Rhys pulled away from me so fast he fell backward. He scrambled to his feet and stared down at me, words of denial already forming on his lips. His eyes, however, conveyed a different emotion. He knew, maybe not consciously, but a part of him knew the truth.
“My brother’s name is Caleb,” I went on as if nothing had happened. “He was two months old when he died suddenly in his crib. Or so everyone believed, except for our mother. She tried to tell people that the dead baby wasn’t hers, but they dismissed her as a grieving mother.”
I tugged the blankets tighter around me. “I was born later, so I never knew Caleb. Whenever Mom and Dad talked about him, it made them sad, so I tried not to mention him often.”
“You were unhappy?” Rhys asked.
“No.” I sniffled quietly. “I had a very happy life, but there were moments when one or both of my parents let their guard down, and I could see their pain. I think Caleb’s birthday was the hardest for them. We go to the cemetery to visit his grave on his birthday every year.”
Rhys came back to join me on the pallet. “I am sorry for your loss and the pain your family has suffered. But nothing you have said implicates my mother or proves your claim that I am your brother.”
“I’m getting to that.” I swiped away the wetness on my cheeks. “Do you remember when those photos of you were leaked weeks before your debut?”
“Yes.” His brows drew together, and I could almost hear him wondering where I was going with this.
“The photog who took those pictures is a friend of my family. You met him the night the paparazzi cornered me at Navi. He showed the photos to my parents, who had never laid eyes on the Seelie prince.”
Rhys sucked in a breath. I kept going.
“My mother recognized you first. You have blond hair instead of Caleb’s red, but you look too much like my father at that age for it to be a coincidence.” I let that sink in for a few seconds before I continued. “They found out you were at the Ralston, so they went there to see you in person.”
“I never saw them,” Rhys said in a small voice.
“Some of the queen’s guards were with you, and they got to my parents before you could see each other.”
“I remember that night.” Rhys stared past me. “Mother… she insisted on Aibel and Conard coming with us for our first trip. There was a commotion outside the room where we were doing a photo shoot, and they told me they’d taken care of a security breach. They made me return to Faerie immediately after.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, they took care of it. One of them told my parents they should have killed them twenty years ago when they took you. Then they called a goren dealer to do their dirty work for them and to dispose of my parents. It was sheer luck that someone else took the call and kept my mother and father alive and hidden by drugging them with goren. My parents had to spend months in rehab after I found them, but at least they’re alive.”
“This cannot be real.” Rhys ran his hands through his hair, and I couldn’t tell if he was upset or in shock. He moved suddenly to put his hands on my shoulders. “Why did you not tell me? Your parents never tried to see me after that. I met your father, and he said nothing.”
My heart constricted at the hurt and confusion in his eyes. “At first, they didn’t remember what happened because of the goren. When they did get their memory back, we were too afraid of what Queen Anwyn would do if she found out. You have no idea what it’s doing to them to know you’re alive and not be able to tell you. Mom nearly had a relapse when she remembered.”
“Why are you telling me now? Are you no longer afraid of what my mother would do?”
“I’m terrified,” I admitted. “But I wanted you to know in case…something happens to me. You deserve to know that you have a whole family out there who loves you. Lukas…Vaerik has them hidden for now. I hope you can help to keep them safe from the queen.”
“Prince Vaerik knows about me?” Rhys asked.
“No.” Guilt and sorrow sliced through me, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I’d carried the burden of my family’s secret all this time, and my fear had kept me from confiding in the one person I should have.
Rhys got up to pace the room again. “My…mother… she wasn’t always affectionate like other mothers. She treated me well and gave me everything I wanted, but I always felt like something was missing.”
“What about your…father?” I asked. I’d never thought much about the queen’s consort. Was he in on this, too?
“My father is a quiet person. He does his duty as consort, but outside of that, my parents are rarely together. He is a loving father, but he did not have much input into my upbringing.”
I tried to imagine what it had been like for him growing up here with an absent father and a mother who didn’t show him the kind of love I’d known. He was a prince raised in absolute luxury, but I felt like the one with all the riches.
He went to one of the windows and stared out into the night. I watched him for several minutes, wondering what was going through his mind. When Dad had told me Rhys was Caleb, it had shaken my world. What must it be like for Rhys to discover his whole life was a lie, to learn not only that he was stolen from his real family, but he was not even from this world?
More minutes passed, and the silence in the room became too much for me. I cleared my throat. “Rhys, are you okay?”
“No.” He turned to look at me with bleak eyes. “I cannot believe my mother is capable of the things you said.”
My heart sank. I’d hoped he would believe me, but I couldn’t blame him for siding with the only mother he had ever known. It was too much to ask of him.
“From our first encounter, I felt inexplicably drawn to you. Bayard teased that I was infatuated with a pretty human, but that wasn’t it. I felt connected to you somehow, and it grew stronger every time I saw you. When I met your father, I felt it with him, too, and I assumed it was because of my interest in his work.” Rhys let out a ragged breath. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
I tossed the blankets off me. Shivering, I stood and went to him. I couldn’t hug him with my wrists shackled, so I laid my hands against his chest. “You couldn’t have known. Even my father didn’t know until his memory came back.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around me, and it broke the damn of emotions inside me. I cried for him, our family, and everything we’d lost. It wasn’t until I felt him shake that I realized he was crying, too.
“I have a sister,” he said hoarsely, and my chest expanded with bittersweet joy.
We were still holding each other when the door opened. I lifted my head as Bayard entered and eyed us impatiently.
“This is no time for a tryst, Rhys,” he growled. “Donan says Bauchan will come for her within the hour.”
I shuddered as the reality of my situation came crashing down on me once more. How could I have forgotten, even for a second, what was waiting for me?
“I will not let them hurt you again,” Rhys said fiercely. “We will get you out of here.”
“We?” Bayard glared at him. “You want us to help a prisoner of the queen escape? That is treason.”
“It is not treason if the crown prince commands you to do it.” Rhys released me and scowled at his head of security.
Bayard raised an eyebrow, and I got the impression Rhys rarely issued commands to him. It was confirmed when his mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Of course, Your Highness. How are we to smuggle your little friend out of the palace? She does not exactly blend in, and Bauchan has strengthened the wards. We cannot even create a portal inside the palace.”
Rhys thought for a moment. “We could take her to the door in the servants’ wing that we used to sneak out as children.”
My breath bottled up in my chest as I dared to hope for the first time in days.
Bayard was quick to squash it. “It’s on the other end of the palace. We’d never make it without being caught.”
“Perhaps we could hide her,” Kaelen said, joining the conversation. “She would fit in one of those large baskets used to collect bed linens.”
“We would not look at all suspicious carrying a linen basket,” Bayard retorted. He turned to Rhys. “Anything we try will be risky. Is she worth incurring the queen’s wrath?”
“Yes,” Rhys answered without hesitation.
Bayard’s surprised gaze flicked to me. “Why?”
Rhys laid an arm over my shoulders. “Shut the door, Kaelen.”
Kaelen obeyed. He and Bayard stood together watching us expectantly. Rhys didn’t make them wait long.
“Because Jesse is my sister.”
“What?” The two guards exclaimed at the same time.
Bayard pointed an accusing finger at me. “That is impossible. What lies did you tell him to make him believe such a ludicrous claim?”
“Do not speak to her that way,” Rhys ordered in a hard voice.
“You cannot believe this.” Bayard shot him an incredulous look. “She is using you to help her escape.”
Rhys looked at me, and I nodded. The truth had to come out eventually, and we might as well start with the people he trusted the most. I needed them if I had any hope of getting out of here alive.
Ten minutes later, Bayard and Kaelen were staring at me like they’d never seen me before. Bayard wasn’t one hundred percent convinced by my story, but he admitted that Aibel and Conard had been acting strange that night at the Ralston. And Bauchan had told him multiple times to keep Rhys away from the James family. The reason given had been the queen’s disapproval of her son associating with bounty hunters.
“You have the same eyes,” Kaelen declared, looking from me to Rhys. “How did I never see it?”
I smiled at Rhys. “We have our father’s eyes and our mother’s hair. Yours was as red as mine once.”
Bayard held up a hand. “We still need to address the why and how of this?”
“The how is pretty obvious,” I said. “The queen’s guards stole Caleb and put a dead baby in his place. They glamoured the medical examiner to cover it up. Then Queen Anwyn secretly went to my world and did the conversion herself.”
“You are forgetting one important detail,” Bayard said. “Queen Anwyn delivered a son. I know this because my mother was present at Rhys’s birth. After the queen lost her first baby, all of Seelie followed her second pregnancy closely.”
“The queen lost a baby?” I asked, surprised.
Rhys nodded seriously. “It was a stillbirth, fifteen years before I was born.”
“My mother has told me how all of Seelie celebrated for days when Rhys was born,” Bayard said. “How do you explain that?”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
He looked at Rhys. “We also need to remember the queen’s dislike of humans. She has made no secret of the fact she considers them weak and inferior. Would she take one of them to pass off as her own child? Her heir?”
“He’s right,” I said deflated. “When you think about it that way, it sounds insane.”
Rhys faced me. “Do you believe I am your brother?”
“Without a doubt. If you could talk to my parents and see the pictures of my dad when he was your age, you wouldn’t have to ask me that.”
He nodded firmly. “Then we will go to your parents. First, we have to get you out of Seelie.”
My relief was so strong it made my legs wobble, and he had to reach out to steady me.
Bayard let out a harsh breath and looked at Kaelen. “Tell Donan, Ash, and Mitah to meet us at the bottom of the tower and to bring a weapons bag from the training room.”
Kaelen left, and Rhys smiled broadly. “Brilliant. No one will question you carrying a weapons bag.”
I almost spoke up and said I could create a glamour to hide me, but I remembered my failed attempt before they arrived. I bit my lip. I felt like I could confide in Rhys, but could I trust Bayard with my secret? What would he do if he found out I had a goddess stone? Would he still help me or turn me over to the queen? If I showed them the stone and I couldn’t create a glamour, I would have risked it all for nothing.
“What is it, Jesse?” Rhys asked. He and Bayard gave me questioning looks.
“Nothing. I think the bag is a great idea.”
“We should head down now,” Bayard said. “We need to get out of here before Bauchan comes for her.”
I held up my shackled hands. “Would it be possible to remove these?” I would have done it myself, but there hadn’t been a thing in the tower I could use to pick the lock.
Bayard frowned. “Only Bauchan has the keys to his shackles. We will have to wait until we get away to free you from them.”
We left the room with Bayard in the lead and Rhys taking up the rear. There was a sense of urgency in our steps as we descended the stairs, and I sent up a silent prayer that we got out of here before Bauchan came for me.
The door at the base of the tower opened as we reached the bottom, and I fell backward into Rhys when Bauchan appeared in the doorway. Queen Anwyn’s head of security looked more furious than surprised to see us.
“This explains why the guards I stationed here are nowhere to be seen,” he snarled at Bayard. “Where do you think you are going with our prisoner?”
Rhys moved around me. “That tower room is not fit to house an animal, and there are plenty of warmer rooms in this wing where she can be kept. I’m taking her to one of those.”
“I will save you the trouble. I am here to bring the prisoner to the queen,” Bayard said, entering the tower. Aibel came behind him along with Conard. The tower suddenly seemed very small and cramped.
Bayard tensed, but there was no room in here to fight, even if he hadn’t been outnumbered three to one.
“Then I will accompany you to see my mother,” Rhys said imperiously.
“As you wish.” Bauchan reached around him and grabbed my arm in his steely grip. “But we will escort the prisoner.”
I looked desperately at Rhys before I was led from the tower. He gave my shoulder a quick squeeze and followed us. As we walked down the hallway, Kaelen and another of Rhys’s guards approached from the other direction. We’d been so close. If Bauchan had come a few minutes later, we might have made it out.
Kaelen and the other guard were expressionless as they fell into step with Rhys and Bayard behind me. My stomach was a solid lump of dread over what I was walking toward, but the presence of Rhys and his men told me I wasn’t alone anymore.
We stopped outside the queen’s quarters, and Bauchan exchanged a look with Aibel before he opened the door to push me inside. Rhys entered behind us, but to my relief, the rest of the queen’s guards stayed outside.
Bauchan put me in the same chair I’d sat on last time and took up his position behind me. Rhys stood rigidly beside my chair, the image of a protective brother, and it made the ice in my chest thaw a little.
Queen Anwyn swept into the room, and her graceful steps slowed when she saw Rhys. I couldn’t see his face, but whatever she saw in his expression caused her smile to falter.
“Rhys, why are you here? You know I don’t want you involved in this.” She spoke to him like he was a bothersome child as she walked to her chaise.
“I caught the prince taking the prisoner from the tower, Your Majesty,” Bauchan informed her. “He said he was taking her to another room, but I believe his real intent was to help her escape. Bayard was with him.”
The queen’s head jerked back. “Rhys, tell me this is not true.”
“It is,” he answered evenly.
Her shock morphed into a mask of anger. “You were going to free my prisoner? She tried to steal the ke’tain, and only the goddess knows what she planned to do with it. You would release her so she could attempt it again? She is a traitor to Faerie and Seelie. Why would you betray me for her?”
“What brother would do less for his sister?” Rhys asked in a biting tone that sounded like it came from someone else.
Queen Anwyn’s open mouth was the only change in her expression. “Sister?” She turned her glittering eyes on me. “What disgusting lies have you contaminated my son’s mind with?”
I sat up straighter, bolstered by his presence. “He’s not your son.”
Bauchan grabbed my hair and yanked my head back so fast I saw stars. “Hold your tongue, or I will rip it out of you.”
“Let her go,” Rhys demanded, but Bauchan only tightened his hold. Pain lanced through my skull, and I feared he was going to rip my scalp from my head.
Rhys spun to face the queen. “I know what you did, Mother. Silencing Jesse will not change that.”
“What do you think you know?” Her voice held a note of amusement as if she was humoring a teen that was acting out.
“I know you stole a baby from Patrick and Caroline James twenty years ago, and then you tried to have them killed when they discovered I was their missing son.”
Queen Anwyn scoffed. “Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds? I gave birth to you, Rhys. The whole court was witness to my pregnancy. How can you believe this half-breed traitor over me? She is lying to get you to help her escape.”
“I am not that gullible,” he retorted. “I could not believe it at first, but the more I heard, the more I knew it was true. Bayard believes it, too, and he trusts no one outside his friends.”
“If I did this horrible crime, where is the evidence of it?” she asked in feigned indignation.
Bauchan released me, and tears sprung to my eyes when I raised my head. I resisted the urge to rub my injured scalp as I met the smug challenge in her eyes.
“There is no evidence. Your guards took care of that. Just like they tried to get rid of my parents,” I said with all the loathing I’d kept bottled up inside me for months.
“How convenient that you have nothing to prove this outrageous claim.” She looked at Rhys. “You believe the word of someone you hardly know over your own mother?”
I shook my head. “I do have something to prove it.”
Her gaze snapped back to me. “And what is that?”
“Rhys. You changed his hair and his DNA, but you couldn’t erase who he is. He looks so much like a younger version of our father they could be twins.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “A physical resemblance? If that is all you have, you have nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then why are you suddenly so desperate to seal the barrier?” I asked, satisfied when I saw that my change in direction had taken her off guard. “Rhys’s face is everywhere in my world. You know someone is eventually going to see the resemblance between Patrick James and the Seelie prince. People will talk, and the media will pick it up because they love a juicy story about a royal. The only way to stop the story from reaching Faerie is to make sure no one can travel between the worlds.”
The room was quiet for a moment, and then she chuckled. “That is quite the imagination you have. I see how you were able to convince my son to believe your story.”
“It is not a story,” Rhys said tightly.
She sighed heavily. “This is one of the reasons I did not want you to go to that world. You are innocent, and I worried an unscrupulous human would take advantage of you. I allowed you to go, and this is the result.” She pointed at me. “If I had known she would try to poison you against me, I never would have brought her into the palace. The only thing I can do now is prevent her from doing more damage.”
She exchanged a quick look with Bauchan, and he stepped out from behind me. He went to the door and opened it to admit Aibel, Conard, and three other males. It was her entire personal guard, and their arrival did not bode well for me.
I shot out of my chair, and Rhys moved to stand in front of me. “I am not going to let you hurt her.”
“You are still too young to understand the things we must do for the good of Seelie,” Queen Anwyn said with an indulgent smile. “Time will change that, but for now, I am afraid I will have to confine you to your quarters.”
Rhys stared at her dumbfounded. “You are going to lock me up?”
Her smile never faltered as she walked over to him. “It is for your own good. And you can hardly compare your quarters to a cell.”
“What of my guard?” he demanded.
“Bayard and the rest of your guard have been detained until they can prove themselves loyal to the crown,” Bauchan said with a vicious gleam in his eyes that chilled me.
Rhys took a step toward Bauchan. “If you have hurt them –”
The queen cut him off. “Do not worry about your friends, Rhys. You will see them as soon as all of this is over.” She waved at her guards. “Escort my son to his quarters, and see that he does not leave them.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Aibel said. He inclined his head, and two of the guards came to stand on either side of Rhys.
Rhys looked at me with devastated eyes. “I will find a way to help you. Do not lose hope.” He held his hand out to me, and I clasped it in mine for a second before he was led away.
Queen Anwyn rounded on me the second the door clicked behind them. Her slap was so hard my cheek went numb and my ears rang. “I should have had you disposed of the moment I heard of my son’s interest in you. You have caused me nothing but aggravation.”
I straightened and gave her a look of such hatred she took a step back. Bauchan and Aibel were immediately on either side of her. How brave would she be one-on-one without her guards to protect her?
“He’s not your son,” I said through gritted teeth. “You can drop the act. Everyone in this room knows what you did.”
She sneered at me. “He is my son. I gave him my blood. I gave him immortality and a life few could ever dream of. What could your human mother have given him that I did not?”
“A real mother’s love.”
“That is another human flaw I despise. You are so sentimental.” She turned her back on me and crossed the room to her chaise.
“Why did you do it?” I asked, desperately needing to know why my family had suffered so much. “Why did you take my brother?”
Queen Anwyn sat and took time to arrange her skirt before she answered me. She spoke as casually as someone talking about what they had for breakfast. “I needed a strong infant boy, and Aibel found one for me.”
Her apathy nearly left me speechless. “And the dead baby he left in the crib? Did he kill someone else’s child to help cover up your crime?”
An emotion crossed her face, but it was gone before I could figure out what it was. “No. That baby was already dead.”
I had the answer to Bayard’s why. There was only one reason Queen Anwyn could have for stealing a human baby and passing him off as her own after she had given birth to a son. The real Prince Rhys had died, and she’d switched him with another baby so no one would know.
Snatches of my conversation with King Oseron came back to me. He’d told me Onagh and Asherah couldn’t provide a strong heir, and they knew someone would challenge Onagh for the throne. So, he’d abdicated to Oseron.
That was it. Queen Anwyn had feared a challenge if people found out her son had died. She had covered it up to keep her throne. She’d taken my brother Caleb and put her dead son in his place. It would have been easy enough for her to glamour a dead Fae baby to look like Caleb. That was why they’d destroyed his grave and the body in it. If my parents ever claimed the prince was their son, an exhumation would prove the child they’d buried was a Fae changeling.
“I should allow Bauchan to carve some parts off you for causing me this strife with Rhys,” she said. “But I have other plans for you that require your body to be intact.”
A shudder went through me, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified.
She paused, savoring whatever she was about to tell me. “I no longer need to know your secret of how to pass through the temple wards. In two days, I will have the ke’tain, and you will have outlived your usefulness to me.” She tapped her chin with a finger. “I think I will have Aibel go to your world tomorrow and pay one last visit to the James family. Should I send them your love?”
Blood roared in my ears. I didn’t make it two steps in her direction before Bauchan caught me. He spun me around, and there was no time to prepare before his fist plowed into my stomach. I doubled over, gasping for air and heaving at the same time. A punch to my side sent me to my hands and knees where I threw up every bit of the meat pastry Bayard had given me.
A boot struck my shoulder, and I curled up in a ball with my hands over my head. The last thing I heard before the final blow came was Queen Anwyn’s bored voice.
“Try not to kill her, Bauchan. I have one more use for her.”