The Fae Princes (Vicious Lost Boys #4)

THE MOTHER

The Mother is barefoot, the child squalling in her arms.

He is a troublesome boy, restless and hard to please.

Mischievous too. This she knows without having known him long. He is only two weeks old, but that is long enough.

She knew he would be trouble the moment she gave birth to him.

Out of all her children, his birth was the hardest, the labor intense, painful and drawn out.

Now, the cool sand of the beach squeaks beneath her feet as she makes her way to the water’s edge. The night is sharp but warm, the stars bright, and she turns her face toward the universe and smiles at all of them.

Then the baby wails.

He has no voice yet, only complaints, and he likes to make them known.

Pay attention to me, his cries say. For I am most important.

Mischievous and arrogant.

If she keeps him and gives him a place among her other children, he will destroy them all.

She knows this as readily as she knows his nature, and there is nothing more to be done for either.

It’s him or them.

It is the only way.

And yet it makes her chest ache.

To abandon one child to save the others. Maybe one day he will learn to not be so volatile, but she can’t allow him to learn it with her.

Using a giant curled leaf she plucked from the forest foliage, she places it on the water’s surface, creating a makeshift raft. She’s heard the waters of the lagoon can be healing, and maybe they can heal his troublesome streak.

It’s the least she can do. The only chance she can give him.

She lays the babe down. The leaf sinks, water jetting in around him, and he wails louder, shivering.

“I’m sorry,” she tells him, and then gives him a push, and the water carries him away.