Silas Earrach
Looking away was my next mistake. It was an admission of guilt for something I played no part in...
Except, I did. I was the reason she met Ma, the one who gave her the Blood Stone and then made sure to tie my soul to hers. And tied her to me. She had as much of a choice in the matter as I did. Less since I brought her home under threat.
I was the reason her situation got worse and it was my decisions that ultimately led to us waking up in Ezekiel's cells. That led to Greysi being dragged away for who knew what.
But I couldn't admit that. Not to her new mate, the fucking prince of the Autumn court. He wasn't known for being soft and forgiving, especially not to those who wronged those closest to him. Unless it was his mommy dearest.
But my Ma? She was nothing to him. I couldn't let him know what she had done. Not if I wanted the only family I had alive. Which, after everything she's done, the child that she took in always would.
She was my Ma. She always would be, even if I came to learn something that would truly make me hate her. The years of love would still be there, only it would be buried under layers of anger and hate that would take decades to peel away.
Decades we may never live to see.
"Well, you underestimate her... naivety," I said, placing the blame on the one person I knew he wouldn't- couldn't harm, Greysi. Then, like a game we never agreed to play, it once again became my turn to ignore and divert the conversation. To the place my thoughts had gone the moment he had revealed the secret the Spring royals had apparently been guarding. "How many fae know about the... necromancy thing?"
He didn't like that going by the slits his eyes narrowed into. "Answer me and I might answer you," he said, tilting his head as his eyes scanned me from head to toe. It wasn't the first time they had.
My jaw clenched, my teeth threatening to crack. "Might?" Of course, he wouldn't make it that easy.
He crossed his arms, his body facing me while mine was turned away, my head able to turn to take in the direction Greysi had been dragged off in. Which just so happened to be in my direction for him.
"Try your luck, " he shrugged. "Given our... situation, you're going to have to trust me at some point, why not start now?"
I couldn't help but scoff at his foolish optimism. "Because I know who you are," I said, finishing with a glower that made how I felt about him clearly. I trusted him as far as I could toss Garvin.
Without the assistance of magic.
I had tried once when he had nearly bit my finger off while stealing an apple from my hand. Hilda had temporarily locked away my budding magic as punishment, easier to do to children than full-grown fae, so I had to resort to expressing my anger in other ways.
When I physically attempted to move him with a hard shove, the force had me bouncing off him to fall back onto my tail bone that felt the brunt of my fall while he stood unmoved.
The prince matched my glower. "You know what you've heard," he stressed, as though that would make a difference. Every rumour held a hint of truth, it's just some held more than others.
"Which is plenty." With everything I had heard about him and the path of bodies he left in his wake, even if a fraction of it was true, it was enough.
"I've heard plenty regarding you as well, yet I didn't let it paint who you are."
