Ascent

by Bethany Adams

  With a sigh, Anna shucked her T-shirt and pants before reaching for the robe. It was lighter than it appeared, but she still needed Dria to help get all the fabric over her head and settled around her. As Dria searched the trunk again for accessories, Anna glanced in the mirror at the wrinkled robe engulfing her and grimaced.

  The mage had a good point about perception. Wasn’t the same true among humans, after all? Across time, entire class structures had been defined—or at least revealed—by clothing style or fabric choice. That wasn’t the only factor, though. Mannerisms, customs, attitude… Anna could wear a fancy robe, but could she assert herself in front of a room of powerful and ancient fae?

  Probably not. But she would try for Maddy.

  Dria wrapped a silver and gold chain around Anna’s waist, smoothed out the wrinkles in the fabric with magic, and affixed a circlet above Anna’s brow. After the mage stepped back, Anna blinked at yet another image of herself. She looked like a princess, and as Fen’s mate, she supposed his people would see her as one. Too bad her inner self didn’t match.

  “For the most part, only the power-hungry feel equal to leadership, you know,” Dria said quietly. “Fae and human. Ruler and subject. All of us look in a mirror and wonder if we have what it takes. Maybe not every day, but more often than you might believe. We’re all just people in the end.”

  Anna turned to the other woman in surprise. “Was I that obvious?”

  “Yes and no.” Dria shrugged. “I guessed based on your expression.”

  “It was a good one.”

  The mage smiled and gestured toward the door. “Vek said that Fen is almost armored. Let’s head up to the portal room.”

  Lifting the hem of her robe, Anna pointed at her sneakers. “What about shoes?”

  “The fabric is long enough to hide them,” Dria said. “Why not keep the comfort of your current footwear?”

  Bemused, Anna followed the mage from the room. Moranaians must not have many fairy tales involving shoes, unlike humans. Who could imagine a modern fairy godmother sending Cinderella out in sneakers? Though it would make any potential escapes more reliable—and less trackable than a glass slipper.

  Vek and Fen reached the lift at the same time as Dria and Anna, and it was all Anna could do to make it onto the platform without tripping and toppling over the rail as she stared at Fen. She’d never seen him dressed in anything remotely formal. Certainly not armor. The dark red leather might have been simple in design, but it lent him an air of danger barely restrained.

  Damn, it was a good look.

  “Ralan should have commissioned another of those swords for you,” Vek grumbled as he and Fen followed them onto the stone platform. “I am sure his brother’s bonded would have been willing to help.”

  Anna frowned. Fen was wearing a sword, though the hilt wasn’t as fancy as the one Vek had strapped to his belt. “What do you mean?”

  “Mine is enchanted to gather energy from the blood of those I strike,” Vek explained. “Fen’s is not. If there is battle, he will not be able to gather power as easily. I would give him this one if it wasn’t bound to my blood.”

  “Don’t you think strolling into the Seelie court with a steel blade will be statement enough?” Fen asked. “You might as well have handed me a personal invitation to war, hand-addressed to the queen.”

  “Not quite. Still—”

  Dria activated the spell, and the platform slid smoothly upward. “His path isn’t yours, Vek. There’s a reason my brother didn’t do as you suggest.”

  Anna lost track of the conversation as she studied her mate’s expression. As the lift rose, he closed his eyes, and his fingers gripped the rail until his knuckles whitened. Was he afraid of heights or nervous about what was to come? He appeared more certain as they hurried along the corridor to the portal room, but it was difficult to tell.

  “What’s wrong?” she sent.

  “Magical elevators freak me out almost as much as being the Unseelie heir.” Fen gave her a quick, wry smile as they followed Vek and Dria into the small room. “I’m still not sure about this. Are you? Unless my mother has more children, we might be stuck ruling one day.”

  Anna shuddered at the thought, but it wasn’t a problem she could deal with today. “Let’s save Maddy first. Then we’ll figure it out.”

  Fen’s smile widened. “That’s the plan I’m going on.”

  We’ll solve this mess, Anna resolved as she took Fen’s hand and prepared to step through the portal to a different world. Even if I have to be a queen.

  Maddy almost blacked out twice before she calmed herself enough to breathe steadily. She could pull in air through the hood so long as she didn’t panic and fill the thing with carbon dioxide. The thing wasn’t airtight, after all. Unfortunately, it took far longer than she would have liked to convince herself of that fact.

  Once she’d stifled her panic enough to take it from hyperventilation to a burning, buzzing ache that pulsed through her veins with each racing heartbeat, Maddy continued her exploration. Her right shoulder slid easily along the smooth stone, but she still crept forward at a ridiculously slow pace. She had no desire to discover another wall fixture the hard way.

  After another lifetime had passed, her shoulder nudged into a bump in the stone, and she did her best to feel out the details with her arm. A doorframe, maybe? A few more steps confirmed that theory—a doorknob bit into her right hip. Maddy’s heartbeat surged, but she tried not to hope. Even so, she turned until she could get one of her hands around the knob. She took a deep breath and attempted to twist.

  She’d known it would be locked, but she slumped in defeat anyway when it didn’t budge. That foolish spark of hope had apparently wanted the outcome to be otherwise. Unfortunately, her captors weren’t idiots. They wouldn’t have shoved her in here and then left the door unlocked.

  Maddy was so busy chiding herself that she barely heard the footsteps in time to shuffle away from the door. It swung open so quickly that her clothes fluttered against her body. A hint of light flickered against the hood, and Maddy shuddered with fear. Had touching the entrance caused some kind of alarm spell to activate? Without her magic, she couldn’t probe for something like that, so it was possible.

  What was happening?

  Only when the warm hand gripped her upper arm did Maddy realize how chilled she’d become, but her captor’s heat brought it into sharp relief. Who had hold of her this time? One of the guards? Another prisoner? Meren? Shivering from cold and fear, she jerked back against the stranger’s hold.

  “You dare to resist?” a low female voice hissed. “You are under our authority now.”

  “Whose authority? As far as I can tell, you’re nothing but a hand.”

  The stranger released Maddy, but only to remove the hood and brighten the mage globes. For a moment, Maddy was too stunned by the light to struggle against the woman’s renewed hold. The glow was so intense she could barely look at the general’s golden armor without pain.

  “Feel better, little traitor?”

  The Sidhe general was just doing her job, but that didn’t stop the sudden surge of anger that rushed through Maddy. “You have judged me without reason.”

  “And I have no reason to do otherwise,” the warrior quipped. “Come. As soon as the palace healer has Meren stable, you will both be answering to the court and queen.”

  Maddy stifled a frustrated groan as she was led down an endless corridor that seemed to cross the length of the entire palace. Their healer was finishing the work she’d begun, yet she was being hauled in front of the queen for helping Meren? What kind of bullshit was that? She wanted to yell the question at the general, but she didn’t dare.

  The calmer she stayed, the more likely she was to survive—hopefully.

  A guard shifted from his position beside the base of a staircase to open a broad metal door over to the side, and the general hauled Maddy through. This room was stone like the first chamber, but there was one major difference—mana
cles attached at waist-height all along the walls.

  Two hard-faced warriors grabbed Maddy and turned her so that the hands secured behind her back were even with the manacles. She expected them to remove the thin chain that blocked her magic, but they didn’t. Instead, one of the guards snapped the cold shackles around her wrists above the other chain.

  “Consider how you will defend yourself,” the general said. “While I arrange your trial.”

  Maddy stared helplessly after the woman as she marched from the room. A quick trial with the queen of the Seelie wasn’t a good thing, not when the speed was measured in hours. That meant they considered the situation dire. She had to convince the queen that she hadn’t been involved with Meren’s plot—whatever it was. And she apparently didn’t have long to formulate a defense.

  Chapter 32

  Night would have been the best possible time to arrive in the Unseelie realm without causing a stir, so naturally, the gate opened upon a bustling walkway filled with light—or at least as much as the artificial sun crystal set in the ceiling managed to cast upon the city below. Fen pushed his shoulders back and tried to ignore the weight of the leather armor he’d donned. His armor, too, not something borrowed from his uncle. Vek had had the set commissioned after their last trip to the Unseelie court, a show of faith Fen wasn’t sure he deserved.

  On the other side of the portal, people stopped to stare, and Fen could just make out a handful of guards advancing from the distance. Their arrival would not go unnoticed, especially considering the steel sword he carried. Dammit. He’d hoped for a quiet meeting with his mother. So much for that.

  “Are you certain you don’t want me to accompany you?” Vek murmured, too quietly for his voice to travel through the gate.

  Fen cut an annoyed glance his uncle’s way. “You know I would never be respected if I relied on your strength. But I do appreciate the offer.”

  Vek nodded. “Remember…the Felshreh bow to no one save the monarch.”

  It would be nice to possess the confidence his uncle had grown up with, but since Fen didn’t, he would just have to improvise. He’d bluffed his way through those hellish years with Kien. Now it was time to pretend himself through this. Fake it ‘til you make it—except with a legion of power-hungry Unseelie relatives nearby, ready to gut you for a chance at the throne.

  Such fun.

  Though most of Dria’s attention was on maintaining the portal, she glanced over. “Tell the Seelie queen I’ll be sending her emissary back now that she has Meren. If you didn’t have to stop to speak with your mother along the way, I’d toss the annoying Sidhe through with you.”

  “Will do,” Fen answered, smiling at her last muttered threat.

  Fen held out his arm for Anna, who wrapped her trembling hand around his elbow as if to anchor herself. “Let’s go save Maddy,” she whispered.

  There was no more time to second-guess. The guards were almost at the Unseelie side of the portal, and an ever-growing crowd gathered along the path to the castle. Fen took a deep breath and advanced, not slowing even when they passed through the gate into the other realm. Voices swelled around them as Dria closed the portal behind them, but Fen and Anna kept moving.

  The guards’ steps slowed at the sight of Fen’s armor, a color and design worn only by the royal Felshreh. The five of them exchanged uncertain looks as they blocked the path, and the one who stepped forward to speak appeared ready to bolt. Poor, miserable bastard. He must not have been around when Vek and Fen had come through a month prior.

  But then, the new queen had been forced to replace a fair number of the royal guard who had died supporting her father in his madness.

  “Forgive me, my lord,” the warrior began hesitantly. “But your choice of portal location was…unorthodox. Are you from a distant branch of the royal family?”

  A nice, polite way to ask if Fen was a poor relation, wasn’t it?

  Well, Fen didn’t have time to banter. “I am Feniarathen an Arafel. You will move at once.”

  Though he’d felt foolish practicing the pronunciation of his own damned name while Vek had gathered his armor, Fen was suddenly grateful for the time spent. The troop parted, two moving to each side of the path. Only the one who’d broken away to challenge Fen and Anna had remained.

  “Forgive me, my prince,” the guard said. “We will provide you escort to the palace.”

  Curious. Had Ara given her army orders in the event of his arrival?

  It seemed likely considering the change in the troop’s demeanor, their suspicious expressions now hardened into resolve. The leader barked a sharp command, and the warriors turned to face the palace. As soon as Fen and Anna started walking, their new entourage sprang into action. Though there weren’t enough of them to truly stop a crowd, having two armed soldiers on each side and another marching just behind his right shoulder encouraged people to move without need of threat.

  Anna’s hand tightened around his arm. “This is a bit much.”

  She had to hate being drawn into this mess. His heartbeat picked up its already frantic pace. “I hope you don’t regret our mating.”

  “Never,” she answered, and he could feel that she meant it.

  But knowing didn’t stop fear.

  As they strode through the gates of the palace, they reached a new level of scrutiny—courtiers. But this time, Fen was recognized, and the whispers began in earnest. He did his best to keep his head held high, but he wasn’t so sure he managed not to blush.

  “Isn’t that Vek’s nephew? Crystal above, but the Felshreh are attractive.”

  “And the queen named him heir on his last visit.”

  “I’d rather make him king of my bedchamber.”

  “Who’s the woman? Please tell me he hasn’t already mated like Prince Vek.”

  “Listen, Fen,” Anna sent, her mental voice somehow both amused and annoyed. “You’ve united the male and female Unseelie nobles with your hotness. At least until they find out you have two mates. Will Maddy and I have to threaten them daily?”

  Yep. The tips of his ears were definitely burning. “No. Once mated, the Felshreh do not stray. Not that I would cheat even without an actual blood link.”

  The aggravation slipping across their bond faded, replaced by satisfaction—and love. Although worry and embarrassment twisted inside of him with every step, that sense of love carried Fen through the rest of the whispering hordes and straight up the long aisle leading to the dais at the end of the throne room where his mother sat. He wanted to turn around, then, at the unyielding expression on her face. When last they’d spoken, Fen had renounced his title.

  What would Ara do now that he’d returned?

  Fen halted at the end of the aisle, and silence descended on the throne room. If the proverbial pin dropped, it would sound like an explosion. Was it any wonder? The last confrontation that had happened in this room had led to the king being challenged and killed after he’d broken Unseelie laws. In fact, Fen had killed twelve of the traitor’s guards himself.

  He kept his eyes on the queen and tried not to wonder if there were ghosts.

  There was probably some formality he was missing. What had Vek done that day? Bowed? Knelt? The memory was lost to the frenzy of battle and the horror of shedding yet more blood. But even if he knew, Fen wasn’t sure he could bring himself to bow to the woman whose abandonment had brought him so much pain.

  Fen inclined his head and hoped it would suffice. “Mother.”

  Gasps echoed behind him, and the queen’s eyes widened. Fuck. He probably wasn’t supposed to speak first. He didn’t exactly care, but they needed this to go well if they had any hope of gaining Unseelie support to save Maddy. So he pinched his lips closed and waited, praying any slight would be glossed over.

  Thankfully, his mother didn’t make an issue of it. “Welcome home, Feniarathen an Arafel. I assume you have a reason for returning at such a busy time without the mentor under whose authority you last departed.”

  H
e caught the question in her words: where the hell was Vek? How could he give his mother a suitably vague but adequate answer? All around them, the courtiers stared, making Fen regret leaving his uncle behind. He was not trained for this. He fought for composure as the weight of this meeting settled over him. How could he claim himself heir when he couldn’t handle a formal meeting?

  Anna gave Fen’s arm a subtle squeeze, and he wanted nothing more than to turn and rush his mate away from all this.

  But he couldn’t.

  “That mentorship might need to be reevaluated,” Fen finally stated.

  Ara’s eyebrow rose. “At odds with my brother already?”

  A few light chuckles echoed from behind him, but Fen didn’t bother to seek out the sources. “Not at all. However, I have mated. That makes me a little too old for a guardian, don’t you think?”

  This time, he caught a couple of groans from the crowd, but they quickly ceased when the queen stood. “Mated? To this woman?”

  “Yes,” Fen answered, irritation rising within him when Anna’s hand twitched against his arm at his mother’s sharp tone. “And one other.”

  Ara’s nostrils flared as she processed his words. “I see we have much to discuss.”

  “In private,” Fen said firmly.

  “Is that so?” His mother’s gaze skimmed across the crowd before a tiny, sly smile touched her lips—there and then gone. “If you wish to formally accept your role as my heir, then you should announce it before all. Afterward, we might retire for a private conference.”

  Oh, she was good. Though she hadn’t said it directly, it was surely obvious to everyone in that room that the queen had no intention of meeting privately with him unless he obeyed her “suggestion” to claim his place. Shouldn’t he have expected as much? His mother had never let anything like family or feelings stand in the way of what she wanted.