Osmos dropped the bead of blood, which hovered six inches above the liquid.
The light flared and flashed, and the seeing-glass clouded with smoke. I turned my attention to its surface, where a dark figure stood among the mist, wearing the shadows as a high-necked cape.
Drayce.
As I leaned toward the glass, the clouds darkened until the surface of the glass became obsidian-black and reflected my face. My brows drew together, and I tilted my head to the side. I hadn’t imagined seeing my mate.
Nessa whispered an enchantment, and the bead of blood separated to form a red vapor that swirled around the confines of the bowl. From the way it changed direction each time Nessa addressed it, I supposed the blood was communicating directly with the gruagach.
I turned my gaze back to the glass, and green eyes stared out through my reflection. My breath caught. That was him. I held the stare, waiting for the person on the other side to morph into Drayce and tell me how to save him.
“Neara?” Drayce’s voice curled around my eardrums. “Can you hear me?”
I flinched, and a wave of moist heat engulfed my body. When I opened my eyes, I stood at the foot of a bed with four posters made of tall trees whose leafy branches formed a canopy over a mattress of moss. Moonlight shone through an open window, highlighting the contours of the bed’s surface, which took the shape of a well-muscled man.
“Drayce?” I whispered.
He sat up and stared at me through bleary eyes. “Neara?”
“What are you doing?” I rushed around to his side and pushed open a curtain of long strands of lichen.
“Sleeping.” He stretched out his hands, pulled me onto the bed, and cradled me in his arms. “Join me. I know you didn’t rest last night.”
“Drayce.” I ran my palm over the moss covering his bare chest, making it crumble under the warmth of my skin. “That oak sprite cursed you to sleep, and we can’t wake you.”
“Sprite?” he asked with a yawn.
As I wiped the moss from his chest, his arms, his legs, I repeated what the sprite had told us under torture. Drayce allowed me to turn him onto his front, and I removed the rest of the moss. The skin underneath was warm and smooth and as pale as his scaled appearance.
“Come with me.” I rolled him onto his front and wiped the moss from his face.
Drayce’s wide smile of brilliant white teeth made my heart ache. “Where?”
“Back to the palace.” I pointed through the curtain at the door. “We’ll go together.”
His eyes fluttered shut. “In a moment.”
The sting of a tiny hand hitting my cheek made me jerk back, and I stood in the cupboard with Osmos’ arm around my back. My stomach turned to stone and plummeted to the hard floor.
“Send me back,” I said.
Nessa stared up at me through her milky eye. “What did the seeing-glass show you?”
“King Drayce,” I replied, my voice thick with loss. “He’s in a bed of moss.”
Osmos frowned. “Can you tell us anything else about his location?”
“It was warm.” I gulped. “With a full moon outside.”
Nessa tilted her head up. “If the moon was white, that means he’s still in the realm of the living.”
I shook my head. “He was covered in moss, just like the sprites in the cursed oak tree.”
“It sounds like a soul-removal enchantment to me.” Nessa swept her arm to the bowl of liquid. “King Drayce’s blood also confirmed that he was still somewhere within our realm, wanted to be found, but only by his mate.”
My teeth worried at my bottom lip. How long could his body survive without a soul? “Can you send me back?”
She raised her shoulders, and the wall lantern above us dimmed. “Your desire to see King Drayce brought you to him. Why don’t you keep the glass and try to convince him to leave the room?”
I took the glass and held it to my chest. “Thank you.”
Nessa hopped onto Osmos’ palm, and we stepped back into the kitchen, where she rejoined the other gruagach at the dessert table. We bade her goodbye and stepped through an archway I made that led to the throne room.
Aengus sat at the steps, drinking from a large flagon of what smelled like mead, while Rosalind glowered down at him from where she stood beside the oak sprite’s cage. They both stood to attention when my footsteps clinked on the marble.
“Your Majesty?” asked Rosalind.
“We still don’t know his location, but I have an artifact that will allow us to communicate.”
Three heavy bangs on the throne room’s wooden door stopped me from elaborating.
“Yes?” I said.
The door opened, and the gancanagh poked his featureless face through the gap. “There’s someone powerful here to see you, Your Majesty.”
“Who?”
I handed the seeing-glass to Osmos, who received it with an incline of his head.
“He calls himself Crom Cruach, a master of curse-breaking, destroyer of maledictions.”
My lips formed a tight line. When I was cursed to see the fae, I was also cursed to see the damage they wrought on humans. Mothers carrying bundles of sticks that took the appearance of an ailing child, men being drained of vitality by fae females who presented themselves as lovers, leprechauns that stole people’s hard-earned money, and a host of creatures who made humans act strangely.
I helped as much as I could but another menace plagued these beleaguered humans. Charlatans who pretended to know the source of their torment, sold or bartered miracle blessings or curses, while the faerie causing the victim’s misery reveled in the fraud.
News must have spread about Drayce’s curse, and this Crom Cruach fellow must have decided to take advantage of the new queen. I shook off those thoughts.
“Has anyone heard of this person?” I turned to the others in the throne room.
Osmos rubbed the back of his neck. “I have a vague recollection of him visiting Melusina.”
Aengus stepped forward. “We should interrogate him for her location.”
“Very well.” I turned to the gancanagh. “Let him in.”
The clink and clank of metal and the slide of stone against the marble echoed from beyond the door. A boulder of dread rumbled through my belly at the sound, and I allowed Rosalind to guide me to the throne.
Aengus took Drayce’s position at my right and Rosalind stood to attention on my left, each holding swords at the ready. Osmos remained at the bottom of the stairs beside the podium that contained the oak sprite.
The gancanagh nodded and pushed the door wide open, revealing a wall of guards in silver armor, who marched to the foot of the stairs and formed a line. I suppose they were making their presence better known instead of hiding at the edge of the room. It gave me little reassurance considering the dreadful sound that approached.
Whatever manner of creature Crom Cruach was, he took his time in approaching the throne’s double doors. My gloved hand twitched toward the dagger on my sword belt. Perhaps this was a mistake. Perhaps I should have ordered this curse-breaker to give his information directly to the gancanagh. I squeezed my eyes shut. His name was Gerald. Despite our antagonistic beginnings, he was now a member of my court.
A pair of two-foot-long statues slid into sight, solving the mystery of the scraping sounds. They were both stout with rounded edges, the one on the left carved with oval eyes, a straight nose and a beard and the one on the left had swirls that represented the branches of a tree.
As the statues approached, another pair emerged from behind the door, followed by another and another until ten of the things moved of their own volition through the line of guards and toward the stairs.
My breaths shallowed, and I sat straighter in my seat, wondering if one of these was Crom Cruach when golden light filled the doorway.
I rose to my feet and placed a gloved hand on the hilt of my sword. Rosalind and Aengus moved from my sides and positioned themselves in front of the throne.
Heavy, clanking footsteps entered the throne room. I squinted, noting that the guards didn’t react to the approaching figure, but they also didn’t prevent the sprite from cursing Drayce.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The light dimmed, revealing a golden statue of a man with hair as curly as Aengus, handsome features, and a pair of goat horns that curled back from its head. A gold cloak lay over his shoulders, fastened by a clasp shaped like a sword bisecting a shield. Like Aengus, he wore a short tunic that exposed muscular thighs and bare, metal legs.
I tightened my lips. Was the real Crom Cruach hiding within the golden statue or somewhere in the room? “Show yourself.”
With a fluid movement, the statue rose, and the golden cloak settled around its body as though it was made of cloth. The statue bowed with a flourish. “I am Crom Cruach.”
“What’s underneath the gold?” I snarled.
He chuckled. “Queen Melusina asked me the very same thing, and it led to three nights of unbridled pleasure.”
I swallowed back a mouthful of nausea, hoping Father hadn’t been around to witness that. He was probably a corrupted old man like the Keeper of All Things, who would likely make an abnormal advance as soon as he disrobed. I really didn’t need to know what he hid under that gold.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“To offer you my services.” He straightened. “Your mother found me a very useful ally.”
Aengus descended the steps and tapped the hilt of his sword on Crom Cruach’s golden armor. “Where’s Melusina?”
“I don’t know,” Crom Cruach replied too quickly.
“Did she send you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Such a feat would be impossible, considering I don’t know her location.”
“Why are you here?” I snapped.
Crom Cruach stepped forward. “If you would allow me to approach—”
“No.” Rosalind unsheathed her sword. “Tell Her Majesty whatever you need to say, and leave.”
For the next several moments, Crom Cruach didn’t speak. He also didn’t move, making me think he had turned back into a statue of gold. The stone figures in front of him also remained still, and a cool draft swirled around the room. I turned my gaze to the tall windows. Outside, clouds covered the sun, casting the throne room in dim light.
I studied Crom Cruach’s face. It was a perfect replica of a living creature, even down to the lump on the front of his throat. But I had no time to admire animated statues when there was a means of reaching Drayce.
“Guards, move those things out into the hallway,” I said.
“Please reconsider.” Crom Cruach inclined his head to the side.
“You haven’t proposed anything yet,” I replied.
He rocked back and forth on his heels. “I know how to save your king.”
I folded my arms across my chest, stared down into eyes carved out of gold, and didn’t respond. If he thought I would fall at his feet and beg for his help, he obviously hadn’t spent any time in the human realm. Father and Drayce’s reminders never to bargain with faeries rang through my ears. Queen Pressyne’s death proved to me that even faerie monarchs had their weaknesses.
“Osmos,” I said. “Report.”
“I sense no ill-will toward you, Your Majesty,” said my private secretary. “However, this is a being of malevolence.”
Crom Cruach turned his head to Osmos and snarled. Osmos lowered his horn, looking ready to skewer the other male through his golden head.
“How will you save King Drayce?” I asked.
His golden nostrils flared. “I can show you how to obtain a magical item that will wake him.”
“What is it?”
Crom Cruach raised a finger. “If I told you it’s name, you would never pay my price.”
“Which is?”
“The standard price for my information,” he replied. “Your firstborn.”
My breaths quickened. “What?”
“Queen Melusina never questioned my methods.” He swept his hands over the ten statues. “However, I can promise that I will immortalize your child as one of my idols.”
Cold shock barreled through my insides. I stared at the statues, the bodies and souls of my brothers and sisters, entombed for countless centuries, sacrificed by Queen Melusina.
My entire body stilled as icy hatred spread through my veins. I didn’t care if Crom Cruach knew how to break Drayce’s curse. I couldn’t allow this monster to continue living any more than I could allow the torment of these innocent souls.
Chapter 6
“Release those souls,” I said.
Crom Cruach tilted his head to the side. “You are in no position to make demands of me. However, my price has risen to two children in exchange for the information you seek.”
I glanced down at the ten stone idols that stood between Crom Cruach and me. What kind of person would give away one, let alone two, of their children?
Queen Melusina had handed the bodies of her sons for the Court of Shadows to inhabit. She would agree to such a ridiculous and cruel demand if it achieved something she wanted.
My fury turned to a pit of white-hot rage that burned my chest and seared through my veins.
How dare he trade infants? How dare he trap them in stone? Descending the dais’ stairs, I pulled off my glove, unsheathed the Sword of Tethra and held it point-upward.
Crom Cruach took a step back. “Your Majesty?” he asked with a confidence that didn’t match his retreating posture. “Do we have an accord?”
“Guards, seal the room,” I said.
The guards closest to the door placed their hands on its wooden surface, and silver magic streamed from the seams between the doors and their frames. I glanced around for other doors, but they had all disappeared. I could have enclosed the room with my command over the palace, but I needed Crom Cruach to feel a little of what those babies felt as they were entombed in stone.
He raised his chin. “The first time I bargained with your mother, she tried to kill me but I am indestructible.”
I shook my head. Everything in this realm is immortal unless killed, including the God of Death. Ignoring Crom Cruach’s boasts, I sliced my palm with the sword’s blade and coated it with my blood. My blood and the Sword of Tethra were the only thing that could kill an incorporeal Banshee Queen, and it would work against a being made of a magically animated metal.
My feet reached the bottom of the stairs, and we stood three feet apart. Crom Cruach’s head turned toward the blood glistening on the tip of my sword. My pulse roared in my ears, urging me to attack. If I could defeat where Queen Melusina failed, I had a chance of one day defeating her.
With one fast swing, I aimed at his head. The sword went straight through his throat and left him intact.
“I told you,” he said in an impatient tone that implied that hundreds if not thousands had tried to kill him.
Next, I jabbed at his middle, but it felt like a warm knife cutting through a block of lard. I withdrew the sword but no blood, no gold, no ichor spilled from the wound. Instead, it formed a perfect seal, leaving Crom Cruach untouched.
I bit down on my lip, glancing from one row of guards to the other. What was I missing? He was solid enough when Aengus tapped his chest with the hilt of his sword, solid enough to clank across the marble floor, but my blade was useless against his magic. I placed the Sword of Tethra in my left hand and withdrew the iron dagger with my right.
Crom Cruach tilted his head back and made an exasperated sound. “I can see why they say you are unwise.”
I plunged my dagger in his chest with such force that he stumbled backward. Crom Cruach twisted to the left and into a row of guards, who shoved him back into the middle of their walkway.
His golden armor didn’t have so much as a dent.
“What is this?” I snarled. “
How can a faerie not be harmed by iron?”
“Accept the inevitable, Your Majesty.” Triumphant amusement lilted Crom Cruach’s voice. “We both have something the other needs and can both make an amicable trade.”
“Release the children, and we can talk,” I said.
He shook his head.
I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. He had been scared earlier when I was on the stairs but now that I attacked him with iron and an enchanted sword, he seemed more comfortable.
“If you’re thinking of ways to kill me, don’t,” he sing-songed. “Queen Melusina drowned me in a pool, pushed me off a balcony, and had me thrown onto a fire. Not a one of her efforts succeeded. Just give up and make that bargain.”
Something behind me scraped against the marble floor. I spun around to find one of the statues lying on its side, and realization punched me on the mouth. Crom Cruach said we each had something the other needed. He appeared nervous when I stood behind the statues. Now that I was no longer looking at them, he became overconfident.
I willed the palace to create a cage from the marble strong enough to restrain him.
Crom Cruach made an exasperated noise and wrapped his golden fingers around the cage’s bars. With a weary sigh, he said, “What are you doing, now?”
“Why did that statue fall?” I pointed at it with my sword.
“Someone must have knocked it over,” he replied.
“Liar. Why did it fall?”
“I don’t know.”
“If I were to break it open, what would I find inside?”
“Nothing,” he blurted. “A mere wisp of a soul. Destroy it and the soul will become a wraith that will haunt the Otherworld.”
I glanced at Osmos, who shook his head, indicating that Crom Cruach was either not telling the truth or he was concealing something.
My fingers tightened on the hilt of the Sword of Tethra. “I’m going to smash them open.”
“Don’t!” His voice rang through my ears, but they were nothing compared to wind howlers.
Golden light flared from the marble cage, and he roared at me to release him. My heart skipped several beats. A reaction like that could only mean I had worked out the source of his invincibility.
Mate of the Fae King (Dark Faerie Court Book 2) Page 5
