by Rhys Ford
He shifted around and pulled Hugh back down onto his chest. He went willingly, comforted by the contact, especially now that Rykoff’s barriers were back up and he couldn’t see his aura any longer. The buzzing in his head didn’t return.
“Do you want to be king?”
Rykoff’s chest shook with laughter. “I couldn’t be even if I wanted the throne. But no. I want to make furniture and be free to move as I please. Like my brother Yugen, I have no patience for politics.”
“Do you think he meant to stay in the human realm? When he ran away.”
“I don’t believe so. But if he met a woman and fell in love—who knows. But believe me when I say I know he would never have left Ruby had it been his choice. Never.”
Hugh would probably never know exactly what happened before Ruby ended up behind that dumpster at Ruby Tuesday. But he owed it to her to find out as much about her parents’ last minutes as he could.
“Have they found Ambrose yet?”
Rykoff nodded. “He has been exiled and sent to a prison in the winter court.”
“Did they question him about your brother’s death?”
“That is not our way. There are those among us with special abilities. Those who can read intentions and auras. He is guilty of what the sprites alleged.”
“And Ruby? No one is investigating what happened to her? Have we confirmed her mother is dead?”
“She is dead. As for why Ruby came to be abandoned behind a dumpster—we will never know for sure. But iron weakens the fae, and if my brother knew he had but seconds to hide her before Ambrose found them, he’d have used that to his advantage. It dulls our senses. Ambrose never knew she was there.”
“And your brother just trusted someone would find her?”
Rykoff stroked his hair. “Someone did. The right person did. My brother trusted his daughter’s life to fate, and fate gave her the most glorious gift.”
Hugh nuzzled against Rykoff’s chest. “A disgusting demon bottom-feeder?”
“Ah, you remember.”
“I could hardly forget the first words you spoke to me,” Hugh teased. He raised himself up so he could look at Rykoff. “I’ll show you just how right you were someday. But right now I want to go see Ruby.”
Rykoff grinned. “So you don’t deny being a bottom-feeder?”
“In the right circumstances, no.”
Joking around was nice. He was still worried sick about Ruby, but he knew she was safe. He’d never take that for granted again. The last twenty-four hours had been the scariest of his life.
“I have some clothes you can borrow,” Rykoff offered once they’d gotten out of bed. “My mother has never invited a vampire to court before, so there are bound to be a lot of prying eyes around.”
Hugh took a finely spun cotton shirt from him and turned it around in his hands as he tried to figure out how to put it on. Rykoff snorted and took it back, nudging Hugh in his newly healed ribs until he raised his arms so Rykoff could dress him.
“No buttons? Are you sure you’re fae and not Amish?”
“I’m not sure what an Amish is,” Rykoff said as he laced the ties along the neck and sides of the shirt, “but no, court finery has no buttons. I don’t know why. We wear buttons in our noncourtly clothes. I carve them by hand out of felled branches.”
Of course he did. God. Why was that sexy? There was that competency kink again.
“I want you to tell me more about that later,” Hugh said as he stepped into the pants Rykoff handed him.
The ties at the waist were easy to figure out, even if he was weirded out by the lack of underwear. It felt wrong to be going commando to meet the queen.
“Did Ruby have to change to go to court?”
“You sound like a petulant child,” Rykoff said as he dressed himself. “She was in courtly attire last I saw her.”
“You’ve seen her?”
“Yes. The healers sat with you while I had an audience with my mother. Ruby was there. She is every bit as worried about you as you are about her.”
He looked down at his bare feet. “What about shoes?”
“We rarely wear them here,” Rykoff said with a shrug. “It helps us connect to the earth.”
Hugh bit back a retort and followed Rykoff to the door instead. He hadn’t focused much on his surroundings, and it surprised him to realize they were in a cozy workshop with half-finished woodworking projects scattered around.
“This is my studio,” Rykoff explained as he led Hugh out the door. “I often sleep here when I’m working late on commissions.”
“So this isn’t where you live?”
Rykoff shook his head. “You were in bad shape, and this cottage is closest to the clearing the totem brought us to. It made sense to keep you here.”
“And it also made the rest of the court feel safer, since the vampire wasn’t in their midst, I imagine.”
“That was also a factor. But now that the queen has heard the entire story, you are welcome at court as an honored guest.”
The palace was a short walk from the cottage, and while he was intensely curious about the fae realm, all Hugh could focus on was getting to Ruby. She had to be scared out of her mind. One minute she’d been at camp, and the next minute a stranger had appeared and forced her through a magical portal.
At least she and Rykoff had met over Skype once before he’d kidnapped her. Did they make a guide to helping your child overcome the trauma of being forcibly taken through a portal and discovering they were a member of a mythical race? He’d have to check the library when they got home.
If they got home.
God, he needed to contact the camp. They had to be losing their minds. Surely they’d have filed a missing person’s report and put out Amber alerts. This was a mess. That would have to wait until after he spent some time with her. He wasn’t leaving the fae realm until he’d held her in his arms and confirmed she was okay.
He heard her before he saw her. She was squealing with laughter, and it made him quicken his steps to get to her. He rounded the corner, and his heart stopped. His daughter was floating twenty feet above the ground.
Rykoff grabbed him before he could run to her.
“Watch,” he said, nodding toward the woman who was standing underneath her, her hands up in the air.
“My cousin Leelia. She’s an air affinity. This is something we do with our children to keep them entertained. See? Ruby is safe.”
Ruby didn’t look distressed in any way. In fact, he’d never seen her so happy. He’d made the right choice sending Rykoff to her. She needed to be here. This was part of her life, and it wasn’t something he could give her.
“Dad!”
Ruby spotted him and started cartwheeling her arms and legs toward him. The fae on the ground lowered her arms slowly, bringing Ruby down. She took a leap at about six feet off the ground, running as soon as her feet hit the grass.
“Dad!”
He caught her as she leaped at him, burying his face in her hair. She still carried no scent, but thanks to Rykoff he could imagine what she would smell like. Sunshine and warm grass, he would bet.
“You scared the life outta me, kid,” he said, hugging her tightly. “I thought you’d learned to fly.”
She laughed as he put her down. “Leelia said I might have powers like her! Or maybe I’ll be able to make fire!”
How long had he been out? Long enough for Rykoff’s cousin to tell her all about affinities, apparently. Great. So much for easing her into things.
“That’s awesome, kiddo. You’ve met a lot of new people today. How are you doing with that?”
“They’re related to us! Did you know that?” She squinted at him. “Wait. Are you fae? And you never told me?”
Christ on a cracker.
“Your dad has his own special powers, but he’s not fae like us,” Rykoff cut in smoothly. “Why don’t we go back to your grandmother? I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”
Ruby grabbed Hu
gh’s hand, something she hadn’t done in public in years. “Come meet Naenae, Dad. She’s so cool.”
Oh God. Had his daughter nicknamed the queen of the fae after a TikTok dance?
“My mother’s name is Queen Naenaid. Or apparently Naenae.”
Well, at least it was close to her name. And the fae probably didn’t follow pop culture anyway.
He looked at Rykoff, who smirked at him as he swung his hips ever so slightly and raised an arm. Shit.
Hugh turned away before he started laughing. Time to change the subject. “It’s pretty neat that you found your grandmother, isn’t it, Rube?”
She beamed up at him, and he was struck by how different she looked. It was like she’d grown an inch or two since he’d dropped her off at camp a few days ago, and her hair looked longer. Flowers were woven through it, and she was wearing a loose-fitting linen shift dress, the kind she hated at home. She always complained that her clothes hurt her. Now he wondered if it was the synthetics in the fabric.
How many ways had he been hurting his daughter daily by keeping her in the human realm? Not that he’d known she wasn’t human. But now that he did, how could he justify taking her away from her family and a place that was designed to keep her healthy and safe?
“It’s so cool here,” Ruby said as Rykoff led them into the palace. The guards stationed at the door let them pass with a nod. “Wait till you see Naenae’s living room. It has a tree in the middle of it that she can sit in.”
She ran ahead, and Rykoff pressed in close.
“The throne room,” Rykoff whispered in his ear. “Especially with Ruby being a half-blood, my mother thought it prudent to do the acknowledgment ceremony as quickly as possible.”
So she’d already been acknowledged as the heir to the kingdom. A lump formed in Hugh’s throat. Any hope he’d been holding on to about taking her home died.
“She’ll have a formal presentation ceremony later,” Rykoff said, misreading the hitch in Hugh’s breath. “You’ll be able to come to that. I’m sorry that all this has happened so quickly. We did what we needed to do to keep her safe.”
“I’m grateful. I’m just upset I won’t get to be a part of her life anymore.”
“Don’t be absurd,” a woman said from behind him. “You are her father. You are the most important person in her life.”
Hugh turned, caught off guard by the sudden interruption. It was so difficult to be in a place where literally everyone could sneak up on him because he couldn’t scent them.
“Hugh Whitby, may I present her beneficence, Queen Naenaid of the summer court?”
The queen waved her son away impatiently.
“We don’t stand on ceremony with family,” she said, taking both of Hugh’s hands in hers. “Welcome to the summer court. I wish your visit could have been under better circumstances, but I am glad you are here.”
Hugh wasn’t sure if he should bow or not, but she still held his hands in hers, so he guessed not.
“I’m honored to meet you. Thank you for the kindness you’ve shown me and my daughter.”
“Ruby is a delight,” she said. He was struck by how much of his daughter he could see in her smile. “I look forward to getting to know you both.”
She gave his hands a squeeze and let go.
“The youngling ran through toward the gardens,” she told Rykoff. “Will you fetch her? We have much to discuss.”
Rykoff shot Hugh an apologetic look and took off down the same hallway Ruby had skipped through a few minutes earlier. Hugh braced himself. The queen obviously wanted an audience alone with him, and he couldn’t imagine that was a good thing.
“Come. We’ll go in. It will take him a moment to lure her out. She’s quite taken with the lilac labyrinth, which is probably where she will end up. The other younglings will likely pull her in for a game of hide and seek.”
She led him into a large room that did indeed have an enormous throne in the middle, crafted out of what looked like a living tree. It was unlike anything Hugh had ever seen, both because of its intricate throne-like shape and because of its smooth multicolor bark.
“Rykoff grew it for me,” she said, following his gaze. “It’s a rainbow eucalyptus. You must visit when it’s in bloom. It’s truly a sight then.”
“He mentioned that he made furniture, but this wasn’t what I was expecting.”
She laughed. “He does. This was a special case. I did not handle it well when Yugen left. Rykoff was my rock through a terrible time. He grew this tree from a sapling because this species is my favorite. It took him months to coax its growth and shape it. It makes me happy every time I look at it, as was his intention.”
Instead of sitting on her throne she settled on a cushion that rested on the stone floor next to a small pond. Koi swarmed up to the surface, and she skimmed her hand over the water, gently running her fingers over their heads. They scattered after the greeting, and Hugh realized there was a stream that cut through the wall and fed the pond.
“Please, make yourself at home,” she said, indicating a cushion identical to hers nearby. He folded himself onto it as gracefully as he could. “I’m sure this has all been a shock to you. It certainly has been for me.”
Hugh remembered how relieved he’d been when Rykoff had told him Ruby was fine. The queen had gotten the opposite news about her own child today.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
She smiled without a trace of sadness. “I lost Yugen a long time ago. I am happy to know that he is at peace. He will live on through Ruby.”
“It’s all so hard to process.”
“I imagine so. Rykoff said you thought Ruby was human. So you’ve been given a great deal to make sense of in a short period of time.” She bowed her head. “I am indebted to you for taking her in and keeping her safe and well loved.”
“I did what anyone would have.”
She raised her head, her eyes flashing the same amber that Rykoff’s did when he was angry. “Do not diminish the sacrifices you have made for your daughter. Ruby couldn’t have a better adoptive father. And I have no intention of taking her away from you, though I hope that you will let her spend time in the fae realm.”
Hugh was taken aback by her honesty. “You’ll seriously let her live with me?”
The queen frowned at him. “She is your youngling. I have no wish to take her from the only parent she has ever known.”
God, he couldn’t even describe the relief her words brought. He could breathe properly for the first time since realizing she was in danger.
“I assumed she would need to stay here. The sprite said she is heir to the throne. Rykoff said her powers will develop soon.”
“That is all true,” the queen said. “And it is also true that she has known nothing of the fae realm until now. She is a halfling, and as such she belongs in both worlds. At least until she chooses otherwise.”
“You’d let her choose to stay in the mortal realm?”
Pain flashed through the queen’s eyes. “If, like Yugen, that was what she wanted, then yes.”
“Thank you,” Hugh blurted. “Thank you for putting her best interests first.”
She smiled. “I could say the same. Now, we have so much to catch up on. Rykoff tells me she was at something called a summer camp? What does that entail? I was unaware the humans allied themselves with the summer and winter courts.”
Chapter Eleven
Six weeks later
“YOU’RE SURE you can’t come back next summer?”
Hugh grinned at Jared as he stashed his duffel bag in the trunk and slammed it shut.
“I’m sure you’ll see me around, but I can’t continue our arrangement. I’ll make sure someone does, though, I promise.”
A lot had happened since he’d left the fae realm a month and a half ago. Summer was almost over. Ruby would start school soon, and he still had to finish packing for their move.
Jared shook his hand. “I don’t know what happened, and I’
m sure it’s above my pay grade anyway, but I’m glad whatever had you tearing out of here was resolved.”
Hugh owed him a huge favor. Jared had retrieved his things from the motel and kept them for him until Hugh could make it back to Detroit.
He’d finished the list for Jared, not because he needed to feed but because he was a man of his word and he’d promised to help Jared out. It hadn’t given him any pleasure to feed on criminals, not like it had before.
He and Rykoff had discovered that Hugh could take his fill of Rykoff’s energy with no ill effects to the fae. In fact, Rykoff was often even more energized by the exchange than Hugh was. It didn’t hurt that feeding sessions usually turned into nights of wild sex. As long as they were together, Hugh would never need to feed on another human again, and it was a huge weight off his shoulders.
Hugh was happier than he could ever remember being. He’d been sad to quit his job, but the Greater North American Supernatural Council had come to him with an offer he couldn’t refuse. What he was doing would help so many people. The council had created a position for him—law enforcement liaison. He was helping vampires across the country match up with in-the-know police officers like Jared so they could help take dangerous criminals off the streets. The initiative would save a lot of human lives and also help the vampire community stay fed.
He waved goodbye to Jared and slid into the driver’s seat, nearly crushing a bag of Combos that hadn’t been there before. Rykoff was sitting in the passenger seat, grinning from ear to ear.
“I brought your road trip snacks.”
“Abusing the totem your mother gave you again, I see,” Hugh teased.
The queen had granted both Rykoff and Ruby permission to move between the two realms as they wished. Ruby was too young to create a portal, so she’d been given a totem that would open a portal to the queen’s throne room. When opened from the fae realm, it would bring her straight to Hugh, using the necklace Hugh wore as a beacon.
