Prince of Wolves - Tasha Black Page 0,35
the floors of the tiny apartment while Ashe sat cross-legged on the bed.
He braced himself.
Questions were coming, and a lot of them.
The orb of ice he’d given her was gone. Her time to decide was up.
But she was here. Against all odds, she was here and ready to listen to his answers.
After some time to collect her thoughts, Ashe began.
“What’s going on with Ronan?” she asked first.
Leave it to his darling to jump right to the hardest question.
“It’s complicated,” he said, knowing she wouldn’t settle for that.
“We’ve got time,” she told him.
“His parents were rivals of your mother’s,” he told her carefully.
Ashe nodded.
“She asked me to swap their child for a changeling the night he was born,” he said softly. “She hoped that if their child were devoid of magic, it would end their ambitions.”
She nodded.
He wasn’t telling her anything about her mother that she didn’t already believe. She had certainly seen it all tonight.
“I slipped into their rooms and took the boy,” he said, feeling ashamed. “But when it came time to take him across the veil, I couldn’t do it. I already felt such guilt for stealing Willow’s birthright, and yours.”
Ashe leaned forward, listening intently now.
“Your mother knew of my betrayal right away, of course,” he said wryly. “She had spies all over the Winter Court in those days. By the time I got back to his parent’s home with him, it was already burning to the ground.”
Ashe hugged her knees to her chest, her expression unspeakably sad.
He could hardly blame her. It upset him every time he thought of it.
“I ran to your mother,” he told her. “I asked her why she did it. And she laughed at me and asked why I still had the baby. She told me to drop him at an orphanage or into the moat if I was too afraid to leave him across the veil. It was all the same to her.”
Ashe’s forehead furrowed.
“Of course I couldn’t do that,” he told her. “The poor babe had no parents, and what happened to them was my fault. Plus, he seemed to have already bonded to me. So I decided to raise him as my own son.”
Ashe smiled sadly.
“When the Queen learned that I hadn’t gotten rid of him, she came to my chambers in the night,” he said. “I woke up to see her standing there, her eyes pure blue fire, glittering snow swirling in the room all around her. I could feel what she was doing, and the pain was incredible. Ronan was in his crib wailing. By the time it was over, his cries had turned to howls.”
A tear slipped down Ashe’s cheek.
“She told me that as long as I was in this shape, he would be in that one, and vice versa,” he went on. “We would never get to spend time together in the same form. The curse is strong - it’s royal magic, and it can only be lifted by the Crown of Winter. She thought this was particularly clever because it was a play on his title.”
“The Prince of Wolves,” Ashe whispered. “Ronan of Winter.”
“Exactly,” Varik said. “He was to be the Prince of Wolves, before the Queen got involved.”
“He will be again,” Ashe said in a determined voice.
“Whether that happens or not, he is loved,” Varik said. He didn’t have the heart to tell her what he needed to do for the curse to be lifted.
“I know the part you’re not telling me,” she said gently.
“I’m being honest this time, I promise,” he told her.
“I mean the part about how to lift the curse,” she told him. “I know you have to bring me back for that to happen. That’s your bounty for me, isn’t it?”
Varik knelt before her.
“Ashe,” he said, his voice breaking on her name. “I’ve thought it over, and I won’t sacrifice your freedom for his. I will not force you back to Faerie. And I know you don’t want to go.”
He felt her soft hand on his cheek, lifting his face so that she could look into his eyes.
“Varik, I do want to go back to Faerie,” she told him.
He looked into her dark eyes, searching for signs that it was a compassionate lie.
But she was smiling at him happily now, tears in her eyes.
“When did you decide this?” he asked. “And why?”
“When I was at the library today,” she told him. “I was talking with Delilah about this place, what makes it special. There are people here who want to