The Fae Prince

Chapter 24: Perfect Timing

NOT EDITED

Haley

I leaned my head against the cement bricks that made up the tower and stared out into the endless snow that made up the winter court. It would be easy for me to break out of here considering the iron was not weakening me as much as they thought, but I thought I'd toy with the faeries. As well as see if my father would come. It has been one week since I'd been here. One week, and my father had still not come for me.

He won't come, idiot girl, he only cares for himself. He abandoned you.

I ignore the voice in my head and rise instead, going through battle techniques I was taught at my fathers kingdom.

Is this revenge childish of me? Is my heartbreak not worth the crumbling of an empire?

I grunted as I moved my body through the motions of battle.

No, my pain is worth the suffering of the royal family. For all the lies and pain.

Even if I wanted to come back and live as the pretty little queen sitting idly by Finan, I'm sure his court would not be happy to bear it. I had heard his announcement that night, I had heard their murmurs and whispers of me, their hatred for me.

They hate that a human girl became a powerful high fae.

My body burns as I finish a round of battle training, my breathing becoming louder than my thoughts as I shove them away into the darkest parts of my mind and lock them away. Lock everything away.

The pain, yearning, lust, doubt, relief.

I lock it away until I feel nothing once more, until all that clouds my mind is my power and what I can do with it.

Screams erupting down below me, far down below, have me breaking out of my trance and pulling my attention away from training. I walk over to the door to my cell and look at the guard who is standing as still as a statue, probably being spoken to in his mind.

"What's going on?" I ask, silently hoping for him to tell me that my father has finally struck.

"Lady Faith is going in to labor," he says, a grim look on his face, "And it seems as though she will not make it out alive."

I shouldn't have smiled, I shouldn't have felt the warm feeling of satisfaction blooming in my chest, but I could not deny that hearing those words brought a triumphant feeling in me.

"It also appears," the guard speaks again, "That the child is not his highness's."

The ice cracks. I feel the first warmth of human emotion.

"Who's is it?" I ask through gritted teeth.

"Your fathers."

There was no saving the tower from what I unleashed.

I stand frozen as the ground beneath me sways and the bricks fall apart as ice bursts from within me. Ice. One of the only powers to originate from within me because I was from the winter court and not because of my father. It covered everything around me and with one kick to the wall of my cell, shattered the bricks before me.