by Meg Xuemei X
“Queen Tianna?” I asked.
My grandfather’s nostrils flared, and his amber eyes burned with such hatred I’d never seen before.
“How did you hear the name?” he asked. “That foul name is forbidden to say in the realm.”
“She spied on me and heard the queen’s demon captain and me arguing about the Fae Queen,” a rich, masculine voice sounded at the door, and my heart jerked.
Elvey leaned against the doorframe, his arms folding against his broad chest and his foot crossing over his other ankle. His lavender hair was a hot mess, and his sensual lips looked as kissable as ever. He indeed had a small slash on his jaw, which was healing. A bandage wrapped around his left pinkie.
I dragged my gaze away from him after our eyes met for a second. I couldn’t ogle him, not when my mates were here. And if I kept looking at him, I might never be able to look away. Still, the unseen thread tethering us together was palpable. I could feel Blaze tensing behind me, as if he wanted very much to attack Elvey.
The fire-dragon prince had always felt Elvey was a threat to our relationship, and he might be right, especially after what Sphinx had revealed in my mind.
Gain the first and lose the last. Keep the last, and the first will be shattered bones. Heart doesn’t know. Heart betrays. Heart breaks. Heart divides. Heart deceives.
I didn’t want to choose Elvey over my mates. I couldn’t bear losing them. But if I only kept my dragon princes, Elvey might die. That seemed to be what the cruel, twisted Sphinx had told me.
No, I didn’t want to dwell on it.
I swallowed the bile in my throat, suppressed the dread spreading in my stomach, and fixed my eyes on my grandfather.
King Daghda didn’t glance back at Elvey, though his back stiffened at the Fae mage’s voice. The king seemed to tolerate Elvey since he was my ally. And without him calling my grandfather’s guards to ride to my aid, my mates and I wouldn’t have made it here.
Elvey had saved us countless times. This time, his friend Rosalinda had lost an arm defending us.
He hadn’t wanted to say the dark Fae Queen’s name, either, even on another planet, afraid of giving her power or drawing her focus to us. But now that we were in the Dragon Realm, and all Fae, except those I invited, couldn’t enter, he seemed to be more relaxed. The dark queen knew about my return already. Saying her name wouldn’t do worse.
Did my grandfather know that Elvey was bound to the Fae Queen by blood?
“I’ve been kept in the dark about the other half of my heritage all these centuries,” I said, giving the king a withering look. “Today, I want full disclosure. I won’t be denied anymore.”
Rai squeezed my shoulder in a show of support.
“It broke me when the curse came true at your fifteenth birthday and you were taken from me,” said the king. “I would have given up everything, including the realm, to find you and get you back. We tried everything until all hope died.”
“I traveled to the other realms to find you,” Adrian said. “In the end, I heard that the curse had probably dragged you to the past, and then I searched for a time machine.”
“I was pulled to the past on Pandemonium,” I said, “until the Wickedest Witch in the universe came and took with her the elemental entity who enslaved me. After he was gone, the planet bounced back to the present time. I don’t know how it worked, but both Akem and the witch could manipulate time. Without them holding Pandemonium in time-space, time could no longer veil the planet.”
“After you were gone, my state of mind weakened me, and I neglected the realm,” King Daghda continued. “Which resulted in the realm cutting its ties to me. When the enemies swarmed the realm, I could no longer do much to stop them. I was a broken king in a broken kingdom. The humans who had lesser dragon blood joined the pure humans and moved against me. Then, a few months ago, a witch, Lysandra, came and enthralled me. I couldn’t resist her power without the land’s magic.” His voice turned bitter. “Our ancestors’ goddess abandoned me. I blamed her for the tragedy that had befallen our house. Where was she when the enemies killed my only son? Where was she when the curse took you away?”
“Grandfather,” I said, my hand grasping his. “Don’t beat yourself up about it.” My resentment toward him had vanished. “I’ve come back, and we’re going to fix this.”
His hand clasped mine. “My beloved granddaughter, you’ve indeed returned.” He breathed out, his hands no longer trembling. “I’m sorry I put you through such hardship. When the Archangel delivered your message, I was in no position to fend off the enemies surrounding me, and my mind couldn’t tell which were loyal to me and which weren’t. I became suspicious of everyone. But it wasn’t without a reason. The witch corrupted some of the dragons.”
My mind drifted to Segomo, the dragon who’d been possessed by the smoke-entity.
“Only when I heard your message did I realize that the cure to lift your curse was a kiss from your three true loves,” he said. “If I’d known, I’d have rounded up all the men in the whole planet to kiss you when you were but a child.”
My mates growled behind me.
I flushed. “That’s ridiculous, Grandfather. That would be child molesting. You might have just scarred me for life. And there was no guarantee that it would have worked that way.”
“Anything would have been better than having my only heir taken away from me for centuries without even knowing if you were alive,” he said, steel in his voice.
I bit my lip. The king remained the same—either his way or the highway.
Immortals weren’t adept to adapting. The more ancient they were, the less they could change. But the world didn’t care for our tendencies. It constantly evolved at rapid speed, and time affected everyone, including us.
However, Elvey adapted easily.
I slanted a glance at him. I had tried not to meet his gaze the entire time, but I could feel its heat on me. Blaze growled twice, though he hadn’t wanted to interrupt Daghda’s narrating.
Elvey didn’t seem to care. If he wanted to flirt with me, he didn’t care about the occasion or the audience. That was just how he was.
“King Daghda hid the true message and called for every man he could reach in every realm,” Elvey said, the corner of his lips tugging up in a faint smile. “He never mentioned the part about the true loves but issued that whoever had the heads of the three Furies would inherit his kingdom. He knew your true loves would never behead you and gambled they’d protect you and bring you home.”
“You should have just summoned the three of us in secret and we’d have hurried to meet our mate and get the job done,” Blaze said, then added, “Your Majesty, instead of sending all hunters after her. Those nasty hunters almost got her, and we almost lost our mate!”
The king rolled his eyes. “How could I know you three brats were her true mates? Was I supposed to be a prophet? If I were, my granddaughter wouldn’t have been taken!”
Not three, but four, a voice chimed in my head.
Elvey cleared his throat. “It was the only and best move King Daghda could make, while the dark Fae Queen’s spies are everywhere. If she’d learned that the Dragon King had found our Daisy on another planet, she’d have done more damage.”
Blaze growled at Elvey again. He didn’t like him calling me “our Daisy.” He’d agreed to share me with his brothers, but believed I was off-limits to other males, especially to Elvey.
“The Fae bitch has done enough,” Rai hissed. “She sent a ship full of demons to eliminate my mate.”
“She sent a ship packed with only over a hundred demons,” Elvey said, “and with me on board. If King Daghda called for a rescue mission, the Fae Queen would have led an army herself, and I’d be rendered useless when it came to helping Daisy in any way.”
“She’s that powerful?” Iokul’s worry laced his voice.
“She’s one of the most powerful beings on Inanna,” the king drawled, black hatred dripping from his voice. “She became tha
t way after she murdered my son and her own sisters and siphoned their powers. She’s gathered dark, evil forces around her and emerged herself in all sorts of foul, forbidden practices. The horror stories about her have no end, and none dared even whisper her name. The rumor says that she can’t be killed. I do not fear the Fae bitch, but since it’s said that saying her name would grant her more power, I forbade the realm to say her true Fae name.”
I remembered how Elvey’s face had paled when I’d pressed him to tell me about the dark Fae Queen. And I remembered the evil presence in the great hall, which was but a part of the queen’s phantom self. She was indeed powerful.
Elvey had been reluctant to bring her name to his lips, for fear she’d find me. But now we’d passed that phase. And no matter whether I was ready or not, he could no longer buy me more time. She’d sent her pawn—the black witch—to poison my grandfather and take my dynasty.
Twice she’d sent armies of demons to hunt me, and this time, in my own realm.
“For those fifteen years while I was in the realm, you treated me like a delicate flower,” I said. “You shouldn’t have done that, Grandfather. I was half-dragon. I was also half-Fae. You should have let me know the truth. I was not a defenseless damsel. If you’d ever seen my beastly forms—” I swallowed the bile. There was no need to bring up my past misery. I should just leave it behind me in that jungle. I needed to secure and protect my future with my mates and the future of the realm.
“What happened to my parents?” I asked. “Is the dark Fae Queen my aunt?”
My thoughts played over the time I had spent wandering between the twilight land of the living and the dead, when my mother had broken through the veil and visited me. She couldn’t linger, and that was the only time she could ever come to me. She’d revealed to me the relationship between her and the dark Fae Queen, but she hadn’t had enough time to break down the details on how she’d been murdered.
I demanded to know the whole truth today.
“Your mother Zuzana was the crown princess of the Unseelie Sihde court,” the king said. “She had two sisters: Aine and Tianna. Zuzana was wild and passionate. Aine was next in line and the sweetest. She loved and worshipped your mother. Tianna, the youngest, was the coldest, cruelest, and most calculating.
The feud between the dark Fae and the dragons can be traced to an eon ago. The war between our two immortal races went on and off. Unfortunately, for both the dragon court and the Fae court, Fate let my son meet your mother. They fell in love at first sight, and their forbidden affair started. When Tianna and her spies found out about the Fae heir’s affair, she exposed her sister. Princess Zuzana couldn’t hide it anymore as she was several months pregnant with you. Zuzana fled the Sihde, knowing her father, the Fae King, wouldn’t just strip her of her title, but punish her to death for tainting the Fae royal bloodline, despite that she was the heir.”
The king paused for a second, his look darkening as the storm whirled in his eyes again. “My son hid her, afraid of the same punishment from me, afraid my hatred for the Fae would take his beloved mate from him. Tianna and her minions discovered their hideout and besieged them. Even though your mother was already banished, Tianna still regarded the former crown princess as a threat. And she coveted your mother’s power. Zuzana went into labor and was about to give birth to you. She was one of the most powerful dark Fae, but when she was pregnant with you, she lost her magic, as it went to you, according to the tale. My son refused to flee for his life, but he alone couldn’t fight off a whole army. They overpowered him and beheaded him while he was in his dragon form defending his mate and their unborn child.”
King Daghda stared ahead into nothingness, as if he couldn’t bear to relive the nightmare. The muscles of his jaw jumped. He still felt the pain even now, even after nine centuries. I wasn’t the only one who had suffered.
“When Aine heard about the news and arrived with her guards, it was already too late,” Elvey said softly. “Tianna had poisoned your mother, leaving her to a slow, painful death, but you were without harm. The poison didn’t touch you. Your mother begged for your life, and Tianna taunted her. The dark Fae Queen thrived on others’ pain and fed on it. She didn’t take your life immediately but cursed you in front of your mother to make her suffer more, and your mother added her blessing with the last trace of her blood to modify the curse. However, your mother wasn’t strong enough after giving birth to you and being poisoned, so Aine joined her. By doing so, Aine took the slow and painful death curse that was meant for you into herself. And then with all the magic she had, she teleported you out of your birth place and sent you to the Dragon Realm. That day, your parents, your aunt Aine and her guards, all gave their lives for you.”
A horrific realization hit me. “You were there,” I said, looking at Elvey, rage, grief, and hate ready to slam into him. But I clenched my fists, remembering how I had mistaken him and hurt him once. I remembered how the blood had dripped down from the corner of his mouth when I’d hit him in the chest after he’d taken me to the great hall and I’d broken his glamour.
He hadn’t defended himself.
My mates pushed closer to me, two hands on my shoulders and one hand on my arm. Their warmth and devotion washed over me through our mating bond. If we were alone, they would carry me to the bed, take me into their arms, and bury deep inside me.
Elvey didn’t look away from me, though I felt a piece of him die as he continued the story. “I couldn’t do anything to save you or your mother. I was blood-bonded to Tianna. I couldn’t disobey her.” A muscle twisted in his jaw as he told his shame. I knew he would never admit it, but for me, he tore it open in front of everyone, and let me judge him.
“Did you kill my parents?” I asked softly. “Did you play a part in their deaths? Did you shed their blood?”
“No,” he said. “The queen forced me to watch. Despite my blood-bond to her, it was beyond me to hurt you and your parents.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“You know why,” he said softly.
The truth hit me, and my heart raced. He knew that I knew that he was my fated mate.
He could never hurt his mate, and no force of the universe could make him.
“I managed to send the message to Aine,” he said in a regretful, defeated tone. “But it was too late.”
“Princess Aine teleported you here—the royal dragons’ sanctuary—with an attached magical message.” King Daghda was now composed enough to resume his account. “That was her last kind deed. I begged Goddess Arianrhod to seal the pass between the Sihde and the Dragon Realm. No Fae could ever reach my realm to take you away. But in the end, the curse still took you from me. I was robbed of your radiant smile for nine centuries, and you lived in the godforsaken place as three Fury beasts.”
“I have one piece of good news,” Elvey said, a cruel smile waltzing in his star-blue eyes. “There is this prophecy that no one knows about but the dark Fae Queen and her inner circle. It foretold that a hybrid heir of the royal dragon and royal Fae will bring with her the White Light the world has never seen. She’ll trump the darkness, free all who are in bondage and slavery, and lead us to the era of true enlightenment.” His gaze on me was so tender that my heart melted for him, and my pulse beat rapidly for him.
But I sat straight and tight, fighting the urge to go to him, embrace him, and vow to him that I’d shatter his shackles.
Elvey laughed to himself. “Tianna fears Daisy more than anyone because of the prophecy. When King Daghda’s men searched for her, Tianna’s minions had been hunting her as well. I’d also been seeking her. No one could find her. And here you are, Princess Daisy, the rightful heir to the Danaenyth dynasty and Queen to the Sihde Realm.”
I swallowed. Queen to the Sihde Realm?
There was no way I could carry all the burdens.
Elvey’s eyes, unfathomable as the deep space, pierced me, and his need and hunger for me slammed into my soul.
I wouldn’t abandon
him. Right now, he could still resist the evil queen’s pull because of the vampire venom that weakened his connection to the bitch. But what would happen once the venom thinned in his bloodstream? She would eventually find him. And when she did, she’d take him back and bend him to her will.
The demon captain’s cruel words echoed in my mind. “You’ve tried for centuries to be free of her, but you failed repeatedly and pathetically. The queen will never release you, not until she breaks you completely.”
I wouldn’t allow it. No more would I allow myself to abandon my mother’s people, even though I didn’t know them. No, I knew some of them now. Rosalinda’s face flashed before me. And there were many others like her who would like to have a home to go to.
I’d have to take the Sihde Realm from Tianna. I had no issues with that. And I very much intended to avenge my parents and myself.
I held Elvey’s gaze with a promise, and he smiled.
That smile tugged my heart.
“One step at a time,” I said. “First, we’ll need to take down Lysandra.”
“That fucking bitch,” King Daghda grated, his formidable dragon glaring out of his golden eyes. “I’ll tear her apart with my bare hands.”
I cleared my throat and looked at King Daghda blankly. “Grandfather, do you know my true purpose of coming to you?”
“I failed my son,” he said. “And I failed you.”
“You did not fail us. I didn’t blame you,” I said as gently as I could. “But you failed the realm because of your grief, and because of our enemies’ design. I’ve come to take the realm, the crown, and the burden from you.”
“I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time, Granddaughter,” he said, his burnt amber eyes glowing. “The land’s power has left me and chosen you.” He paused for a second, then his voice boomed regally. “Make me proud, Queen Daisy Danaenyth.”
CHAPTER 16
Daghda had never met Arianrhod, the goddess of the land and sky and rebirth, even though he’d ruled the Dragon Realm for millennia. She’d only come to him twice in a vision, and the second time had been after my father was slain. At my grandfather’s request, Arianrhod had sealed the path between the Sihde and Dragon Realm to protect me. But in the end, the curse had still stolen me.
