by Olivia Hart
She looked up at me, her eyes seeing under the hood, and asked, “Because I distracted him?”
I shook my head. “Because you’re a Queen. Because you should be sitting on the Dark Throne. A Queen can lend her subjects part of her power. That’s the true power of a Queen. They can wield massive strength, but they’re still vulnerable to physical attacks.”
I held up a dagger. “I could kill you just as easily as anyone else with this if I could get close enough. Your powers let the rest of us do things that we couldn’t do otherwise.”
“Rose, I created a warren. I shouldn’t have been able to do that. No one can do that. But together, we did.”
Rose sniffed and said, “I have to do this, don’t I? I have to go to the Dark Court.”
I released her and stepped back. “You don’t have to do anything. I wish that you would. You could stop Seraphina’s abuse of the Dark Court.” I stood up a little straighter and said, “But you don’t have to. No one can force it on you. There have been Queens who have turned down seats of power before.”
Rose nodded. “I… Can I take some time to think about it?”
“Yes. Take all the time you need. But before we do anything else, you need to learn about your powers. I can’t always be there to protect you, and if you do end up going to the Dark Court, there will be dangers everywhere.”
She nodded, and I took her hand. “But first, I need some rest. A lot of rest.”
She smiled at me, and I felt myself relax at least a little bit. She was a Queen. The Queen. The one who could set everything right again.
“Let’s find this village of yours. I can’t wait to meet everyone. Enivyn has told me so much about everyone.”
“Yes. You can meet everyone, and I’ll get some sleep.”
Chapter 20
Seraphina
“What do you mean he’s dead?” I screamed at the assassin. Nyx dead? At the hands of Sebastian? How was that even possible? Nyx was the best assassin in the Immortal Realm.
“Nyx carried a device on his person at all times that would activate in the event that his heart stopped beating. It sends a message to a connected device displaying the area around him as though we were seeing and hearing through him.”
“I watched the Prince picking up Nyx’s daggers and then hugging Nyx’s prey. Sebastian believes that he has found a Queen to fill the Dark Throne. Is this true?”
I began to pace. That little shit. How had Sebastian managed to kill Nyx? Who else could I send to deal with him now? Sebastian and Rose had to die. They had to.
It had taken almost fourteen years to set this in motion. I couldn’t let it all fall apart when I was this close to finally setting everything right.
The thought of Rose sitting on the Dark Throne was laughable at best. She was ignorant of everything magical. At least until three days ago. There’s no chance that she could survive the Courts of the Immortal Realm. If she truly had the power to ascend to the throne, then she would need to contend with more than just me.
And until she was far more skilled in the use of her powers, there was no danger to me. I could deal with her if she ever came here, but Sebastian was another issue. He and those cursed daggers were a danger to everyone.
“Why would I know? I heard about an untrained Fae pulling magic into the Mortal Realm. That’s why I sent Nyx and Sebastian after her. She pulled a significant amount which made her a threat to our secrets.”
The assassin nodded, and I knew that he didn’t quite believe me. I was a Queen of the Court of the Light, though, and there were laws against direct lies that not even I could break.
“Then the Assassin’s Guild would like to formally request your permission to deliver retribution to the Prince and the fairy he protects.”
My eyes became little more than slits as I stared at the man in the hood. “You’re telling me that the entire Assassin’s Guild would like to attack Sebastian and the fairy?”
“Yes, Lady. Nyx was the best of us, the most honorable of assassins, and his death is a tragedy. The Prince will pay for Nyx’s death and his refusal to obey your commands with his life.”
I tapped my nails on the table that separated us, letting the thought run through my mind.
“You have my approval and my protection if there are repercussions from the Dark Court when you return with Sebastian and the fairy’s heads.”
The assassin nodded and turned quickly to leave my conference chamber. This should work out well. Even at his strongest, Sebastian wouldn’t be able to fight off sixty assassins working together. And even though Rose was a Queen by birthright, she had none of the training needed to aid Sebastian.
I sat back down in the chair and let my frustrations fade. This was better. Nyx was a loss, but he was an acceptable loss. This way, the Assassin’s Guild would be in my debt rather than I be in Nyx’s.
I smiled softly. Yes, this was a surprising turn of fate indeed.
Chapter 21
Rose
It was early evening by the time that we could see the village. The days were short in the Dark Kingdom, only a third of each day. The opposite was true in the Light Kingdom according to Enivyn. He had chatted with me about the Immortal Realm during our hike through the woods while Sebastian stayed quiet.
Small little huts just like the one that we’d stayed in by the portal exit were clustered around a central fire ring. Enivyn walked as fast as his little gnome legs could carry him. He was so full of excitement at being the one to bring Sebastian to the village.
He needn’t have worried about walking fast enough, though. Sebastian limped along beside me. He looked like he was about to stumble any second. His eyes were completely gray and filled with mists. They were unnerving, like looking at a blind man’s eyes with all the color drained from them.
He just kept taking one more step, and my body stayed tense as I waited to catch him when he eventually fell. I was so intent on Sebastian that I didn’t even notice the centaurs running out to greet us. In fact, the entire village seemed to pour out of their huts, but the centaurs were the first to get to us.
A very large female with silver hair and a matching silver coat and tail raised a bow towards me, and I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t know what to say to keep her from shooting me after everything that had happened.
“Kasia,” Enivyn said quickly, “this is Rose. She’s a good fairy. I trust her.” The centaur looked at me and then at Sebastian. Then, she finally looked back at Enivyn.
She snorted softly but then said, “A friend of Sebastian and Enivyn is welcome here.” She slowly released the bowstring, putting the arrow in a quiver at her side. She slung the bow she carried over her shoulder.
“That was good.” Enivyn’s voice seemed more nervous than I’d expected. “Kasia likes to shoot first. Then she asks questions. Especially now. Babies do that to mothers.” He patted my leg and smiled up at me. “The rest are easier. Don’t worry.”
Kasia walked back into the village, and her foals followed her, but they kept looking back at us. I didn’t feel nearly as confident as I had before arriving. My nerves were so frazzled at this point that it didn’t take much to make me lose what little confidence I’d found.
Surprisingly, the first non-centaur to get to us was another half-gnome. He looked nothing like the other two. Clean-shaven, he wore a relatively nice coat and normal shoes. He was still just as small as the other two, but other than that, he looked just like any other man. Under heavy eyebrows, two dark brown eyes that seemed to smile like the other gnomes watched me with a twinkle.
“Rose, this is John. He’s my other brother.” I raised my eyebrow in surprise. “John? That’s… that’s a human name.”
“I know that all of you full Fae think of the half-bloods only by their Fae side, but some of us have embraced the human side. After my mother raised my two brothers, giving both of them proper Gnomish names, she demanded that I be given a human name. And a human upbringing.”
He smiled the
n. “My brothers are like most of the half-bloods who have embraced their Fae side. I have decided to do the harder thing and embrace the human inside me.”
He bowed to me and said, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Rose. A friend of Sebastian and Enivyn’s is a friend of mine.”
“And any brother of Enivyn’s is a friend of mine,” I replied with a smile. He was so well-spoken compared to his brothers. It made me question many of the assumptions I’d already made.
Until now, I’d met Fae who embraced their natural gifts and done the things that their race was best suited for. It made me think that maybe there was more to the Fae than I’d given them credit for.
John turned and headed back to the village. The rest of the members of the village saw us, and as soon as they noticed Sebastian, they retreated, making space for Sebastian to walk through the center of the huts.
Enivyn led us to a small hut in the corner. The door had no lock, but when Enivyn opened it, I could smell Sebastian’s faint scent everywhere. This was his home within the village, and no one bothered it. Even though he’d been gone for a long time, nothing and no one had disturbed it, and so his scent still lingered.
Sebastian immediately moved to the small bed that had been made for him. For a village so far removed from both worlds, the hut seemed luxurious. The bed was made of solid wood with a feather mattress. A fireplace sat in the corner with chopped wood sitting next to it. There were even paintings hanging from the walls.
He was loved here. This man who snarled at everyone and anything. This murderer. A man who embodied the darkness was their hero. Their savior.
Enivyn left without a word, closing the door behind him. Sebastian tried to get his cloak off but couldn’t manage it. I moved to help him get it off, and when it was over his head and lying in a heap on a chair, he sighed, taking slow breaths.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“What can I do to help you?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, Rose. I just need to rest. And eat something. Please bring me a plate of food when you find some.”
He pulled his silk shirt off. The entire front of it was burned. His chest and stomach were still pink where the new skin had grown over the burned flesh. I’d watched it happen. It had been terrifying to see it, to know how badly it had hurt him.
He reached to untie his boots, but he seemed to struggle. I squatted down in front of him and undid the laces. “Sit on the bed. I’ll get your boots off.” He nodded and hobbled to the bed to sit down.
I pulled his boots off along with his socks. He seemed to hesitate and then said, “Thank you, Rose. Please let me rest until you find food.”
“I will. And I’ll tell Enivyn to spread the word not to bother you. I’m sure he already has.”
Sebastian nodded and crawled under the blankets with some difficulty. I turned and with just one glance backward at him, I left the hut.
Enivyn stood outside the door and gave me an odd look, his thick eyebrows bunching together. Then it was gone, and he was back to being his generally excited self. “Come on fairy. You can help with dinner. Not the cooking part. That’s Andryn’s job.”
“Okay, Enivyn. Show me what to do, but can you do me a favor first? Sebastian wants to be left alone. Can you let everyone know?”
“Everyone knows to leave him alone. He’s low on power. He comes here a lot like that. Cara helps him with that sometimes. She’s a good seamstress and Sebastian’s friend.” He started walking towards the center of the village.
“Come on, fairy.” He still refused to call me Rose, but I guess I could get over that. At least he wasn’t scowling at me anymore.
I followed his happy little steps as he brought me to the cookfire where a gorgeous man stood butchering a deer. “Yum. Look at all those potatoes from Helena’s garden,” he said pointing at a basket taller than him that was overflowing with different colored potatoes.
It was going to take some getting used to looking at all of these oddly-colored plants. I truly hoped that the potatoes tasted like the potatoes from home.
“Here’s where you help, fairy. That basket of potatoes needs peeling. Andryn is going to cook them. You get to peel. It’s a good thing to do for everyone. Fairies peeling potatoes is odd. An odd fairy could be good. If you sat and pointed at people. Do this. Do that. Then you’d be a normal fairy. Normal fairies are bad. Don’t be normal.”
He handed me a small knife, and I stared at the mountain of potatoes that I got to peel so that I could be odd enough for him. I blinked a few times as Enivyn walked away.
The handsome man butchering the deer said, “It’s okay to use a little magic to help with that if you want. I promise I won’t tell.” He winked at me, and it was hard not to stare.
Where Sebastian was rough and dark and brooding, this man seemed to be his exact opposite. He was beautiful. Golden blond hair that seemed purposefully messy. A face that looked like he’d never seen hardship. And eyes that pulled you in.
His body was nothing like Sebastian’s. Where Sebastian was big and strong, this man was lean with tight muscles. His movements were graceful. Even something as simple as trimming the fat off a piece of meat seemed to be beautiful.
He wore a dark green tunic without any sleeves that had golden embroidery over the edges. His pants were made of leather that had been dyed an even deeper brown than natural.
“I don’t know how to use magic yet,” I confessed. I guessed that honesty was the best decision in a place that was already skeptical of my intentions.
“Your wings still glisten,” he said as though that meant something to me. “How long have you been in the Immortal Realm?” I thought back on everything that had happened. All the odd day and night changes.
“Two days? Maybe? I’m not exactly sure. It’s hard to keep track.”
He smiled at me and said, “Well, if you can’t use magic, then you’d best get to work. That’s a lot of potatoes.” He looked at a smaller bucket and said, “That’s where the peels go. The potatoes can go in the soup pot. Quarter them before you drop them in.”
“I think I can do that.”
“I’d hope so. If you can’t peel potatoes, then what can you do?” He meant that as a joke, but it got me thinking. What could I do to help these people? What good was I to them? I knew nothing of farming or sewing or building or even of magic. This was probably one of the only things that I could actually do to help these people.
I set my jaw. I was going to live in this world. I wouldn’t let my human upbringing keep me from being successful in this world of magic and assassins. I looked at the bag of potatoes again. And lots and lots of potatoes to peel.
Today, I would peel potatoes, but tomorrow, I would learn how to do something more. Something more valuable.
Chapter 22
Sebastian
I tossed and turned on the bed as the sweats set in. I was dying. Starving to death. It began as a fever like this. My energy was dangerously low. I doubted that I could stand at this point.
Food would help. It would be slow to help, but it was better than nothing. I didn’t dream of food, though. I dreamt of Rose. Fever dreams of the mists surrounding us.
My dreamscape. Her naked under me. Screaming in pleasure. A violent and passion-filled dreamscape. For once, I was lost in the sensations just as much as my prey was.
A fantasy that had never happened.
The dreamscape was not a place for my pleasure. Only for food. Only for survival and strength. A place where I never failed in my hunt.
It was a wonderful fantasy. To enjoy the process of feeding beyond the power, beyond sating the constant hunger. To be able to find someone who could drive me to madness just as I drove them towards it.
My eyes snapped open as the door to my hut opened with a rattling sound. I sat up, groaning in pain as I did so. A beautiful mature woman with a stately presence wearing a robe of silk. Probably the only silk in the entire village. Long red hair the color of autumn leav
es that flowed down to the center of her back. A lithe face and thin body.
An elf. Cara.
“Did Enivyn not inform you that I didn’t wish to be disturbed?” I said and almost winced at the gravel in my voice. My throat was swollen already. I needed the food to be done.
“I did not need to hear from Enivyn to know that you were starving, Sebastian. Everyone knows how weak you are, and they all question why your friend has not satisfied your needs. She is a full-blooded fairy, surely she can survive a trip to the dreamscape.”
I lay back down, letting my body relax as much as it could. “I haven’t asked her. I don’t plan on asking her. I’ll survive on food just fine.”
“Then why have you not asked for me, Sebastian? I have never refused you. I believe it to be an honor to help the one who has done so much for the people in this village.”
How could I possibly explain it to her? Rose was a Queen. She would be the Queen soon enough. I was her only bridge to her past, and she didn’t truly understand me. She didn’t understand that everywhere I went, people expected me to feed on them. They begged me to feed on them. What was a little power that would come back in a few days in exchange for a night they would never forget?
“I can’t, Cara. Not while Rose is here. Not while I’m caring for Rose.” I could feel her eyes on me. Eyes that held the last memories of a forgotten forest in them. Eyes that had seen her entire people eliminated for resisting an invasion by other elves so that some city could mine something unimportant there.
“You care for the girl?” she asked.
“Yes, Cara. I do. And not just because she is powerful.” There. I said it. The one thing that I hadn’t even admitted to myself.
The door swung open again, and I sat up, hand outstretched and ready to summon my dagger.
Rose stood just outside the door with a massive tray of food blinking in surprise. “I’m sorry, Sebastian. Enivyn said that he’d tell everyone to leave you alone. I should have stayed by the door to keep people out.”
