Reign of Ice (Forever Fae #4)(76)

Closing my eyes, I connected with the land and searched deep within its depths. I knew what I was feeling because I had felt it before, before my court had been claimed. The land was waiting for someone to be worthy enough to claim it, to make it grow.

“It wants to be claimed,” I told her, “but with all the four courts who is there left to claim it?”

Grinning from ear to ear, she held out her hand and smiled. “That is the right question, Your Highness. Come, we have somewhere else to go.”

Instead of flying this time, the moment I took her hand the bright light that shone on us from before flashed all around us. I could hear the far away sound of voices off in the distance, and once the lights dimmed and we got closer, I knew who those voices belonged to. When the light disappeared, I immediately opened my eyes and gasped, clutching my chest. I could barely breathe from the sorrow and pain permeating the room … mine and Brayden’s room.

Merrick saw me and rushed over, taking me in his arms. “Oh, Ariella, I am so sorry I wasn’t there to see you on the other side. I couldn’t leave Calista … she needed me.”

“I understand,” I whispered.

He raised a questioning brow at Lailah and she quickly shook her head in response. I wonder what that’s about.

“How is Brayden?” I asked him. By the way he bit his lip and looked away, I knew something was wrong. I knew that look like the back of my hand. “Merrick, tell me,” I pleaded.

He sighed and blew out a shaky breath. “He’s not here, Ariella. After everything that happened he took it pretty hard. He said he was leaving.”

“Leaving,” I shrieked. “Leaving where?”

He shrugged. “No one knows.”

“I have to find him,” I exclaimed to Lailah, wanting to rush out the door. “Please, let me look for him.” There was nothing I wanted more than to see him again, but then if he couldn’t see me ...

Would he be able to feel my presence like Calista could with Merrick?

Lailah nodded sadly and brushed a gentle hand down my cheek. “You will have plenty of time to find your mate, Your Highness. However, there is something that you need to know before you do.”

A lone tear escaped down my cheek and she wiped it away, smiling. She walked me over to my family and as we passed them I got a clear view of the bed. There—lying under the sheets—was my body, still and unmoving with my eyes closed and unseeing. But how was that possible? I was dead, so shouldn’t my body have been turned to ash?

“Why am I lying there?” I asked nervously. “If I’m dead wouldn’t my body be gone?”

Elvena was sitting on one side of the bed sobbing with her head lowered while my sisters and Sorcha sat on the other with their arms wrapped around each other, sniffling and wiping away their tears. Bayleon and Bastian were even in the room with their eyes downcast, probably to keep from looking at Queen Mab or my mother.

Ryder and Kalen both hung back, grieving to themselves, wanting to give Calista and Meliantha their space. Kamden and Zanna were in the corner, both holding onto each other for comfort. However, Drake was a different story. Never once had I seen him cry, but watching the tears fall down his cheeks at my absence ripped my soul into pieces.

“Don’t despair, Ariella,” Lailah murmured. She placed a hand on the forehead of my body lying in the bed and looked back at me. I had no idea what was going on or why my body was still whole, but I wanted answers … I needed them.

“Tell me what’s going on,” I cried.

Lailah sighed and explained, “As you already know, when one of the fae dies, the soul in your body leaves and travels to the Hereafter. Your soul is what keeps your body together, keeps it strong. Yours has crossed over, Ariella, and that is what I see when I look at you right now. However, there is something that keeps you tied to this world, something that keeps your body alive even though your soul is not a part of it.”

“What could that be?” I whispered. “I have never heard of this happening before.” Nothing she said was making sense. I had never known any of this to ever happen in the Land of the Fae. What could be keeping my body tethered to my realm?

Lailah smiled. “Of course you wouldn’t have heard of this happening before. You are the first, Your Highness. The Keepers had known of your fate to defeat the sorcerer long before you even knew, except your destiny took an interesting turn that we didn’t expect. It wasn’t just something that saved you, but someone.”

I felt the presence of someone else with me when I defeated the sorcerer, but I never understood who or what it was.

Lailah leaned over my body and placed a gentle hand on my stomach, smiling. I gasped and collapsed onto the bed beside my body, bursting into tears. “Are you saying I was pregnant?” I cried, my eyes wide. When she nodded my world came crashing down on me. How could I have been so stupid? I not only sacrificed my life, but the life of my unborn child.

“I didn’t know,” I sobbed, wiping the tears angrily away from my face. “I sacrificed myself when I had a baby growing inside of me. I will never be forgiven for that. Brayden will never forgive me for this, for leaving and sacrificing myself and his unborn child.”

“He knows you didn’t know, Ariella,” Merrick spoke up softly. “Elvena told him there was no way you could’ve known so early if you weren’t expecting it or looking for it to happen.”