Chapter 15

It’s been three days since Elle and the kings came back from the other world, and for once, I can see a future of hope. I know my mother is still out there; I can feel her presence in the back of mind, like a bond. I want her gone. I don’t love her anymore. She never knew the meaning of it, and I’m not going to spend another moment hoping she will change her mind and actually care about me. I’m doing the next best thing—learning my magic to save the people who are real family to me.

I keep going over the steps the spirit queen taught me. I’ve been practicing magic all morning on Kian’s bed after we decided to share a room when we got here. Well, decided is a strange word. The castle made it clear this was our room and that we were not getting separate ones. Maybe the castle lives off the drama and is a true romantic at heart. Kian was happy with the arrangements, and he curls around me every night, kissing me softly before letting me sleep in his arms. It’s the safest I’ve ever felt in my life.

Moving blonde curly hair off my shoulders, I relax and focus. Elvi wants me to drain the life from the potted tree in my one hand and push it into the very dead chick in the other to bring it back to life. I cried when I held the chick for the first time, but I’ve gotten used to seeing a new one every day. I’m not asking Elvi where she gets them from.

It doesn’t matter anyway; the chick is still dead, and my magic is stubborn. Every time I reach for my power, I can’t quite grasp it. I breathe in the earthy scent of the tree and try again, only to fail once more. I put them both on the bedside table, and I look at the window. I need some fresh air to clear my mind. I walk to the balcony doors only to pause when I see Lysander and Kian out there together. I haven’t seen them alone, not since Kian welcomed his brother back.

Both of them sit on black chairs overlooking the land spread out below and hundreds of dragons that fly around in formations. Arden, Grayson, and Elle riding Terrin are with them, training in formations for the war that no doubt will be coming our way. Kian has been working hard on a project given to him by Arden and Grayson since they got back, something to help against my mother. I don’t understand all of it, only that they learnt of this in the other world. He must be taking his lunch break now. “What did you wish to speak about, brother?”

“Lysander,” he begins quietly. “We should talk about our father and?—”

Lysander tenses and stops him immediately. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

I know Kian won’t back down, not about this. He has spoken to me several times about how he is going to speak to his brother about their family and get it done with. “Lysander, he was a monster.” Lysander goes quiet, but he looks at his brother, waiting. “I should have told you that a long time ago. I should have been honest with you about everything. I never was. I guess I wanted you to realise it for yourself, but I think father fucked you up on so many levels that realising it for yourself is not going to happen. He was a monster and less our father than the tormentor of our childhood. He made our court one of monsters too.”

Kian looks in the distance, like he can see the Water Court stretched out in front of him. I can’t see it, but I feel like the water king and prince can find the ocean anywhere with their deep connections to the water. I know I shouldn’t be listening in, but I don’t find myself moving.

Lysander’s shoulders drop. “I know he was a monster, but I loved him. Respected him. Wanted to be like him. When I was young, he was all I looked up to, and I would have done anything he asked. So I brought the court up in the same way that he did. I was cruel, like he was. Cold. Bitter, and it nearly cost me my mate and best friends.” He huffs a laugh, hollow and empty. “And now look at my court. They tried to kill my brother, and the nobles are no doubt holding my mother prisoner for when I get back. I should go and drown the lot of them.”

“That’s certainly something our father would have done.” Kian puts his hand on Lysander’s arm. “You can fix the court. You can fix everything, but don’t be like him. Did you know he used to hurt our mother?”

Lysander’s eyes widen, and he shakes his head. There is so much vulnerability in his voice it makes me wince. “No…did he?”

“Yes. He did. I used to see the bruises. She’d hide them so well from you, but sometimes she wouldn’t hide them all that well from me. She won’t talk about it now. I believe, because they were mates, it was…like she couldn’t see he was cruel. Maybe she didn’t want to.” He pauses. “We had an older sibling.”

“What?” Lysander’s voice is a ghost.

“You were not her firstborn. There was one before. Father made sure nearly every record ever was taken of that princess, but they existed, and they died in the cruel tests that he made us do.” I stand quietly.

“I heard a rumour about it, but I thought it wasn’t true,” Lysander whispers, clenching the armrest of the chair tightly. Storm clouds brush across the sky, heavy and thick with rain like a paintbrush just painted them there.

“It was.”

“Where do we go from here?” Lysander asks, looking up at the sky as the first drop of rain lands right on his nose. Even as the heavens open and rain shatters down on them, the brothers don’t move. “I’ve broken everything.”

Kian shakes his head. “That’s not true. I love you, brother; your mate and best friends do too. The Water Court needs you too when this is all over, and I believe with her at your side, you’re unstoppable. You can make the court better. I know you can. Mum will heal with time, and so will I. I’ve found someone that brings out a ray of light in every storm.” My heart pounds so loud I think they might hear me. “We can heal and fix anything. Then perhaps when we have children, we can shape them in a different way, make sure they’re not brought up in the cruelty we lived in.”

“It sounds like a very good plan, brother.” Lysander actually smiles at Kian, and he smiles right back. “I didn’t know you wanted kids. I find them partially disgusting little creatures.”

Kian bellows in laughter, Lysander joining in. “I’ve always wanted a family.”

“You have one.” Lysander pats his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here, brother.”

“As am I you. We won’t speak about our father again because he deserves to die, remain in the past, and be forgotten. Perhaps when we take the Water Court over, we can make a grave, a proper one for our lost sibling, and ban trials on children,” Kian suggests, and there is so much light in his brother’s eyes. “I loved him too. It’s okay to have loved him and hated him, I think.”

“I think that’s a very good idea and thank you. I almost let loving my father ruin my future, and if it wasn’t for Ellelin…I think I might have become worse than Ares and Aphrodite in the end.”

“You wouldn’t.” Kian is firm.

Lysander smirks at his brother. “I like having you in my corner, brother. I’m always in yours. My mate is calling me. I must go, but I—” He pauses. “I needed this talk.”

“Bye, brother. We should talk again soon.”

Lysander grins at him before stepping up onto the balcony edge and jumping off, shifting into that magnificent dragon before flying away.

There is only the sound of the pattering rain on the glass when Kian looks at me, like he can see me through the thick curtain. “You can come out now, Artemis.”

My cheeks burn as I open the door and step out to the balcony into the rain. I love the rain, always have. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt or overhear?—”

“Nothing that I know is a secret from you. I will tell you the whole conversation either way. You are more than welcome to eavesdrop,” he replies so easily, so effortlessly.

Raindrops fall down my cheeks. “You are too kind to me. Why?”

His answer is simple and obvious to anyone else, but it all but knocks me off my feet. “I love you.”

No one has ever said it like him, meant it like him. In the rain, with the Water Court prince, I find out what the word love really means. “I love you too.”