To Wed The Goblin King (The Realm Trilogy Book 2)

by Lisa Manifold

  Drake opened his mouth. Closed it. “No, it’s not. But I think you ought not to focus on them right now, Brennan.” He clapped Brennan’s shoulder, and Brennan could see a slight grin on his face. “We have a sneaking ex-brother, ex-fiancée, and ex-almost father-in-law to put in their places.”

  Brennan returned the grin, and he could feel the feral side of him, the side that most fae kept in check—the side he only allowed to come out around his goblins—wake and stretch and look for battle. “And we’ve been wallowing over talking and feelings for far too long. Although,” he laughed at himself, and marveled that he could do so in his frame of mind, “Iris would tell me she was proud of us.”

  “Indeed?”

  “Yes, some nonsense about getting in touch with oneself, or some such thing.”

  Their eyes met, and they both began to laugh. “Well, I won’t be telling her,” Drake said.

  “Nor I, Brother. Not a chance.”

  Brennan sighed. The room seemed lighter in spite of the things that weighed on him. Is this what Iris meant when she said that he needed to clear the air with Drake? He didn’t want to admit it, being the older of the two of them, and having more lifetime experience in his little finger than she did, but it appeared she was right. Even if they still had more to discuss. Maybe he could put it off.

  His thoughts turned to Iris again, and how she was right about this. She wouldn’t be a gracious winner, either. He just knew it. Not Iris, his fierce human. She’d crow and tell him that he ought to listen to her more often. He could almost hear her. In spite of his words to Drake, he knew eventually, he’d tell her everything.

  “You came in here for a reason that had nothing to do with us listening to Iris’s advice,” He said, not wanting to consider the changes Iris had wrought in him in a remarkably short time.

  “Yes, I did. I think I’ve found a spy in the Dragon Realm.”

  And like that, Brennan felt himself shift. “Who? What do they know?”

  Drake pulled a roll of parchment from his belt. “I am unsure, although I am going over the people Taranath saw there recently, to see who might be a likely source. It’s unsigned.”

  Brennan unrolled the parchment and scanned it. Started, and then went back to the beginning. He needed to read it slowly.

  To the Goblin King,

  While the Dragon King is my liege, I cannot agree to his doings. Nor his plans for the realm. I am warning you, Sire, that you must be on the lookout. The dragons are roused, and Eilor has no intention of letting them slide back into sleep. The borders of all Realms must be watched from above as from below.

  He looked up at Drake. “Do you trust this?”

  “Trust it? No, not at all. Will I be wary? Yes.”

  Brennan thought. “Ought we to send this to Father?”

  “Do you think he will help or hinder?” Drake’s eyes hardened. “I cannot tell, myself.”

  Brennan sighed. “Nor can I. Well, let us make a copy, and then we’ll send it on. I won’t start behaving as though he’s my enemy. Not unless I have reason.” He hated that he and Drake—at this point, the only sons of the Fae King—didn’t have faith in their own father. But as Jharak had allowed everyone to think Cian dead, and that Brennan had killed him—he didn’t have a choice. The only person he could trust, based on past actions was Drake. Until their father proved otherwise, he had to remain suspect.

  They walked through the lounge and into Brennan’s study. He hoped he was making the right decision. He wished that he could speak with Iris, and cursed himself for his lack of attention to matters of the realm. She’d have nowhere to come to if he didn’t tend to what lay in front of him.

  Chapter Five

  Iris

  I walked in the door, determined not to lose my temper no matter what my dad said. We both had tempers, and neither one of us liked to back down. Plus, I needed to steal my mom’s phone. There was no other way I was getting Mara’s number. My dad was so mad about anything fae that he got pissed even when Mom called Mara.

  “Iris?” Mom was in the kitchen.

  “Who else would it be?” I came in and dropped the bag of debris that always had to come off the boat.

  She smiled as she bent over the bowl of whatever she was mixing. “Just checking, honey.”

  “Where’s Dad?”

  “In the garage, working on something, I’m sure.” Her eyes met mine and she gave me an apologetic look. “I know he’s being impossible right now. I am asking you to be patient with him, Iris.”

  “Who’s the adult here, Mom? Isn’t that all of us? So why am I being treated like the kid?”

  “Because you’re always going to be our kid. And you don’t have anyone to share the load with, so all the focus falls on you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Great.” I looked around the kitchen, trying to see if her phone was out and charging, or if she’d left it in her purse. Nope, not on the charger. Good. Easier to sneak.

  “You want to help me with this?” She turned towards the pantry, and I walked over to where her purse sat on the desk area on the other side of the breakfast nook. I reached in, finding that I was sweating. Sneaking didn’t come easily to me.

  Got it. I palmed the phone into my back pocket just as Mom came over with a box.

  “Uh, no. I want to get a shower before dinner. I’m salty,” I said, backing out of the kitchen.

  “It’s going around,” I heard her mutter.

  I had to stifle a giggle. It’s true. Everyone was feeling a little salty in our house. It was nice to hear Mom more like herself, and then a pang hit me. Just as she felt better, as our life went back to normal, I was about to upend it.

  But how could I give up Brennan?

  I couldn’t. It was that simple. I couldn’t. Even being away from him now left an ache in my chest. I hated being away from him even as I enjoyed my family.

  Well, some of them. Dad and his plans for Heath sucked. I didn’t know how I was going to stand it. AND I would need to hide this from Brennan. He’d blow a gasket. I didn’t like hiding anything from him, but things were tense between the present and future families as it was.

  I went into my room and shut the door. I scrolled through Mom’s phone, and found Mara’s number, adding her as a contact into my phone even as I felt guilty and disloyal to my parents. I was batting a thousand with all the things making me feel like shit.

  Now I had to get the phone back out before she or Dad caught me. I had my hand on the door when a knock made me jump back.

  “Iris?” Dad’s voice on the other side of the door didn’t sound as angry as it had been when he stomped off the boat.

  I took a deep breath and put Mom’s phone back in my pocket.

  “What?” I needed to still be mad, which wasn’t hard to summon up.

  “Can I come in?”

  Might as well get it over with. “Sure.” I opened the door and stepped back, allowing him to come in.

  He walked in rubbing his hands on the fronts of his pants. “I wanted to talk about—”

  “You completely not respecting me and the choices I’ve made?”

  “Look, Iris, you’re too young—”

  “How young were you and Mom when you met? Did you know when you met her?” I stepped closer to him, not wanting to give him any wiggle room, figuratively or otherwise. “Because if not, you both have been lying your asses off to me my entire life!”

  Dad flushed. “I want you to have a chance at a normal life!”

  “What’s normal, Dad? Mom and I have something definitely not normal in our baggage cart! There’s no getting around it, no matter how hard you pretend or try to force me into a box I don’t fit in anymore!”

  “You could give it a try, Iris. Your mom has managed. So has your grandmother.”

  I held up a hand. “Dad, no. Just, no. You’ve disliked Mara for as long as you’ve known her. You don’t get to try and beat me into your point of view with her now.”

  He glared at me. Then he smiled
. “Yeah, she’s a bad example. But your mom’s not. She’s more fae than you are, and she’s lived her entire life as though it’s not part of her.”

  “But it is. And it’s part of me. I’m not the same. I don’t even feel the same. If I wasn’t so mad at you, I would have felt nothing but sorry for Heath today. He has no idea how you’re setting him up. I don’t want to be with him, but that doesn’t mean I want to see him hurt!”

  “You like him, Iris,” my dad’s tone went from angry to conspiratorial, almost pleading. “You liked him only six weeks ago. Six weeks, Brennan wasn’t even on your radar. You need to give Heath—life here, even with all the new things you know—a chance. We have a chance, baby. As a family. Without all the other stuff hanging over us.”

  Wow. He’d just tossed it all out there, used all the big guns. No hesitation at the level of emotional blackmail involved. I took a deep breath. There was a reason my dad had won over my mom, and they’d carved out a life after telling their families to eff-off if they didn’t like the way things were. He was a stubborn man.

  I was also his daughter. “Dad, I think the reason I was out with Heath that night was so that I could be where I needed to be in order to meet Brennan.” Two could play this game.

  But I wasn’t playing against a novice.

  “Whatever, Iris. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ten seconds either way—we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Bad luck happens to everyone sometimes.”

  “Did you seriously just say it was bad luck I met Brennan? You know, because of Brennan you have a second chance to live life with Mom, right? That if it wasn’t for him, she’d be dead by now!”

  “You healed her! I saw it! He didn’t do anything! She didn’t get better until you did something, whatever it is you did! All he did was weasel his way in and try to steal my daughter!”

  We were nearly nose-to-nose and yelling. So much for keeping calm.

  “If it wasn’t for Brennan, none of us would know I was capable of any kind of help for Mom! Who would have told her? Mara? Mara can’t get her head out of her own proud ass long enough to do anything like that! And you’re just like her!” I pushed past him, evading his reaching for my arm. I turned around to glare at him. “It’s my room, but since it’s all about you and yours, don’t bother, Dad! I’ll take myself out of the room in your house!”

  I stomped out, wishing like crazy I could have slammed the door. He followed me, but I ignored it. Passing through the kitchen, I decided fuck it. “Mom, here’s your phone. I borrowed it to get Mara’s number. I don’t like lying, so I’m telling you outright.” I tossed the phone towards her and she caught it, having come around the small island as Dad and I steamed through.

  “You’re not calling that woman!” Dad shouted.

  I stopped and faced him again. “I am going to do whatever the hell I want to do! If I want to make a phone call to my grandmother, I am going to. The fact that you kept me from her my entire life is not my problem or my fault!” I hurried to get to the sliding glass door that led out back, because I didn’t want to keep fighting with him. I also suspected that if my mom could get a hold of him, I’d have some privacy. This was one of those times when I wished I had my own car. But we had only one. When we’d moved off the boat in order to have Mom close to a hospital, Dad had offered to buy me a car. At that point, I hadn’t cared, and had been fine with taking the bus to college and anywhere else.

  That left me standing in the yard, breathing heavily with rage. Me and my good intentions. The thought of the nerve of my dad made me mad all over again. When would he realize I was an adult, and capable of making my own decisions?

  Probably never. He saw me as a little girl, as his little girl. The one who needed to check in with Daddy.

  Since Mom had gotten sick, that dynamic has been changing. It started on the boat when we finally accepted that something wasn’t right. Mom was tired all the time, and the decisions went to Dad and I. Not that he ever gave up the final say.

  “Because I’m the dad, that’s why.” I could hear him in my mind. He’d ended a number of our discussions that way.

  I hadn’t challenged him. Then.

  Now, I would be challenging him. I sort of understood why he felt the way he did. With almost a detached view, I could see myself moving away from my dad—away from the girl I had been. Was that the fae part of me? Is this how the fae looked at humansIf this was how fae saw my realm—the Human Realm—how had Mara lived her entire life here?

  Because even through my rage, I could understand and feel sorry for my father. I had moved to some place he couldn’t. Since it was somewhere he couldn’t go, he chose to see it as bad.

  Well, I couldn’t help that. Frankly, I couldn’t see how to make this easier on him, and as hateful as I found a lot of his words, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I might be changing due to my fae side, but my human side was angry enough to not give a damn.

  I held up my phone, and dialed Mara’s number.

  “Yes?” She didn’t sound very friendly. My resolve wavered.

  “Mara, it’s Iris.”

  Her voice was warm as she spoke again. “Iris! It’s good to hear from you! Is everything all right? Is Claire okay?”

  “Everyone is fine, Mara. I called because I need to…” I hesitated. She wasn’t Brennan’s biggest fan, either.

  “Yes?”

  “I want to talk to someone who knows Fae.”

  The silence made me nervous. I couldn’t get a sense of what she might be thinking.

  “I haven’t lived in Fae for a long time, Iris.”

  “I realize that, Mara. But you did live there for a long time, and I would bet you could go back after…”

  “After what?” She shot back.

  “After it becomes really clear that you’re not getting old like everyone else.” I didn’t want to say After everyone you love dies.

  She sighed. “Don’t beat around the bush, girl. I know what you mean. I think you’re right, by the way. I’ll probably be here long after the people important to me are gone. My beloved Chauncey is gone, and now there is only Claire and you. Yes, I could go back. I’m not sure that I want to, however. That was not why you called to talk to me, though. What is it you want to discuss?”

  “I need to understand how to bridge two worlds, Mara.” As she said, no sense in beating around the bush.

  “You want to be able to balance your life in Fae with your life here? I’m not being dense, but I want to be sure I understand.”

  “Exactly.”

  She sighed again. I didn’t like the sound of it.

  “I am not sure there is, Iris. You know, my dear, I believe this is more involved than a simple phone call. Shall I come to see you?”

  “That might not be soon enough.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Aren’t you back in Connecticut? You can’t be here until tomorrow. I might kill my dad before then,” I grumbled.

  She laughed, and it was the most human thing I’d heard from her since meeting her. “He is a trial at times, but he loves your mother and he loves you, Iris. I may not agree with him on anything, but I won’t deny the fact of his feelings. Whatever he’s doing, he is doing out of love, pigheaded though it may seem.”

  “You sound like you know him better than I thought.”

  “I know all of you better than you think. And I’m not in Connecticut. My only child is miraculously saved. Would I really be far away from her?”

  “You let her go for years.”

  “That is not for you to judge,” she said, and I could hear the return of steel. “I’m staying in a condo near your place. How about I take you to dinner, and we’ll talk?”

  “Deal,” I said. This had the added bonus of getting me out of the house.

  “Dress nicely, Iris. No ripped jeans or whatever it is the young are wearing these days. Dress as though you’re going to a nice place to eat with your grandmother.”

  “All right,” I said.
I couldn’t even be mad at the slur. That was something else I’d have to ask her about. How she got used to things here. I’d seen how they dressed in the Fae Realm. I’d bet there was not a lot of movement in being fashion-forward, and there was a lot less skin that was shown.

  “Be sure to tell your father, as well,” Now I could tell she was trying not to laugh. “It will improve his mood tremendously. When shall I come by for you?”

  She might no longer live in Fae, but she still had that formal way of speaking.

  “How soon can you be here? I need maybe thirty minutes,” I answered, remembering that I’d been on the boat all day, and probably wouldn’t qualify as ready for dinner with a grandmother.

  “Thirty minutes it is, then. Be ready.” She hung up.

  I stared at the phone. Hearing her brought Brennan to my mind. It made me miss him with a feeling of longing so strong, it made my knees weak.

  I wanted to talk to him again, and not only that, I wanted to be with him. My faIt would be so easy to just portal back. But that wouldn’t solve the problems here, with the rest of my family. I could call him via my fae mail, but that would only make me late for dinner.

  I needed to get ready. The sooner I handled this, the sooner I could be back with Brennan, where I was supposed to be.

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, during which no one in my house spoke to me, mostly because I’d run to my room and prevented all conversation, the doorbell rang.

  I came out of my room just as Dad walked into the hallway towards the door.

  “You expecting someone?” He asked over his shoulder.

  “Yes,” I said.

  He whipped around to look at me. “Who?” He asked, hand on the door.

  I nodded at the door, ignoring his glare. He yanked it open, and there stood Mara.

  “I’m here to take Iris to dinner,” Mara said, smiling at him. It was the smile of a piranha— big, toothy, and downright gleeful.

  Maybe enlisting her help wouldn’t be the help I needed. I watched the back of Dad’s neck get pink.