She was the wrong choice.
“You feel that way now, and I can understand why,” Janae said soothingly. “But, if you care about the magical world at all, you will make the correct choice and join with us.”
“Is that why you brought me here?” she asked accusingly. Hot tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She ignored them as she stared the elvish queen down. “You want to manipulate me into joining your cause? Well, I’ve got something to tell you. Shove off.”
Janae peered at her incredulously as Layla slammed the top of the chest shut. Dust shook from it in a cloud.
“If you really want to help me, you’ll let me leave.”
“You know we can’t do that,” Janae said. “King Renard—”
“You destroyed the tracker, right?” Layla didn’t give the queen a chance to respond. “He won’t be able to track me now. I can leave. Live my life somewhere beyond these borders where I won’t have to worry about some psycho human coming to wreck my life or manipulative elves trying to control it.”
Her words poured out of her like milk from a jug. She didn’t care if they were hurtful or inaccurate. Her entire life had been upended because of a rumor that the fae princess was alive. It wasn’t her fault that they thought that girl was her.
They were all mistaken.
“Layla, listen to me,” Janae began, but her words were cut short by a sharp rap on the wooden doors at the entrance to the room.
“Your Majesty, I wanted to notify you that the data from the girl’s PEA has been decoded. It’s ready to be reviewed.” He bowed before stepping out of the room.
Layla stared after him. This is what she’d been working towards since she’d met Max and he wasn’t here to be part of the revelation.
“Do you even care that Max is still out there?” she shot at the queen. Her body tingled as tendrils of her fiery magic wrapped around her core, ready to explode with the slightest provocation.
Janae shook her head, her ears twitching wildly. “Of course, I care! But, I cannot let my personal feelings override what is best for my people. And, right now, if I were to wander off to my chambers and cry, begging the light to keep my nephew safe, I would be putting my people’s future in jeopardy. To be queen is to constantly put yourself last.”
“Yeah, and you’re really selling the idea of taking on this mantel.”
They stood in silence for several seconds, staring at each other. Layla couldn’t help but feel a small kernel of glee at making the monarch second-guess her approach.
Eventually, Janae sighed. “Do you want to review the data from your PEA or not?” she asked.
“I do,” Layla responded. “How else am I supposed to prove that you’ve got the wrong girl?”
“And if we’re right? What then? Will you abandon your claim to the throne? Will you let the fae continue to be the victims of a deep-seated hatred, resulting in their demise? You do understand that King Renard’s hatred of magicals will not stop with the fae. Elves will come next. And what then? Entire species will fall prey to his quest for dominance.”
Layla flicked her thumbs against one another as she listened to the elvish queen speak. She didn’t have a response. Perhaps there was none that would alleviate the pressure rising in her chest. It was a strange sensation, staring prejudice in the eyes, knowing she might have a modicum of power to stop it, and not knowing whether she had the gall to take that power or not.
“Let’s just review the data,” she said. Her body shook as she spoke, but Janae didn’t seem to notice. “The sooner we get this over and done with, the sooner I can go home.”
Chapter Thirteen
For the second time in two days, Layla was hooked up to a machine. Cold wires crisscrossed her skin, sending icy shivers across her body. Two data engineers sat behind digital screens. Their faces glowed a strange shade of bright blue as the light from the screen illuminated them. She tried her best to ignore them as they punched buttons and explained what they were about to do.
The gist, from what she could gather, was that they were going to create a visual display of the encrypted data while at the same time re-implanting the memories back into her brain. She had absolutely no idea how that worked, and, if she was being honest, she didn’t care. All she knew was that whatever was included in these files had the power the change her life for good.
“The process could be quite painful,” one of the engineers was saying. “We’ve never encountered this much damage to a PEA’s files before. We’re not sure how our map of your mind will match up with the data from the files. There’s a chance it could leave you confused for several days as your body recovers.”
Layla shrugged. If this procedure hurt her, she was sure her healing ability would kick in. Plus, she still had the strange silver flower the queen had given her. If nothing else, she would eat it and it would do the healing for her.
“Alright,” the engineer said. “Please count backwards from ten. You’ll hear a strange whirring sound in the background. Ignore this. It’s just the machine doing its job.”
She breathed in deeply. She wondered, briefly, if it was too late to turn back. But, the idea of living through this embarrassment again was repulsive. She counted with the engineer, her mind becoming hazier with each number.
Her eyes fluttered open to a chandelier of toys hanging above her head. It rotated in a circle, playing a melody strangely familiar to her, though she didn’t consciously remember hearing it before.
Muffled voices filled her ears, blocking out the song. She cried out, annoyed at the disturbance to her sleep. A man and a woman stood next to her cradle. The tall muscular man had his hands resting on the woman’s shoulders. Oval holes with lacings running up the length of his shirt allowed his rainbow colored, translucent wings to lay neatly on his back. Dark hair with violet tinges curled around his ears. He leaned his forehead against the woman.
She was slender and her face reminded Layla a lot of her own: heart-shaped with hues of caramel and honey and eyes the color of sea glass. Her dress was cut low on the back, allowing her wings to flutter unbridled by cloth. Layla had never seen someone as beautiful as this woman. Her dark, curly hair cascaded around her shoulders and grazed the small of her back.
“I had to do it, Xavier. Please, you must understand why that PEA had to be bound with our daughter,” the woman said, breathing in deeply as she held the man close to her.
“Do you have any idea the amount of danger you’ve placed our family in, Leilani?” Xavier replied. He looked at her with so much tenderness, Layla could actually feel his love. “We have to protect her, at all costs, Leila.”
Layla’s heart skipped a beat. Was it a coincidence that her mother’s nickname and her own name were the same? A voice at the back of her mind whispered that it wasn’t.
“I know, dear heart, but what else could I do? The technology in that PEA has the capacity to keep her safe. To keep us all safe,” she whispered. A line of silver ran down her cheek as her bottom lip began to tremble. Golden wings fluttered behind her as she began to hover a few inches off the ground, pulling herself away from him.
“We’ve already bound her powers and wings until her naming ceremony. Isn’t that enough?” she asked angrily.