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“The dark Fae Queen cursed you,”KingDaghda said. “I tried but failed again and again to take her out.”
“Queen Tianna?” I asked.
My grandfather’s nostrils flared, and his amber eyes burned with such hatred I’d never seen before.
“How did you hear the name?” he asked. “That foul name is forbidden to say in the realm.”
“She spied on me and heard the queen’s demon captain and me arguing about the Fae Queen,” a rich, masculine voice sounded at the door, and my heart jerked.
Elvey leaned against the doorframe, his arms folding against his broad chest and his foot crossing over his other ankle. His lavender hair was a hot mess, and his sensual lips looked as kissable as ever. He indeed had a small slash on his jaw, which was healing. A bandage wrapped around his left pinkie.
I dragged my gaze away from him after our eyes met for a second. I couldn’t ogle him, not when my mates were here. And if I kept looking at him, I might never be able to look away. Still, the unseen thread tethering us together was palpable. I could feel Blaze tensing behind me, as if he wanted very much to attack Elvey.
The fire-dragon prince had always felt Elvey was a threat to our relationship, and he might be right, especially after what Sphinx had revealed in my mind.
Gain the first and lose the last. Keep the last, and the first will be shattered bones. Heart doesn’t know. Heart betrays. Heart breaks. Heart divides. Heart deceives.
I didn’t want to choose Elvey over my mates. I couldn’t bear losing them. But if I only kept my dragon princes, Elvey might die. That seemed to be what the cruel, twisted Sphinx had told me.
No, I didn’t want to dwell on it.
I swallowed the bile in my throat, suppressed the dread spreading in my stomach, and fixed my eyes on my grandfather.
KingDaghda didn’t glance back at Elvey, though his back stiffened at the Fae mage’s voice. The king seemed to tolerate Elvey since he was my ally. And without him calling my grandfather’s guards to ride to my aid, my mates and I wouldn’t have made it here.
Elvey had saved us countless times. This time, his friend Rosalinda had lost an arm defending us.
He hadn’t wanted to say the dark Fae Queen’s name, either, even on another planet, afraid of giving her power or drawing her focus to us. But now that we were in the Dragon Realm, and all Fae, except those I invited, couldn’t enter, he seemed to be more relaxed. The dark queen knew about my return already. Saying her name wouldn’t do worse.
Did my grandfather know that Elvey was bound to the Fae Queen by blood?
“I’ve been kept in the dark about the other half of my heritage all these centuries,” I said, giving the king a withering look. “Today, I want full disclosure. I won’t be denied anymore.”
Rai squeezed my shoulder in a show of support.
“It broke me when the curse came true at your fifteenth birthday and you were taken from me,” said the king. “I would have given up everything, including the realm, to find you and get you back. We tried everything until all hope died.”
“I traveled to the other realms to find you,” Adrian said. “In the end, I heard that the curse had probably dragged you to the past, and then I searched for a time machine.”
“I was pulled to the past onPandemonium,” I said, “until the Wickedest Witch in the universe came and took with her the elemental entity who enslaved me. After he was gone, the planet bounced back to the present time. I don’t know how it worked, but both Akem and the witch could manipulate time. Without them holding Pandemonium in time-space, time could no longer veil the planet.”
“After you were gone, my state of mind weakened me, and I neglected the realm,”KingDaghda continued. “Which resulted in the realm cutting its ties to me. When the enemies swarmed the realm, I could no longer do much to stop them. I was a broken king in a broken kingdom. The humans who had lesser dragon blood joined the pure humans and moved against me. Then, a few months ago, a witch,Lysandra, came and enthralled me.I couldn’t resist her power without the land’s magic.” His voice turned bitter. “Our ancestors’ goddess abandoned me. I blamed her for the tragedy that had befallen our house. Where was she when the enemies killed my only son? Where was she when the curse took you away?”
“Grandfather,” I said, my hand grasping his. “Don’t beat yourself up about it.” My resentment toward him had vanished. “I’ve come back, and we’re going to fix this.”
His hand clasped mine. “My beloved granddaughter, you’ve indeed returned.” He breathed out, his hands no longer trembling. “I’m sorry I put you through such hardship. When the Archangel delivered your message, I was in no position to fend off the enemies surrounding me, and my mind couldn’t tell which were loyal to me and which weren’t. I became suspicious of everyone. But it wasn’t without a reason. The witch corrupted some of the dragons.”
My mind drifted toSegomo, the dragon who’d been possessed by the smoke-entity.
“Only when I heard your message did I realize that the cure to lift your curse was a kiss from your three true loves,” he said. “If I’d known, I’d have rounded up all the men in the whole planet to kiss you when you were but a child.”
My mates growled behind me.
I flushed. “That’s ridiculous, Grandfather. That would be child molesting. You might have just scarred me for life. And there was no guarantee that it would have worked that way.”
“Anything would have been better than having my only heir taken away from me for centuries without even knowing if you were alive,” he said, steel in his voice.
I bit my lip. The king remained the same—either his way or the highway.
