Kingdom of Yesterday's Lies (Royals of Faery Book 1)

by Hayley Osborn

  I placed my hands on the door. “If you talked me through it, could I do it?”

  It was Jax who answered. “I’m not sure you should…”

  But I wasn’t listening, already pulling at that place inside my chest where my magic came from. My hands warmed, and I looked at Fergus. “Ready?” I would seal this door and give us a chance of getting away.

  He nodded.

  I glanced at Jax. “If you prefer to leave, I understand.” I wouldn’t want to stand near my magic after what it had almost done to him.

  “I’ll wait. I trust you.”

  I wasn’t sure that was wise, but I wasn’t wasting time arguing, either. I looked to Fergus.

  He nodded to the door. “Close your eyes.”

  I did as he asked, my hands heating as my magic asked me to release it to do its work. I imagined the door to be an impenetrable wall with no handle or hinges. That it was thick and heavy. I imagined no one on the other side being able to pass through it. If Fergus kept talking, I didn’t hear him.

  Not until he said, “Bria, open your eyes.”

  I did, to find the door glowing with magenta magic. I removed my hands. “Did I do it?”

  Something heavy banged against the other side and voices shouted.

  Fergus nodded. “You did it perfectly.”

  “Let’s go then.” My magic on the door was already beginning to fade. I hoped it held long enough for us to get out of this tunnel and across the border.

  We ran single file and silent along the tunnel. Tonight had gone so differently from what I expected and there were things I wanted to ask Fergus, but not while Jax was here. I kept quiet and focused on running, and the two of them seemed content to remain the same way.

  Eventually, we turned a corner to find ourselves standing in thick woods, the tunnel gone. Mother and Willow stood a few paces in front of us.

  “Jax!” Willow squealed. “You made it.”

  Fergus’ eyebrows rose. “Ah, I did too, thanks for noticing.”

  Willow batted his words away with her hand. “Knew you would.”

  Jax whistled for his horse, a chestnut mare he called Flame.

  Willow sighed. “You can’t be leaving already.”

  Jax looked around, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. “What else would I be doing? Where are the rest of you going?”

  “Back to the castle for me,” pouted Willow.

  “Iadrun for us.” I smiled at Jax. “Thanks for your help tonight. We weren’t getting out without you.”

  Jax nodded, his gaze shifting to Fergus.

  “I might walk Bria to the border.” Fergus glanced my way to make sure I was okay with that. I absolutely was. He looked back at Jax. “I’ll meet you later for a ride?”

  “I’ll be waiting.” Jax pulled himself onto Flame and lifted a hand. “Nice to meet you, Bria.”

  “And you, Jax.”

  He clicked his tongue and was gone, into the air and above Faery on the back of his horse.

  Mother nodded her approval at Fergus, looking more like herself than she had when she stood beside the king. “Good job, your Highness.”

  “For what?” I frowned. There were so many things she could be praising him for; helping her escape, hurting his father, stopping the fae guests that were coming after us.

  “The tunnels from the castle have many possible exits if one knows where to look.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. I’d been in them twice now and never seen an exit except the one into the ballroom.

  “It’s almost impossible to find a person once they use one. It’s especially difficult if you come out into the woods. Like this.” She wove her fingers into her hair, kneading her scalp and fiddling with something until she pulled it free. Another iron clip. Another suppressor. She threw it into the bushes, took a deep breath in, then blew it out. “That feels better.” The points of her fae ears stuck through the strands of her blonde hair. I doubted I’d ever get used to her looking like that.

  “Call me Fergus.” Fergus looked at the place the clip had disappeared with disgust. “I’m sorry my Father did that to you, but I don’t think we have to worry about anyone following us through the tunnels. Bria sealed the door.” He let out a shrill whistle, and Buttercup came bounding up to us, looking less like a hound of hell and more like a huge but pampered lap dog, her tail wagging non-stop. She stopped beside Fergus, looking up with big eyes that demanded he pat her.

  Mother turned to me. “Bria. I never thought I’d see you again.” She held out her arms.

  I ran to her and let her envelop me in a hug, inhaling her familiar citrus scent. When I was a child, her arms around me always fixed everything, but today, her arms couldn’t do that. I needed answers before I could ever feel safe with her again. I pulled away. “How can you be certain Fergus and I are bonded? And why did you cut off my ears?”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Cut off your ears?”

  Fergus cleared his throat. “Ah. Willow, isn’t there something that needs our attention … um, over there?” He started toward his mythical over there.

  I put up a hand to stop him. “Don’t go. Some of this involves you. You should hear it, too.”

  He met my eyes. “Only if you’re sure.”

  I nodded. I was.

  Mother looked around, scanning the thick woods, scraps of moonlight filtering down between the trees. “We don’t have time to stand in one spot. If that door doesn’t hold, and if they find the exit we used…”

  Fergus shook his head. “They won’t find us. And that door will hold.”

  Mother loosed a deep sigh, looking like she’d rather do anything than answer my questions. Too bad. For sixteen years, I’d thought I was someone I wasn’t. It was time she told me the truth. “Long before she became queen, while we were still children, Indira, Fergus’ mother, was a friend of mine.”

  Willow’s eyes narrowed. “But you’re a Seelie princess. You should be their queen. Why would our mother, the Unseelie Queen, want your friendship?”

  Mother shook her head. “That is a long story and one we don’t have time for now. Just know that we were friends since our childhood when I would sneak across the border to play with her. Sometimes the young prince—your father—and Myles would join us. We were all such good friends until…” She shook her head and her eyes went distant. “Myles and Aengus were both too proud to get over their argument.”

  I jolted at the sound of Father’s name. She didn’t mention him often, but I liked the sound of it on her lips. I cleared my throat. If we didn’t have time for the entire story, we certainly didn’t have time for fanciful reveries.

  Mother sighed and met my eyes. “Your father and I tried for children for so long that I never expected it to happen.” She glanced at Willow and Fergus. “And I’m sure your parents believed they’d never have children, either. But when we both had our first children within a few years of each other, I contacted Indira. We hadn’t spoken in the longest time, but holding you in my arms, Bria, was the happiest time of my life and I wanted to share it with my best friend.”

  “So, you did what? Forced her to meet you?” Willow eyed Mother with suspicion. She really didn’t think Unseelie and Seelie could be friends.

  Mother shook her head. “I didn’t need to force her. She missed me as much as I missed her. Both of us knew our husbands would never agree to a meeting, so we each told them we were going to visit family for a month. We left Faery and found a little cottage in Iadrun, close to Holbeck and spent the time getting to know each other again. It was magical.” She glanced at Fergus. “You were the sweetest child, Fergus. Blond curls and huge brown eyes. And back then, you would have done anything for anyone.”

  He had changed little, from what I could tell—except the color of his hair.

  “We didn’t even consider the two of you could be bonded. Bria was just a baby, and Fergus was only two years old. It never happens that young, and never betw
een Seelie and Unseelie fae.” She paused, her eyes distant. “But as Fergus made you giggle in your crib one day, the two of you glowed with magic—blue for Fergus, magenta for Bria. Not much, just a slight haze—neither of you had your magic yet, but there it was, the faintest glow of what was to come. As we watched, it combined, just like it did tonight, to turn purple. Neither Indira nor I wanted what the magic was promising for our children. A Seelie princess matched to an Unseelie prince—no one in the fae realm would have it. If it didn’t cause a war between the kingdoms, it would result in your deaths as people tried to stop the match. So, without another word to each other, we scooped you both up and left, back to our old lives.” She swallowed. “That was the last time I saw her.”

  I heard the bitterness, the accusation in her voice. I hoped Fergus didn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  He’d heard it.

  I hated that Mother would blame him for something she must know little about. “What for?” I asked Fergus. “If Mother wanted to see her friend again, she could have made it happen before your mother died.” I wasn’t totally okay with this story. Mostly because it didn’t seem like I could blame Mother for any of it. She’d done what she thought best—keeping me away from Fergus by leaving Faery.

  Mother nodded. “I could have. Should have.” She tried to smile at Fergus. It looked nothing like a smile. “I took Bria back to Seelie where Bria, Myles and I were happy for a few months. Father was away, checking on his kingdom, but when he returned, everything changed. He hadn’t yet met Bria. I was so proud of her, so besotted with my new baby, that I ran in to see him as soon as I returned. He took one look at her ears, decided you were too ugly to be part of his family and rule Seelie and banished us from the kingdom.”

  I frowned. “My ears? You mean you’d already cut them off?”

  Mother shook her head. “I never cut off your ears, Bria. I don’t know where you got that idea. Like I always told you, you were born this way. Maybe it was bad luck, maybe it was something else. Your ears were never an issue to me. My father didn’t agree with me, but your father and I always knew you were beautiful.”

  “She is.” Fergus’ voice was soft.

  I turned to tell him he didn’t need to say the things he thought I needed to hear, but the words died on my lips as I saw the sincerity on his face. It brought back images of our kiss which made my heart stumble. And since it was easier not to acknowledge that, I ignored him. “But everyone thinks you did.” Everyone I’d come across in Faery, at least.

  Mother couldn’t meet my eyes. She stared at her feet, her hands, something behind me in the woods. But never me. “Rumors. Most people never saw you in real life. All they had to go on was the words of others. They filled in the blanks with their own versions.”

  “So, we lived in Iadrun because we’d been banished?” That wasn’t the story I’d heard in Seelie. Or from Fergus. Everyone thought Princess Aoife had died, along with her infant child.

  Mother shook her head. “One of my father’s advisors convinced him to allow us to stay in Seelie. The advisor thought the people might turn against him should he force us to leave. He eventually agreed we could, so long as I agreed…” She swallowed like she didn’t want the words to escape.

  “Agreed to what?” I prodded.

  “That you would never be queen.” She looked at her feet but not fast enough to hide the anger dancing in her eyes.

  “I embarrassed him.” I touched my ears. I was just like the princess in Selina’s favorite story book. Too ugly for my kingdom. No wonder Father hated that story so much.

  Mother nodded. “I refused his offer knowing doing so would force us out of Faery and have the same outcome as if he’d banished us, but I would allow no one to think you embarrassed me. You mean everything to me, Bria.” She swallowed. “As I was packing to leave, Father called me back down to his throne room and offered me another choice. He didn’t want me to go and he could see how much I wanted my daughter to become queen.”

  Beside me, Fergus tensed as if he already knew what was coming. I doubted he did but perhaps, like me, he sensed bad news.

  “The Unseelie Queen had just died, and the Unseelie King was looking for a new bride. My father agreed without consulting me that you would be that bride. He felt it would go a long way to mending the broken relationship with our fae neighbors.”

  Nausea grew inside me. “But he’s old. What would he want with a child?” I couldn’t imagine being tied to that man for the rest of my life.

  Fergus chewed his bottom lip. “Mother told him about our bond before she died. Marrying you and making you his queen would have killed the bond between us.” Fergus lifted his shoulders. “I imagine he would have kept you well away from court and from me as a precaution until you were old enough to take your marriage vows.”

  Mother nodded. “I didn’t want Bria growing up in the Unseelie Kingdom. I’d spent enough time there to know that some behaviors there were downright barbaric.” She gave Willow and Fergus an apologetic glance. “No offence.”

  Willow shrugged. “Barbaric is an accurate term.”

  “The deal was already made, but I refused to allow it. I had planned to leave the castle that night but didn’t get the chance. I ended up faking our deaths by falling from the castle wall into the moat. Everyone thought our bodies were dragged out to sea—never found. Myles found us in Iadrun and we all lived there ever since. The plan worked so well that my own family believed us dead and never searched for us. Aengus was not so gullible. He’s spent the last fifteen years looking for us.”

  “If you were in hiding, why live so close to the border with Faery?” Surely she could have gone somewhere farther away, harder to be found.

  She lifted a shoulder, guilt flooding her features. “My magic. I needed to spend at least a few minutes in Faery every few weeks so I could keep the glamour on my ears. If I didn’t, my magic would disappear. It worked though … even Aengus didn’t expect we’d stay so close to the border.”

  Until Fergus and I practically led him there. “You did all this to stop the bond growing between the two of us?” Suddenly, I felt the need to stand up for Fergus. “You don’t even know him. He’s not like King Aengus. He’s—”

  Fergus rested his hand on my forearm, watching Mother. “It’s not about that, though, is it?”

  She shook her head. “No one in Faery wants the two kingdoms united. And that’s the only option when the two heirs act on their bond. Each kingdom would have fought with everything they had to stop it. They’d have killed you both. The only way you might have survived was if you both had powerful magic. And when I made this decision, I had no way of knowing how either of you would turn out.” She sighed. “Aengus Blackwood knows how to hold a grudge. He already had a grudge with me before all this and refusing his marriage offer insulted him all the more.”

  No one spoke once Mother finished her story. So many lies, all built one on top of the next.

  “I’m sorry,” said Mother, looking from Willow to Fergus. “Aengus doesn’t come out of this looking so good.”

  “He never does.” Fergus glanced at me, his eyes asking if I was all right.

  I was fine. Relieved to have some answers finally. And to know my parents hadn’t mutilated me. “So what happens now?” King Aengus would not be happy we’d escaped. And if he’d been hunting us for almost fifteen of my sixteen years, I doubted he’d stop now.

  Mother took a deep breath. “We go back to Iadrun, find another village along the border and start our lives over. I’ll teach you how to use your magic so you can hide your ears, and no one will know who you are.” She looked around as if the king might be hidden in the woods. “And we hope Aengus doesn’t find us.”

  “I’ll help. However I can.” Fergus didn’t need to tell me Xion would not help the king—I knew that already. His comment was for Mother but it brought a stabbing feeling to my heart. I hated the thought of saying goodbye
to him. It was stupid because I didn’t want to be bonded to him, either. I just wanted to be his friend.

  “It’s decided then.” Mother glanced at Fergus, then Willow. “Thank you for helping my daughter. I can’t ever repay what you did for her.” Her eyes moved to me. “Come, Bria. We need to get moving.”

  This was it. Time to say goodbye. I hugged Willow. “Thanks for your help.”

  “Anytime.” She smiled, and it seemed like I’d known her for longer than just a few hours.

  I turned to Fergus. There was so much I needed to thank him for but before I could attempt to put any of it into words, he said, “I’d still like to walk you to the Crossing. If that’s okay.”

  I nodded. It was totally okay.

  Willow decided to join us, and as she and Mother disappeared around the bend on the trail ahead of us, Fergus slowed, taking my hand and pulling me to a stop beside him. “There’s something I need to show you. If you’ll let me.” He seemed unsure of himself.

  I shrugged. “Sure.” I was happy to put off our goodbye for a little longer.

  Fergus directed me off the main trail to a narrow one that had us stepping over and ducking beneath branches that grew across it. Buttercup bounded ahead of us, before loping back to check we were following.

  Fergus didn’t speak, but I couldn’t stand the silence between us. “Should I be worried about you splitting me up from Mother?”

  When he turned to answer, his smile was faint. “Probably.”

  “What’s wrong, Fergus?” He seemed quiet and not like himself.

  He looked me over, then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  That stabbing feeling returned to my chest. I would miss him when I left Faery. Perhaps he felt the same way about me. Or perhaps it was the magic of our bond making us both feel out of sorts. “How did you know?” I blurted. “About our … connection?”

  His shoulders rose and fell as he drew a deep breath, and his pace slowed. He turned to face me. “The only people who can remove my mask are me … and my bonded mate.”