I stared at him, so many emotions tumbling through me that I didn’t know where to begin. Why? How? For how long? Why? WHY?
He’d said something about creating this place because he wasn’t what fae claimed him to be. That nobody knew about it, not even his father.
“Why?” I finally said, unable to align my thoughts to anything other than that one word.
He walked toward us, gliding like mist over the sea. “To keep them safe. To keep all of them safe.” His throat bobbed in a swallow, but he waved a hand behind me, to the tiny village, to the other fae mingling about, some whom had stopped to watch my family and me as we dissolved into a mess in one another’s arms. I counted them. Five, fifteen, no twenty-five. The list grew. So many.
“I still don’t understand,” I choked out.
Prince Norivun’s smile grew, but the gesture was filled with a heaviness that made the expression look forced. “There’s much you don’t understand, Ilara, but I couldn’t hide this from you, not any longer.”
Mate.
The unspoken word hung between us. He’d shown me this because of what I was to him, what he was to me. He’d known that even though I felt the mate bond as viscerally as he did, that I would never allow myself to succumb to its pull, not after what I thought he’d done.
My mother pulled me close again, her arm wrapping around my shoulders as her wing spread protectively around my side.
“It was the only way,” she whispered into my ear. “As much as it pained me, your father, and your brother to know that you and Cailis believed us dead, we knew it was the only way. The king had ordered us to be executed, but it didn’t stop us from hoping and dreaming that this day would come. My girl.” She pressed another kiss to my temple. “My baby girl. I’ve missed you so much.”
Tears flooded my eyes again, and I looked to the prince for answers, for an explanation of this hidden city’s existence. The king had ordered their execution. But I’d thought Norivun had made that decision. Not the king.
The crown prince extended his hand. “Come, Ilara. I have a lot to tell you, but first, visit with your family.”
CHAPTER 19
My parents led me to a small house as the prince walked at my side. Norivun had let go of my hand, but he walked close enough that our fingers brushed on occasion. And every time we touched, a path of lightning shot along my nerves. Each touch was electric, like a current ran between us, and only one tiny spark was needed to ignite an inferno.
I tried not to be distracted by that. Tried not to dwell on the bond that stretched between us that felt so palpable that I wondered why it’d taken me so long to recognize it.
With each step, amazement filled me, not just because Prince Norivun was my mate, but at where we were. This place truly was a living, breathing city, even if it was small. It had everything that our village in Mervalee possessed. Shops, houses, streets, vendors, tiny gardens. All of it. It was like a small oasis hidden in the most destructive patch of nature. Somehow, someway, the prince had created this bubble of paradise. And apparently, he’d done it all to shield innocents from his father.
“How did you create this?” I whispered.
“Magic. A lot of it.” His words came out slow, tired sounding.
“Come, my prince. I shall prepare a meal to help replenish your stores.” My mother smiled gently.
My eyes widened. “Are you weakened?” I’d never seen him anything but invincible, other than the snowgum attack, but the prince had shown immense strain when he’d opened the veil to this town and allowed me entry.
“A bit.” His offhanded comment made my heart thrum harder, even more so when my mother and Tormesh ushered him into their home.
I rushed in after them, still not understanding how any of this was possible. The king had always made it sound as though he pacified his son’s murderous antics, but a killer wouldn’t have created this.
The hatred I’d been feeling for Norivun ever since the moment we’d met cracked even more. Everything that I’d thought I’d known about the prince was proving to be wrong. He wasn’t evil. He wasn’t my enemy. If anything, he was my family’s savior.
My father followed me into their small two-room house at the end of a narrow street. Above, a shield of ice, nearly two hundred feet tall at the ceiling, protected them from the cliff’s deadly elements. The storm outside still raged, the ice as clear as glass, and with a start, I wondered if that clear ice allowed them to see the sun on peaceful days, or the stars, moons, and galaxy on a cloudless night.
“This is where you’ve been living?” I said thickly, my throat and tongue still not wanting to work properly.
My mother pulled out a chair for the prince, then went to the stove.
“It is.” My father put his arm around me, hugging me again. “Until the prince can figure out how to return us to our normal lives, this is where we have to stay.”
Hearing my father say that made a new knock of reality shake me. The prince was working to free them?
Blessed Mother. There was so much I didn’t know.
“Come help.” My father closed the front door behind us. “The prince is always fatigued whenever he ventures here, even if he tries to hide it.”
My brother lit the candles and used his magic to ignite the fairy lights in their home as Norivun accepted a cup of hot broth from my mother without comment. The scent of wood and the tickling of dust motes hit my senses. Their home was tiny, just a main living area and one bedroom with two beds.
“So small,” I whispered. The living area had a narrow fireplace, a single sofa, and a lone table. Just behind it waited the kitchen. It was just as small with a dining table so minuscule it barely sat four. The simplicity of the design reminded me of our actual home in Mervalee, but this was even more cramped.
“I couldn’t make the homes bigger,” Norivun said, his deep voice reverberating all the way to my bones. “The amount of magic it took to create this village and then the supplies needed to fill it with everything the occupants would need was difficult. That and I have to reinforce the wards every so often, and the larger the village, the more taxing that is, so it was either make fewer homes larger, or make more homes smaller. I chose the latter so I could accommodate more fae.”
“I wasn’t judging.” My cheeks blazed that he was apologizing for not giving my family a larger house. “You truly kept them alive when the king wanted them killed, and you’re sorry the house isn’t bigger?”
His throat bobbed as my mother continued to fuss over him.
My entire body trembled with the emotions that were overtaking me, so I swung back to my father so I didn’t embarrass myself. He was still looking at me as though I was a ghost, and Tormesh wasn’t looking much different.
“Come, rest by the fire.” My mother gestured for both the prince and I to sit on the single sofa, then proceeded to pull out fixings for dinner while my father caught a hen in the pen behind their house.
Even though I’d eaten not too long ago with Haxil, I found the tantalizing scents of my parents’ home cooking and the feel of familiarity as my family surrounded us to make me hungry for the life we’d once led.