Page 19 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses (Cursed Fae Courts #1)

Chapter Nineteen

Aurelia

T he earnest vulnerability in his expression was the only thing that kept me from laughing in his face. Still, there was no trace of hesitation in my voice as I said with absolute finality, “No.”

Callan blinked. He looked…stunned. Like he’d never even considered the possibility I might refuse.

I did my best not to roll my eyes at the entitlement in that. “You can stay tonight,” I added. “But if you’re not gone by the time the sun is over the trees, I will finish what I started with this sword.”

“Aurelia, can we please talk?—”

I stepped back. “My answer is final.”

His eyes hardened enough that I knew he at least understood there would be no more discussion.

“You can sleep in here. There’s wood for a fire and chairs enough for you and your men.” I strode to the door and pulled it open. The soldier called Fletcher nearly fell from where he’d been leaning against it but managed to catch himself.

I gestured for them both to enter .

They did, watching me warily as they passed.

“Good night,” I said stiffly and started to leave.

“Uh, excuse me,” the one called Holt said. I turned and found him glancing down at the sword I still carried. His sword. “Can I have my weapon back?”

I frowned. “It’ll be outside the door in the morning.”

The door clicked shut behind me. I tapped my hand on the knob, using the locking ward Lesha had shown me. The click was soft but final as the magic sealed them safely inside. Then I propped the stolen sword against the wall.

I couldn’t let Callan just leave. Not without swearing to keep his mouth shut, and even then… Wiping his memory would be wiser. Which reminded me…

Sonoma.

The urgency in my chest propelled me forward, each step faster than the last, until I was nearly running.

Something was wrong. I could feel it in my bones.

The knot in my chest twisted tighter as I turned the knob, bursting into her small bedroom in the servant’s quarters.

And stopped short.

Sonoma lay on the bed, her body unnaturally still, her face too pale. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and her wings lay folded and frail at her back.

“Sonoma?” My voice cracked.

Her eyelids fluttered, and she forced them open just enough to meet my gaze. “I’d hoped you’d come,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the roaring in my ears.

I rushed to her side. “I should’ve been down here sooner, but?—”

“I know you’re angry with me. For not telling you what you are. Where you come from.”

“No,” I hurried to say.

“Liar.” She tried to smile, but the effort was too much, and it faltered halfway. “Listen to me. Your uncles… they’ll reinstate the wards once I’m gone. Stronger ones. Impenetrable by anything in this realm.”

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut, and I swallowed hard. “I can’t do this alone. I need you?—”

“My time here is done, my darling. But you can do this. The prophecy?—”

“I don’t care about the stupid fucking prophecy.” I nearly screamed the words, but Sonoma merely blinked, waiting for me to calm. It infuriated me—the way she was acting like this was all normal and fine. So I said the one thing I thought might rattle her now. “Callan is here.”

Her calm slipped, but she only looked confused. “The Autumn Prince? How?”

“The wards are down, and he and a couple of soldiers found their way in. I caught them in the royal bedroom.”

She closed her eyes, exhaling, and I instantly regretted upsetting her. But she merely opened her eyes again, unruffled, and asked, “What does he say?”

“He wants to marry me,” I said bitterly. “To rekindle our alliance. He doesn’t seem to care that I have no army to offer him. He’s an idiot, as always.”

“Say yes.”

“No.” I jerked back, horrified. “Absolutely not. He’s arrogant and entitled and—I won’t be used like that.”

“You have to leave this place, Aurelia.” Her silver eyes pierced mine, pleading. “There’s no going in or out once they seal the wards again. You’ll be locked out until you can find a way to break the curse.”

“So what?” I scoffed. “You taught me to defend myself. I’ll figure it out. The Broadlands?—”

“You and I both know Heliconia will find you. That Obsidian would’ve told her about us by now. You must accept Callan’s offer. Use him for protection. He has resources. Access. Find out what kept Lesha and Amanti from coming back. Find out what the Obsidian meant about your alliance being the key to Heliconia’s destruction.”

I shook my head, but my resolve was crumbling. Sonoma was right, and I hated that in this moment. Hated everything including the Fates and the Furiosities. Especially them. “There has to be another way.”

Sonoma’s smile was sad. “You’re stronger than you know.”

Tears blurred my vision. I couldn’t stop them anymore. I leaned down, my forehead pressed against her hand. My voice was no more than a whisper, but I couldn’t hold back the one word I’d kept secret all these years. Just once, I had to say it. Out loud. Just for the two of us. “Don’t leave me, Momma. Please.”

But when I sat up, Sonoma only smiled faintly as she brought her hand up to cup my cheek. “My daughter,” she murmured. “I’ll still be watching over you.” A strange calm settled over her features, and she closed her eyes. “I’ll see your father soon.”

My heart clenched. “I want to meet him too.”

“He loves you very much, you know.” I bit back a sob at the longing on her face. “He sacrificed knowing you to protect you. Being apart from him was the hardest choice I ever made. But choosing you was the easiest.”

I took her hand, holding tight as if my grip could keep her here.

A shudder passed through her body, and for a moment, I thought she was already gone. But then, with a sudden gasp, her eyes flew open, wide and glassy and full of wonder. “Finally.”

I looked up, my breath catching in my throat.

In the corner of the room, a figure stepped out of the shadows. Tall, dark-haired, and with an unmistakable aura of power that clung to him like shadows.

Ire .

The third Furiosity—and demon king of Hel.

My father.

I scrambled to my feet, my body trembling with shock. But he wasn’t looking at me. With an expression of longing and pure, radiant love, he crossed the room in a single fluid movement and knelt beside Sonoma. His touch was gentle as he cupped her face, his gaze softening in a way I’d never imagined possible for a being like him.

“You fought well, my little warrior,” he whispered, his voice deep and reverent.

Sonoma’s lips twitched into the faintest of smiles. “I’ve missed you, darling. Is it time?”

Ire nodded. “At last.”

I stood frozen, my mind spinning, watching helplessly as Ire bent and pressed a kiss to Sonoma’s forehead. Her body relaxed instantly, the tension melting away as she exhaled her last breath in a soft sigh.

“No.” The word broke from my lips before I could stop it, raw and filled with grief.

But Sonoma didn’t stir.

She was gone.

Tears spilled down my cheeks as I stared at her still form, my heart aching with the loss of the memories we’d never make together. Time we’d never get back.

Ire turned to me then, his dark gaze locking with mine. “You’ll see her again.”

Hope bloomed painfully in my chest. “When?”

“Time is a hard thing to know from one realm to the next. But have faith.” He studied me, and a lump formed in my throat at the pride reflected in his soft smile. “You have her eyes.”

Did I? I’d never noticed it before. Maybe I hadn’t been looking for it.

“I have your magic,” I blurted .

“And my personality from what I hear,” he added with a smirk. But then his humor vanished as he said, “You are a miracle, Aurelia. Born with the blood of two realms inside you. Blessed by a third. You are the best of me. And I’m sorry—” His voice cracked. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be here with you. It was a necessary part of the deal we made with the Fates.”

“What deal?” I asked.

“When your mother became pregnant, the Fates intervened. They tried to dictate terms, but your mother negotiated ruthlessly for her own interests—and yours.” His smile turned wistful. “Don’t bother trying to talk that woman into anything.”

I smiled ruefully through my tears. “Yeah, I learned that the hard way.”

He grinned.

“What did she negotiate?” I asked.

“The Fates wanted Tyrion and Celeste to raise you as their own. To protect your identity—and ours as your parents.”

“But isn’t that what happened?”

“We asked to wait until you were eighteen. To live together as a family first. But in the end, it became necessary to bring you here sooner.”

“I don’t remember,” I said.

He nodded. “You were young. We spent your first two years in the mountains of Concordia. It was the happiest two years of my existence.”

Heliconia’s words came back to me from that day in the woods, and my stomach tightened. “I found your cabin,” she’d told Sonoma. “The scent of your little family is still there, you know.” She’d been taunting her with the truth.

“What changed?” I asked, my voice turning sharp. “Why couldn’t we stay?”

“Heliconia,” he said grimly .

“She got her power from you,” I said, accusation creeping into my tone.

But the demon king remained unruffled. “She found your mother and me together one evening in the forest. She threatened to tell the Fates. To have your mother stripped of her Aine status for breaking her vow to them. So, I offered her a spark of what I have in exchange for her silence.”

My jaw dropped. “That’s why you gave her your power? To keep your girlfriend a secret?”

His brow arched as if he somehow still had his sense of humor about the whole thing. “Very romantic, isn’t it? I take it your mother never told you?”

“She never told me a lot of things.”

He sighed. “Yes, that was an unfortunate part of the deal, I’m afraid.” He managed to look sorry for it.

“I don’t understand. You said you negotiated with the Fates to keep me until I was eighteen. But you brought me here anyway. Why keep the secret in the end?”

“When I gave my power to Heliconia, I broke the treaty my brothers and I had with the Fates. Up until that moment, the Furiosities ruled over the dark souls of Menryth, and the Fates watched over the light. For a millennium, we maintained a balance that way. But with Heliconia, the scales had tipped in our favor. According to our treaty, I should have paid for that in my own blood, and Menryth would have suffered the consequences. Instead, the Fates blessed you. It was their way of rebalancing things. But it didn’t come free.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was no longer allowed to step foot in this realm. And I was forbidden from contacting you.”

“That’s harsh.”

He smirked. “The Fates are not as gentle as the priestesses have led you to believe.”

“And you’re not as evil?” I couldn’t help but ask .

His smirk widened. “Your mother sought a balance of her own,” was all he said. “She would put aside her crown and her access to Hel in exchange for being in your life.”

“She let me believe I was someone else’s daughter.”

“She was forbidden from speaking the truth, same as me.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I’d been so angry that Sonoma had kept the truth from me. But if she’d been bound by magic… Did that change the betrayal?

The damage had still been done.

“Why now?” I asked. “I thought you weren’t allowed to contact me.”

“I’m here to collect my bride.” He winked. “I would think Hel’s daughter recognizes a loophole when she sees one.”

I scowled.

“It didn’t work,” I pointed out, needing to change the subject. “Giving up your power for Heliconia’s silence. The Fates found out anyway.”

“They did,” he agreed.

“And now she has more power than anyone in Menryth.”

His dark gaze held no apology as he said, “I would’ve done that and more for your mother.” His expression was somehow both sad and full of love.

For a fleeting moment, I was happy they would be reunited at last. Even though it meant I had to lose her. Lose both of them. Tears burned at that, but I blinked them back, desperate to soak up my father’s company for as long as he was here. “You both gave up everything for me.”

He took a step closer. “And we would do it again in a heartbeat.”

I remained still, my breath frozen as he closed the distance between us. Father or no, he was the ruler of Hel, after all. But he only brushed a warm hand over my cheek. Power sparked at the contact, and he grinned.

“Will I see you again?” I asked .

“Someday, we shall be united at last. Until then, I am always watching over you, daughter.”

Daughter.

It was the one word I’d always dreamed of hearing from my true parents. And it was the one word Sonoma had waited to give me until the very end. Hearing it from him, spoken with so much love, tugged something loose in my chest. It felt as if I were unraveling—desperate to bind myself to some sort of anchor.

“How do I contact you again?” I blurted.

But he didn’t answer.

Instead, his form shimmered, and a thick plume of smoke rose, curling around him like a living shadow. Sonoma’s body vanished from the bed. A second later, she reappeared in those same shadows where Ire stood, her form ethereal and radiant—and alive. She smiled at me, an open expression full of joy. One I hadn’t seen her wear in a very long time. Ire slid his arm around her waist, and they both stepped backward into the shadows.

“Wait!” I cried, lurching forward.

But it was too late. With one final swirl of smoke, they were gone.

And I was truly and utterly alone.