“Say it, muffin. At this point, there should be nothing holding you back,” he encouraged.
“What did you do?” My brain swirled with possibilities, making me dizzy and ready to pass out. Was he a murderer? Was he one of those mad fae that sacrificed humans? Did he hold parties at his grand villa where they burnt our kind to the pyre and danced around it? What did he do to deserve this amount of torture and violence on a daily basis? For the soldiers to become so familiar with it and nickname him ‘Gale’?
He huffed, dropping the food and pressing his eyes to mine, sudden anger flaring in them. “Fucking nothing, love.” he turned on the mattress and shifted to reach the wall the bed leaned against, resting his back against its coldness. “Show kindness, that’s what I fucking did.”
A long moment drifted between us, resurfacing against the heaviness of the conversation. I didn’t even dare breathe too loudly, concerned that it would spike more anger into the fae male, all of a sudden too aware that he could rip my spine in half if he so wanted to.
“My full name is Galenor Dalenth,” he finally spoke, his words a whisper brushing away the silence that had caught root inside the room.
I hitched a breath, my heart stopping for a mere second.
“Yes…that’s the reaction,” he pointed with his chin towards me, not at all surprised. “Imagine when your dear humans learnt that. Do you think I ever stood a chance?”
“The…” I swallowed the knot growing in my throat. “The king’s name is Dalenth,” I said the obvious, as if he didn’t already know that.The prince’s name is Dalenth.
“Yup,” he leaned further against the wall, his hair resting on the cold surface to make his dark hair wave away onto his shoulders. It grew a little bit longer, only an inch or two since his arrival, giving him the regal stance he no doubt had embraced throughout his life.
“You’re the prince of the Wind Realm?” My eyes watered with the realisation, shame engulfing my entire body. I deserved to burn for this betrayal. For letting that bastard touch me, for letting him feed from my energy. With trembling hands, I shifted away from the bed, taking a step back. Away from him.
“Thank you, muffin, that’s so nice of you,” he tilted his head to look at me only long enough to spill his sarcasm.
“The prince wants us all dead. He’s responsible for ten thousand human deaths a year. All the terrorism, all the campaigns, the assaults on young people…” I shook my head, tears falling down my cheeks. What had I done?
“Ellyana, calm the fuck down,” Galenor sighed. “I am nothim.” He spoke with such a neutral tone, as if he was tired of uttering this exact same phrase.
“Your name is Dalenth…” I barely whispered, my hands scratching at my skin from the need to get his scent away from me, the traces of his caresses and the kisses he had left behind.
“Ellyana!” he shouted, shifting from bed to catch me by the shoulders, shaking me into reality and forcing my eyes to his. “I. Am. Not. Him.”
His eyes…
Those beautiful, wondrous, heavenly eyes…looked true.
“What?” I whispered, blinking away tears to let myself fall into that life-giving green.
“I am related to him,” he explained, his fingers squeezing hard at my shoulders to keep me in place. “As in, my great-great-great many generations ago great-grandfather and his great-great whatever were brothers. Centuries ago. When the realms reformed, after the return of the goddesses.” He took a moment to allow me to breathe, to understand what he was saying.
“Most of the nobles in the Wind Realm have the same name, it’s how you know we’re nobles,” he pointed with a frown as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“What are you saying? That you’re innocent?” It was my turn to frown at him.
“I’m saying that my father is a Dalenth and his father before him and his father before him and my children, if I ever get to have any, will be Dalenth and their children and so forth. You are only aware of the Dalenth king and prince, the ones coming out in the world, but the name existed for centuries. The rest are protected within the privacy of the realm.”
I stretched my back, forcing his fingers away from my shoulders. “What are you saying?” I asked again, wanting to ensure I had the right mindset to listen to what he was about to say.
“I am saying that humans are idiots and that yes, they have the wrong person.” He spoke with such conviction that his words must have been true. Or, he had practised this a lot, wanting to make it sound perfect.
Galenor sighed, taking a step back. “When was the last bombing claimed by the prince?” He looked at me as if I was a voice-controlled search engine and he expected an immediate answer. I hadn’t even thought about that, hadn’t even thought to check this sort of information.
Not saying a word, I circled the bed and pushed him to sit by the leftovers on his plate until I grabbed the tablet and searched for the information. So many attacks were caused annually by the prince’s clan that the search proved to be more difficult than just a simple question. Add the fact that the Wind Realm was closed off for visits, exchanges, commerce or even information with the Human Realm and there was very little coming out of there, if at all. When the press caught glimpses of their realm, they tended to print the same information repeatedly. I had to scroll through articles, through news, through geotags, to enter my unit location and personal number which gave me access to privileged information and had to scroll through all the news about my local region before I had access to current affairs.
During this time, Galenor continued eating, as if I wasn’t just trying to confirm his innocence. As if he was already sure of what I would find.
“Three days ago,” I finally spoke, my eyes darting to him to spot his reaction. His face remained completely neutral, no sign of surprise or any other lingering feeling. “In Vegnoth…” Half a continent away from us.
Galenor pouted. “The most memorable thing I did three days ago was to eat burgers,” he shrugged, as if to say I told you so.
I dropped the tablet with the realisation, my hands shaking. “Why didn’t you tell them? Why didn’t you…” I shook my head again, trying to chase away more tears. “I can help you prove this, we can—”
