“What?” he asks. “What did she say?”
“That no matter how hopeless I feel, there’s always a little more hope inside me. That no matter how faithless I think I am, there is always something to believe in.” When I turn to look at him, he’s staring at me, eyes soft, jaw a bit slack. “Maybe that sounds foolish to an immortal.”
“Not at all.” He swallows hard. “May you always have a star to wish on, Abriella, and a reason to believe.” He begins to fade into the darkness.
“Finn, wait.” He rematerializes before me and waits, silently. “Why are you using your magic to visit my dreams? What of the cost?”
“Ah, what are the shadow fae good for but foolish dreams and ghoulish nightmares?” His eyes flick over me—from my eyes to my collarbones, down my gown, and to my bare feet before bringing them back up and settling on my wrist. I follow his gaze. My scar is gone. Not glamoured away, but gone. Its absence is an echo in my mind. Because it wasn’t a scar at all but the mark of the one who wears the Unseelie crown. “There is no cost now that the curse has been lifted, but it’s not my power that brought us here. I’m not using my magic.”
“Then how?”
“You’re using yours.” Then he disappears, and the dream fades to nothing.
* * *
“The healer said she needs her sleep.”
Puzzle pieces swirl in my head, weaving and shifting. Answers just out of my grasp.
“Well certainly, but she can sleep after the coronation.”
“The prince will want her there.”
The prince. Sebastian. Sebastian’s sudden appearance in my life two years ago. He moved in next door and charmed me from his first smile. Seven years after my mother left. Almost to the day.
“These are the first days of these new times. If she’s to be his queen, she should be by his side.”
“She’s been through too much. I don’t think she’s ready to wake. The potion takes a toll.”
The potion. The potion Sebastian had with him. The one he somehow knew he’d need.
I feel something important there. Like a word on the tip of my tongue. But consciousness slips through my fingers alongside the answer that’s just beyond my grasp.
“She’s coming out of it. Just look at those eyes.”
“Princess Abriella?” There’s a gentle shake on my arm. “Princess, you need to wake up. We have to get you ready for the coronation.”
I drag my eyes open, sit up, and look around the room. I’m still in Sebastian’s chambers, but everything is just a little different. Brighter? More . . . defined?
“Oh, Prince Ronan will hate that he’s missing her first look at the world through her fae eyes.” Emmaline says, practically squealing. “Someone send for him.”
“You make a beautiful faerie, milady,” Tess says.
“As if you were born that way.”
Faerie. I’m a . . . faerie? It all comes back to me in a flash. Choosing the rune, saying the bonding vows with Sebastian, the ever-weakening pain of death . . . The Potion of Life.
“I’m so sorry to rush you, Your Highness, but if you’re going to make it to Prince Ronan’s coronation, we need to get you in the bath quickly now.”
Died. I died. But why? How did Sebastian know I’d have that reaction to the bond? He knew the bond would kill me. He knew he’d have to make me fae or lose me forever.
One of the servants takes my hand and leads me from the bed. I waver on legs that don’t feel like my own.
Another servant holds up a dress. “You will look beautiful standing by the new king’s side in this.”
I’m still woozy from sleep. From the potion. What they’re saying doesn’t make sense. “The new king?”
The ladies laugh. “Prince Ronan, your Sebastian, will take the throne today with our lady by his side. So many reasons to celebrate.”
I close my eyes to that blow. In my dream, Finn said the curse had been lifted. The queen has died and it’s my fault.
There’s too much to take in.
I open my eyes again and give a start. Emmaline and Tess aren’t the women I knew. They’re faeries, with pointed ears, glowing skin, green vines tattooed down their arms. “You aren’t human?”
“The prince had us glamoured,” Emmaline says. “To make you more comfortable.”
“But now we can be our true selves with you,” Tess says. “Why do you look so sad? You will make a wonderful queen.”