Page 105 of Mortal Queens

Every muscle tensed in my body, and my arms dropped from Malcom. Father took in air as if he’d been holding his breath.

I gasped at him. “How?” Even the ambassadors were trapped in my frozen time, yet my father straightened his jacket and stretched his legs.

“I’ve long since guarded myself from fae enchantments. Parlor tricks won’t work on me.”

The question remained. “But how? You’re mortal.”

“You’re mortal,” he reminded me. “Or have you been swept away by the fae realm enough to believe yourself one of them?”

I stood. “You have answers, and I need them quickly.”

“Then ask. There is no better time.” He added a wink, but my mind was spinning too fast to process humor. The question from so many months ago slipped out.

“How did you know I would be chosen?”

Father’s brow raised as if I’d given him an answer and not the other way around. He leaned against the wall and sighed.

“I received a letter explaining you’d be summoned.”

“Who summoned me? Don’t give me half answers—I need everything you know.”

“I do not know who, but upon receiving the letter, your mother went to the fae realm first to prepare the way for you.”

I no longer breathed. I did nothing but stare at him and blink. At last, a word tumbled from my trembling lips. “Liar.”

He darkened at the accusation. “Never. Though I’m curious to know why you haven’t learned that for yourself yet. What purpose does she have for you that she hasn’t revealed herself?”

“You said she’s gone,” I said accusingly. “You spent months looking for her.”

“I spent months in the fae realm with her, until she was ready to take it on alone. Then I returned and prepared you for the day you would join her. Training you to wield weapons, asking Cal to teach you chess, and showing you how to survive on your own.”

I could hardly stand. All those years of his ruthless training, followed by his distance. It was to make me strong. All those years longing for my mother. She was caring for me.

“Mother is with the fae?”

“She was when I left her,” Father replied. “But if she has not shown herself . . .” The possibility hung in the air between us. She could be dead. I bit my lip hard enough to draw bitter blood. He looked at me, sorrowfully. “There are unspoken rules even I don’t dare break, one being that the chosen queens cannot know they will be selected. I couldn’t tell you, therefore, I couldn’t tell you where your mother was.”

I glanced at my watch. Five minutes remaining. The other seven had gone by far too quickly. “You could have told me she was alive.”

“Alive and choosing not to be with us? That would have been unkind.”

But it was true—she was gone for me. My mind was reeling.

Father wandered over to the fae to examine them. “Everything I did was to make you strong to survive their realm.”

I decided to ignore his questionable methods. “How did she get there?”

He turned away from the ambassadors. “I took her there.”

“How?”

He cocked a brow. “You’ve been there a year. Are you not smart enough to figure it out?”

I scrambled to come up with a clever reason. They knew I’d be chosen. Father took Mother to the fae realm. He wasn’t captive by fae enchantments. An answer came, and while I didn’t think it particularly clever, it was the only one I had. Though, I almost didn’t dare speak the word out loud.

“You’re fae.”

“So, you are shrewd after all.”