Page 17 of Maleen

Ember tsks as she checks out my hand. “For someone as powerful as you are, you seem to get hurt fairly easily.”

“Now, now,” Roz adds. “She was trying to seduce her mate, which looked like it was going well?” he teases, trying to lighten the sudden cloud that seems to have nested over the training yard.

“Ravina!” Nero yells as he comes soaring down. “I can’t seem to leave you alone, now, can I? Oh, shiny!” He scoops down and picks something up before landing on my shoulder.

I hold my hand out automatically and he drops the necklace my mother gave me all those years ago into my hand. Huh, it must have fallen out when Killian pushed me out of the way. “Thanks Nero.”

The cool metal throbs as it lands in my bloody palm and the realm turns sideways. I feel hands on me before I hit the ground. Nero’s panicked caws sound distant as the magick in my veins seems to evaporate out of me, making my body feel weaker than it has in a very long time. The necklace falls from my fingertips and it’s as if everything becomes clear again, but not before the horror of what just happened begins to piece together in my mind.

“Beastie,” Jesper yells by my ear in a panic, and I realize that he must have caught me before I hit the ground. “What happened? Nero, why aren’t you healing her?”

“Well I was about to before she collapsed again. Did you feel that? It was like the bonds were cemented shut for a second there,” Nero says, nuzzling my injured hand as he funnels his familiar magick down our bond, healing the gash.

Vasari’s voice comes in strong. “Soul Magick,” she hisses. “What’s going on over there?”

I swallow, looking up at my friends and Jesper before eyeing the necklace laying beside me. “I think a piece of the Soul Stone is inside that necklace.”

“YOU CAN LET me down to walk, you know. It was my hand that was injured, and Nero fixed that,” I tell Jesper as he continues to carry me through the castle towards the healers.

He glares at me. “You were almost assassinated. Again. Surrounded by our warriors. And who knows what the necklace did to you. No. If you want me to keep my blades to myself instead of torturing every Fates-damned fae on this property then you are staying right here, in my arms.”

“He has a point you know,” Nero adds, unhelpfully.

Jesper smirks at Nero.

“You’re a traitor,” I tell him, though my voice lacks conviction.

It doesn’t take long before we are bursting through the Healer Quarters doors and heading straight to where my mother’s private room is.

My mother tries to sit up but fails, somehow looking even more frail than yesterday. “Maeven, what happened?” she croaks, her lips parted and eyes wide as Jesper sits in the chair next to her bed with me in his lap.

I give him an exasperated look, but all he does is shrug, so I turn to face my mother. “There was an attempt on my life, but I’m fine. I’m here because of something else that happened.”

Her eyes run down my form and notice the dried blood on my hand. “If you’re fine then explain the blood, darling daughter.” Her voice may be worn and quiet, but it doesn’t dim the fact that she is a mother worried about her fledgling. So I take a deep breath and explain everything that happened before I get to the question I need answered to confirm my suspicions.

“The necklace you gave me… Does it,” I take another breath, “Does it have a piece of the Soul Stone in it?”

Her face drops and her gaze darts around the room before searching me as if she would be able to see the necklace in my pockets. She won’t find it, though, because the moment my thoughts entered Aemon’s mind, he took it for safe-keeping. What made my suspicion even more realistic was that the moment he took the necklace from my presence, all the weariness and exhaustion that I’ve been feeling since I entered his office yesterday, went with it.

As my mother and I stare at each other, she casts her eyes downward, looking more ashamed than I’ve ever seen her look. “Yes,” she whispers. “When we discovered that Lord Craven might try to overthrow us and others of the Gallalaus fae were going missing or turning up dead, your fathers and I went looking for answers.”

“Answers?” I glance at Jesper who eyes my mother with betrayal.

“Yes. We searched the realm for answers on how to keep you safe and out of his hands. To keep not just my daughter safe, but the fate of the realm, should the worst happen to us—but we couldn’t find anything that guaranteed you to be able to grow up and come into your magick.” She catches her breath and swallows roughly. “You were young and wouldn’t have understood the gravity of the situation. You would have wanted revenge, to find your friends, and if he found you before you were ready to become Queen and take back your kingdom, you would have ended up with my fate or worse.” She coughs and I grab the water on her end table and wait for her to finish so she can take a sip.

“Eventually we discovered tales of a lost stone, one that was a curse and a blessing to our blood: a weakness for an all-powerful fae type. Only to be used in times of great peril—where there is no other choice. See, the Soul Stone has the ability to alter memories, corrupt or heal the soul and body, and summon the dead to battle. Only those of Gallalaus blood can wield it because only our blood can activate the stone: it takes pieces of our magick as payment.”

Jesper shifts me in his arms. “If it’s so powerful then why don’t you royals rule with it? Surely it could bring peace?”

My mother shakes her head softly. “Would you want your citizens to be slaves to their own minds? That’s not ruling or living. Free choice and equality, those matter.”

“So then why use it on me?”

Her gaze softens and tears run free. “Because I had no other choice. Lord Craven found out about the stone before us. It was through him and his years-long search for it that we learned of its existence. He was getting close, and we knew it was only a matter of time before his plan to get his hands on it came to fruition. The stone can’t be fully destroyed—we tried—so hiding it was our only option. So before it was too late, we broke it into six pieces and hid them over the realm behind blood key doors, and the last within a necklace that was crafted for you. We covered the stone in blue sapphire with the help of your fathers’ and my earth magick, and on the night of the attack, I activated it with my blood.”

“But that would have made you weak!” I think back to how the stone taking my magick felt. She wouldn’t have been able to fight.

She nods, tears pouring down her face. “Once you left, I tried to make it to your fathers, but I couldn’t move—the weight of the price left me temporarily on the floor of that stable. I used the last of my energy to cast an illusion so you wouldn’t see me like that…” She pauses and her face crumples, showing me a vulnerability I’ve never seen from my mother. “I felt their bonds to me snapping one by one as that bastard took everything from me. I thought I made the right choices, but now…” She swallows, sounding far more exhausted than before. “At least you are alive and you can right the wrongs I’ve made. I never should have let Craven get as far as he did. He was our friend, and we always thought that maybe he would see reason. By the time we realized it was too late, he’d managed to get two of the Soul Stone pieces before they made it to their destinations, and another two he found after he imprisoned me and took my blood. That male is corrupted by a great evil. I’m so sorry, daughter.”