Reign of summer, p.23
Reign of Summer, page 23
“You miss her, too.” Her gaze met Raith’s. “I can feel it.”
“It’s why I’m so mad at myself for choosing you. She would have disowned me for being so fucking selfish.” He joined her on the bench. "I always thought I was above all the political garbage of this court. I've never even cared to be king. But knowing how much beating Cade would piss off the queen got to me, and I became just like the rest of them."
“I get it. Trust me. Just the thought of telling my mother I ran away from home because I was too much of a coward to face life makes me sick to my stomach. But we are where we are. All we can do is try to be better.”
The connection between them vibrated as their gazes met.
“I can search the rules and see if there’s any way to get you out of this,” he said.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to go back to Cade again, and if I’m not your second, he’ll be able to siphon my emotion again.”
“I won’t let him do anything against your will again.” Raith’s gaze dropped to her lips.
Desire flickered in the bond, and Scarlett wasn’t sure if it was her own feelings or Raith’s that she felt. Just as she was about to ask where they stood now, one of the guards who stole her from her bed barged into the room.
“Time’s up,” he barked.
Anger poured from Raith. “We’re about to leave.”
“Too late,” the guard snapped as he grabbed Scarlett’s wrist and yanked her away from the prince.
The next two days were the same. Scarlett was stuck in the cold room until it was time to train. A servant would bring her three meals a day, all some gross mush that Scarlett could barely get down.
Two nights before the battle, Raith brought her an actual meal of turkey, potatoes, and fruit. It tasted divine—almost as if she were a prisoner on death row given her last meal.
They hadn’t had much time to talk, but she sensed his guilt. Nearly every moment together went toward training, but earlier that day he again promised that if they won, he would return her to the safety of the human realm.
As she drifted to sleep that night, Kassandra’s icy voice stirred her awake. “My, my, don’t you look comfortable.”
Scarlett rolled over and sat up, “What do you want?”
“Now is that any way to treat a visitor?” With a wave of her hand, Kassandra unlocked the cell and stepped inside. “Stand up.”
When Scarlett didn’t listen, pain exploded in her mind as if her mind were on fire.
Along with the pain came visions. First of her friend Natalie being stabbed in the chest by an unknown figure dressed in black.
Blood oozed from Natalie’s wound as she grabbed at the weapon. Unable to remove it, she stumbled backward, crashing into a wall and sliding to the ground.
She gripped the hilt again, but it didn’t budge as she tugged. Her limbs went limp as she coughed up blood, and the life drained from her eyes.
Then it all stopped, and Scarlett’s vision returned to the cell. “How did you do that?”
“It’s my gift.”
Just as Cade could enter dreams and Raith could see and take memories, Kassandra could make people see things?
Pain shot through Scarlett’s head again and just like when she drank the vial for the opening ceremony, she was back walking into her house the night she found her mom.
She screamed in her mind, desperate to find a way out of the memory, but she couldn’t escape.
The breeze sent a chill through her as she fumbled for her keys until she noticed the door was already cracked. She continued, grateful for the luck. But as she entered the house, the metallic stench sent dread straight to her gut.
Time slowed as she processed the sight. Her mom sprawled on the ground in a puddle of blood, her eyes cold.
When Scarlett glanced at her hands, they were covered in blood too. But she hadn’t gone to her mom yet. She was still ten feet away.
Frantically, she searched her purse for her phone, staining everything she touched with her bloodied hands. There was no phone to call an ambulance, and in her soul, she knew it didn’t matter.
If she hadn’t gone to the party, maybe she’d have been there to stop her mom. She could have promised that things would get better, that they’d find a future together. But she was too late, and her mom was too gone to save now.
The dungeon reappeared as Kassandra smirked at her. “My gift can break you, mortal.”
Instead of another vision in Scarlett’s mind, her sister Ashleigh appeared in front of her, right there in the cell.
“Scarlett,” Ashleigh said. “Help me.”
“No!” Scarlett yelled. “Leave her alone.”
“Please.” Ashleigh’s eyes doubled in size. She coughed. Blood dripped out of her mouth and onto the stone floor. “I need you.”
“Stop it!” Scarlett screamed. When she tried to go to her sister, her body wouldn’t budge.
Ashleigh held her stomach and vomited up more blood.
No, this couldn’t be happening. Scarlett tried to look away, but her neck wouldn’t move and her eyes wouldn’t close.
It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Ashleigh had appeared out of nowhere. It was just a hallucination.
Knowing it didn’t make it easier to watch.
“Help,” Ashley said again before a slice slid across Ashleigh’s throat. Blood squirted from the wound like water from a hose, and she dropped to the ground.
Another spasm attacked Scarlett’s mind—like a migraine but a million times worse. She pressed her fingers into her temples, but it didn’t help. The pain seemed to last hours before the cell appeared in front of her again.
“My son deserves to be king. If you do anything to stop him, well, think of this as an appetizer to what I’ll do to you. Next time, it won’t be an illusion of your sister I kill.”
Kassandra turned and left the cell, locking the door behind her.
Scarlett curled into a ball on the hard stone floor and cried herself to sleep.
Thirty-Three
Scarlett was still in the fetal position when Raith woke her the next morning. He lifted her and set her on her feet.
“What happened?” he asked as he held her upright.
Scarlett shook her head as she relived the hallucinations. They had seemed so real. And although they weren’t, she knew Kassandra was beyond capable of making good on her threat. Cade knew where Scarlett lived, where Ashleigh would be when she wasn’t at school.
“It’s okay, don’t tell me. Let’s get you out of here.” Raith held Scarlett by the waist and evanesced them to his room in the castle.
Could Scarlett get a message to her sister, telling her never to go home? Even if she could, there was no way Ashleigh would listen to it. Why would she? Scarlett never listened to her mom’s concerns about the voices in her head.
Away from the dungeon, she could think a little clearer. “The queen came to visit me last night.”
Raith cursed under his breath. “What did she do?”
“She…” Scarlett wasn’t sure how to describe what she’d shown her. “Her power involves manipulating minds. She showed me visions. Horrific ones.” She couldn’t bring herself to speak them aloud. “And she threatened my sister.”
“Gods. Why couldn’t my father have waited until after the battle to die?” He shook his head. “I won’t give her another chance. Tonight is the Battle of Heirs Ball, and as an official event, you must attend. I checked the rules, and you’re allowed a full day to prepare, so you can’t be thrown back into the dungeon until after the battle.” He brushed her cheek with his hand. “And if everything goes right, then I’ll be king and can throw her into the dungeon.”
There was no conviction in his tone, and she wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t believe they could win or even if they did, he wouldn’t actually throw the past Summer Queen into the dungeon.
But if they lost, Kassandra would keep her power. She might not remain interim queen, but Cade wouldn’t stop his mother from doing whatever she wanted. Scarlett knew it in her bones.
She couldn’t survive any more flashbacks of her mother dead on the ground or hallucinations of her sister dying right in front of her.
A thought came to her. “You told me you can take my pain away better than Cade could.”
“I did.”
“By taking my memories?”
“Yes.”
She leaned into Raith. He could make the anguish inside her stop. Scarlett's heart raced. He could take her memories. How could something hurt her if she didn’t remember it? “Away forever?”
Raith nodded. “If you want them gone forever.”
Is that what Scarlett wanted? She thought about her mother’s gentle touch. Her laugh. The way her eyes squinted together when she smiled. The happy memories hurt as much as the bad ones, reminding Scarlett of what she’d never have again.
Most of all, a part of her now wondered if her mother hadn’t been crazy. What if Scarlett had believed her?
“Do it.”
Uncertainty flickered through Raith. “You’re sure?”
“I need to be focused. It’s our only chance. And thinking of my mom hurts too much right now.” Her face was so pale.
He moved his hands to her face, and his thumbs brushed her temples. He’d only taken away memories a few times. It always felt wrong, a violation. No one had ever asked him to do it.
She looked at him with hopeful blue eyes. With a deep breath, he peered into her mind.
A woman with a long auburn braid appeared. She pushed a young Scarlett on a swing at a playground. What a silly thing humans did, but both the woman and Scarlett looked happy. He could feel Scarlett's joy in the memory. The safety she felt. The feeling of being loved.
The memory changed to a young Scarlett, hugging another little girl while her mother seemed to be talking to herself in another room.
Then another switch to a teenage Scarlett running into the house with a big grin, holding a report card in her hand. She sprinted until she found her mother cooking in the kitchen, and when she handed her mom the piece of paper, her mother smiled and it looked so much like Scarlett now.
Raith couldn’t do it.
It would be so easy to erase Scarlett's memories. It would fuel him up for the upcoming battle, and she was right, without so much grief to distract her, she would be a more focused partner. But he thought of the few memories he had of his own mother and the joy Scarlett felt with hers. He couldn’t take that from her.
He pulled his hands away from her. “I can’t. Not like this.”
Relief shot from her, but her pain remained. She’d lost her favorite person in the whole world, just as he had. And while hers was fresher than his, he’d pent up all his feelings for so long, he felt like he might burst.
Scarlett exhaled the tension in her body.
She’d seen the memories Raith had accessed. She’d forgotten how gorgeous her mom was when she smiled. And they’d both been so excited when Scarlett had managed straight-As her first quarter of middle school.
She took a deep breath, gagging at the stench of her skin. “How long do I have to get ready for the ball?”
Raith’s expression was solemn. “Three hours.”
“I’d like to clean up and have some time to sort out my mind.”
He nodded. “I’ll give you some privacy.” He lingered as if he might say something else, but without another word, he left the room.
Not wanting to stink like grime and piss another minute, Scarlett drew herself a bath.
She sank into the full tub, immediately dipping her head under the water.
An image of Ashleigh pleading with her in the cell flashed behind her closed eyes, and Scarlett pushed above the surface with a gasp, prying eyes open.
She wiped away the water dripping down her face and laid back in the tub with a sigh.
God, her life had become such a fucking mess. She’d come to Faerie to escape her grief, and now her terror was just something to be used against her.
And tomorrow, she’d be thrown into a battle for a crown that had nothing to do with her.
But she didn’t want a crown. She just wanted to go home.
Raith had promised to take her back to the mortal realm if they won, and she could only hope he’d keep his word. Unlike his younger brother, he’d done nothing to her to make her question him. But he was just as fae as the rest of them, and her gut warned her not to trust their kind.
Still, she had no choice but to fight with him against Cade and Poppy.
Careful not to shut her eyes again, Scarlett finished her bath, scrubbing every inch of her body before getting out and returning to Raith’s room.
A robe was waiting on the bed, and she put it on before digging into the tray of food left next to it.
Unlike the disgusting meals given to her in the dungeon, this meal was delicious, and she scarfed down every bite. Just as she finished, Abigail arrived to help her prepare for the night’s ball.
As the servant brushed Scarlett’s hair, she said, “I’ve never seen so many guests come to a Summer event.”
Scarlett tapped her finger on her thigh. “Probably because they heard a human was chosen as Raith’s second.”
“I overheard the queen talking about you with one of the noblewomen.” Abigail began to braid Scarlett’s hair. “She doesn’t think you’ll last an hour.”
“She’s probably right.”
“I don’t think so. You’re brave and smart. And–” she leaned in close to Scarlett’s ear. “not as human as they believe.”
“I’m not brave, and not even all that smart. Trust me.” Though Scarlett wasn’t fully human, so she had that going for her, at least.
“What are you talking about?” Abigail switched to the other side of Scarlett’s hair. “You didn’t hesitate to help me after the queen hurt me, despite how intimidating she is. And you warned me not to show my fear, which was good advice.”
Scarlett shrugged. “But I’m stuck in this whole mess because I was too much of a coward to deal with my mother’s death.”
“There is no right way to handle grief.”
“Running away to another realm was definitely the wrong way.”
“And you’ve learned your lesson. Doesn’t mean you’re not courageous.” Abigail shrugged as she tied off the second braid. She pulled out a magically enhanced curling iron like Peony had used and moved on to curling the rest of Scarlett’s hair.
When Scarlett’s hair and makeup were done, Abigail left the room and returned with a floor-length, red dress. “One of the tailors just finished making this for you.” She handed it to Scarlett. “Oh, shoot. I left the shoes there.”
While Abigail left to get the shoes, Scarlett slipped into the stunning dress. She admired the work of art in front of a mirror, surprised at how perfectly the dress hugged her torso and hips, dipping into a low V that exposed her cleavage. Off-the-shoulder sleeves draped over her arms, and a slit rode up her left thigh dangerously high.
Abigail stood in the doorway, red heels dangling in her hand. “Holy hell. You look amazing.”
Scarlett smiled at her. “Thanks.”
The servant set the shoes on the bed and helped button up the back of the dress. “Raith had it made by a human seamstress. Most of the fae have their clothing made at least partly with magic, but he specifically found a servant who knew how to sew.”
“I hope the seamstress wasn’t angry.” She couldn’t imagine the work that went into a dress like this one.
“Quite the contrary. He had unlimited food and drink brought to her., whatever she wanted. And he let her stay in one of the guest rooms while she worked on it so it could have her full attention.” Abigail guided Scarlett around to face her and adjusted one of her sleeves. “In the few years I’ve been here, I haven’t seen a lot of Prince Raith. He seems to keep to himself. But whenever he’s requested the use of any of us servants, he’s always been kinder than most of the fae.”
“You’ve been here a few years?”
“When I was eighteen I fell in love with one of the Summer guards. He enjoyed visiting the human realm, but he could only visit a few days a year, and so I came here. We made it a month without anyone noticing, but when the queen found out he’d brought a human here for love, she confronted him.” Sadness hovered around Abigail. “He denied it. Claimed he just used me for sex and emotion, but she saw through his lie. She threatened to kill him for his dishonesty and secrecy, but if I agreed to serve the court for twenty years, he could live.”
“Wow.” Scarlett already hated Kassandra, but her loathing deepened at the story.
“He got moved from a palace guard to the army, and if we ever get caught together, we’ll both be hung.” The servant shrugged.
“That’s awful.” If Scarlett and Raith managed to win the battle, maybe she could convince him to change the law and release Abigail from her vow, if that was even possible.
Scarlett did her best not to think of all the fae in the large ballroom, half of which kept looking at her.
Raith squeezed her waist. “They’re staring because you’re absolutely stunning.”
“Or because they know there’s no way I’m going to survive through tomorrow.” She gulped down her dread the best she could. She didn’t need everyone there sensing what a mess she was.
“That’s what will make our victory so satisfying.” It wasn’t confidence humming on his side of the bond, but she appreciated his attempt at it just the same. “I can siphon some of your nervousness if you’d like.”
She shook her head and pulled her attention away from everyone else and focused on him instead. “I need to get through this myself.”
The moment before Raith refused to take her memories, she’d realized her mistake. Running away from everything wouldn’t ever fix her problems, only postpone them. And even if she could escape her grief by not remembering her mother, it wasn’t what she wanted.
The price of losing her mother in every way, forever, was too high.
