Page 130 of A Monarch's Fall

I swallowed, did she mean… she couldn’t mean… Valen? Why would he be here and speaking with Selene? No, it had to be Heidi.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?” she asked.

“Has Heidi said something? B… because… she misinterpreted what I was thinking… and… and…” I trailed off.

The way Selene was looking at me, like she was of Coactus and could see right inside me. Like she could see more than my thoughts, could see the core of me, and right now she was amused and impatient in equal measure, it stopped me from thinking right, from forming words.

“Heidi saw him too; not before we had an interesting conversation. It’s time to stop playing games, Percy. I want to know everything,” she said.

“You really saw him, Valen?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered. “He tells a very different story of how you came to be here; there was no rescue by Borealis forces, was there?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“No, Ma’am,” I answered quietly. It was strangely intimate, the position we were in.

“Why did you lie to me?” she questioned.

“I didn’t,” I replied. And I hadn’t, not really, I just didn’t correct the lie.

She smiled at me, the kind of smile that simultaneously could excite and terrify.

“Lying by omission is still lying, pet. Unfortunately, we are time-sensitive at the present moment, and an adequate correction will need to wait for another time,” she mused and leaned closer until her forehead rested against mine and we were breathing the same air. “What happened last night between you and my father?” she asked so quietly, softly.

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t look at her. The image of Edward dead was there again. Every time I thought of the previous night, he was always the first thing I remembered; his beaten, near-unrecognisable face was the first thing that came unwittingly to my mind.

“Shh, it’s okay, you can tell me,” Selene soothed, and I realised that silent tears were cascading down my cheeks.

“Edward,” I choked out, speaking his name was painful, it burned through me in a guilt that I knew would never, could never, leave me.

“What happened with Edward?” she asked gently.

“He killed him,” I cried and reached out for her, fisting her shirt, keeping her with me, my anchor in an ocean of guilt and responsibility. “He killed him, and he hadn’t done anything wrong.”

“Why?” she asked, and I felt her fingers feather light against my wet cheeks.

“To show me what he would do to everyone else,” I ugly-cried, pulling her closer to me; she didn’t resist, even though she must have been in quite an uncomfortable position.

“Who is everyone, sweetheart?” she questioned further.

“Everyone I care about, my family, my friends,” I told her.

“Why is he threatening you? What does he want?” she asked, and though her voice was still gentle, I could hear the anger she held back.

“He wants me to make you think I don’t want to be your soul match anymore,” I confessed.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before now, darling?” she asked and somehow managed to manoeuvre in such a way that she was able to pick me up. She sat back down with me in her lap, and I curled into her, hiding my face against her chest, my fists still tightly holding onto her shirt, undoubtedly ruining it, but she didn’t seem to care.

“He’s watching my family. If I tell you, he says he’s going to kill them. He’s going to kill my family,” I was hyperventilating again, like in the morning with Heidi, my breath coming shallow and fast.

“I won’t let that happen,” she told me.

She pushed my chin up to force me to look at her. I was ugly crying, the kind with gross snot, but I couldn’t stop myself. Her eyes were glowing silver, and her face was serious.

“Percy, I want you to listen to me carefully,” she said, waiting to make sure I was paying attention. “I have failed you in ways which are unforgivable. But I swear that no harm will come to your family. I will not allow it,” she promised.

I cried harder because I believed that she meant what she said, but I didn’t believe that she could truly ensure their safety from the King.