Page 17 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses (Cursed Fae Courts #1)

Chapter Seventeen

Aurelia

I shook my head, unable to find my voice. Learning my father was a king of Hel was one thing. Shocking, yes. But I’d never met the male. Had no picture in my mind of what sort of evil creature he might be. I’d known Sonoma my whole life. Grown up with her. Trained with her. Considered her my friend. It was that closeness that made her last admission so much more painful than the first.

So, I stood there, speechless. Reeling. Wanting to cry but not able to summon the strength to do so.

Sonoma was the first to break the silence. “Twenty years ago, I became pregnant,” she said quietly.

Her voice, those words, shattered all my control. My temper snapped. “Let me guess. I would have screwed up your plan to remain emotionally unattached, so you handed me off.”

“You were my greatest joy, but you didn’t belong only to me.” Her voice remained even. As if I hadn’t just practically screamed at her.

“What does that even mean? Either you wanted me or you didn’t.” Furyfire seared my veins, but I fisted my left hand, refusing to let it ignite. Then I remembered the whiskey bottle I still gripped with my right. I barely managed to set it aside without lighting it on fire.

“The Aine are forbidden from bearing children. We take a vow of?—”

“Celibacy, yes, I know.” It was one of the few reasons I’d been okay with not being able to officially compete to be one of them. Even being one of the Aine couldn’t make up for never having sex again. “It seems you weren’t able to hold up on that promise.”

I was being cruel.

I knew it, and yet I couldn’t seem to stop the comments from flying out of my mouth. It was all I could do not to light this entire library full of furyfire.

She’d lied.

Seven years ago, she’d sworn never to lie to me again. But it seems she’d never stopped.

“I thought the Fates would strip my magic or worse when they found out about you. But they blessed you instead. Before you were ever born, they imbued you with gifts and a prophecy. You became their Chosen One. The great Aine warrior who would defeat Heliconia and bring peace back to the realm.”

“Why me?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“You come from two great bloodlines. Light and dark.” Her expression hardened. “Though I’ve always suspected it was their punishment against me.”

“Whose punishment? The Fates?” I knew I sounded skeptical, but I’d only ever heard the mystical goddesses described as being benevolent.

But Sonoma shook her head ruefully. “Even goddesses have a temper. And I couldn’t refuse their gifts or your destiny in case they decided to do something worse instead.”

Anger and hurt and disappointment tangled inside me. Sonoma was my mother. Sonoma was my mother . Sonoma was my mother.

“How did I get here?” I asked, my voice finally losing its sharpest edge. My temper was quickly becoming heavy—like an exhaustion. I had no idea which was heavier: the truth or the lies still between us. “How did I come to be adopted by … Celeste and Tyrion?”

I stopped myself from calling them my parents, suddenly unsure what the rules were for something like this.

“After the Fates declared you as theirs, we knew you were in danger. We wanted to keep Heliconia from learning the truth as long as possible,” Sonoma said. The words were spoken quietly, as if she were trying to be gentle.

“Is that why you chose not to tell me who my parents really were?” I shot her an accusing glare. “You really thought so little of me that you couldn’t trust me with my own fate?”

“That’s not—” Sonoma began.

“You don’t believe I can do this.”

Sonoma frowned. “Of course I do.”

“Is that why you killed the Obsidian yourself without giving me a chance?” I demanded.

“What are you talking about?”

“The Obsidian in the Emerald Forest. The day Heliconia came and spoke through it. You killed it, knowing it was meant as a test for me. You didn’t even give me a chance to fight.”

“I was protecting you. Like I’ve always done.”

“And my father? The male”—I couldn’t bring myself to say demon “—whose magic I wield? Where is he now? Does he not care enough about me—or you—to help us fight?”

Sonoma stepped forward, gaze burning. “Everything I’ve ever done is because I love you,” she said firmly. “More than I can ever offer in words.”

“Except that words are exactly what I’m asking you to give me,” I hissed. “Seven years ago, you promised you wouldn’t lie to me ever again. And now you tell me this? That everything I knew about myself is a lie.”

“I’m sorry?—”

“Don’t,” I snapped. “I don’t want your apologies. I want only answers. From him, not just you. Where can I find him?”

“Your father cannot come to us. Not yet.” My anger rose, but she added quickly, “This is not my choice. Or his. The sacrifices we’ve made are many, Aurelia. And I am sorry they are hurting you. But there is much more at work here than what you can see or know today.”

I had no idea what that meant, but it was clear she’d told me as much as she was going to about him.

I told myself I didn’t want to know. If he couldn’t be bothered to meet me all these years, he could go to Hel. “And the favor you asked of the other two? For protection?”

“I promised I wouldn’t speak of what happened to anyone in this realm. Including you. They protect their own realm as fervently as I have protected you in this one. I kept up my end, and now they owe me a favor. They’ll ward the castle when I can no longer do it myself. You will have the time you need to search for a way to end this curse.”

Me.

Not her. Not us.

Just me.

The weight of it landed on my shoulders like a whitestone boulder.

I wanted to argue. To scream and rail at her about the lies. The omissions. What else had she kept from me all these years? Why had she bothered to stay here, to practically help raise me, all the while, watching me call another female Mother? Hadn’t that been painful for her? Hadn’t she wanted to tell me the truth? If not for herself, then for me?

All the times I struggled with my magic—or lack of it. All the times I worried that I was so different from the summer fae. Wielding furyfire and feeding off souls rather than conjuring rainstorms or coaxing roses to bloom. And the entire time, she’d known the truth of what I was. Where I’d come from. And what I had always been meant to do.

I still had endless questions. But I wasn’t sure I could handle anything more. Knowing I was the child of a King of Hel and that my parents were no longer my parents was hard enough to wrap my head around.

So, when Sonoma finally walked past me, murmuring about giving me time to adjust, I let her go, and when the door clicked shut behind her, I slumped into the nearest chair, pressed a pillow to my face, and screamed.