Liam scooped Cain up as his dad rained down blows on the sheet of ice. Liam, Cam, and his other brothers ran out the back door, but he took one last look behind him at my mother.
She lay on the floor, melting icicles goring her abdomen, and Liam actually felt sorry for her. He thought of her no longer with hatred but with pity.
She was brainwashed. All fae were, and all he could do was keep him and his brothers alive. At all costs.
Bashur’s bark and Trissa’s shout of alarm were the last things I heard before Liam burst out the back door, and I felt the vomit rise up in my stomach, becoming too much.
I ran from the bed, stumbling to the bathroom where I spun the tap on and scrubbed the thick paste off my eyelids. When I opened my eyes and saw my own haunted gaze staring back at me, I vomited into the toilet.
Lying down on the cool tiles, I let the sobs of fresh grief wrack my body. This time, I wasn’t just crying for my mother. I was crying for the loss of Liam as well. I’d called him a murderer, kicked him out, and all he’d done was do what I would have. He’d protected his family against a monster.
My mother, although the sweetest and brightest light in my life, had been a nightmare in his. She’d drank the kool-aid, bought the story about the Sons being evil or demons. She didn’t think for herself. Who knows what memories Indra planted in her head over the years? The memory of her holding that gun to Cain’s head caused me to shudder. Deep sadness poured into my heart and throughout my bones. My mother was a good woman, a loving mom, but how she treated the halflings wasn’t right. She was turned into a monster by the elders.
I sobbed for over an hour, grieving the loss of Liam and my mother simultaneously.
The heaviness of sleep pulled on my limbs after lying there for what felt like ever.
As I started to fall asleep on the bathroom floor, tears trailed down my cheeks and dropped onto the tile.
There was only one question replaying in my mind over and over again.
Would Liam ever forgive me?
Chapter 5
I woke the next morning with red-rimmed eyes and a stiff neck but with more determination than I’d ever had in my life. The cold hard fact was that, yes, Liam dealt a fatal blow that ended my mother’s life, but if he hadn’t, he would be dead. Cain too. He did what anyone would have done, and his father, the Winter King, was the one to strike my mother first. The Winter King was the enemy, along with Indra, who taught my mother that the Sons of Darkness were evil.
Indra who cuffed Mara for following her heart and loving a halfling. We should have been working with the halflings as a team a long time ago.
“Trissa, will you bring me Indra please?” I tipped my chin up as I entered the kitchen where Trissa was sitting with her tea and a book.
She froze, tea to her lips, eyes wide. “Like, just tell her that you want to speak with her or… ‘Bring me Indra.’” She said the last part with a firm tone.
I nodded. “The latter. She’s wanted for questioning.”
Trissa set the mug down and bowed her head. “Right away then.” I could see a slight nervousness dance behind her eyes. Indra was powerful, no doubt, but she’d been allowed to run freely without checks and balances for too long.
Trissa slipped into her room, grabbed her sword, and then left.
Next, I knocked on Elle’s door.
“Go away,” she yelled.
That was fair… I’d been heartless in my treatment of the boys yesterday, and I could see she had a thing for Cam, so it would hit her extra hard.
Without waiting, I opened the door.
She was sitting at the window seat, flipping through an old book. Rules of Royal Reign shown in gold filigree at the spine.
Before she could speak, I opened my mouth. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I was blinded by my grief and the betrayal by Liam.”
Her mouth, which had been open to speak, snapped shut. She breathed in and then out. “After everything we went through with them, you just… left them to die yesterday. You questioned my loyalty to you!” Her voice shook.
My throat pinched with emotion as I stepped closer. “I should never have done that. I’m so sorry, but Elle, what would you do if I died, and then next month Trissa admitted it was her who killed me?”
Her nostrils flared. “I’d take off her head,” she agreed.
I nodded. “So, I acted… before I knew the truth…”
Elle set the book down and faced me. “The truth?”
I sat on the edge of Elle’s bed. “Liam left me a piece of hair to do a memory spell. He killed my mom… sort of. But it was self-defense.”
I quickly recounted the whole memory as Elle sat there, lips turned into a frown. “I’m sorry, Lil. It’s awful, but I knew Liam was someone we could trust.”
Yeah. Me too.
Deep down, I should have known… but still, he did kill my mother, and I wasn’t sure how to get that out of my head. Maybe I needed to stop making my mother perfect. She was amazing, and I loved her. But what she did, threatening to let Cain die and trying to shoot Liam… it wasn’t right.
My mother was wrong.
“I’m sorry too.”
I stood, and we embraced before I pulled away quickly. “Now, help me. I just summoned Indra here to question her about Mara’s cuffs and the memory stuff.”
Elle’s eyes widened. “An official summons?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t send it in writing, but I sent Trissa to get her… armed with her sword.”
Elle’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “Okay, if she lies to you in front of witnesses, it’s treason. Are you ready to kill her?”
My throat went dry. “Over lying?” I
