have recognized the look on my face, because she cleared her throat.
"Thank you for telling us about your life on Earth. It breaks my heart that my baby was hurt and I couldn’t protect you, but you are so strong. You’re the worthiest fey I’ve met in a long time.” She got choked up. “You’re healing, I can feel it in your energy."
My parents were uniquely connected to me, in a way that very few ever would be. Outside of my jeweled sisters and … Jacob.
My Jacob. At some fucking point in my crazy journey I’d started thinking of him as mine.
And I missed him.
The ache for him wasn’t easing with time, it just grew worse.
"I'll never forget my past," I told my mother honestly, "but I'm not letting it define me anymore. It was two bad years. Two out of the thousand I’ll live. Those men do not own my life anymore."
The jewels on my head glowed and I didn't flinch. My power was mine to control now, and the fact that I would never have to be vulnerable again made me happier than I expected.
Someone knocked on the door, reminding us it was time to go.
Mom hugged me and we dried our tears before heading outside to where my father, uncle, aunt, two sets of cousins, and a bunch of other family waited for us.
I was sort of in love with this new family of mine.
"Justice!" Katerina gasped. A cousin who was the same age as me with long ass-length black hair and huge onyx eyes. "You look absolutely stunning. I can't—"
She broke off, shaking her head.
"The guys are going to be all over you today," Simi, another cousin added. She looked a lot like Kat, but was shorter and finer, and her hair had more caramel through it.
They both hugged me, and Kat whispered in my ear: "Someone is getting lucky tonight."
The thought should have been welcome. I was a normal red-blooded supernatural who had not gotten laid in a really fucking long time. And despite the sexual assault in my past, I'd never shied away from sex, just from commitment. I had trust issues and never did the long-term thing, but a one-night stand—well, it used to be my favorite.
The thought of having casual sex now, though, actually turned my stomach.
I couldn't stop thinking about Jacob; I needed to know what it meant. I needed to deal with that part of my life.
Before I lost my brain. Or wore out my magic by turning my hands into the equivalent of a vibrator.
Thank fuck for having a separate wing in the house to my parents. From what I’d learned and observed, supes didn’t have a lot of the same conservative hang-ups about sex like humans, but I was raised human, so I liked that to stay private.
As a group, we left the house, a ruby beam already waiting for us in the front of the estate. It was huge, able to accommodate the twenty or so of us with ease. Stepping inside the warmth of the gem, I let it fill my energy, relishing the feel of its power mingling with mine. It felt like coming home, my center bursting with its light.
I was beyond excited to be able to control the ruby beams, traveling along them especially. It was a level of bonding that only royals achieved in these lands, and it would be a telling factor if I was accepted.
Maybe then I’d accept it myself.
We stepped out on the other side of the transporter to find a red lake spanning out into the distance. I hadn’t been this far north of our city before, but I’d seen the long expanse of red when I’d climbed to the top of my parents’ house.
There was no way to describe the feelings that rose up in me to finally be standing at its shoreline, a swift, almost biting breeze cutting into my bare skin, but the gems kept me warm.
“It looks like ice,” I said, stepping closer. The surface was so shiny and reflective; if it wasn’t for the slight movement of the water, I would have thought it frozen.
"The bed is lined in rubies, and swimming here has healing properties," my father explained, leading me closer, his arm threaded through mine. “It never gets cold enough to freeze though, even when the snows come. The gems keep it temperate.” He leaned his head down, bestowing the smile I’d grown to love. “You look absolutely beautiful, daughter.”