Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Dad!” Malcom jerked up and grabbed Ben’s hand. “You can’t leave! We just—we’re a family now. You can’t go!”
The glow was completely gone from Benjamin’s eyes, and with one last haunted look at us, he collapsed into Aengus’s arms.
The smell of the ocean filled the room, and then he was just gone.
Gone.
No blood.
No body.
Gone.
“Benjamin!” I screamed. “BEN!”
Aengus fell to his knees and roared.
And my son, my precious alive son, grabbed my hand and pulled me in for a hug, sobbing that it was his fault.
We all wanted someone to blame, most likely ourselves, but this had nothing to do with us.
This was the end of the curse and the beginning of something else entirely. I just prayed I had the strength for what was to come as I wiped my boy’s tears away and tried to keep mine in.
“I’ll wait another lifetime and then another… and another…” I whispered my promise into the air.
And I could have sworn I heard a warm chuckle say, “Good.”
Chapter Thirty
Luna
Three months later
I paced the house back and forth, back and forth; everything looked normal in our small town—the one I currently lived in, permanently waiting for the love of my life to magically come back right along with my mother. The police had nothing but loose ends; it was as if she had disappeared into thin air. Aengus and Malcom both moved into the house permanently along with Sarah—which just pissed my sister off more. She hated me even more now that the spell was broken, remembering more than she would care to, though it was pretty comical when it was the old Crone that told her she’d ruin her career if she didn’t allow Sarah to live with us.
Whatever worked, right? Aengus was convinced that Ben had been transported back to the Spring Court to heal. It was a complicated case of him going back to the earth that he came from, with the dirt and flowers, but to me? It sounded like a burial.
“Hey,” Aengus approached, wearing his typical leather pants, tank top, and boots. He still looked as otherworldy as ever though he was toying with the idea of adding black nail polish. “You look like you’re thinking way too hard.”
I scowled. I was finally nineteen. I never realized how much older I would feel or what sort of adjustment it would be to be frozen looking the way I looked for centuries. Apparently, Fae aged at a ridiculously slow rate meaning Malcom would mature and then look a similar age for centuries—that is, if we were ever welcomed back to the Courts.
Every month Aeugnus traveled through the mist and made a petition, and every single time because of politics or whatever, he was told to come back.
“Pack your shit.” He winked.
“Noooo, I don’t want to go camping again.” I groaned and pulled the book closer to my face. I was in Ben’s library researching ways to bring him back and came up with nothing every time, but if he tried all those years to break the curse, to save me, then I was going to do the same to him. “Last time, I almost got eaten by a werewolf.”
“He would never eat you; Hath would kill him.” Aengus pointed out. “Plus, now that the curse is broken, it seems like people feel weird leaving where the place they’ve been protecting all this time.
I snorted. “A lot of good that does them.”
“They’re worried about you.”
I looked away; I didn’t want to cry—again. “I’m worried about me too sometimes.”
Aengus grabs the book from my hands and tosses it onto the table. “We aren’t going camping.”
“Thank the gods.” I rolled my eyes.
“We’re going to court.” He smiled like it was a totally normal thing to tell a person. Court? Court? Everything I wanted but was too terrified to even dream of because they always turned him down. Why now, is what I want to ask, but again, fear takes over. My memories are fragmented at best—my dreams, however, show me a beautiful world of ice and snow and a high court of all of the Fae that brings everything together, The Seelie and the Unseelie where shadow and light combine, where life and death survive in unity.
I nearly fell out of my chair in an effort to jump to my feet in a sudden rush at the thought of all of us showing up… outcasts in front of everyone. “We? All of us?”
“You. Me. Malcom, and Jasper’s daughter, she has to convince the courts about what happened.” He paused. “It’s time for judgment.”
The breath I took didn’t help, especially after that announcement. “And if we’re found guilty of something wrong?”
Aengus didn’t miss a beat. “Well, if saving someone you love is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”
My eyes nearly rolled to the back of my head. “Stop watching TV.”