in her long arms.
“They’ll bring her back,” Brea whispered. “Lochlan and Finn will find Alona.”
They had to.
Brea finally found a place she was meant to be, a mother—two of them!—and people she cared about—even douchey Loch. But none of them were whole without their missing princess.
Brea’s mom cancelled the morning sessions in the throne room and spent hours eating a way-too-large breakfast with Brea and Tierney. They smiled and laughed, but a tension ran beneath every action, a sadness.
By the time Brea finally made it back to her rooms, Rowena awaited her, chastisement in her eyes at the sight of Brea still in her sleeping gown.
After changing into a loose-fitting dress—much better than what they’d made her wear in Fargelsi—Brea returned to the courtyard with the fountain statue of naked men.
Sunlight glared off shining stones, sending light back into the atmosphere. The fountain water sparkled where it rippled. She doubted the fae had similar traditions to the humans where they made wishes in fountains, but there was always a time to start.
Thinking of the look on Rowena’s face when Brea asked for a small coin, she laughed. The servant couldn’t understand what she’d need with money, but she’d brought her one anyway.
Brea flipped the silver coin over in her palm, feeling the smooth surface against her palm. Everything she’d ever dreamed of and more had suddenly come true. She had a family who cared about her, despite the fact they didn’t know her. A palace surrounding her that no human girl dreaming of princesses could even imagine.
And best of all… no one doubted her. She’d spent her life seeing things others said couldn’t possibly exist. The Clarkson Institute was a part of her past now.
But there was one thing this world still needed, one thing that kept her from the happiness she should feel.
Lowering herself to the short stone wall surrounding the fountain, she bent over and ran her hand along the surface, watching the disturbance the action caused. That’s what Brea had always been. A disturbance.
But maybe that was okay. Her life wasn’t normal by any means, and she didn’t want it to be.
She brought the coin to her lips, pressing a kiss to it as she held the wish in her mind and heart. After a beat of hesitation, she lifted her hand and tossed the coin into the glimmering water, watching it sink down to the depths of the fountain.
A smile spread across her lips. “That wish was for you, Myles.”
She patted the stone and stood, unable to stop the laugh bubbling past her lips. Because she knew without a shadow of a doubt now. Myles was alive.
“I’m going to see you again one day.”
Brea Robinson wasn’t a murderer. She hadn’t killed her best friend. And he’d forgive her for everything else, just like she’d finally forgiven herself.
Guilt was a human emotion, one with no purpose.
And Brea wasn’t human, not even a little.
She was no longer a lie.
She was fae, and she was home.
Epilogue
Alona Cahill
The constant drip, drip, drip noise drove Alona mad. Some days she counted the drips until she fell asleep only to wake up to another day of nothing but darkness, damp walls, and the constant drip.
Alona had never thirsted for magic the way some of the serving class did. But right now, she’d give almost anything to have been born with magic just for the ability to create fire for warmth and light.
“What does Regan want with me?” she asked the walls of her cell. “I am nothing but a useless princess destined to become a maid. I have no value as a bargaining tool beyond my mothers’ love for me.” And they would never compromise the future of Eldur just for her. That was too high a price to pay for their daughter’s freedom. Regan had to know that.
The drip, drip, drip faded at the sound of footsteps approaching her cell. Alona hadn’t seen a soul since her arrival in the dungeon. Her food and water appeared once a day on the table in the far corner of the cell. That was perhaps the worst part of her captivity. The solitude and the drip, drip, drip.
“Let’s go, Princess. The queen has summoned you.” A Fargelsi servant scraped a key in the lock and opened the heavy wooden door of her cell.
Alona scrambled to her feet, eager to leave the dungeon behind, if only to hear Queen Regan’s grand standing about her plans for Alona.
The man was silent as he escorted her up