by Meara Platt
“I am not!” Edain cried, obviously reading his expression. “I’m only speaking the truth, but you won’t believe me because you so desperately want Melody to be The One, the mortal with the power to fulfill the Draloch Prophecy.” She threw back her head and laughed. “I hope she is as well. Then she’ll die and you’ll have to take a new queen.”
“Enough, Edain!” he said in a roar. “Begone! I’ll hear no more from your poisonous tongue.”
“As you command, Your Majesty.” She lowered her insolent gaze, cast him a quick curtsy, and hurried out of Ygraine’s herb shed.
“Forgive her, Your Majesty. She has a good heart.”
“I’m no longer certain about that,” he said with a frown. “I’m thinking of dismissing her from my council.”
“No, you mustn’t. Be patient with her, for she loves you … or believes she does. Seeing you fall in love with another—”
“I’m not in love,” he shot back, but the possibility disturbed him for so many reasons, most of all because of how vulnerable it made him. If Brihann realized how dear Melody had become to him … the thought troubled him more deeply than he dared admit. “Should I be? Ygraine, is this what the Draloch Prophecy is about? Must I love Melody? Is her love for me not enough to save us?”
“What do you think?”
He pounded his fist on the table. “If I had the answer, I wouldn’t need to ask you. I hate these riddles. I hate these human feelings. Look at what they’ve done to Edain, turned her into a bitter shrew. She was never like this before. And look at me,” he said with a groan. “Melody is constantly angry with me. She believes I will sacrifice her to Brihann.”
“Will you?”
“I’ve ruled a kingdom, warded off demons and all manner of ills for over five thousand years, earned the loyalty and respect of millions of Fae, and earned the trust of the English monarch.”
“You haven’t answered my question. Will you sacrifice Melody?”
“My answer is irrelevant. She believes I will and because of it, will never agree to be my queen. Ygraine, help me. What am I doing wrong?”
“Perhaps if you coupled again.”
“Hah! The more we couple, the angrier she gets afterward.”
Ygraine regarded him curiously. “How many times have you coupled?”
“I don’t know. More than once. She rouses sensations in me that I never imagined possible. She makes everything complicated. I don’t like complications. Now, Edain’s grown complicated as well, behaving so oddly around me. You shouldn’t have taught her these human sensations. You shouldn’t have taught them to me, either. Look at what we’ve become.”
“Edain will get over her infatuation with you. That’s all it is, an infatuation. She hasn’t experienced real love yet, but she’ll understand her mistake when she does. You’re different. I’m concerned for you. Love is complicated, and though you’re usually a fast learner, you don’t seem to understand what you must do.”
He sighed. “And now I’m out of time. That’s why the demons aren’t themselves either. They sense change is coming and are worried about it. If only they knew! They think I’ve found my mortal queen, but you and I know that I haven’t. Melody will never agree to reign by my side.”
Ygraine returned to her pestle and mortar, grinding down the remaining tell-tale leaves and roots of the monkshood plant. “She would if she trusted you.”
“What are you making? A love potion?”
She let out a soft laugh. “For Melody? No, only you have the power to make her love you … or should I say, to trust you, for we all know she does love you. She needs a sign from you. She’s waiting for it.”
“What sign?”
She looked long and hard into his eyes, and then shook her head and smiled. “I don’t have to tell you. I was wrong about you not being a fast learner. You know what you must do to fulfill the Draloch Prophecy, you’re simply too stubborn to do it.”
“Because it makes no sense.”
“Just remember that love works in mysterious and magical ways. It is more powerful than anything I can conjure.”
“How do you know? Your potions are stronger than any Fae magic that exists.”
“Perhaps, but no potion will change Melody. If it could, I would have taken it myself.” She let out a ragged breath, allowing him to view the pain of her broken heart, a pain she’d hidden well these past five thousand years. Had he and Melody not been taken back in time by the monolith, they might never have known this secret Ygraine carried in her heart. “I know how true love feels,” she admitted, her ancient eyes looking more tired than he’d ever seen them.
“Tell me, Ygraine. Describe it for me. I need to understand it better.”
She shook her head and smiled again.
“If not for my sake, then for Melody’s.”
“Very well,” she said after a long moment, “if only to confirm what you have come to know. It … conquers every part of you … your head, your heart … and soul. It heats your blood and overwhelms your memory so that the joy of love … or the pain of lost love, never dims. I wish with all my heart that you could save all of us, we Fae and Melody, but it is not written in the Draloch Prophecy.”
“So what?” He pounded his fist on the table once more. “Who cares what the damn thing says? I can try to save us all. Who’s to stop me?”
Ygraine’s eyes rounded and her mouth gaped open. “Fate. Destiny. The Stone of Draloch. Whatever you’re thinking, it isn’t possible.”
“Aren’t you the one who told me that love makes anything possible? That love can change the course of destiny?”
“Yes, but … you can’t change the inscription. It’s etched into the stone.”
He shrugged. “Fine, I won’t change it.”
“You can’t change it,” she corrected.
“Perhaps not, but I can change the interpretation of it.”
“How? What are you talking about? You’ve gone utterly mad … it isn’t possible … yet …”
Arching an eyebrow, Cadeyrn settled onto a stool beside Ygraine’s worktable. “Help me, Ygraine. I have a plan, but I’ll need your cooperation to make it work.”
“You do?” There was something in her tone … hope. No, he must have imagined it. He watched patiently as she darted to one of the enormous shelves lining the wall of her herb shed, grabbed a dusty jar, flipped open its lid, and carefully measured out a thimbleful of the acrid root moldering within.
She leaned forward eagerly. “This might help. Now, Your Majesty, tell me your plan.”
Chapter Eighteen
Melody awoke the following morning determined not to search for Cadeyrn. She hadn’t seen him since he’d left her bedchamber in anger last night. He, in anger? She was the one who’d almost been ripped to pieces by those demons! He was the one who’d practically dumped her on the jagged rocks and left her there to be clawed at by those foul-smelling fiends! She had every right to be furious with him, not the other way around.
And had he shown her any consideration after returning her to the vicarage? No. None. Not a smile or apology! She sighed and shook her head. Well, he’d healed her injured hands and been quite gentle about it.
No matter. It was the least he could do. He’d gotten her into the mess in the first place. And after returning her to the vicarage, he’d been most eager to leave again. He hadn’t told her where he was going, but she knew he must have returned to Friar’s Crag to join his Fae army in battle.
He could betray her without so much as the bat of an eyelash, but he’d never betray them. Cadeyrn was ever loyal to his subjects.
She let out a shaky breath. Had the fight gone badly? Was he injured?
No! She refused to think of him. He’d managed without her for five thousand years and didn’t need her now, no matter what the Draloch Prophecy said. She stormed out of the vicarage, and then stopped and looked about. Groaning, she realized she was standing beside the bluebell garden. Drat. She had gone to the precise spot
where she’d first encountered Cadeyrn.
So much for her pathetic resolve.
She’d promised herself never to seek him out and had broken that promise within the same breath. What was wrong with her?
She felt eyes boring into her back and whirled with fists raised to defend herself. “Oh, it’s you.”
Cadeyrn nodded. “I see you’re still overset. I came to apologize. It was wrong of me to put you in harm’s way. I can only say that I didn’t do so on purpose. Will you forgive this foolish king?”
She lowered her fists, surprised to hear him so contrite. His eyes were a deep, somber blue, as though tinged with pain. She must be mistaken. He’d suffered no injury last night, had he? She gazed at him a moment longer, taking in his expression. Warmth had replaced the icy hue of his eyes. Even when making love, she’d never seen him so open, his defenses so unguarded. She took a step toward him, but stopped herself from flinging her arms around him or admitting that she was happy to see him. “Are you hurt? What happened after you left me at the vicarage?”
“Not much.”
She caught the scent of smoke, pine, and honeysuckle on his clothes, and couldn’t resist taking another step closer. He had on sturdy clothes, as though dressed for a hard ride—brown leather pants and coarse linen shirt beneath a dark brown cloak. She wondered where he was going. Or had he just returned from somewhere important? His clothes were clean but worn in, and his black hair was damp at the ends, which meant he’d recently bathed. After visiting his borderlands to inspect the demon portals by light of day?
As though to confirm her musings, he nodded. “The fighting was done by the time I returned and all remains quiet.”
“Then you’re not hurt?” She ran her gaze along his hard body, lingering on the perfectly contoured muscles.
“No, I’m fine.” He bent down to pluck a bluebell and then brushed back a curling strand of her hair and stuck the flower behind her ear.
“Why did you just do that?”
“I want to remember you this way … always.”
She shook her head in confusion. “Remember me?”
“That’s what I said.” He turned and walked away.
“Wait, where are you going? You can’t just leave. We need to talk.” She scrambled after him, afraid he’d disappear through a Fae portal. Always? Did he plan to leave her? Or hand her over to the Dragon Lords? A small part of him may have wanted to do just that, but there was too much honor in him to ever allow it. No, the demons would have to win her in battle, fierce battle. “Cadeyrn!”
But he merely walked to the nearby bubbling hot spring and motioned for her to join him. “Aye, we do have things to talk about.”
Relief washed through her. He wasn’t going to leave.
He waited for her to settle on a rock beside the spring and then stretched out on the grass beside her, resting on his back, hands pillowed under his head. He closed his eyes and raised his face to the sun. “Hmm, feels nice. Feels warm.”
Melody stared down at him, undone by the masculine beauty of his features and her own body’s unrestrained response to him.
“You unsettle me, as well,” he said, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “And I like it as little as you do.”
She blushed furiously, thankful that his eyes were still closed and not upon her. “Is that so? You hide it better than I do.”
“You don’t hide any of your feelings. They’re open for anyone to see, but that isn’t what I wish to say to you.” He opened his eyes and rolled onto his side, casually propping himself up on one elbow. His somber expression conveyed no humor. “Melody,” he said, and then hesitated.
She felt a light chill. Something in his tone did not bode well.
“I’ve been speaking with Ygraine. A serious conversation … we don’t have a Fae word for it, but it is what you would call a heart-to-heart.”
“About what?”
“Many things. You … our fates … the Draloch Prophecy … Edain.”
She wanted to ask why he had been talking about Edain, but her pride wouldn’t allow it. Why should she care? She had no hold on Cadeyrn.
“It isn’t what you’re thinking. We were working out military tactics and I needed to know that Edain would remain loyal to me on this dangerous journey.”
“What do you mean?”
“Since you will not sacrifice your life for us—not that I ever truly wished you to—I’ve decided to call upon Lord Brihann and work out a truce. It is the right way. The only way.”
Melody shot to her feet. “You’re going into Brihann’s lair?”
He nodded.
“When? You can’t! He’ll kill you!”
“Not if I enter his realm under Lord Bloodaxe’s protection.”
“But he’s a Dragon Lord, too! They’re all Dragon Lords! They’ll betray you. What chance do you have of making it back alive?”
“Very little, but I’m willing to risk it. What I’m not willing to risk is … you.”
Melody knelt beside him and grabbed his shoulders. “What do you mean by that?” The insufferable man! How could he speak so calmly about death, for that’s what he was facing, certain death, if he journeyed into Brihann’s realm.
“A human once told me that to like someone meant you would do something nice for them, but to love someone meant you would die for them. That’s what I’m willing to do for you, Melody. I won’t sacrifice you to save my people. I’ll find another way to defeat Brihann, even if I must die for it.”
She gave him a determined shake, furious that he could remain calm in the face of obvious danger, and furious that he claimed to love her when he obviously didn’t … not in the breathless, legs-buckling, heart-soaring, love-you-forever way that she felt for him. If he loved her, it was in a noble, dutifully protective way, not in any I-need-you-desperately-and-can’t-live-without-you sort of way. “Then Brihann will win!”
“So be it.”
“No, no! Why are you saying this? To trick me into going after you?”
“It is no trick. All along, I thought that you didn’t trust me. I couldn’t figure out how to make you believe in me. Then I realized the problem isn’t your lack of faith in me, but in yourself.” He held up a hand to stem the protest threatening to spill from her lips. “Though you still refuse to believe it, you didn’t need my help at the Razor Cliffs. You had the power to save yourself, but were afraid to use it. Perhaps you’ll always be afraid.”
“I’m not a coward.”
“I never thought you were.”
“You’re talking in circles. I don’t understand a word you’ve said.”
“So be it. Continue to deny that the problem lies within you. Were I in your position, I’d probably do the same.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You’d fearlessly jump in, shield up and sword drawn.”
He sighed and shook his head. “So long as you deny the strength within you, I have no choice but to do whatever I must to keep you safe. I forbid you to follow me into the underworld,” he said, rolling to his feet and drawing her up beside him. He took her hands firmly into his and gazed at her with a compelling tenderness that shook her to the core. “I’ve made my decision. This is our Fae problem and I will find a Fae solution. I should never have dragged you into our war, but my council insisted upon it. I rarely counter their wishes, but will do so now. I’ve enlisted Edain to help me. She’ll convince the others on the council that my decision is right.”
Melody shook her head. “I’d hardly consider her a trusted ally.”
“No, I don’t suppose she has been lately. I’ve spoken with her, assured myself of her loyalty.” He cast her a wry smile. “She’ll do anything to keep me away from you, so in this, she is my most faithful defender.”
Melody laughed softly, a short, bitter laugh.
“But this isn’t about her. It’s about you and what you’ve come to mean to me. The point is, you have life and breath and a precious human soul … a beautiful soul that I will
not allow anyone to destroy, not even myself. Not even to save the Fae. Go seek your happiness, Melody. Forget me. I’m sure you will in time. That’s what I came to tell you.”
Her mind began to spin with rampant thoughts. She wanted to tell him that his plan was madness, but the alternative meant death to her. She didn’t want either of them to die. There had to be another way. “Forget you? As you’ll soon forget me?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “You’re branded in my heart forever. The taste of you, the feel of you against my body. You course through my blood and invade my dreams,” he said with a rasp to his voice, drawing her hard against him and lowering his lips to hers in a hot, urgent kiss that ignited fires everywhere within her body, a kiss that melted her bones and brought on a pulsing ache between her thighs, and at the same time made her unbearably sad. “Goodbye, Melody … my sweet, beautiful one. I’ll never trouble you again.”
With that, he disappeared.
“Wait! Cadeyrn, come back!” This couldn’t be happening. Did he mean it? Would she never see him again? She felt a sudden, jabbing pain of loss, like a fist punching her heart, and then more blows to the heart until nothing was left of it but raw tatters, as though Cadeyrn was purposely tearing himself away from her.
Was he casting a spell of forgetfulness over her?
“Don’t you dare!” She turned on her heels to follow him through the bluebell garden’s Fae portal, but the garden was suddenly gone, its lush bed of flowers nothing more than a thick layer of grass. She stared, mouth agape, at the bright green blades gently bending against the wind, not a blue petal or green leaf to be found among them.
“Cadeyrn!” she cried, overcome by a desperate ache. She had just lost the mate of her heart … her soul mate. She had lost Cadeyrn.
You wanted this, Melody.
Indeed, she had gotten what she wished for, a release from the Fae and demon war.
She was free of Cadeyrn.
