Ascent

by Bethany Adams

  “It’s like the stuff that was swirling around Meren.”

  Fen’s frustration filled her. “That wasn’t Kien’s crap. It could be inspired by it, but it’s not the same. Guess that confirms that Meren was experimenting.”

  Maddy’s fingers tightened around hers, and Anna forced her own grip to loosen until her mate did the same. “We have to get this out of her blood,” Maddy said. “Lial might be able to get rid of it, but I don’t have a clue. What did you do for Sparrow?”

  “Vek poured in a bunch of life magic,” Anna answered. “Not an option for us.”

  “I could try to pull it free while drinking,” Fen offered grimly.

  “No.” An idea clarified in Anna’s head. “That would just transfer the problem to you. What about bloodletting?”

  Fen recoiled. “That’s some medieval shit right there, Anna.”

  “It wasn’t just done in the Middle Ages, and there are cultures that still do it,” Maddy snapped. “Lial told me about the time he used a similar method to draw iron from Lyr’s wound, and that’s a lot like what we need to do for the queen.”

  “But—”

  “I’m not saying we break out the leeches. We just need an exit to pull the toxins through.” Anna took a calming breath. “Stop being a baby. It’s not like you’re squeamish about blood.”

  Once Fen relented, they loosened their connection enough for Maddy to request a bowl and knife from Lera. That was its own fierce argument, but Anna and Maddy finally convinced the princess of the merit of their idea. After that, it was only moments before they had everything they needed to begin the task.

  So much fun.

  This was going to take hours.

  Maddy scowled into the ewer of water as she washed her hands one more time. Fen had used his power to pull the dried dirt away from her body, but she still didn’t feel clean. And she was tired. Hadn’t she said she was only going to do an examination? But of course, she couldn’t leave the queen in a coma any more than she could have let Meren die right in front of her. Sometimes, it sucked being a softy.

  With a resigned sigh, Maddy dried her hands on another clean towel and returned to the queen’s bedside. This time, her mates would channel through her instead of Fen, and the very idea of being an anchor wore her out. It would work the best, though. They were also going to try to connect without touching so that Fen could keep the queen’s wound numb and the blood flowing.

  Who would have thought that having a blood elf around during a medical procedure would be so useful? Maybe he should hire himself out to surgeons.

  Maddy placed her hand on the queen’s upper arm and reached for her link to Anna and Fen. They merged so easily this time that she paused a moment to savor it. Then she and Anna took their metaphorical places at the top of Queen Tatianella’s body and waited for Fen to make the cut in her wrist. Only a small one, but hopefully enough.

  Anna started first, pushing the flecks of poison through the queen’s veins at a slow, methodical pace. Maddy helped direct the actual flow so that the mess wouldn’t clump and clog, and once they were a quarter of the way through, she had to use a sedation spell on the queen as she began to stir.

  Gather. Push through.

  Gather. Push through.

  Then purify every bit of tissue she could.

  By the time Fen closed the cut, Maddy’s entire body was shaking with exhaustion. Even so, she did one last search of the queen’s body before removing the sedation spell and pulling her energy free. She opened blurred eyes to search for a chair, and once she spotted one beside the bed, she sank into it without hesitation.

  “Maddy,” Anna breathed, a strange note to her voice.

  Had they failed? Maddy followed the others’ shocked gazes to the queen’s face, only then noticing that Tatianella’s eyes had opened, too. For a moment, no one moved. Then Lera rushed forward with a cry as Fen jerked the bowl of blood away before it was knocked over. A good call. The queen sat up in time for her daughter to envelop her in a hug.

  Queen Tatianella blinked, and her blank expression had Maddy worrying that her mind had been damaged by the poison. Had she healed enough tissue after Anna’s work was done? Maddy had trusted her magic and will to accomplish the task, but there was every chance she’d messed something up. Wouldn’t that just figure?

  Then the queen wrapped her arms slowly around Lera. “What happened? Who are these people?”

  Lera beamed at Maddy. “You were poisoned, and they saved you.”

  Maddy’s heart thumped hard as a new sensation filled her.

  Pride.

  “Anna and Fen are equally responsible for healing you, Your Majesty,” Maddy finally managed to say.

  Tatianella’s eyes widened as she studied Anna and then Fen. “A story I must hear. Over a plate of food, I hope. Whatever happened has left me famished.”

  Maddy could agree with that. But as a bevy of ladies rushed in to help the queen to her changing room and order food, Maddy could only sit there in wonder. She’d done it. She’d used her power, and it had worked.

  They were so going to have a celebration when they returned to Earth.

  Chapter 37

  When Fen strode into the Unseelie throne room a couple of hours later, he carried a vial of poisoned blood, a letter of commendation from Queen Tatianella, and a metric shitload of worry. There was his fear for Maddy, who drooped with such exhaustion that he’d almost carried her, too. Then there was Queen Tatianella’s request for an alliance written beneath the commendation—one she wanted him to facilitate.

  Oh, and the matter of Meren out there somewhere. No big deal.

  Fen had no clue how long had passed since he’d left, but the throne room was empty of everyone except a handful of guards. No one stopped him as he cut through the door in the back corner and started down the private passageway to his mother’s study. He wanted to rush, but he forced himself to slow his pace so Maddy and Anna could walk beside him. If he weren’t so tired, he would have run the distance.

  Far better to drop this crap on his mother and get the hell out. Unfortunately, he had a feeling he couldn’t. Not just because of Ara. It was weird, but something inside him had shifted in the Seelie realm. Maybe it was confronting Lera and then Meren. Or helping to save their queen.

  Or that moment after dinner when Queen Tatianella had given him a vial of her tainted blood from the collection bowl and asked him to research what Meren had done—even after Fen had confessed to his work with Kien. But she said he’d earned her trust.

  A Felshreh prince, heir to the Unseelie throne, granted something as precious as the Seelie queen’s blood. It defied all logic.

  “I hope this meeting won’t take long,” Maddy grumbled softly.

  Fen lifted her hand and brushed a kiss against her knuckles. “I’ll get us out of here as quickly as I can after I leave the letter.”

  “But what about the—”

  “The full story can wait,” Fen said, cutting off Anna’s words before switching to mental communication with them both. “I’m not giving her the vial. I don’t trust her enough.”

  Maddy’s hand went limp in his. “Thank the gods. I know you won’t misuse it, but…”

  “My mother is less certain. Believe me, I know.”

  It was night beyond the window, but Ara sat behind her desk despite the hour. Hell, she looked so tired he had to wonder if she’d been waiting in that spot since he and Anna had left. Quite likely. Ara stood slowly, and her hand drifted to her lower back as though it ached. Her expression, though—that was all relief.

  “You’ve returned,” she said, and he could tell from her voice that she’d feared the opposite would happen. “And brought your other mate, I assume?”

  It was awkward as fuck introducing them, but Fen made it through with relative politeness. An improvement, he supposed, over the animosity he’d held for his mother for so long. But as Ara smiled at Maddy and welcomed her as an Unseelie princess, the moment was more surreal than an
ything.

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to give me a title,” Maddy said. “Though I have a feeling my father’s family is a little more noble than I realized, I don’t think I’m suited.”

  Fen started to reassure her, but Anna beat him to it.

  “You’re better prepared than I am. You’ll do great.”

  He couldn’t resist pulling both women closer until he could slip his arms around their waists. Couldn’t they see how worthy they were? Love filled him until he thought he would burst with it, especially when they twined their own arms together behind his back. Fucking perfect.

  “At least the word ‘shit’ isn’t likely to feature in your first formal speech,” Fen joked.

  His mother let out an exasperated sigh. “I am relieved to hear that you’ve chosen mates with more decorum. However, I would much prefer to learn what happened in the Seelie court.”

  A reasonable request, but he wished he could avoid it. One more task in a long-assed day.

  Well. No time like the present.

  Anna trailed her fingers through the water burbling up from the fountain in the corner of the suite’s large living room. A shiver whispered across her skin at the contact, but she was too tired to enjoy it. In fact, their exhaustion was the only reason Fen had let his mother show him to his elaborate rooms in the heart of the palace.

  “You may make any changes that you like,” Ara said to Fen.

  Maddy joined Anna beside the fountain, both of them doing their best not to show how closely they were following the argument.

  “I’m living on Earth.”

  “You formally accepted your role as heir. Our people will expect—”

  “I’d already been given the title before I returned to Earth with Vek. I don’t see any reason for that to change. We have lives there.”

  “And you are supposed to be facilitating the treaty with the Seelie.”

  “I never said I wouldn’t.”

  Anna exchanged an amused glance with Maddy, and finally, they both turned. “Couldn’t you do what Maddy has arranged for her medical training?” Anna asked.

  Ara and Fen gave her such identical confounded expressions that she almost laughed. “But what about you?” Fen asked.

  “I can be on my own for a few days, Fen,” Anna answered drily. “Besides, I have my own ancestors to hunt down for a little tutoring. We can work it out.”

  Ara smiled. “An excellent suggestion, although you and Maddy will also need to be here at times. Not only should you be versed in our ways, but it is a good reminder to our people that Fen is mated. He will be a subject of much interest once his negotiations with the Seelie become common knowledge.”

  That wiped away some of Anna’s amusement. She didn’t doubt that she could trust Fen, nor did she believe he would be unfaithful. But she remembered the whispered comments he’d received. Other nobles would pester the crap out of him if they thought they could gain any kind of influence through a sexual liaison—or any similar connection.

  None of which appeared to worry Fen. “I doubt they’ll bother.”

  “May I assume this solution is satisfactory, then?” Ara asked.

  “You just…” Fen rubbed at the back of his neck, his gaze lowering. “You have to know that I have no intentions of forming a close relationship with you.”

  Ara drew her hands together in front of her waist, the stiffness of the gesture revealing her pain. But the emotion didn’t echo in her words. “I understand that you have forgiven Vek.”

  Fen met his mother’s eyes, and Anna’s heart squeezed at the hurt and sadness that bounced between them. “He came for me. He tried to talk me out of my bad decisions, and when that didn’t work, he ended up saving my ass. My head understands why you handed me off to my father and pretended I didn’t exist, but I’m not sure my heart ever will.”

  Even as she inclined her head in acknowledgement, the queen blinked rapidly as though fighting back tears. “I would do it again to see you safe, and I am happy to bear your anger. You may seek me out or not when you are in residence.”

  As Ara strode from the room, she wasn’t sure who she wanted to hug more—Ara or Fen. Then Fen sank down into an embroidered armchair, lowering his head into his hands, and the queen was forgotten. She nudged her shoulder against Maddy’s, and together, they approached their mate.

  “Let’s go to bed,” Anna said.

  Maddy ran her hand through Fen’s hair. “And that’s not a euphemism as far as I’m concerned. I love you guys, but I want sleep.”

  Fen straightened, a wry smile lightening his expression. “I’ve gotta agree.”

  Together, they opened doors until they came across the first bedroom with a decent-sized bed. They undressed quickly—except Fen, who had to find a safe spot for the vial of blood—and piled together in the center of the bed with Maddy against Fen and Anna at her back.

  The best way to fall asleep.

  Maddy would have preferred to stay in bed for a solid day, but they rested only long enough to not be walking disasters. Fen had asked Ara to send a message to Vek the night before assuring him of their safety, but Fen was anxious to talk to his uncle. No doubt about the vial of blood.

  “Do we even know what time it is there?” Maddy asked.

  Fen shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care.”

  “I’m not sure your family will be happy about us popping in if it’s the middle of the night.”

  “Nah, I bet Vek’s pacing the outpost like a nervous auntie on childcare duty for the first time.” Fen grinned wickedly. “If Dria hasn’t put an immobilizing spell on him by now.”

  Anna moved in front of them and held out her hands. “Let’s go see.”

  They stood together in a circle and linked their energies together as closely as they could. In a quick burst of power, Fen activated his link to the outpost, and Maddy’s vision blanked for a moment as the ground disappeared beneath her. She cried out, a bit of an embarrassment since solid ground and her sight returned before the shout had faded from her ears.

  The room was small enough that the three of them barely fit around the cluster of blue-green stones in the center. Then Fen slumped against a nearby wall, and Maddy forgot about the pretty gemstones as she hurried to his side. His skin had gone pale, and his breath came fast.

  It only took a quick scan, though, to figure out why. “Take some of my energy.”

  “I don’t want to—”

  “Be an idiot again?” Anna asked. Again? Maddy’s brow furrowed at the odd comment, but Anna explained before she could ask. “He ported us this way when we were trying to save you, and it drained him hard.”

  “I was only going to say that I don’t want to cause Maddy more strain. She went through a lot yesterday.”

  Maddy wiggled her upper arm beneath his nose. “Then take a tiny bit. I want to go get more sleep sometime today.”

  She worried that he would refuse, and then they would have to haul him out of here and wander through the caverns until they could find his uncle. Thankfully, Fen sighed and made a tiny slice with his fang so that he could get enough blood to access her energy. Her muscles grew a touch heavier from tiredness, but when he sealed the wound and disconnected, she couldn’t tell a great deal of difference.

  The informal meeting room was a fair walk from where they’d arrived, but Maddy didn’t complain. There was a reassurance to being back in a place she recognized, even if it wasn’t hers. She was free of the Seelie court. Truly free. Though Queen Tatianella had offered her a standing invitation to visit—and a freaking house, for gods’ sake—Maddy didn’t think she would want to go back any time soon.

  Vek and Dria were waiting for them regardless of the hour. As soon as the door closed behind Anna, the couple stood and hurried over. But Fen froze, so abruptly that Maddy almost ran into him. What was his problem?

  “Meren escaped.”

  Frowning, Vek halted. “Did you think I was going to give you a grade on your performance?”

>   “I know how much you want him dead.” Fen sagged, and Maddy didn’t think it was from exhaustion. “But even if I’d had a good shot, I’m not sure I could have done it.”

  It was Dria who stepped forward to settle her hand on Fen’s shoulder. “You weren’t supposed to. Ralan told us a while back that the task would likely fall to one of Meren’s brothers. Or not-brothers, I suppose.”

  “We did manage to save Queen Tatianella,” Maddy offered, hoping to distract Fen. “Oh, and Anna and I are Unseelie princesses now. I think that means Vek can’t boss us around.”

  Fen’s uncle laughed. “You wish.”

  It was going to be okay. As they recounted all that had happened and made plans for testing the Seelie queen’s blood, that refrain eased through Maddy until it settled in her soul. Though they had to be on guard against Meren, they could conquer anything as long as they were together. Besides, Meren had bigger things to worry about—like an awakened Queen Tatianella sending every warrior at her disposal after him. He would probably avoid the three of them now that he knew they couldn’t be subverted.

  And now that he knew that they were capable of defeating him.

  Together and apart, Maddy and her mates would train. They would grow and prosper. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

  One week later

  Fen paused at the top of the stairs as a happy shriek rang out. Oh, surely the hell not. His mates, the two best people in the world, wouldn’t have started without him. Grumbling to himself, he opened the door at the top of the steps and marched into their living room, only to freeze at the sight of Maddy and Anna doing a victory dance.

  While end credits played on the TV behind them.

  “Not cool,” he said as he approached.

  Both women stopped their dance, and Maddy blew a strand of red hair out of her face before grinning. “I beat my save game, not ours. Just in time to keep from giving you spoilers, too.”