I turned away from her. “Just shut up.”
“Nova, please. We can work through this. Things will be different. I know I’m not your biological mother, but I did raise you.”
“What was she like?” I asked.
“Who?”
“My real mother?”
That hurt her and I was glad.
“I don’t know. Phillip used surrogates, they had no idea what they were really doing. He kept them secluded. There were nine of them altogether. Three died within the first trimester, four in the second. Only two carried to term. The first mother and child both died. Your mother died, but we managed to deliver via C section. You were very small, but you were a fighter.”
“Did you even try to save her?” I asked.
“Of course. But Fae offspring are different from human babies. They fed off their life force, drained them. It was too much.”
I stared at her in horror. “So, not only am I not human, I’m a parasite too?”
“No, don’t say that,” she said, getting to her feet. She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Nova you have no idea how proud I am of you. You are so strong, you’ve overcome so much. I wanted to let you carry on with your human life, to go to college and see the world, but Phillip wouldn’t let me. He wanted you at sixteen, I made him wait until you were eighteen, but that was all he would allow. He’s gone now. You don’t have answer to anyone. You’re safe.”
She tried to hug me, wrapping her arms around me. I wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t forgive her for everything she’d done. And yet, a small part of me wanted her to hold me, to be my mother again. I relaxed against her for a moment, breathing her in.
“What would you have done? If the Fae hadn’t escaped?” I asked.
She led us to the bunk where we sat down. “I was going to hire some men to help me get you out of Phillip’s house, then I would have a private plane waiting.”
“Where would we have gone?” I asked, enjoying the fantasy for the moment.
“We couldn’t have gone home, but we could have gone anywhere in the world.”
“Like Paris, or Spain?”
“Yes. I could have bought a little place on the beach for us, where no one would bother us.”
“I’m pretty sure we would be at each other’s throats within the week.”
She chuckled, brushing my hair back off my forehead. “True, but at least there would be no more lies between us.”
“Guess we can’t go anywhere now.”
“No, but Alistair will let us stay here. I know this place isn’t much, but it could be our new home.”
I pulled a face.
“It isn’t that bad. Once you get into a routine, you really don’t notice it. Maybe you could help me in the lab. I could show you how I test your blood and other samples.”
“How you test my blood?”
“Yes, I want to take a few samples so I can see if there have been any changes since the Fae arrived. Then I thought we could…”
“Get out!” I snapped.
“What? Nova, calm down.”
“Calm down! You still want to study me, after all that, I’m still an experiment to you.”
“No, it won’t be like before…”
“It won’t be like anything. I’m eighteen, Phillip is dead so I’m no longer his property. I’m my own person, I make my decisions and I don’t want to see you ever again, now GET OUT!”
Chapter 24
I lay on my bunk, ignoring everyone who came to the door. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, to face anyone. Especially my so-called mother. Nothing had changed and nothing ever would. Whether I stayed with her or went to live in the bunker, I would once again be confined in a box for all the normals to gape at.
The Fae don’t have those worries. They are free. I could be too.
I wondered what would happen if I walked into a Fae camp and told them who I was. Would the welcome me? Or eat me?
It didn’t sound like my father would be welcome either, especially if he trapped his own kind. My father. The Fae. What was he like? Did he have red hair like me? Or was that trait from the anonymous egg donor that was my mother?
I just wish I could talk to someone, someone who understood how I felt. But there was no on like me in the world. I’ve never felt more alone in my life.
All I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry, but if I gave into that feeling, that would be it.
I leapt off the bed, ready to scream. I didn’t belong on either side, I would always be viewed with suspicion. I couldn’t live my life like that, it wasn’t fair.
I have to choose.
If I chose a side, proved my loyalty, then people would have to trust me, wouldn’t they? They wanted me to take on the Queen, to take her place. If I led the Fae, they would answer to me, they would be on my side. The humans, all they did was treat me like garbage. But the Fae would follow me blindly and I could finally have control over my life.
To do that though would mean turning my back on the humans. Eventually. I still needed them to help me get to the Queen in the first place.
Use them like they used you. None of them are worth caring about.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my head in my hands. Was I really considering this? Turning my back on the humans?
No, I wasn’t turning my back. Not really. I would take my rightful place and I would stop the Fae from killing humans, but that was it. I owed them nothing.
Someone knocked on the door. I got up and answered it.
“Enzo, what are you doing here?”
His hands were shoved in the pockets of his fatigues, and he looked tired. Which was better than angry.
“I wanted to talk to you, if that’s okay?”
I shrugged, backing up so he could come in. “If you are here to accuse me of…”
“I’m not here to accuse you of anything. I believe you when you say that you are on our side.”
“You do?”
“Yes, but now you need to prove it. The General is organising a boat to take us to England. It’s going to be a long trip and we don’t know what we’ll be facing. We can teach you how to fight on the way, you can learn how to use your powers.”
I forced myself not to react. Once again, this wasn’t a request, it was an order. He didn’t believe me, he had just been told to play nice so I would cooperate. I thought of our kiss. Couldn’t we just go back to that time? Forget all that happened since?
“So, you think I can do it? Kill the Queen?” I asked, my voice neutral.
“You have to, Nova. Or humans will become extinct. Do you want that to happen?”
“Of course not,” I said, but my mind was racing. I wanted to hit him, to scream at him. Who knows what kind of powers the Queen has, she’s Queen for a reason. She could probably kill me with a wave of her hand. Didn’t he care? Even just a little?
“When are we leaving?” I asked.
“Today, in a few hours. The General has hand selected his top men, I’ll be going too.”
“What about the others? Alwyn, Lydia?”
“No, they’re not soldiers. None of them can come.”
I’d be glad to see the back of Lydia at least.
“Pack a bag. I’ll come get you when it’s time,” Enzo said.
Sure, I’ll just follow orders like a dutiful little soldier.
***
I stood in the hangar with the others, waiting for them to load up the trucks. According to Enzo, we would drive to the docks and board the boat. We would have to stop further along the shore to refuel, but after that we would be headed back to England.
I felt numb, everything that had happened was creeping up on me and I was scared that I would crash hard. Then I would be useless. The only way I could avoid that was by not feeling at all.
Lydia and Alwyn came rushing into the hangar. “Wait. We’re going too,” Lydia said.
“You can’t go, this is a military operation,” Enzo said.
“I don’t
care. You can’t expect us to sit on our asses and do nothing. I can learn to be a field medic and Alwyn is a walking encyclopaedia of the Fae.”
Enzo looked at Alwyn, who looked ready to run. “You want to come with us?”
He nodded. “I have my reasons.”
The General overheard the conversation and approached. “We don’t take civilians into warzones.”
“The whole planet is a warzone,” Lydia shot back.
A flicker of a smile crossed the General’s lips. “I guess we could always use more medics. You will follow orders though.”
Lydia nodded. She and Alwyn hopped up onto the back of one of the trucks.
Rat came hurtling toward us. “I want to go too.”
“No, send him back to the mess hall,” the General said.
Rat turned to Enzo and started pleading with him. Enzo crouched beside him. “Listen, Rat. It’s going to be really dangerous where we are going and it’s not a place for you.”
Rat looked ready to cry.
“But listen, I have a special assignment for you. I need you to stay here and keep everyone safe. Can you do that?”
Rat turned away from him and raced to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist. “Please, Nova. Let me go. I can help.”
I stared at his little face, forcing myself not to react, not to cry. “Sorry, buddy. You have to stay.”
He glared at me and backed away. “I thought we were a family?”
I turned my face away, before I became overwhelmed. I heard him run off.
“Everybody, load up,” the General ordered.
We climbed up onto the back of the truck. I took a seat in the corner, ignoring everyone around me. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the noise.
When we arrived at the boat, we were loaded onto a battle cruiser. I’ve never been on a boat before, certainly not one this big. I was led up onto the deck, while everything was loaded on board. I stared out at the water, which was calm at the moment. It was a beautiful day, hot too. I took my hoodie off and tossed it into the water. I wore a t-shirt underneath, and anyone could see the stumps underneath the thin material, but I didn’t care. They needed me, so they were going to have to accept me as I was.
“Get off me!”
Rat? I rushed back to toward the trucks to find a soldier manhandling him. He must have hidden on one of the trucks.
“Let him go!” I yelled.
The General appeared beside me. “Stupid kid. He can’t come with us.”
“Is someone going to drive him back to the base? You’re the one who said we had to move.”
The General did not look happy. “For God’s sake. Let him go.”
The soldier set Rat down and he ran up to meet me. I hugged him. “That was stupid, Rat. Brave, but stupid.”
“I won’t go back,” he said.
“I know. Why don’t you go check out the ship?”
He raced off, a big grin on his face.
“This is a bad idea,” the General said.
“General, all due respect, that kid has more heart and more balls than all of your platoon put together. He can get into places that the rest of us can’t. We need him.”
“Then he is your responsibility,” the General said.
“Fine by me.”
In the distance, I heard Rat asking the soldiers a million questions about the boat and it brought a smile to my face. I was wrong, not all humans sucked. Pity more of them weren’t like Rat.
“Nova?”
I closed my eyes and groaned. I hoped that I had seen the last of her, but she was here.
“Stay away from me,” I said, moving further along the ship.
“Nova, we have to work together. I need to tell you something.”
I turned to face my mother. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“You will want to hear this. It’s something that Phillip didn’t even know.”
“What? Am I going to grow another head?”
Two soldiers passed us. She led me away, where we could talk without being overheard.
“Phillip got everything he could from your father but keeping him locked up the way he did…he started to fade. He became listless, unresponsive. One morning, we found him in his cell, curled up, covered in webbing. His skin took on a hardened layer, we couldn’t extract samples from it. We assumed he was dead. Phillip wanted the body burned. I went with him to the crematorium.”
“You burned my father. Why would I want to know that?”
Mom shook her head, frustrated with me. She grabbed my hand, pinning it with her arm.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
She flicked a lighter, holding the flame under my hand. I tried to jerk away, but she held on. The flame licked my skin, but it wasn’t burning me.
“Do you understand now?” she asked, releasing me.
I stared at my hand. The skin was normal. “You can’t burn me.”
“A trait you inherited from your father.”
I looked her in the eye. “You mean?”
“He didn’t burn. Phillip left, but I went back to check. The body didn’t burn and when I got there, it was gone.”
“Are you saying that my father is alive?”
“I think so.”
“Why tell me that?”
“Because I want you to know that you are not alone, that you do have family out there.”
“If he’s alive, where is he? Where has he been all this time?”
“I don’t know.” She reached out and took my hand. “But I promise you, Nova. If he’s out there, I’ll help you find him.”
She could try, but it was a big world out there, he could be anywhere.
Epilogue
Queen Asteria descended the stone steps into the dungeon. She felt some trepidation at returning underground after being trapped there for centuries, but she felt the setting fitting for her captor. He was after all, the one who trapped her.
She lifted one of the flaming torches from the wall to light her way. The castle they had taken residence in was one of the oldest in the country.
Not as old as me.
She replaced the bars on the cells with iron as soon as she acquired it, knowing that she would face enemies in her bid to reclaim this realm. None more so than her brother Oberon. He was the one who banished them all from this realm, while remaining here himself. Yet, he never tried to rule it again. Why? He could have conquered the humans easily, but he chose to remain hidden instead.
She reached his cell. Oberon lay on the ground, his white hair splayed around him. He was weak, weaker than she had ever seen him before. She may hate him for all that he had done, but there was a time when she was envious of his power. Now he was less of a threat than a human.
“Still with us, brother?” she asked in their mother tongue.
He turned his head to look at her. His ice blue eyes, which matched her own, held no anger, only pain.
“Asteria, what have you done?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
“What I said I would do. I rule this realm now. You have been defeated.”
He coughed, wincing in pain. Her guards were rough with him when they caught him spying, but there was more to it. He was hiding something. An injury? An illness?
“Why don’t you fight back, brother?” she asked.
“I am old, Asteria. I am fading from this world.”
“Not a moment too soon.”
He smiled at her. “I fought you for a thousand years, sister. I brought you to your knees, sealed you and all our kind beneath the earth. Do you honestly think I would simply let you win?”
She knew he had a plan, he always did. “You are too weak to fight.”
“I am. The spell to hold you was only ever meant to be a temporary measure.”
“Meaning what?”
“You know I have the gift of sight, sister. That day on the battlefield, I saw your end. But not by my hand. Enjoy your reign, it will be a short one. Someone is coming who will end your
miserable existence for good.”
“I will kill anyone who gets in my way.”
“You will try. I will see you in the Summerlands, sister.”
Asteria growled at him, turning away. He was playing with her, trying to undermine her as he’s done her whole life.
No one is powerful enough to defeat me. Anyone with that kind of power would have to come from our blood and all my children are dead.
Let Oberon play his little games, she was the victor.
This world is mine.
To Be Continued
* * *
Continue the Dark Fae Chronicles Series in book two, Battlelines: The Dark Fae Chronicles. Out August 2019.
www.skgregory.com
* * *
About the Author
S. K. Gregory writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance and horror novels. She lives in Northern Ireland where she works as an editor.
Read More from S. K. Gregory
www.skgregory.com.
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