“Okay,” he agrees. I think he will probably agree to everything I want right now. Too bad I am not in the frame of mind to take advantage of that. I catch that thought with a slight frown at myself.
Hand in hand, he leads me from the bathroom. I raise my eyebrows at the big hole in the wall and he looks sheepish and mumbles, “I’ll get it fixed.”
He opens our bedroom door and peers out before he pulls me through into the empty hallway. I am inwardly smiling at his behavior, but I let him do this his way, as I know he is aching over what I told him. He is going to have to know the details, but I don’t want to hurt him. We hit the bottom of the stairs and a convergence of people appears, as expected. Cole growls at them and pushes me behind him. “Stay away from her,” he says to everyone’s surprise. “Back off,” he snarls as no one makes a move to leave. They do as asked in confusion and Cole leads me into the library and everyone follows. He places me in my chair and stands next to me, happy to have the big block of wood in between them and me.
“Lizzie?” Devon asks.
I hold my hand up and say, “I know you all want to know what is going on so sit please and I will tell you.” Everyone sits, except Sebastian, who is glowering at me from across the room. He knows his secret is about to come out, but it can’t be helped.
Again, I start at the beginning and leave out the three major points for the moment. When everyone has taken that in and I have answered a bunch of questions, I take a deep breath. “There’s more.” This is it. I had not wanted to tell them, but I am tired of secrets and it is better that I come clean so that there are no surprises down the road.
“The Faerie have a prophecy,” I say and hear groaning at that word and stifle my own noise of agreement. “Eons ago, it was foretold that the firstborn son of the Light Fae King would marry the only Dark Fae Princess and she would bear a child.” I let that linger for a moment and there is hissing and growling as they figure out that it is about me again. CK already knows all of this, but I have thus far been avoiding his intense stare. I decide I am not going to share about our fight, and I wonder if he thinks I will.
“So who is the firstborn Light Fae Prince?” Devon asks, as I knew he would.
I cast a quick glance over at Xane, who is fully aware of the Prince already and I sweep past Sebastian as well, who has crossed his arms defensively. “Before I get to that, there has been an amendment to the prophecy.”
That catches CK’s attention and I now look at him. I see his sorrow and pain, but I must remain strong and ignore it. “What kind of amendment?” he asks quietly, as I also knew he would.
“Due to the status of the Light Fae Prince, the Light Fae King asked his Seer to have another look, if you will.”
“Why, is he dead or something?” Devon pipes up hopefully.
“Or something…” I mutter. “As a result, the Seer decided that it was only the direct heir, or perhaps even King, that would create this child.”
CK growls loudly at that and stands up to start yelling. I put my hand up and he stops dead.
Huh, neat, I think absently. Must be that Power boost kicking in.
“Wait, I don’t understand,” Lincoln says. “How can a prophecy be amended?” He is looking at me, but I see him glance at Sebastian and wonder what he knows about that. “Aren’t all the Princes direct heirs?”
“That remains to be seen. What I mean is the next in line, it is up for debate at the moment, and what I am trying to tell you is that while I was in the Fae Kingdoms, this amendment was acted upon.” I stand up and Cole grips my hand tighter. I see a sea of shocked faces and I focus solely on Sebastian when I say the next part. “I was sexually assaulted in an attempt to get this child conceived.” Cole makes a distressed noise and there are gasps from the crowd before a surge of outrage on my behalf. Devon is the first to reach me, grabbing my arms and pulling me away from Cole, who is trying to pull me back. I feel like a Christmas cracker, and shake myself off both of them. “I’m fine,” I say, and Devon shakes his head. “No, no! Don’t say ‘fine.’ I hate it when you say ‘fine.’” I take him in my arms, and he gives me a bone-crushing hug in return. “Please, sit back down. I am not finished yet,” I say, gently pushing him away. He doesn’t go, but stays right next to me, protecting me. CK’s face is white and his eyes are black. Sebastian is trying to offer him some sort of comfort, and I resist the urge to go to him myself to do the same. Damn him.
“The Faerie in question bound my Dragon Powers thus rendering me completely defenseless against him. That is why the sudden Shift occurred when I got back and why my mother came for me. She has accelerated my Powers, and I now bear the full force of my Queen abilities.”
Xane is nodding as if he was already privy to that newsflash, as the rest of the group says, “Holy crap.”
“I knew something had changed,” Xane says as I look questioningly at him. “I felt it. Now you are the most powerful being in all the Realms,” he adds. There is something off about his entire attitude towards this whole situation.
“Yes,” I say with a small, proud smile, ignoring the Vampy sense that tells me I should be suspicious of him, but not why.
“Who was it?” CK croaks into the e
nsuing silence.
I look him square in the eye, but I don’t say anything.
“Who was it?” he asks again, this time his voice as steady as a rock.
Again, I hesitate, out of worry for Sebastian, not Aelfric. With any luck, Drake has taken care of that.
CK takes a step forward and is about to repeat his question, when Sebastian takes his arm to hold him back. I look at him. He is grim and determined.
“It was my father,” he says. “The Light Fae King.”
You could hear a pin drop in the seconds after Sebastian made his declaration. I sit again and wait for it. It comes in three, two, one…
I am glad when Xane steps forward, already having been clued in on Sebastian and his dad, to calm everyone down. Sebastian is standing stoic and silent, his eyes on mine.