trust him.
I gasped and pushed away from him, wiping tears from my eyes. “S-s-orry.”
He sighed and his lips curved into a little smirk. He took a single step and his armor vanished, leaving him only in dark, low slung jeans. “Saraphi— OLLI?”
Olli’s head snapped up. Big, droopy brown eyes widened and his ears perked up, all that extra fur scrunched up between his eyes. He cocked his head to the side, like far to the side. I knew the moment he recognized Riah because his ears dropped and his scrunchy face smoothed out. He whimpered and charged for him.
Riah chuckled and crouched down just as Olli jumped into his chest. He caught him, ruffling his big floppy face. “Where did Olli come from?”
“1692. You sent me there…my mom…” my voice cracked. “My mom left him for me. Elizabeth said I could take him.”
Riah looked up at me with a wide grin. “I’m glad.”
Olli cried and licked his face.
“Yes, I missed you too, Olli,” Riah said with a laugh.
The sound of Riah laughing and my dog crying with happiness did something to me. I wanted nothing more than to join them. To hold Riah until all of my pain went away. But he was part of my pain and I still hadn’t gotten an answer for what happened and what I saw.
“Riah…” I whispered and wiped tears from my cheeks. “You promised to explain.”
He nodded while still rubbing Olli’s long ears. “And I will. I was not expecting Tegan to interfere.”
I sighed and threw my hands up. “She’s been trying to help me get back home.”
He smirked and scooped Olli into his arms. “I have been trying to get you back home since your memory came back.”
“What? Why? You’re Prince Thorne’s Commander. I heard him congratulate you on your job well done in delivering me.” I groaned and started pacing the cave in front of him. “But then…I saw…I saw you with The Coven…”
He stood to his full height, carrying Olli in the cradle of his arms like a baby. “When I tell you the truth you will understand why I did not blurt it out in the tunnels.”
I stopped and stared. My eyes welled with tears as he stood there in front of me cuddling my dog. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff. “So tell me. My heart can’t take this another second.”
“Do you remember me telling you about my mother’s boyfriend?” He peeked up at me under dark eyelashes. “How he took me and Malachi in?”
I nodded. My heart was lodged in my throat with the hot lump of tears just waiting to break free. My chest burned so bad I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. I wanted so badly for him to be…to be the Riah I knew.
“Her boyfriend is Prince Thorne.”
My eyes widened.
He nodded, like he understood how wild that statement was. “I’ve never met my father, Prince Thorne has been a father figure to me since I was born…because I was born for a reason.”
My stomach tightened into knots. I wrapped my arms around my waist. “What reason?”
He rubbed Olli’s belly, then looked back up to me. His face was calm, his voice steady and even. “To defeat Lilith and save Earth.”
I gasped.
“The Seelie King and Queen have always aligned themselves with Lilith, much like the Unseelie do. They want Earth for their own. But Thorne and Sage…they like Earth the way it is. They like your realm, your people, your species. They adore it, the mortality of it all. For a long time their allegiance matched their parents…until they discovered the truth of Lilith.”
“How did they…the truth…what did…”
He smirked. “My mother is a seer. She saw the outcome of Lilith’s victory and relayed it…so they realized Lilith was a liar and would not hold up her promises to them. Lilith is a destroyer. So…they vowed to defeat her.”
I opened my mouth then closed it. WHAT?
“The only way for this to happen was to take her down from the inside. To be a spy. My brother and I were born to be the wolves in sheep’s clothing. To be the only men on the inside. We would play our role as Knights and lead the armies while working directly with The Coven.”
Is this real? Is this happening? Is he really saying what I think he is?
“I understand that this is hard to hear, hard to believe…” He ducked down and met my eyes. “But I’m glad you saw what