Of Werewolves and Curses by Emma Hamm
Chapter 17
Freya emerged from the cave hours later, certain that she was on the right track. Though her father wasn’t even close to human yet, he was making progress every single day. The trees were making good on their promise. Now, it was her turn to show that she had what it took to convince the Summer Lord to take up his rightful position.
She stepped into the sunlight, blinking away the sudden blindness from the white sand beach. She would never get used to the sun here. Everything was so bright and vivid, no matter which direction she looked.
But when she could see through the stars in her eyes, she noted a figure standing in the middle of the beach. A dark figure, outlined by the sun itself, staring out to sea as though there was something there waiting for him.
She supposed there was, although she would be surprised to hear that he cared.
The Summer Lord stood in loose pants made of silk and chiffon. They blew in a light breeze and the tails of the band at his waist whipped. His chest was bare other than a few symbols painted in bright gold. He was handsome in a way that was breathtaking sometimes.
She walked up to his side and was shocked to realize there wasn’t even the hint of alcohol in the air. She didn’t smell beer or wine or mead. Just the barest scent of lemongrass.
He was sober. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him sober.
She mimicked his posture and tucked her hands behind her back as well. “Leo.”
“Freya.” He glanced down at her with a curled lip. “I don’t like you using my name.”
“You don’t like me at all. So it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I used your name. It’s not going to change how you feel about me.” She stared out to sea, even though she could feel him looking at her. “Besides, we have more to talk about than if you want me to use your given name or your title.”
“More to talk about?” His voice betrayed not a single emotion, but he shuffled his feet in the sands like he was uncomfortable.
Freya had learned how to read the fae. She knew when they were trying to get around a subject that they didn’t like. She knew when they felt like she had pushed too much. Leo was feeling all of these things and more, because he was afraid of so much. Fear rode his shoulders, and she didn’t know how he even breathed.
Still looking out at the islands, she replied very quietly, “I met her.”
Silence stretched between them like a taut string. If either of them was careless, this conversation would snap back and strike them in the face. Leo would not be the first to respond to such a ridiculous comment. He must fear if he said anything that would betray Cora’s presence, then he would fall right into Freya’s trap.
He cleared his throat and replied, “Met who?”
“Cora.”
The physical reaction to her name was violent. He recoiled from the word as though the sound was a poisonous snake. He feared even hearing the name of the woman he had once loved.
What a horrible way to live.
He struggled for long moments, opening his mouth, then closing it again. His beautiful smooth brow furrowed with the weight of his emotions, and Freya knew this was more difficult for him than any of them had imagined.
Her father was right. The Summer Lord was embarrassed and ashamed to have Cora see him like this. He was supposed to be this powerful being who could take on anyone that threatened the Summer Court. And instead, he had turned to alcohol to ease the stress of his responsibilities.
Finally, Leo found the words he wanted to say, and they weren’t at all what Freya had hoped. “There are many Elven women by that name. I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific than that.”
“We both know you’re being deliberately obtuse. We found a way to the isles, and we survived all those horrible creatures you placed in our way. And then we met Cora. She’s a beautiful woman now, and she’s been alone for a very long time.” Freya squeezed her hands together, so she didn’t slap Leo at the thought of how long he’d made Cora linger. “She doesn’t want to live there anymore, and she’s feeling the same thing you are. The elements are going to take back what they gave you, Leo.”
“Then let them,” he snarled. “Maybe she deserves the title. I could see her ruling this land well, but not me. I wasn’t cut from the same cloth as the other Summer Lords. Never have been. And as such, I have been nothing more than a disappointment to this title. They will wipe my name from the history books when this is over.”
“When it’s over?” she repeated, her voice a hushed whisper. “You are giving up your own life and the woman you love, simply because you are not willing to rise to the occasion?”
He looked at her, then. His feet whipped through the sand that sprayed up behind him in a beautiful golden arc of color. The sun struck his handsome face, his dark features like something out of a storybook. The Summer Lord was one of the most handsome men she had ever met, and that included Eldridge. So why wouldn’t Leo just accept that he had a place in this world?
This injury to his soul was deeper than she thought. Freya would need to find out where it had stemmed from. Why he drank. So many questions that needed answering, but this was her moment alone with him.
He stared down at her with spite in his eyes, jaw set, and hands fisted. “I cannot rise to this challenge. It’s not as simple as you think.”
“Because you are afraid.” Freya nodded. “I know what that fear feels like.”
They weren’t the words he’d expected from her, clearly. Leo opened his mouth, ready to argue with her, but then all the wind in his sails died. “What did you say?” he asked.
“I’m the Queen Killer,” she replied with a chuckle. “I defeated the Goblin King, then the Queen. And then I went to the Spring Maiden’s court, and I caught her in an elaborate lie to prevent my family from ever finding each other. The expectations of what I will do next are infinite.”
“I don’t understand why that would make you feel fear.” He glared as only the fae could. Leo obviously believed his issues were far more difficult than hers, and maybe they were.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t sympathize with him.
“All of these titles are adding up. I have become something of legend to some people I meet, and all the court leaders are afraid of me. Because I did run through your courts and dismantle everything that you knew and loved.” Freya opened her hands wide, palms facing him. “But I am a mortal woman. I grew up as a peasant on the edge of the forest, worrying about what I would eat the next day. I don’t know how to be this terrifying creature all of you seem to think I am. Luck is on my side. Most of the time. That’s the only way I’ve gotten to where I am.”
Leo’s eyes widened, then turned into a deep golden hue. “You fear everyone will soon think you are a fraud.”
She nodded. “And now you know my secret, Summer Lord. I understand that you are afraid of what she will think when she sees you again. And that someday, she might wake up and realize that you are nothing more than what she feared you were. The terror of your loved one suddenly becoming a stranger is a horrible one to face.”
And there was the real secret. Someday, perhaps in a few months or in a few years, Eldridge would roll over and see that she wasn’t what he thought she was. That she was an unimpressive woman who had stumbled into the faerie realms, and who had no right to remain.
The Goblin King had helped her every step of the way, and without him, she would still be under the Spring Maiden’s spell. And no one would ever have found her.
“Then you do understand.” His gaze saw too much. The Summer Lord looked right through her and into her very soul.
He saw that she feared losing the man she loved, and that she wasn’t good enough for the person who loved her. He must have known that from the very first moment he saw her. She wasn’t a faerie. She wasn’t anyone other than Freya, and someday that might not be enough to keep Eldridge at her side.
Leo reached for her hand and grasped it in his own. “We have had our differences, Queen Killer, Defeater of the Goblin King, and Spring Maiden Truth Sayer. But hear me when I say this now. I will put aside what happened in the past because we are so similar in the present.”
Goodness, he was a compelling man when he wasn’t soaked in alcohol.
To her great embarrassment, tears built in her eyes. Freya realized that this was the first time any faerie had ever forgiven her for what she’d done. And she was intensely aware that her first trip through the faerie courts had been anything but polite or helpful. She had wreaked havoc throughout all the courts. To hear that he forgave her for that, for stealing from him, lying to him, manipulating his court...
It healed a hole in her heart.
She squeezed his hand in her grip. “Good. I’m afraid I needed to hear that more than I want to admit.”
“That is quite all right,” he replied, releasing her instantly. “Now, if you don’t mind my absence, there are a few bottles of wine in my room that are waiting for me.”
He turned to leave and Freya’s jaw dropped.
That was it? He was going to walk away from her and get drunk after all that had been said?
“Where are you going?” she asked, clarifying, because he couldn’t have said what she heard.
“To get very, very drunk, Freya.” The Summer Lord’s shoulders rounded in on himself, as though he knew what he said was wrong. That the alcohol wouldn’t help his situation and only bury these emotions under deep layers of wine and mead.
“No, you aren’t.” She planted her fists on her hips and drew on every motherly instinct inside herself. “You’re going to stay here and talk with me. You need to go see Cora. She’s been waiting for you for two hundred years, Leo. You owe her at least a single meeting.”
He shook his head. “No. No, I will not be doing that. She will stay on that isle, far from where I can harm any remaining memories of what we once were. What we could have been.”
“You deny yourself happiness, and for what?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Because you don’t fully believe that you’re worthy?”
“Yes!” He spun around again, shouting the word so that it echoed over the waves. “I am undeserving! For what I have done to this court, to her, to myself! She would be better off dead then shackled to me for all eternity.”
Freya refused to believe him. Not when she had gotten a glimpse of the man he could be, the one who had so much potential. “At least send her handmaidens, damn it! She’s been living out there on her own for far too long!”
Though his eyes widened at the thought, he at least nodded. “Sure. If that’s what she wants, then she can have that. But she cannot have me.”
The Summer Lord walked away. And though she should have been disappointed, Freya felt as though she had won.
