“Wake up, Emma,” I growled, and I jostled her. “Those that take sleep in the chill have been known to never awaken again.”
She kept her eyes open after that, though they were bleary and faint. We crossed through town, then took a homemade path into the valley close to the city. I ventured over hills and watched as a herd of deer fled once they saw me.
Finally, we came to Evonna’s house. It was a small cottage on top of a very tall hill. Emma slid off my back, and knocked on the door.
A thin woman with a mane of red hair opened the door. She was beautiful and striking, and looked younger than what I knew she had to be. Her smile brightened as she took us in. “Emma. How nice of you to come by.”
She wrapped Emma in a hug before turning to me. “You must be Prince Ethan. I’m honored, your highness.”
“There’s no need for formalities,” I said kindly. “We’re family now. Just call me Ethan.”
Emma gave me a fond look, and Evonna said, “Yes, you’re mated. And what a wonderful thing that is! I’m very happy for you both.”
I’d never met Evonna in person before, but we’d communicated through text while Emma was in Poland, so this introduction wasn’t as awkward as I expected— or perhaps Evonna was so welcoming, it didn’t seem that way.
Evonna squeezed me, and the gesture made me freeze up. Her embrace was loving and gentle. It didn’t feel much like the stiff, forced hugs my mother gave me as a child.
It was... strange, to say the least. I wasn’t quite used to affection like this.
“Come in,” Evonna said, and she moved aside. Emma and I entered. I looked around the cottage. Herbs hung from the ceiling, and the scent of incense drifted throughout the cottage. The wood floor was covered with differently colored rugs, and tapestries draped over the walls. Ornate china had been carefully stacked in cabinets, jars filled with potion ingredients lined the shelves, and a cauldron bubbled on the stove. A hearth burned lowly in the living room across from the kitchen. A white cockatoo sat on a perch near the couch, cracking seeds in his beak.
It felt very homey and warm. It was the perfect place for a sorceress.
I caught Evonna staring at me. “Is something wrong?” I asked.
She blinked and shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s just... you look very much like your father at that age. It’s like stepping back in time.”
Emma had told me her mother had bonded with two shifters— one of them my father. She’d picked another, but by the way she looked at me, I was certain the choice had to be a very tough decision.
“I was just making a rose petal tea,” Evonna said. “It’s a very good alchemy spell for calming.”
Evonna spooned the potion from the cauldron and poured it into three teacups. Emma and I sat down at the kitchen table. We drank slowly as Evonna eyed us.
“So what’s the reason for the visit?” Evonna asked. “Surely you didn’t come all this way in a snowstorm just to chit chat.”
“There’s always a blizzard in Malovia,” I joked. “It’s nothing unusual.”
Evonna smiled thinly. “True. But there’s something on your mind. I can see it in Emma’s eyes.”
Emma tilted forward. “There is, Mom. I wanted to tell you something. About the Contest.”
Evonna frowned. “I thought we agreed not to talk about this.”
“We did,” Emma said. “But it’s important.”
Evonna huffed and sipped her tea. “If you ask me, I think you should’ve won the Contest, whether you used the Unseelie necklace or not. Damn the Circle and their judgmental, arrogant ways.”
“That’s actually what we wanted to speak with you about.” I looked to Emma.
Emma took a deep breath. “Well... we found out that for me to use an artifact like that with so much power, I’d have to come from Unseelie blood.”
Evonna nearly spat out her tea. She composed herself and said, “No. That can’t be possible.”
“But it is,” Emma insisted. “We’ve researched it, and for me to draw from something like that, I’d have to be part Unseelie. Otherwise, I’d be dead.”
Evonna shook her head. “Well, that’s news to me. If you have Unseelie blood, it’s not in my ancestry. I come from a pureblooded Seelie line. My family— and this goes for myself as well— hate the Unseelie with a dying passion.”
She wasn’t lying, as far as I could tell. Surprise