He nodded, and then one of the older kids pulled him back inside and closed the door.
My heart tore in two then.
Cain. A sweet innocent child. How could my mother have seen him sick and hurting and still wanted to take the crystal from him? Called him an it and wanted him to die?
The answer was hard to swallow. She had successfully dehumanized the halflings. Saw them as less than her, and that was ugly and sick and made me want to throw up.
Before I could think more on it, the door opened, and Cam walked out along with two other guys. They all glared at me as they passed, and shame colored my cheeks. “You have five minutes. Harm him, and I’ll take your head,” Cam shot back at me.
Elle growled, pinning Cam with a glare, but all I could do was nod. How had things gotten so backward? Just last week, we were all sitting around my kitchen table having breakfast and sharing laughs.
I’d become their enemy…
Things had fallen so far from normal it was depressing. I had to fix things. Somehow, I had to get us all back to a new normal, whatever that looked like.
Steeling myself, I stepped into the motel room and shut the door behind me.
Liam lay on one of the beds, propped up by three pillows, his back to me. There was no TV on. He wasn’t reading a book. He just stared at the far wall and did his best to ignore me. From what I could see, his left wing was bandaged as well as his ribcage and arm.
I walked over to the foot of the bed and sat down, it dipped with my weight, and I stared at my hands as I tried to figure out what I wanted to say.
“I saw what happened that night with my mom.” I wasn’t planning on going there right away, but that’s where my mind wanted to go.
Liam was silent.
“I…” Tears clouded my vision. “She was everything to me. A mother, a father, a best friend. She was all I had.”
Liam’s breathing quickened, but that was the only indication that he’d heard me.
“And I was so blinded by my rage and grief that I just reacted without thinking. You shocked me with your confession, but I should have trusted you...”
Silence.
Mother fucker! Say something!
“I wished you’d never told me!” I cried, softly weeping now. “But I can see now, when I replay all of our moments together, that you were trying to tell me all along. You tried to tell me you’d done horrible things, and I told you it didn’t matter… but it does.”
His body stiffened.
“Now I can’t think about my mom without seeing her in a negative light. Seeing her look at Cain like he was an animal who deserved to die… I—” My throat restricted with emotion. “You did the right thing, protecting your family. You did the right thing…”
Fresh grief tore open in my chest as I came to the realization that I was grieving the mom I thought I had and not the one she really was. I’d idolized her, and she was still amazing, but she was flawed. I guess we all were.
“You left me for dead.” His voice was deep and raspy. I’d been waiting for him to speak this entire time, and when he did, the breath caught in my throat. “Some soulmate you are.”
“Liam—,”
“No,” he growled. “I warned you. I told you not to get close to me. I told you I was a monster, but you acted like you didn’t care. You acted like you loved me no matter what.”
My throat went bone dry.
Loved.
Past tense.
My heart knocked so loudly in my chest; I thought I might die right here and now. “I do love you,” I said softly. “I just… hate you right now.”
Could that be possible? To love someone and hate them at the same time? Liam took my mother, he took her perfect image from me and made her into a racist, halfling-hater, child-killing, monster… and that could never be fixed.
“I’m sorry for leaving you while you were injured.” My voice shook. “I wanted someone to blame.”
Silence descended on the room for a full minute.
“I’m sorry for killing your mother,” he finally spoke. “Not a day goes by that I don’t look at your face and see her. I wish I could change it, but I can’t. If I had to do it all over again, I would. My family is the most important thing to me in the world.”
Tears ran down my cheeks.
What a juxtaposition. My family was the most important thing to me, too. I understood him. But in order to protect his family… mine had to die.
I wanted to burst from this room and take flight, flying far, far away from here.
Where did we go now? We’d both apologized, but nothing felt better. It felt broken with no glue in sight.
“Why are you here?” he asked finally.
“We have three crystals. Two of them, thanks to you. I can’t do this without you and your men. I’d like to formally invite you and your men, your brothers, to come stay in Faerie. You will be safe there. Your brothers can have the regenerating abilities of the crystals, and we can hunt for the rest. Together.”
Silence.
“I’ve already had the fae start to build you all a village across the river, so you could have your own space and come and go as you please,” I added.
He said nothing.
“Your mother could also move back in with Mara, and she would be safe.” I was rambling. This was me begging, and he knew it.
He was silent for a long moment before he sighed. “I’ll think about it.”
That was fair. “If you decide not to, you can keep the second crystal you brought us. Just let me know, and I’ll get it back to you.”
Turning, he finally faced me, and there was so much emotion swimming in his eyes it nearly brought me
