Chapter 78

The next few days fall into a similar pattern of making preparations to leave and doing stints of research in the library to double check our facts and maps. According to the captains, we'll have one shot to get this correct, hopefully our plans work the way we intend for them to.

I barely see Damion over the next three days as he and his captains continue getting supplies set for the journey to the border. The endless meetings I had been a part of listed so many horrible ways that this plan could go wrong, that what had seemed like a path to ending things with both the Seelie and Unseelie fae now twist my stomach in knots. My nerves tear themselves up as the days pass and we get closer to the day we were to depart for the border.

When as many preparations as possible have been made, we leave the mountain castle to begin the journey by horseback down the cliff edged paths toward our designated meeting place.

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At the base of the mountains a group of Seelie and Unseelie fae wait for our arrival in accompaniment to both of their kings. They both step forward with their guards as we dismount from our horses.

It's been months since the last time I had seen the man who I had considered to be my father for the majority of my life. Not even ten weeks, but so much has changed since then that it feels like it may as well have been a life time since that day I stood before him in the Seelie throne room. The day that I had been so scared I could barely keep my legs from shaking.

He looks the same as he always has. I'd forgotten how much Tarquin Montegard's looks so much like Lucia - a twisted bitter male version of her- that it's eerie. The same golden hue of shining hair cut off at his shoulders and a green shade of eyes in the shade of deep summer that hint at his Seelie heritage. And while he's the same physically, looking at him feels different now. Now that I'm not searching for any shred of likeness between the two of us, trying to force myself into a mold I'll never fit to. It's not a sad thing- not like a part of me is expecting- but rather, it's liberating. The truth settles like a warm blanket, especially as the last words he'd spoken to me ring through my head.

*"You're a liability, Liliana," He had told me all those weeks ago, "You've already cost us too much. We have the future of the Seelie to consider and we can't keep our focus on building the kingdom if our progress is continuously stalled by threats to the crown. With your illness, your days have always been numbered. At least now your death will have meaning."*

At the time, those words had sliced through me as sharp and painful as knives. They had been something I'd always suspected, which had made them cut through me even deeper.

I had always believed that *I* was the problem in my relationship with my father and with the Seelie court. But over the past few weeks, I'd slowly come to learn the truth. I'd realized that the problem had never been me or my illness. It was Tarquin who had been the one who had never been willing to love me, to never accept me enough to be willing to *fight* for me. He had only cared enough to ensure that I wasn't seen by the Seelie court enough to tarnish his image.

But somehow, miraculously, despite it all, I *had* found people who would fight for me. I'd found *my* people. Found those who cared about me not only in spite of my weaknesses, but cared about me *for* my weaknesses along with my strengths. People who loved and cared for me enough that they risked their lives to be there for me.

The shifters had barely known me, but had taken risks and made sacrifices for me and I'd grown into a new person because of it. *And I loved them for it*. I loved all of them. Lucia, Xavier, Arden, Leif, Healer Orm, Aelrie, Elandorr, MitraDamion.

And I would do anything for them, too. I'd risk just as much to keep them safe. That resolve settled over me, giving me the strength to get through this. To do anything and everything in my power to protect them. I wouldn't let anything happen to them- and that knowledge bolsters me up.

Tarquin looks over our group, but his gaze lingers on where Lucia and I stand together. He spears us with a look that would have chilled me to the bone a few months ago. But unlike before, I can now see that look for what it really is. A mask to hide his fear.

"Well, if it isn't my two traitorous daughters," Tarquin says blandly, lifting his sharp nose into the air in a show of disgust, "You shame me, our people, and your *birthright* by tainting yourselves with these brutes and then have the audacity to insult me by begging for a meeting? You are both disgraces."

"Father," Lucia greets him through gritted teeth, "A pleasure, as always."

Knowing Tarquin would be past the point of being willing to strike a deal to meeting with the shifters, Lucia and I had been the ones to send a message to our father requesting a meeting at the border. We'd taken a risk in hoping he'd want to speak with us, to rub his face in his successes, and luckily that risk had worked out.

Damion steps forward, looking the part of the terrifying shifter king, blocking us from view, "We know what you've been searching for in the mines."

Tarquin's face twists with cynicism, and he sneers at him, "Is that so?"

The way he's looking at Damion, speaking to him, sends anger lashing through me. And while I know he doesn't need it, the desire to protect him, to block him from the man who had made my existence a hell for most of my life overwhelms me.

I step up beside Damion to stand at his side to stare down the the man I had once considered my father, "While *we* may have uncovered the truth of what you've been trying to accomplish, what you've been hiding, I can't help but wonder if you've been as forthcoming with your so- called'*allies*' father. Do they know what you're planning to do to them- what their fate will be- once you unearth what you've been searching for?"

The Unseelie King whips his head in my father's direction and snarls, "And pray tell, what is this truth that they speak of Montegarde?"

Tarquin's face pales a few shades as his eyes harden, but he ignores the Unseelie King, keeping his eyes locked on me.

"And what do *you* know of my plans?" Tarquin stares me down with a look of disgust, "Of ambition? You threw our kingdom's well- being to the side when you chose to side against us. When you chose to forego your duty."

In a black voice, Damion growls, "We all know that attempting to unearth *mountain dragons* is a death sentence, not just for your enemies like you seem to assume, but for the entire continent. You can't control them. If you succeed, you will fall beneath its' feet just as surely as the rest of us."

"You don't have any clue what I'm capable of, half- breed," Tarquin snarls.

The Unseelie King's face turns a mottled shade of red, cutting him off, "*An earth dragon?* You're looking for an earth dragon? You fucking half- wit. I'll slaughter you myself before you bring destruction down on my lands-"

He unsheathes his sword, starting to raise the blade in his meaty bulbous hands, when his threats are stopped short as something happens that none of our careful planning had anticipated. A rolling groan rips its way through the mountain as the first wave of an earth storm ripples through the land.