The Fae King's Dream (Between Dawn and Dusk #2) - Jamie Schlosser Page 0,135

back about a minute later with the last ingredient for Astrid’s spell. I run my fingers over the smooth honey-colored strand.

“Maybe I’m finally getting what I deserve.” My father’s defeated statement takes me by surprise. “The punishment for my sins is her suffering.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. I did a terrible thing, retaliating on the Day Realm with that plague. My brother was right when he tried to keep the peace. I thought Keryth was soft when he simply cut off trade with them. But he was right, and he was right about me, too. I was just too angry to make rational decisions.”

“You made a mistake. Grief can make us crazy. I’m no saint either. I just massacred a coven.”

His heavy hand squeezes my shoulder. “Do you know how many lives you’ve saved in the long run?”

I grunt out a confirmation. “I’m not sorry either. They were evil—poison to our world.”

Turning away, he faces the back of the cave. “Poison to my love, as well.”

“Not for long.” Whitley’s statement echoes between the wet rock and the wall of water as she appears, holding one end of the rolled-up rug. “It’s time.”

I’m not sure if I should allow Whitley to go inside. If there’s even a fraction of a chance that she could catch what my mother has, I should forbid it.

I almost laugh.

As if I could stop her.

I peer past her shoulder at Astrid, but the little troll just stares back at me with a challenge in her eyes.

After learning as much as I have about witches, I know two are better than one, and my mother needs all the help she can get.

There’s no way I could talk Whitley out of helping, so I step aside to let her pass.

She pauses for a quick kiss, and I hold up my mother’s hair before slipping it into her pocket. As I watch her go, my hands itch to pull her back to me.

Sensing my apprehension, Astrid shakes her head as she shuffles by. “It’ll be fine, my king. Don’t worry so much.”

Now that the coven isn’t blocking Astrid’s visions, maybe she’s seen something, because she seems a lot more confident than she did minutes ago.

My father starts to follow them, but Astrid gives him a pointed look. “No witnesses.”

“I’m not going to stand out here with my dick in my hand while I let someone else treat my wife.”

“So crass,” Astrid gasps, feigning offense as she clucks her tongue. “Damon, is he always like this?”

“When he’s upset, yeah.” I shrug.

My father growls.

He doesn’t know Astrid well enough to tell when she’s being facetious. In time, he will. He’ll grow to love her like I do. Like family. Because although my parents are back and Astrid will probably lose her claim on the master suite, she’s not going anywhere. Her home will always be at my castle.

She raises an eyebrow at my father. “Do you want Tehya to get better or not?”

Grunting, he relents, slowly backing away with me. It’s out of our hands now, and we both have to be okay with that.

Still, I worry, just as he does.

My mother isn’t a fighter like Whitley. She’s not headstrong or fierce. Before becoming queen, she was a peasant girl in the Dream Realm. Such a simple life. Her ambitions included having enough grain to bake bread every day.

Needless to say, relinquishing control is difficult for my father. He’s used to taking care of my mother. All my memories of them together is him doting on her. Not to mention, he’s accustomed to running the show.

Raised to be a ruler, he’s not too different from me—a little full of himself. Or a lot.

He’s in for a rude awakening once he comes home.

This world has changed. The equality gap is closing, thanks to Quinn and her love for all the citizens of Valora. And although my father will probably balk at the idea of women being soldiers, he doesn’t have the final say anymore. Once he passed the crown to me, he relinquished that right, and I won’t be giving it back.

One of the first things I plan to do when I return to Cassia is call a meeting with our counsel and draw up a plan for a female training center. I’ll give Whitley free reign over the project.

That is, after I bang her brains out for a couple weeks.

Then we’ll make a deal with the sprite community in the enchanted forest. I don’t want us to just be neighbors. I want