in her life, someone was saying she had a place in the world.
The Robinsons in Ohio with their drinking and cruel words didn’t define her. She didn’t come from them. They were Alona’s parents.
Tears flowed freely down her face as she looked at the only woman brave enough to tell her. Lochlan had known, she was sure of it. Yet, she couldn’t muster up the anger for him.
Not when she wanted this truth so badly.
“Can I…” She sucked in a breath. “Can I see her?”
Tierney’s shining eyes met hers, and she nodded. “She will be vexed I told you, but you aren’t the only one who needs something to hold onto, Brea. Just… be patient with her. Recovering one daughter does not lessen the pain of losing another.”
Tierney gestured to Rowena to help Brea from the bed. Her feet hit the stone floor and she no longer felt strange about wandering the palace in a sleeping gown. Rowena helped her into the hall, but Brea shrugged off her hand and started running, having no idea where she needed to go.
Tierney caught up to her, grabbing her hand and running to match Brea’s speed. She led her through the labyrinth of half-covered walkways and courtyards. They stopped outside a set of high wooden double doors.
“The throne room,” Tierney whispered, gesturing to the guards to open the doors. “She will be alone at this time of day while she waits to receive her people.”
The doors opened, revealing a long white carpet meandering through sandstone pillars wrapped in pale pink silks.
Queen Faolan relaxed on a gilded golden throne with purple cushions to keep her in comfort. She leaned her head back, closing her eyes, a troubled expression on her face.
Tierney prodded Brea forward.
Brea’s bare feet hit the carpet, leaving indented footprints behind her as if marking this day, showing that she was there.
Her breath rattled in her lungs, drowning out the pounding of her heart. The pain in her shoulder and head seemed to fade into the background as Brea searched the woman before her for the similarities she’d never found in her mother.
“Your eyes,” she’d said. Did they blaze yellow with her magic? Was that a family trait?
Full fae. It made sense now. Why her Aunt Regan wanted her. Why they were attacked on the road.
Lochlan’s disdain.
One day, she hoped to help him find the woman who’d been like his sister.
She stopped at the bottom of a set of stairs leading to the throne, and only one word came out. “Mom?” She cleared her throat, realizing that must be a human word. “Mother.”
Queen’s Faolan’s eyes snapped open, settling on Brea with an intensity that should have scared her. She flicked them to her wife who stood watching with tears streaming down her face. Brea glanced back over her shoulder before facing her mom again.
“Is it true?”
Her mother covered her mouth with her hand.
Brea stepped closer. “Please, tell me it’s true.”
The queen, unable to speak, nodded as her eyes glassed over. Brea had longed to go back to the human realm since the moment Griff pulled her through a portal, but as she stood looking at the woman who put her there, who subjected her to a life of being named crazy and insane, she didn’t know what she wanted.
“Do you have any idea what my life has been like?” She stumbled back, her emotions breaking free in a cascade of tears. “H-how…”
Her mom scrambled from her throne and ran down the steps, crushing Brea into her arms. “My dear.” She wiped tears from Brea’s face and looked into her eyes. “It was far better than letting the Fargelsians get their hands on you.”
“And what of Alona? You ripped her from the Robinsons.”
“She has had a good life here. I promise you.”
Until they forced her into the servant class. But Brea didn’t have the energy to argue the morals of exchanging a fae child for a human one.
“Mother.” She buried her face in her mom’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me last night?”
“I don’t know. My heart is broken, child. Alona is missing, and to think of everything you’ve been through.” She rested her chin on Brea’s head. “It’s over now for you. You’re safe here. This is your home.”
The truth in her mother’s words didn’t hit her until right then. This information broke her open, letting loose a million questions she feared to ask. But she could rest now because she was safe.
Tierney joined them, wrapping both her wife and new daughter