Chapter 249: Episode 249.

Speed recovery, Jennifer McKern. 🫶🏾🫂💓

......

No matter how many times Aire told them she did not belong here, they refused to listen.

"I said let me go."

No one answered.

The glowing roots around her ankles disappeared the moment the older woman lifted one elegant hand. Yet, before Aire could take even a single step backwards, dozens of Light Fae emerged silently from the surrounding forest.

Each carried a silver spear carved from wood that shimmered beneath the strange sunlight. Their armor looked as though it had been woven from moonlight itself.

They did not point their weapons at her. They simply surrounded her, as though they feared someone else might take her away.

Or as though she might disappear if they looked away for too long.

"I am not your prisoner," Aire said through clenched teeth.

The older woman finally looked at her properly. "You’re mistaken." Her voice was impossibly gentle. "You are our future."

"I am neither."

Aire tried walking between two of the guardians. Neither moved.

Every direction she turned, another silver spear quietly lowered. Not threateningly, but enough to guide her back.

The older woman’s expression softened further.

"My child—"

"I’m not your child." Airw cut her off sharply, and irritated.

The words came so sharply that even the birds hidden among the glowing branches fell silent.

"I don’t know any of you." She looked from face to face. "I have never seen any of you." Her breathing had become uneven again. "My family isn’t here."

Her voice cracked despite herself. "My family is waiting for me."

The older woman merely lowered her eyes for a brief moment. "It has been a very long time."

Aire frowned.

"What has?"

The woman looked back up. "Since anyone called somewhere else home." She approached Aire. "This is your home."

The journey through the forest felt endless, as they surrounded Aire, and led her to wherever they wanted her to be at.

The Light Fae treated her with a reverence she had never experienced before. Whenever roots crossed the path, they bent away from her feet.

Flowers opened as she passed.

Even the glowing creatures drifting through the air seemed drawn toward her silver hair before fluttering away again.

She hated it. She hated every second of it, and needed everyone to stop staring at her with a smile, then whispering next.

The whispers followed them regardless.

"Is it really..."

"It has to be."

"After all these centuries..."

"I never thought..."

"The silver hair..."

Aire kept her eyes forward. She refused to acknowledge any of them. And that was when she saw it.

The palace.

Her footsteps slowed despite herself. Massive white trees twisted together into impossible towers, crystal bridges connected one structure to another and waterfalls flowed through the palace itself before disappearing into rivers suspended impossibly in midair.

Flowers climbed the walls without soil.

Everything glowed softly beneath the eternal daylight. Nothing about it resembled the Dark Fae palace.

Yet, these people also seem to be fans.

Nothing about it resembled the Wolf Realm either. It was something entirely different.

The enormous gates opened before anyone touched them, and a deep bell echoed across the kingdom.

The sound rolled across every tower.

People stopped walking, and their heads turned to a direction they weren’t looking before.

Windows opened, and thousands of eyes followed Aire as she entered. She lowered hers. She didn’t want any of this.

Reluctantly, she was led to the throne room, a building that dwarfed every hall she had ever seen.

White columns stretched toward a ceiling that looked more like the open sky than stone. The floor reflected the world above like still water.

At the very end, upon a throne carved from living crystal sat a man. He did not wear armor, nor an oversized crown.

Only white robes embroidered with silver branches. His hair flowed to the middle of his back.

His face, Aire couldn’t explain it.

He looked neither young nor old.

Only ancient. He was already standing before they reached him.

His hands trembled slightly, and his eyes never left Aire. The entire court bowed at once. No one spoke afterwards.

The silence became so complete that Aire could hear her own heartbeat.

The king descended the steps. He walked all the way until he stood directly before her.

Only inches separated them.

Aire stared back without lowering her gaze.

The king searched her face as though trying to recognize someone he had lost long ago. His breathing became uneven.

Then, very carefully, he lifted one hand, as if reaching out to her. Aire stepped backwards but still, his fingertips touched her cheek.

His touch was soft as though she might disappear beneath too much pressure.

His thumb trembled, and a sad smile appeared upon his face.

"We truly made her linger alone..." fHis voice broke on the last word.

The room remained silent.

Aire slapped his hand away, and her eyes sharpened. The sound echoed throughout the throne room.

Several faes gasped.

The king didn’t move. Rather, his eyes softened more with extreme affection and understanding.

Aire’s breathing had become ragged. "I’m not supposed to be here." Her voice shook, as she looked around the hall. "I don’t know any of you here. How dare you use the voice of someone I know to bring me here for your own selfish reasons?"

Her anger burst free all at once. "What do you want from me? Powers I don’t understand? A weapon?"

Her chest rose violently. "I’m not supposed to be here." Her voice softened, and she pressed her hands together pleasingly. "Please just let me go. Please."

The king remained silent.

Aire eyes filled with fury at his silence. "I have a family waiting for me. I’ve been gone for a full year." She said in one breath, desperate. "Please let me go."

"We are your family, Aire." the elder woman from earlier responded to her this time.

Aire blinked. A bit dumbfounded. She swallowed softly, and looked around the room. Then, she chuckled.

"Then where were you?" she blinked again, as if a scale of confusion just left her eyes, and tiny understandings replaced it. "When I spent my entire life wondering why I was different?"

She pointed at every person inside the throne room. "None of you came." Her voice hardened. "None. Let me leave."

The king lowered his eyes.

She shook her head violently. That silence shattered whatever restraint Aire still possessed.

"So that’s it?" she whispered.

She looked around the throne room again, at every face watching her with pity, wonder, and guilt. They stared at her with everything except the one thing she needed.

Time. She needed time.

"You’ve been looking for me?"

No one answered.

"You’ve been mourning me?"

Her breathing became uneven. "I spent my entire childhood with no family and not at the continental time for you, you decide I’m yours?" She took one step backwards. "Drop the act. You can imprison me." She laughed cruelly. "I can’t create a portal, and you tricked me into creating one that would lead me here because you needed a weapon." She said confidently.

Her voice cracked. "I watched people whisper every time I walked past." She pointed at her silver hair. "This is a curse from the moon goddess."

She looked directly at the king. "And where were you?" Her eyes burned. "Since you are family, where were you when the entire Wolf Realm looked at me like I shouldn’t have been born..."

She slammed a fist against her own chest. "WHERE WERE YOU?"

The room suddenly exploded.

A pulse burst out of her body so violently that every banner lining the throne room snapped backwards.

The crystal windows rattled, and the chandeliers swung wildly overhead.

Several faes stumbled.

The king didn’t. He simply watched her. Unconscious tears poured freely down Aire’s face now.

"I don’t want another family." The words came out as a scream. "I ALREADY HAVE ONE!"

The floor beneath her feet cracked. Silver light burst from the fractures, and the air itself began vibrating.

Every flower decorating the throne room bloomed at once before disintegrating into glowing petals.

A terrified servant cried out.

"My Lady—"

Another shockwave erupted. This one shattered every glass ornament within the hall.

The blue in Aire’s eyes disappeared, turning fully white. Unnatural wind began to grow around her, as it also lifted her hair, circling it around her face.

The older woman stumbled backwards. "It is answering her emotions." She noticed, informing the others.

Aire couldn’t hear them anymore.

She saw only three faces.

Nate.

Xander.

Alaric.

Waiting, searching, and believing she was coming home.

Her knees nearly gave way.

"I trusted him..." She whispered. "I trusted him. Something went wrong. Why wasn’t he there?"

The silver light around her thickened. It poured from beneath her feet like living mist. She lifted her arms, rolling them upward in a fluid, wave-like motion that made it seem as though the air itself was flowing through her limbs.

The throne room trembled harder.

Columns groaned, and hairline fractures spread across the crystal ceiling.

Outside, every tree surrounding the palace bent toward the throne room. The rivers suspended in the sky began flowing backwards.

Birds abandoned the forest. The kingdom itself reacted.

The older woman’s face was drained of colour. "Your Majesty..."

If Aire completely lost control, the palace would not survive. Neither would half the capital.

The king finally moved. He moved toward the oldest woman.

His voice remained heartbreakingly calm. "Do not harm her."

The woman nodded once. "I understand."

She lifted both hands, and ancient Light Fae runes appeared beneath her feet.

Other elders immediately joined her. Thirteen of them. Their voices blended together in a strange language.

The light surrounding Aire resisted instantly. It lashed outward. Several elders cried out as they were thrown backwards.

The king stepped between them and Aire.

"Asterion." The older woman inhaled sharply. "I can only do it if she allows herself to rest."

"Then ask." He permitted her.

The older woman turned to Aire. She shook her head in hesitation, then turned back to the king.

the king looked at Aire. "My child..."

Aire’s eyes flashed silver. "I AM NOT YOUR CHILD!"

The final scream shook the entire palace.

The ceiling split, and a beam of silver light shot through the opening and disappeared into the endless sky.

For one horrifying heartbeat, reality itself looked ready to tear open again.

The king whispered one final spell. He whispered a soft gentle lullaby. It drifted through the throne room like a mother singing to a frightened child.

Aire blinked.

The rage inside her stumbled.

The warmth fighting inside her body suddenly became heavy.

Her eyelids. Why... Why were they so heavy?

She tried to take another step.

Instead, her knees buckled. The silver light faded, and the cracks stopped spreading.

She caught one final glimpse of the king rushing toward her. Then darkness swallowed her whole.