Chills ran the length of my arms, and my hands shook. “No,” I said aloud.
Liam closed the book, keeping his thumb in the spot to save the page, and looked down at me. “Lily, I can’t open the protection dome over Spring. The protection your—the queen placed there. It’s not a Seeker thing. It’s a Spring Court royal thing.”
I shook my head more vigorously. “No. I can’t be.”
He put the book down again and met my gaze. “You have sunlight magic. Magic only given to royals of the Spring Court.”
I stared at my hands in shock. “It’s…how do you know?”
Liam sighed. “My father told me about the royal court magic in case I ever had to come up against another royal.”
Royal. That word in association with me was crazy. Had Liam suspected this the whole time?
“Is there more?” I couldn’t handle this right now. It felt like my whole life was a lie.
He nodded, opening the book, and handed it to me.
I’m sorry I never told you about the queen while you were growing up. I’d planned to when I told you about your Seeker magic. I didn’t want to scare a little child with tales of a sleeping queen and a dying tree and a world on the verge of its end. Please forgive me, love.
I wiped a tear that escaped my eye and read the last paragraph.
The next page holds a spell to see someone’s memories. Use it on the queen or Indra or whomever you wish and see for yourself. Faerie is wrapped in lies, and you must work out for yourself who to trust. Mara and Trissa are free of this corruption, but knowing Indra’s magic with memories, I didn’t want to tell them for fear she would read their memories and harm them. If I am gone, it means you are all alone in this, and you must finish what I started.
Kill Indra. Wake the queen. Save Faerie.
You were my favorite thing about life.
All my love,
Mom
I hadn’t been sure I had any more tears to cry, but I did. They fell in large drops on the page, and I turned it to see the spell she spoke of.
Hair Memory Spell
Procure a piece of hair from the person whose memories you want to explore.
Mix the hair with two ground seeds from a flowerberry and three drops of puckerberry juice.
Say the words, “Memories, memories, reveal yourselves to me.”
Rub the paste over your eyelids.
To end the spell, wash off the paste.
That was it. There were no more pages after that. Setting the book down, I lay on Liam’s bed and looked up at the ceiling.
Kill Indra. Wake the queen. Save Faerie. Those words looped around and around in my brain.
Liam crossed the room and lay next to me, and we were quiet for a long time.
“Daughter of light,” I muttered.
“Huh?”
“When my mom was dying, she’d called me the last daughter of light.”
Liam nodded. “My father said the ancient titles for the Spring Court royalty were Daughter of Light or Son of Light.”
I frowned. “And the name for Winter royalty?”
“Son of Darkness. It’s where he got the idea to name his…people.”
My hand slipped into his. There was an unspoken understanding between us. Both of our lives were fucked up right now, but we had each other.
The next morning, I awoke with my hand still clasped in Liam’s. We’d fallen asleep together while staring at the ceiling; we hadn’t even had dinner. He felt me stirring and looked over at me, bleary-eyed.
“You okay?” His voice held concern, and for a moment, I forgot that I was some secret Spring princess, or that my mom wasn’t my real mom. He looked so damn gorgeous, with messy blond hair and sleepy eyes.
I nodded. “Go check on your mom.”
His eyes widened, and he bolted off the bed. “I forgot. I’ll be back. You can shower in there,” he offered, and pointed to an adjoining bathroom.
I nodded as he slipped out of the room, and I sent up a prayer that his mom was better, or at the very least not worse.
Stepping into his bathroom, I took a quick shower, trying and failing not to be a weirdo and smell all of his yummy man soaps. I changed into jean shorts and a T-shirt, then slipped my boots on.
Today, we would hopefully get the approval of Liam’s army and wage war on the Winter King, returning to Faerie what was rightfully hers.
But first, I needed to tell my bestie something.
Opening the door, I saw her sitting on the couch next to Cam, eating a bowl of cereal. He must have said something annoying because she chucked a piece of cereal at his face, and he opened his mouth, catching it.
“Elle?”
She looked over at me, and I called her into the room. I wasn’t sure what to say about the journal and its contents, so I just sat her down and handed it to her open to the back.
“Whoa,” she said as she read. “Holy shit, Lil.” She continued. “Oh, my gods…” She clutched her chest. “What the hell?” she finished. When she looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “Not really, but I will be.”
Standing, she pulled me into a tight hug. “Indra’s a dirty bitch,” she growled, and I burst into laughter as we pulled away.
“You’re not wrong there.”
Elle picked up one of my palms, looking at it. “The light magic. You’re…” She dropped my hand and took a step back. “You’re fucking royalty! Can I even touch you?”
I reached out and socked her in the arm. “Stop it. Don’t you dare treat me differently. I’ll lose my mind.”
She grinned. “You should make me the head of your royal guard. Like, I can get a badge made and everything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can we focus, here?”
“Sorry,” she muttered, and tapped the spell on the page. “Okay, so you need to get one of the queen’s hairs.
