Beneath Shadows and Secrets

♔ 𝕿𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔶 - 𝕱𝔦𝔳𝔢 ♔

"Nira, if I knew you lived, of course I would have returned. I would have brought you here, to finally give you the life you deserved." He pushes to his knees. He stays there. I tilt my head as I observe his lowered posture – it looks almost like he is bowing to me. "I told you I would find us something better, where you and Metri could thrive. Where we could all be happy.

"I lived in the woods for months. Went to Solaris to find conditions ever worse than ours. The Fae Realms, to see humans treated as slaves. I almost came home, after the first year, because I found nothing for us. I was attacked – a bear – I did not see it coming, starving and weak and dehydrated. It mauled me, within an inch of my life, before I managed to kill it. I laid on the forest floor, bleeding out, and accepted that I was due to die. Cried, when I realised that I would never get to see you again." He looks up at me, a single tear rolling down his cheek. My unshakable exterior does not falter once.

"But you lived." I claim.

"I did. Da found me – I was hardly lucid, thought I was imagining him, and all the ramblings about my 'Fae blood keeping me alive'. There isn't much more I remember, not until I woke in a room, with these beings around me, their palms glowing, heating my skin until it burned. I thought they were torturing me, and then he was there, and he promised me they were helping. You can't understand – the pain – it took what felt like days. Hardly conscious, and when I was, all I could do was scream in agony. Then nothing. It all stopped, and I did not feel anything at all."

"Are you searching for sympathy? I was mauled too – twice, actually." I retort.

"No – I am only trying to explain. I was terrified, surrounded by these Fae, and Da, he looked like one." He takes a heavy breath. "He told me everything. That he had been glamoured for years, came to live among the humans for his safety until his Da wished him to take the throne. That he looked for me, each day, and one evening, when he returned from his search, our home was swallowed by flames. That you had all perished."

I try not to bristle at the lie my father tricked Darin with. I cannot understand why he chose to. For what gain; to keep Darin here, or to keep us away? I refuse to believe that it was anything other than for selfish reasons. "When did he turn you?"

"Turn me?" He frowns. "He did not. A few months after I healed, the settling happened. Weeks more of excruciating agony. Then I was Fae."

My startled reaction remains buried. "It was always intended of us. To become one of these?"

"A likelihood." He shakes his head. "But it should not have happened yet. The power you have – you are too young to have settled already. Hardly twenty."

I laugh coldly. "This is because of sacrifice, Darin. A product of everything I risked for Metri and Mari."

"Mari?" He queries. He has still not risen from the floor. I crouch to face him, my lips twisted into a scowl, fangs still biting into my bottom lip. Too hard. A stream of blood begins to run down my chin, unchecked.

"Our youngest sister. Father's kin. Much like his lacking loyalty to his children, it seems he had none to remain monogamous to our mother." His eyes widen. He knew nothing about her. More secrets. More omitted truths. I appease him. "They both still live, I think. Our siblings. I made deals, to see them through the cold months. Mother too – alive. He lied to you. We all lived."

He blanches, a horrid sickly colour, as though he is moments away from collapsing. "Metri lives?" I think I see the quiver of his bottom lip.

"He will be twelve now. Caring for our sister and mother, now I am no longer able to do the job." I rise to my feet again, watching as he braces himself on the cold floor.