you pulled at the ball?" I'm not mad about it anymore, but this gives me something other than the dead fae to focus on.

His shock fades to a smug smile. "People were going to find out eventually." He shrugs.

"A little fucking warning would have been nice."

"But the look on your face was so worth it. Plus this puts Camus on my council, and you in an even higher position of power." He pulls me against him and presses his mouth to mine. "I want everyone to know what you are to me. And you deserve a throne more than I do at this point."

"So you went from 'I'm going to run away and hand my throne over to Jarrah' to 'I'm going to keep my throne, and disregard all our concerns and announce to the world that we're going to be mated' in the course of a few hours?"

"Wait, what?" Jarrah snaps. "I never agreed to taking your Star forsaken throne, Zorvan. You know I don't fucking want it."

"That's exactly why you'd be perfect for it. But it's a moot point. A certain blue-eyed shifter kissed some confidence back into me. You'll have to kill me to take it from me, now."

"I can arrange that," Camus says, sounding almost serious.

"Announcing you as my queen didn't risk anything. I'm sure a lot of fae already had their suspicions. Why else would I keep you around?"

"Thanks," I snap.

"You know what I mean. With you being with Todd when we first met, it would have made more sense for me to kill you. But I didn't. The fae here aren't stupid.

"And even if they haven't figured it out, my reasoning is solid. You're the only fae in the realm who can carry my child safely, without question. A baby that I can't wait to put in you."

My resolve to not fuck them all is waning as he presses himself against me. The need in his eyes is making me weak. I want each of them to mark me right now.

"We should get some sleep," I whisper breathlessly.

"Indeed," he says, placing his forehead to mine. "We have a long day ahead of us."

We all crawl into the enormous bed, and cuddle up together. I'm sandwiched between Camus and Zorvan. Jarrah's arm is draped over Zorvan's waist to hold my hand. Liv and Tavin are spooning behind Jarrah. On the other side of Camus, Lysander and Emyth are laying together.

It takes me almost two hours, but with the comfort of my mates, I eventually drift into a calm slumber.