Phaedra struggled to keep up with the Arrian’s long strides as they neared the yellow house at the end of the lane. He didn’t slow, nor did he turn around to acknowledge her.

  “Arrian, please. Can’t we just talk about this?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” he retorted, flinging the words at her over his shoulder.

  She paused on the driveway, gasping as if she’d been doused with icy water. It was how she felt. He sounded so cold. He sounded like the Arrian she’d first met—the one who was defensive because his curse had turned him into a monster. That same arrogance carried through his walk, his bearing, the way he held himself so erect he could probably balance a stack of laundry baskets on his head.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she growled, following him when he marched through the front door.

  Slamming it behind her, she pursued him into the kitchen.

  “This is not how we’re going to do this. When one of us is mad, we are going to talk about it using our words like adults. You’re almost two hundred years old, you do not get to throw a tantrum and give me the silent treatment.”

  He turned to face her, striking her full force with his piercing, blue stare. His eyes resembled twin chips of ice, his jaw a hard block of granite, his lips two immoveable things pinched in a straight line.

  He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded.

  “Very well,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Talk, Phaedra. Tell me about your evening with Charles.”

  She bit her lower lip and thought over how best to answer that question. He had seen them together—even from that distance and in the dark his Elf eyes missed nothing. He had uncanny hearing and sight. It was downright eerie. She couldn’t lie.

  “It was painful,” she admitted. “And it felt nice to get some closure.”

  He nodded slowly, his jaw growing even tighter. She thought it might snap any second.

  “Yes, I think it was good for you. For me, too. Quite … eye opening, to say the least.”

  She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m only pointing out the fact that this evening has been enlightening. I learned a great deal. Like the fact that you still love someone else.”

  She buried her fingers in her hair and tightened them, hoping the pain would wake her up. This had to be a dream. Just a few days ago they’d been sailing the skies onboard The Adrah. Now they were having their first fight as a couple, and for some reason it also felt unnervingly like the last.

  She approached him, taking his face in her hands and forcing him to look at her.

  “Arrian, I adore you. You have to believe me.”

  “But you also love him,” he whispered.

  His voice was low and gut-wrenchingly tortured. She felt like a jerk for making him sound that way.

  “I saw you together, Phaedra. You took him into the water and you …” He paused, taking a deep breath as if fighting to keep calm. The muscles of his neck were corded and taut, his shoulders tense. “The water is ours. Mine and yours, together. It’s our connection. It’s the place I fell in love with you, where we discovered together just how strong you could be. It’s where we had our first kiss. It’s the thing that we have in common. You took him there. You ruined that for me.”

  She closed her eyes and exhaled, realization slamming into her like a fist to the gut. Of course he was angry, and had every right to be. She’d shared something with someone else that had been exclusively theirs. Seeing it from his perspective, it seemed like the worst sort of betrayal.

  “I’m sorry,” she replied. “I didn’t think. He asked me to go to the beach with him, and it kind of just … happened.”

  “Did anything else happen?”

  She couldn’t pretend she didn’t know what he meant.

  “No,” she insisted. “I wouldn’t do that to you. It was just a kiss, and I … I shouldn’t have done it. I’m so sorry.”

  He fell silent for a while and seemed to be trying to decide whether or not to believe her. If she were him, she wouldn’t. She’d been half-naked on a beach with another guy, in the same spot she’d slept with him before.

  “I won’t settle, Phaedra,” he said. “The condition of my curse was that I would remain a monster until I could learn to truly love someone. I wonder if you know how hard it was for me given my history.”

  She did know. It was a wonder he loved her at all after what the last female in his life had done to him. The betrayal had been made worse by the fact that the man she’d left him for had been Arrian’s own brother. He did not trust easily, but he’d trusted her.

  “I know,” she said, still clinging to him, afraid if she let go, she’d never get to touch him again. “I know that. I’ll do whatever it takes to earn it back, just … please, don’t …”

  “Another condition of the curse,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “was that I find someone who could love me back. So, I do believe that you love me, otherwise I’d still be cursed. But, the Prophet who cursed me said nothing about me spending the rest of my life with the person who broke the curse. Maybe it’s enough that we found friendship with each other. I think, perhaps you are not ready for more. You may never be.”

  Her jaw dropped and her breath escaped her. She couldn’t even breathe, let alone form words. She fumbled for them now, trying to find the right words to say. When they failed her, she scrambled for any words.

  “Arrian,” she managed, blinking back hot tears. “What are you saying?”

  He sighed, stroking her jaw with his thumb.

  “Perhaps we rushed things. I can never be happy with just half of your heart, and it’s very clear that Charles still owns a part of it.”

  “I can’t just forget him,” she replied. “It’s not fair for you to ask me to. There are things that happened before I met you and they’re a part of who I am. You can’t just ask me to stop being who I am just to make you happy.”

  “Exactly,” he said with a small, sad little smile. “I love you too much to ask that of you. Maybe someday you will be ready to give me what I want—and that is you, completely and fully, without the ghosts of the past between us. They’ve always been there, Phaedra. We just never wanted to face them.”

  She couldn’t stop the tears now. This was really happening. Arrian was dumping her.

  “So, that’s it?” she whispered, her voice ragged as she batted his hand away from her face, wiping away her own tears. “We love each other, but we aren’t going to be together? Ever?”

  “Not forever,” he said, turning away and striding for the stairs. “Just not right now. If you give yourself time to think about it, I believe you’ll realize it’s what’s best.”

  The darkness at the top of the stairwell swallowed him, and his footsteps faded away. She stood there for a long time after he’d gone, staring up after him. She felt uncertain of what to do now. She’d never thought she would lose him. Kissing him and breaking the curse had seemed like the end of one chapter of her life and the beginning of another. Now, she’d lost everything.

  She’d thought they would be like Selena and Titus, or Jocylene and Eli. Perhaps not right away, but someday.

  It wouldn’t happen now, and probably never would.

  Finally, she forced herself to move. Feeling suffocated by being in the house—which held so many painful memories—she turned and fled. Jerking the front door open, she tried not to cry, but the sobs wouldn’t stop and the tears were relentless. She dropped onto the top step of the porch, rested her arms on her knees and lowered her head.

  “What happened?”

  The intruding voice startled her, and she leapt to her feet, trying to quickly compose herself.

  She found Rothatin standing there with two other people she’d never met behind him. His face was a mask of both anger and concern—anger that someone had hurt or upset her, concern that something terrible might have happened.

  She didn’t care who these strangers were, or why he had brought them here. The two of them had forged a friendship of sorts when she first came to Fallada, and just now he was the only person she trusted with her pain.

  Lowering her head, she choked out another sob. At the sound, he stepped forward and opened his arms. Giving in to grief, she allowed the sobs to wrench upward, burning through her chest and throat, then spilling from her lips.

  Clinging to his shirt, she cried.

  Chapter Ten

  The slender, dark-skinned girl sobbing in Rothatin’s arms was beautiful. Gretchen tried not to stare in envy at her gleaming ebony skin, thick, curly hair, or angular cheekbones. Based on the girl’s age, she had to be one of the other lost princesses. Unlike Gretchen, she actually looked like royalty. The girl was downright regal, even when she cried.

  She knew that sound. Those were the cries of a broken heart. Some jerk-off guy had probably dumped her.

  After a few uncomfortable minutes, Rothatin forced the girl to loosen her hold on him and stand up straight.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice more gentle than she’d heard it in the short time since she’d met him.

  Well, well, the general has a soft side.

  The girl sniffled and swiped at her cheeks with her hands.

  “I’m sorry,” she croaked. “I shouldn’t have worried you like that. I’m fine. Just … boyfriend drama.”

  He nodded in understanding. “I am sorry to hear that. I apologize for arriving late, but circumstances beyond my control demanded I remain in New York.”

  The girl’s dark eyes came to rest on Gretchen, then widened. She wiped at her face again and squared her shoulders, clearly embarrassed at her outburst in front of strangers.

  “You must be Princess Brione,” she said. “I’m Phaedra, one of the daughters of Zenun.”

  “That’s the underwater kingdom, right? Please call me Gretchen. It’s the name my adoptive parents gave me. Oh,” she added, “and this is my brother, Hayden.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Gretchen. You too, Hayden.” She turned to Rothatin. “Where are Selena and Titus?”

  “Still in Texas,” he answered. “It’s a long story, one I will be happy to tell once we are all together again. Where is Arrian? We should leave immediately.”

  Gretchen detected the change in her tone when she answered.

  “Upstairs,” she said, her voice tight and clipped.

  He seemed to sense it, too, but didn’t remark on it.

  “I’ll get him, and then we will depart.”

  The Fae general walked up the porch steps and disappeared into the house. Gretchen and Phaedra stared at each other, fidgeting uncomfortably with Hayden standing in silence nearby.

  He was still fuming from their argument, but probably felt a bit overwhelmed as well. A lot had happened in a short period of time, and to top it all off they’d just been teleported across the country in the span of a few seconds. The experience had been jarring, as well as a bit nauseating. She still felt dizzy from the first trip, and they were going to have to do it all again.

  “So,” Phaedra said, breaking the silence, “what’s your power? Oh, but you can probably manipulate the wind like Selena, and fly.”

  Her eyes widened in shock. “Fly?”

  “Yeah. I assumed you could. All Damunians can. Something to do with using the wind. You’ll have to ask your sister about it.”

  Her sister. Right. She would be meeting her soon. A princess who could fly. That wasn’t at all intimidating.

  “I’ve never flown,” she answered, “but I can control the wind … also, I’m kind of a walking thundercloud.”

  Hayden snorted. “That is an understatement.”

  “Ha-ha. You’re so funny. You should take your act on the road.” Dismissing him, she turned to Phaedra. “Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning,” she clarified. “I can manipulate them all.”

  Phaedra’s eyebrows shot up. “Impressive.”

  “You?”

  “I’m a Mermaid,” she replied. “I can also manipulate water.”

  “Hey, together we’re a tsunami,” Gretchen joked.

  Phaedra laughed, but she could tell it was forced. That haunted look in her eyes lingered. Whatever had happened before they’d arrived wasn’t something she could get over quickly.

  Just then, Rothatin appeared again, followed by a man who put Legolas to shame. Tall and slender with dark brown hair falling in a straight curtain down his back, he had sharp, hawkish features and eyes the color of a river. His lips were full, though a bit pinched at the moment, and a few frown lines appeared between his eyebrows. Even those dopey Elf ears couldn’t rob him of his beauty. He was even prettier than Rothatin—and just a few hours ago she’d thought that impossible.

  “Wow,” she whispered to Phaedra. “Hunks … hunks everywhere. Are all the guys this hot in Fallada?”

  “A lot are,” she said. Then, she glared at Arrian and scowled. “But don’t be fooled by their looks. Most of them are heartbreakers.”

  Arrian didn’t even meet her gaze, acting as if he hadn’t even heard her speak.

  “Wow,” Hayden muttered from behind them. “Awkward.”

  “We will go now,” Rothatin said, taking control of the little group. “Everyone link hands so I can transport us all as one.”

  Arrian made a point to stand where he didn’t have to touch Phaedra, and she seemed relieved. Seriously, the tension had become thicker than a mouthful of peanut butter.

  She was relieved when the nauseating feeling came over her again, and then the air around her shimmered and wavered.

  “Hey, what’s this?”

  Sonia turned away from her reflection in the mirror, then darted across the room.

  “Don’t touch those!” she exclaimed, snatching one of her precious dragon eggs from Samel, one of the Wolf Shifters she’d met in the courtyard.

  She frowned, giving Sonia a look that said ‘you’re a psycho’, and gingerly laid the golden egg back in its place between the blue and red.

  “Sorry,” she said with a sheepish smile. “Queen Adrah trusted me with these, and I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

  Samel approached the table that the ornate chest of dragon eggs had been placed on. Bending over, she kept her hands clasped behind her back and studied the four oval eggs. Dark, silky black hair fanned forward to shade her face. Her eyes were a vibrant green, her skin a tanned, olive shade. She was fourteen, the same age as Sonia, and kicked some serious butt on the extreme Fae basketball court. Her family had run to Goldun to take refuge from Eranna when it became clear that they could not remain in Mollac.

  The two had forged a fast friendship over the ball game, and now she had someone to hang out with other than her brothers.

  “Do you really think they’ll hatch?” Samel asked, glancing up from the chest. “They’ve been hidden away for a long time.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been watching them for weeks, but nothing’s happening. I mean, I think I saw one move a little bit, but … I don’t know, maybe I imagined it.”

  “Hmmm.” Samel rubbed her narrow jaw. “I wonder …”

  “What? Do you know something about dragons?”

  “Just the legends I’ve heard, like everyone else,” she replied. “Looking at their colors, I assume they’re elemental dragons, one for each element in nature. The gold one is probably a sand serpent—they come from Damu, of course. The red one—obviously a fire breather. They come from Mollac. I think the blue one is a sea serpent of Zenun. I’m not sure about the green one. Maybe it’s some kind of earth dragon. Hundreds of years ago, at least one of each type of dragon existed in each realm of Fallada. No one is quite sure what caused them to start dying off. Some blame the humans who tried to hunt them. Others blame black magic. Whatever the case, these are the only dragon eggs ever seen in the last hundred years at least. They’re very valuable, even if they don’t hatch.”

  The back of Sonia’s neck tingled as her friend’s words sank in. One statement rang out and latched onto her mind, refusing to let go.

  “Elementals,” she murmured, her eyes moving over the colored shells. “I wonder if that has something to do with why they weren’t hatched.”

  Without another word, she turned and ran from the room. Samel’s footsteps sounded behind her, but she didn’t slow. Excitement put a smile on her face and caused her breath to saw rapidly in and out of her lungs.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Samel panted, trotting to keep up with her. “Did I say something wrong?”

  Sonia shook her head, hanging a left and exiting through one of the open archways leading to the courtyard and gardens.

  “Actually, you said just the right thing. Think about it. When a mother bird lays eggs, what does she do?”

  “She builds a nest,” Samel answered.

  She paused, turning to face her friend with a laugh. “Exactly. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before! The dragons haven’t hatched because they aren’t being nurtured by a mother dragon.”

  Samel’s eyes widened in realization. “You think building a nest will make them hatch?”

  “It’s worth a try.”

  She broke into a run when she found her reason for coming to the courtyard.

  Queen Adrah lay in repose on a chaise longue chair beneath a billowing white canopy. She watched little Fae children play nearby, along with several other members of the royal Fae court. A baby Shifter cub—a white tiger—rolled around and played in her lap. She smiled and stroked the little cat’s head in affection.

  She glanced up just as Sonia approached.

  “Well,” she murmured in her soft, yet booming voice. It seemed to echo on the air, while soothing the soul like aloe at the same time. “Something has Princess Sonia in a fit this afternoon. Is everything all right?”

  “Yes,” she panted, fighting to catch her breath and contain her excitement. “I think I’ve figured something out, about the dragon eggs.”

  The other Faeries fell silent, and several pairs of green eyes turned to her as one.

  Adrah set the cub aside and came to a seated position on her chaise. She leaned forward, elbows rested on her knees.

 

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