Page 46 of Black Hearted (Cursed Fae #4)

Zane

Lorelei was amazed by the train system I’d built, and I couldn’t help but feel a burst of pride at that.

Her gaze flitted here and there, her eyes wide as saucers as she took everything in—the wood-lacquered benches, the paneled walls, the electric lights, and the Western Kingdom landscape flying by the windows.

The staff onboard were overjoyed to see me, and I was thrilled that we were only a short stop away from Windreum.

It was well into the night when we arrived at the main train station, but even with the lateness of the hour, fae danced in the streets.

They cheered and threw flower petals as we passed.

“The curse is destroyed! The plague is gone!” they shouted.

Lorelei just smiled, peering at me as she took it all in. “Oh, Zane, these shops are so quaint,” she said as we passed the boutiques.

“I’ll take you tomorrow when they open. Whatever you want is yours,” I told her, and she blushed.

When we reached the front of my castle, my guards were visibly shocked to see me.

“My lord. We’ve been so worried. Your brothers are inside.”

“All of them?” I asked, surprised. When I left, Adrien and Isolde were going to go back to the Southern Kingdom. Something must have happened to make them return.

He nodded. “Lady Dawn had her babies early. Everyone is healthy,” he added quickly, when he saw my brows knit together in concern.

Lorelei squeezed my hand beside me, and my guards opened the front gates to let us in.

“My lord!” Jessie, my favorite housemaid, an elderly unseelie with pointed teeth and gray skin, greeted me with a deep bow as we entered. “Oh, you must come and see what’s happened.”

“I heard. Dawn had her babies,” I told her as we followed her.

“No, my lord. I mean, yes, but it’s not that.” She scurried along the hallway, leading us to my throne room.

I kept a tight grip on Lorelei’s hand as she looked around my castle in wonder. I hoped she liked it, but if she didn’t, that was fine too. I’d let her redecorate the entire thing if she wanted.

When we reached the double doors leading to my throne room, a large crowd of voices could be heard from behind them.

My maid cracked the door open and then bowed before disappearing behind me.

“Are they having a party for Dawn?” Lorelei wondered aloud, echoing what I was thinking.

When I stepped inside and scanned the space, shock rippled through me.

These were not all my people. I recognized Lorelei’s mother, Glori, right away. Seelie from Faerie were in my house.

How?

Then I spotted the mirror on the far wall. It looked identical to the one I’d seen when I rescued Lorelei from Queen Liliana’s Summer Court manor house. And through it, rather than reflecting the scene in front of us, I could see into what I recognized as the Spring Palace’s throne room.

“Zane!” Nellie’s voice pulled my head to the right, where she was sitting at a table with Lorelei’s sisters, eating what looked like chocolate cake.

I grinned, releasing Lorelei’s hand and opening my arms as Nellie ran into them.

“You came back for me,” she whimpered into my ear and sniffled.

“I told you I would. Were you a good girl for Queen Glori?” I asked.

She nodded, pulling back and wiping at her eyes. “But she said I need to learn better table manners.”

We both laughed at that.

Lorelei squatted down beside us. “Hey, Nellie.”

“Hey.” Nellie hugged Lorelei like she already knew her, which surprised me.

When they separated, Lorelei glanced over at me and laughed. “I might have been visiting her in her dreams to make sure she knew you were okay—and to get to know her.”

I smiled. Now it made sense. “Did you tell her about the puppy?” I asked.

“What puppy?” Nellie said excitedly as Lorelei smacked my arm.

“No. That was supposed to be a surprise.”

“What puppy?” Stryker’s voice came from behind me, and standing, I spun around to find my eldest and most stoic brother staring back at me with something that looked almost close to a smile.

It was good to see him. It was good to see everyone, considering I thought I never would again.

“Still too grumpy for a hug?” I asked.

He grinned, the expression still looking a little foreign on his face as the jagged scar on his cheek puckered. “That depends. Did you get me a puppy?”

I laughed, pulling him in for a hug anyway, which he returned.

“Well done, brother,” he said, patting my back. When he pulled back, there was a suspicious shine in his eyes that I would swear were tears if it was anyone but him. “We thought we’d lost you for a second there,” he said, his voice gruff.

Looking into his gaze, I sobered a little, realizing they’d felt me die. “For a second there, you did,” I said, but then glanced over at Lorelei. “But someone was too stubborn to let me go.”

Lorelei ducked her head, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink.

It seemed like Stryker was going to ask something when Zander and Adrien appeared and swallowed me in a hug.

“We’re so glad you’re all right,” Zander said right before he released me. Adrien, looking overcome with emotion, just nodded his agreement.

“Excuse me.” I felt a tug on my jacket and looked down to see Nellie. “What puppy?”

I noticed that Lorelei had left my side to join her mother and sisters.

“Your puppy. And one for Lorelei,” I told her.

Nellie whooped, fist-pumping in the air, while my brothers looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“Who is she?” Zander asked.

“My …” I hesitated. Daughter felt weird—I’d had to have been ten years old to have her. “Sister,” I said, watching her for a reaction.

She grinned at me, nodding with tears in her eyes.

“Sister?” Zander repeated. I hoped he wasn’t going to make a big deal of it and risk offending Nellie. I hadn’t had any time to explain how I found her and that she had no one to go home to.

“Well, does she know she has three other brothers now, too?” Zander asked.

“Thank you,” I mouthed to him as he took Nellie’s hand and began introducing her to everyone in the room, including her two new “brothers,” Stryker and Adrien.

Seeing my throne room filled to the brim with fae from Faerie and Ethereum alike brought tears to my eyes.

An unseelie house-maid handed Aribella’s mother a napkin, and she flinched for only a second before taking it with a smile.

It would take time to break down the walls of lies that the previous generations had built, but I knew that together we could do it, making way for a new generation to come.

“Zane,” Lorelei called to me, waving me over to where she stood with her family.

I cleared my throat and walked over to her. We still had work to do, but as long as she was by my side, we could get through anything. Together.