The Luna's Bodyguard [a mature werewolf romance]

Ch 42: Banished

OPHELIA

The courtiers dispersed at a single wave of my mother's hand. I took note of their hungry eyes and sallow skin, feeling a stab of pity and shame.

These were my people. Banished to the underground for a decision my parents had made on their behalf: pride over prosperity. Blood over duty.

And I'd left them here to rot.

"How long have you been here?" I asked Blair, struggling to reconcile the white demon on the throne with the honeyed memories of my mother. "Were you ever even ill?"

"The sickness is very real," she said magnanimously, slipping off the throne with Lady Evergreen's support. "It leeches from those who squat in the Dornoch castle and call themselves kings. Pendragons," she spat, sauntering down the steps. "I left your father to build this place. To build a better future for you, Ophelia "

So no, I thought dryly. She never had the rotting sickness at all. She just let everyone think she did.

I refused to step back as the armoured woman came to a stop before me, her red crown gleaming like freshly spilled blood. Her features softened, but her eyes stayed hard and glassy as obsidian.

"You abandoned me," I realised aloud. I'd always felt it to be true, but had come to forgive her for the fact that dying was typically out of one's control.

This was all too deliberate.

"You faked your own death to get back at the Pendragons, and to what end? All I see are starving people. They can't eat fucking gold, Mum."

"It was one of the hardest decisions of my life," Blair said, and for the first time, truth tinged her words. "Giving up my firstborn for a second chance for our people."

Me. I was the firstborn. And she'd do it all over again, if given the chance. I could see it in her eyes.

Manicured nails clacked on her pauldron. My eyes cut towards the shadow at Blair's back, the poised Lady Evergreen. Finally, I saw the gaudy diamonds around her neck for what they were. Or rather, heard them — they whispered things, not unlike my ring, when all was still and I strained to listen.

Of course Addy wanted an enchanted object. I wondered if touching it would kill me.

"We saw that you would return," Evergreen said. "There was no real danger."

"No real..." I trailed off with a bitter laugh. "They burned our house down on top of us! Aurora and I have been on the run ever since. Why didn't you bring us down here, if you knew it was safe?"

"It was your path," Evergreen said, before my my mother could complain. "We always knew it would lead you back to us, when the time was right."

"Your loyalty to that thing is misplaced," Blair said. "It is time to let go of the burden forced upon you."

Thing? I was absolutely floored. "Are you talking about... Aurora?"

"My sweet daughter. What a lovely fool you make," she said, cupping my cheek.

I stepped out of reach. "She's a fucking person. And she needs our help," I said earnestly. "I'm here because she's trapped somewhere under the Dornoch castle."