Beauty

by Sophie Oak

The room erupted in chaos. The news that the Unseelie princess was alive and potentially in danger somewhere on the Seelie plane lit a fire under the nobles’ asses. His father sat, taking it all in. There was already talk of a raid, a quiet retrieval mission, even of hiring a hag to contact her. This was another reason they had kept quiet. Until they were ready to rescue their bondmate, they couldn’t risk detection, and they worried their father would be reckless, thus costing both women their lives. Amidst all the discussion, the Finn twins walked away, quietly speaking among themselves.

  He looked at Shim who nodded, understanding what they needed to do.

  They stood up, moving toward the Seelies. It was time to talk to their brothers-in-law.

  Even before they’d made it to the Finns, Cian Finn had turned, walking their way with an angry look on his face.

  “Why the hell haven’t you said something before now?” Cian got right in Lach’s space.

  Lach had no intentions of letting the Green Man intimidate him. “Should I have walked around informing everyone that Bronwyn Finn is alive? Do you think that wouldn’t have gotten back to Torin?”

  Beck seemed calmer, but there was a cold look in his eyes. “You could have told us. We both have relatives on the Vampire plane. We’ve probably been in the same city at the same time, and yet you kept this a secret.”

  “We told our father. Not her name because we understood the danger to her, but we explained the situation, and he refused to believe. If you hadn’t seen what Lach could do tonight, you wouldn’t have believed it, either.”

  “You bloody well could have tried,” Cian spat.

  “Tell me something, Prince Lachlan,” Beck began with lazy menace. “Does my sister know she’s a princess of the Unseelie Fae?”

  There it was, that churning in the pit of Lach’s belly. “The connection is difficult to explain.”

  “Yes, you seem to have that trouble a lot,” Cian said.

  Shim was getting angry, his hands twitching. When Shim got angry, fireballs tended to descend from out of nowhere.

  “Shim, calm down. Torching our brothers-in-law won’t make the situation better.”

  His ever-more-reasonable brother smiled grimly. “It will make me feel better.”

  “I’d love to see you try it,” Cian ground back.

  Beck managed a little laugh. “He’s my calm half.”

  A kinship opened between them. “Shim is my happy half. I’m a righteous bastard.”

  “Well, I’m all sunshine and daisies,” Beck replied, his expression relaxing. “Cian, stop overreacting. I know how you feel, but you know damn well that I wouldn’t have taken a meeting with the Unseelie until very recently.”

  “It wasn’t like I didn’t try,” his father said. “I would have tried harder if I’d listened to my sons.”

  A little fracture started in Lach’s stubbornness. He knew it was coming from Shim, but he welcomed it. Being angry with his father hadn’t gotten them anywhere.

  “I still would have resisted,” Beck Finn admitted. “Until we found our Meggie, we were the ones who were fading. I couldn’t consider any sort of an alliance. It wouldn’t have worked, and then I was just concerned with bonding with Meggie and keeping her safe.”

  “You can’t hide anymore.” The quiet statement came from Dante Dellacourt, who looked so much more serious than the entertainments on the Vampire plane had made him out to be. Lach never would have expected the vampire to give up everything to follow his cousins on what was likely a lost cause.

  It can’t be lost. It can’t. Not yet. After he and Shim had gotten their bondmate out of Tir na nÓg, then it could all go to hell, but not before then. After Bronwyn was safe in the Dark Palace, the Seelie plane could rot for all he cared. They would close the Unseelie plane and live in peace. Let the other planes duke it out. This wasn’t Lach’s fight.

  “I know I can’t hide, Dante,” Beck allowed. “The time has come.” He turned back to Lach and Shim. “We were talking to your father about the plan Dante’s come up with. In a week and a half, a formal group of ambassadors from the Vampire plane will be welcomed into Tir na nÓg. That means Torin has to open the plane.”

  Torin’s hags had managed to shut off Tir na nÓg for over thirteen years. Some managed to sneak in. There were always cracks a smart Fae could slip through, but not an army, and that’s what the Seelie twins would need. But if the magical walls were down, a crack in the veil that held the plane closed could be widened by a decent enough witch. Then a small force could get through. What had his father promised them?

  “You intend to raid Tir na nÓg?” Lach kept his voice measured.

  Cian took a deep breath, obviously calming himself. “We have to. Single assassins haven’t done the trick. We tried that at first, and Torin always finds them.”

  Lach’s father answered that one. “It’s the hags. It’s why sneaking you into Tir na nÓg won’t work.”

  Dante agreed. “It’s like a magical alarm system. At some point in time, Torin stole hair or blood from both of you. It contains your signature, like a scent to a wolf. The minute you step on the plane, Torin will know. So when it happens, it has to happen fast, because Torin will be ready.”

  Simon Roan, the vampire mercenary, stepped forward. “That’s what I’m here for. I can sneak onto the plane and start gathering Fae supporters. I’ve been running small missions on the plane for years, gathering consorts for wealthy royals. It’s been a small operation, nothing that could truly gain the pretender’s eye, but I’ve made many allies. There’s a network of Fae waiting to join the true kings when the time comes. Tomorrow, I’ll take a small squad and begin rallying the troops. By the time we meet up, the kings will have the army they need. Including, we hope, a contingent of Unseelie.”

  Lach was just about to point out the problems with that plan when Shim leaned forward. “We’ll go with Roan. We’ll find Bron and Gilly and bring them back.”

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” his father said. “I don’t know that I want all of my children on that plane. It’s too dangerous.”

  “And the plane is huge,” Cian pointed out. “You could walk for days and never come close to her. You have no idea where she is?”

  Shim’s eyes went a little unfocused. He spoke, but not to anyone in particular. “She lives in a tower. It looks out over long fields of wheat. She works there, her hands pulling and plucking, working the plow.”

  Lach watched as Beck paled at the thought of his sister working in the fields like a commoner. Lach could tell Beck that there was still nothing common at all about Bronwyn Finn.

  “It’s almost always hot. Lately when I reach her and I can see through her eyes, she’s preparing for the harvest. Tomorrow there’s a festival of some type. Bron helped put up a pole, and there are colored ribbons on the top. What do you think they’ll do with those?”

  “She’s in the Tuathanas District. It’s an agriculture district. They grow much of our wheat and the festival of threshing is celebrated with a maypole. The children of the villages dance around it. There is much merrymaking.” Cian looked at his brother, a smile growing on his face. “It’s perfect. It’s quiet and rural and days from the palace. No one would dream of looking for her there. Or think anything of men on the road at that time of year. Many traders are on the road. Goddess, Beck, do you really think she’s alive?”

  “She’s alive,” Lach insisted. “And we’re going to get her out of there before the war begins.”

  Beck nodded. “Yes. We have to put our plans aside. We have to save our sister, your sister.”

  Dante’s mouth firmed. “No. Absolutely not.”

  Beck turned on his cousin, but Julian Lodge stood at Dante’s side. “I agree with Dellacourt. You’re not seeing the big picture.”

  “Our sister already survived one war. She shouldn’t have to do it again,” Beck insisted.

  “We can’t leave her there.” Cian stared at the vampires.

  The vampire me
rcenary stepped forward. “You won’t get another shot at this, Your Highnesses. If you allow the vampires to enter a full alliance with Torin, he’ll have access to all their technology. Think about it. Do you want to go up against a guard armed with sonic weapons when you have a band of peasants at your back? Even waiting a few days could be dangerous.”

  “She’s our sister,” the kings said in one voice.

  “And she’s a princess of the realm. You can’t have it both ways,” Dante said, his face harsh. “You have to choose, cos. Choose now. You can be kings or you can be quiet family men who put their sister first.”

  Beck went red, whether with rage or shame, Lach couldn’t tell. “You know I can’t do that. Torin won’t allow it.”

  Dante jumped on the words. “Then your choice was already made. Damn it, Beck, it was made the moment you were born. You are not an ordinary man. I know it’s unfair that you’re not able to think of your family first, but you have a kingdom relying on you.”

  “More than a kingdom,” Julian said quietly. “All of the planes are at risk. You didn’t ask for this, Your Highness, but it is your burden to bear. The question is will you bear it or should we find another to take your place? I know I, for one, will not allow the planes to fall because your heart is too tender for the task.”

  A loud clap of thunder shook the walls of the palace. A storm was gathering outside, and it sounded brutal. Even the floor seemed to shake a bit. Lightning lit the windows, electrifying the sky. Rain began to beat on the roof though moments before there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. It seemed the rumors were true, and the Warrior King could call the storms to his aid.

  “Now who’s overreacting?” Cian said with a hint of a smile. “You know they’re right, brother. We can love Bron all we want, but we’re killing her if we don’t take our throne. We’ll get our crown back or we will die. There are no other options. The time has come, and I welcome it. I want it to be over with so we can settle with our Meggie.”

  “Or we’ll settle her into a grave,” Beck said, his voice tight. The rain softened, lessening to a gentle pattering on the roof.

  “This life or another, we’ll be with her,” Cian said on a sigh. The Kings of the Seelie Fae stood together for a long moment, their brotherhood apparent.

  Beck nodded. He brought his deep gray eyes up to catch Lach’s. “You’ll go then. I don’t really have to ask you, do I? You’ll do it because she’s your bondmate.”

  His father stood, a hand on his forehead. “I cannot let my heirs go. I love my daughter. The whole idea that my Gilly is alive fills me with joy, but I can’t sacrifice my heirs. I will send others.”

  Julian put a hand on his uncle’s shoulder. “Then Lach and Shim will find another way, and they will be alone.”

  Julian knew them well. Lach’s mind was already working. Now that they knew where she was, there would be no holding them back. Shim would follow him. They would get on that plane one way or another. “We’re going to find her, father. You can’t stop us.”

  “We will have her,” Shim said, his voice a little deeper. His fangs had come out, and for once his brother looked savage.

  If the evidence of their vampire half bothered the Seelies, they didn’t show it.

  “Save our sister,” Cian requested.

  A wild thrill went through Lach. Yes, the time had come. For the Seelies to face their fate and for him to meet his mate.

  Chapter Three

  Night fell, creeping across the fields like a mouse edging away from a predator. The shadows grew across the wheat until all was darkness, with the silvery moonlight to illuminate the swaying crops.

  Bron sat in her tower, overlooking what was left of her kingdom.

  “We’ve been in tougher spots, you know.” Gillian walked into the room, a fresh quilt in her hands. The days were still hot, the sun branding everything in its path, but the nights were beginning to cool.

  Bron would be so warm between her Dark Ones. They would never allow the cold to seep into her bones. She stared at her bed, almost time to sink into sleep and a world where she was loved.

  “I know.” Bron answered Gillian, not wanting the older woman to understand her impatience to be abed.

  Gillian placed the quilt down and stared for a moment as though assessing the situation. “Do you want to run now?”

  It was a kindness to even offer. Bron forced her attention to the here and now. She owed Gillian much more than her life. “We have to have coin. I know that. I can handle Micha. He’s a nasty old man, but I can manipulate him.”

  Gillian sat on the edge of the bed, her hands in her lap. “I tried to turn his eye to me so you wouldn’t have to.”

  Bron rushed to her side. “Gilly, don’t. I can handle him.”

  Gillian was so still, Bron thought she wouldn’t say another word. “He didn’t even look at me. Not that I wanted him to, but still. I know I’m not a youngling any more, but I thought I still had some charm.”

  Too, too often Bron sank into her own grief and forgot just what Gillian had given up for her. Gillian had lost her own kingdom. She’d been cut off from it as surely as if someone had taken it. All doors had closed because Gillian hadn’t left her behind. She’d given up her youth. What would have happened if she’d been safe on the Unseelie plane when Torin had started his nasty game? Would she be married by now? Have a child?

  Bron let her hand drift over Gillian’s, feeling the calluses and scars that hadn’t existed before she’d saved a dead, young princess. Her voice choked with emotion. “Gilly, I think you’re the most beautiful woman in all the planes.”

  Unshed tears made Gillian’s dark eyes shine. “You haven’t seen much, little one.”

  Bron shook her head. “I’ve seen enough to know I love you very much.”

  Gillian hugged her, a tight embrace. “And I love you. You understand that whatever I did, whatever reason I did it, I have come to love you, Bronwyn. I would place you first now.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  Gillian sat back, taking a long breath. “I thought if I saved you, you could bring the kingdoms together. I intended to talk to my father and marry you off to my brothers.”

  A part of Bron was offended, but it was the childish bit that clung to shadowy vestiges of her former life. She was more practical now. “I was only fourteen at the time. I’m not sure I would have made a decent wife.”

  “You would have been brought up to be an Unseelie princess. I would have seen to it, and your brothers would have been welcomed. They would have had a place until such time as an army was ready. We weren’t always two tribes, you know.”

  It was radical what Gillian proposed. “That was thousands of years ago.”

  “I know. I wasn’t trying to unite the crowns, merely to have a closer relationship. We fight far too often. In the end, it will make us vulnerable. I’ve studied this plane called Earth. They are a little like the vampires, though they’ve been closed off for so long, they don’t understand the way the planes work anymore. They do understand what it means to conquer. Think about vampires without any ties to other planes. When the humans discover our secrets, I doubt they’ll be content to leave us be. We will need each other. Whether it’s tomorrow or a thousand years from now, we will need to stand together if we’re to survive.”

  Gillian always thought ahead. It was, she claimed, the mark of a true leader.

  “The humans could certainly take us now,” Bron said with a sigh. “Is that why you were here in the first place? To negotiate a marriage?”

  “I tried to negotiate a marriage between myself and your brothers,” Gillian admitted. “I am capable of bonding, just as you are. I could have bridged the kings. But your father had already selected a bondmate.”

  Bron’s nose wrinkled. “I think if Cian had known you were trying to push Maris out, he would have sent her over the edge of the moat. He couldn’t stand her, and she hated him. I always wondered what father was thinking selecting a mate who hated on
e of her proposed husbands. You would have been a better choice. Do you think they bonded?”

  Gillian’s mouth turned down. “I’ve heard rumors.”

  Bron leaned forward. “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to get your hopes up, and it could all be peasant rabble-rousing. We have no way of knowing. They say the kings have bonded and formed a true triad.”

  Bron sat back, her head spinning with the thought. A true triad. It was a legend. The story went that when a pair of symbiotic twins found their perfect mate, they came into godlike powers. In the past, some could call water to their aid, walking on it and forming huge waves to crush their enemies, while others had the power to talk to all manner of beast, building an army of predators. But it was merely a legend. If it had happened before, it was so long ago no one on either of the planes could remember it. Surely it was merely a rumor. Symbiotic twins were rare and powerful, but they couldn’t control the elements.

  Some could call forth the dead, bringing them back to life when his power merged with fire.

  Bron chilled a little. Where had that thought come from?

  She shook it off. It didn’t matter. “I pray the rumors are true and that Beck and Cian have found their mate. I don’t believe the true triad stuff. I just want my brothers alive and happy and safe.”

  She hoped they were out there, perhaps on the Vampire plane with their cousin Dante, enjoying life. They didn’t know she was alive. It was better that way. They could have their family without risking themselves. Even as the thought crossed her mind, she knew Torin wouldn’t allow it. As long as Beck and Ci drew breath, he would plot to kill them. He had to.

  And Bron had to stay alive. Because in the end, her brothers would be forced to come back to Tir na nÓg one way or another. She took a deep breath, the cool night air filling her lungs. That was a battle for another day.

  “I’ll deal with Micha. He’ll want a grand wedding. He’s intent on inviting the queen herself.” Maris. Bron’s fist clenched. Maris, the betrayer. Over the years, Bron had come to understand that Maris had been the one to open the palace gates and allow Torin’s marauders in. Maris, who had pledged to love her brothers. Maris, whose corpse Bron intended to see tossed over her husband’s.