Nerida hung her head and wept.
“Even then, you couldn’t tell me?” Brennan couldn’t move past the fact that he’d spent his entire life in fear of what might happen if he lost control. Of allowing no one close to him so as to keep those around him safe.
It had all been a lie.
“Do you realize what you have done to me?” He focused on the coverlet on Iris’s bed. “How this has shaped my life? In every respect? I nearly married a woman who plotted against me in order to keep myself distant, my emotions under control.”
Ailla and her father, after leaving the Goblin castle, had returned to the Dragon Realm and sealed the borders. The rumors and threats that flew through the realms had everyone on edge.
Brennan had been trying to find a way to deal with the fact that Ailla conspired against him while being careful of how he knew Drake felt.
He and Iris had talked about it, one of the many things they talked about while she lay in bed recovering, again, from an injury sustained on his behalf. She’d thrown a pillow at him then, too, he remembered. Called him blind and stupid.
“How could you not know your brother loved her?”
Brennan had no answer. He’d never even thought such a thing possible, and thus, had never seen it.
Iris had rolled her eyes and flopped back into the bed.
“Thanks to Iris, you did not,” Jharak said, as though that settled it all.
“Yes, thanks to Iris. Not thanks to my parents, who owe me honesty. In this, at the very least, you owed me honesty. Since you denied me that, our realms are in chaos. War talk flows from every corner of every realm. The Dragon Realm keeps out all those not of the realm, and refuses all delegations, even yours! Was this secret worth all that? We won’t even get into what you have done to me, to Drake!”
Brennan found he rose from the bed again, shouting. He focused on Nerida. “You knew, did you not?”
Brennan had never seen his mother shrink before a question, but she did now. “I…” she began.
“You knew?” He shouted, done with the lies and not wanting to give her an inch. “When you attempted to scry him, and you saw him? You suspected and didn’t think I had a right to know?”
Taranath chose this moment to glide between them.
“Your Majesties, if I may. Perhaps it would be better for their Majesties to return to the High Castle and leave us to plan here on our own.”
Jharak glared, but then sighed. “Taranath speaks sense, as always. We did not intend to hurt you or Drake,” he said to Brennan. “Or Iris. I am sorry that we have done so.” He stopped. Started to speak, and then stopped again. He turned, and left the room.
“I am so sorry, Brennan,” Nerida whispered, reaching a hand out towards Brennan.
He ignored her, and after a moment she let her hand drop.
Then she, too walked from the room.
Chapter Twenty
Iris
I continued to heal. As I healed, I watched Brennan suffer more and more. I didn’t feel like I could say anything over the next week after his parents had left. His focus on them made him momentarily forget about shipping me home. I was in no hurry to remind him.
He brooded. A lot. I felt sorry for him at first, because who wouldn’t? His parents had done a number on him.
And Drake. Who rolled around the castle looking equally broody and miserable.
I couldn’t help Drake. Not directly. I had to help Brennan, who then could maybe help Drake.
We sat in his lounge, as we had been doing each night, with a roaring fire warming and lighting the small room. I pretended to read (there were actually books in English), and he worked. I put aside my book and marched over to him.
“All right. Enough is enough, pal.”
“What?” He looked up from the chair where he sat, going over household accounts. Through all this, he still kept up with his responsibilities.
“I’m tired of watching you drag your ass around here. So your parents lied to you? You’re not the only one. Maybe in this world, but not all of them. So your brother is a psycho? We all have family problems. Your ex, well, she’s kind of your problem, but since she kicked you to the curb, just put her in the enemy column and be done with it. You have problems. So what? Everyone does. You’ve moped around long enough. What are you going to do about it?”
He looked up at me, trying to act like me throwing a hissy in front of him was no big deal.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s time you acted like the grown-up you are and took control of all this shit! Knock off the crap, Brennan!”
Brennan
He stared at her, all pretense of indifference gone. He couldn’t help it. She looked like a living candle, her light hair flickering brightly in the shadows of the lounge. Her anger made her magnificent.
“What…what are you staring at?” Her voice didn’t sound steady.
He knew she wondered if she’d gone too far. “You, Iris. I’m staring at you.”
“Why?”
“I cannot…” Brennan got up from his chair and turned away, tearing his eyes from her. He knew he should not go any nearer to her. Bad enough that he insisted on carrying her everywhere as she healed. Even here, in his rooms, while he worked. That he made himself touch her every day. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else doing it. It pained him to a degree he hadn’t thought possible, touching her and not kissing her, not touching her as he wanted. But he couldn’t.
She was young, and she had a life elsewhere. One that didn’t include him. The thought made his heart tighten.
“It is neither right nor fair that I burden you with all that comes with me, Iris,” Brennan said to the bookcases, unable to look at her. “It’s bad enough that I’ve trapped you here. I brought you here initially for my own selfish concerns, and because of that, you very well may be stranded here.” He’d wanted to send her home but Taranath had insisted she stay. Brennan feared the longer she stayed the harder it would for her to get back home. To escape all that would come to pass.
He could hear her walking closer to him. He steeled himself not to touch her, not to bury himself in the fragrance that rose off of her, not to wrap his hands in her hair and pull her to him. Never to let her go. I will be strong, Brennan thought. Ever since she’d come to him after he’d been wounded, ignoring her and how he felt about her grew more difficult.
Her small hands touched him, cupping around his waist and snaking around to his front. He stiffened as she leaned into him, laying her head in the middle of his back. A secret part of him thrilled at her touch, but he pushed that part down. It had no place here.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else, Brennan.”
He didn’t turn to her, or take her in his arms as he wanted to. He forced himself to keep his arms at his sides, and his body stiff. He couldn’t afford to encourage her in any fashion. “You need to go home, Iris. Back to your home. The only reason you’re here is due to my selfish action. I should have never—”
“You should have never taken me. Yeah, yeah, I know. But you did. And now, I’m changed. Forever.”
Her words both thrilled and saddened him. “It wasn’t your choice.”
Now she pushed herself away from him. He had no option but to face her. Her face reddened, she’d crossed her arms. When he met her eyes, her scowl greeted him.
“It wasn’t my choice initially, no. But—”
“There is nothing else, Iris! I cannot involve you in the coming war. Because it is coming. You will be a target.”
Her eyes flashed. “Why? I’m not really human anymore. I was, but not anymore. You said it yourself! I’m getting stronger! I can be an asset to you, Brennan!”
“It’s not an asset when I have to worry for you constantly!”
“Would you have worried for Ailla?” Her tone lost all hostility.
“Of course not. She has many skills…” he stopped. The trap became clear. He’d walked right in.
�
�Why am I different, Brennan? I’m not as old as she is,” she frowned, which made him hold back a laugh, “but I’m skilled in my own way. My human origin allows me to do things fae can’t do. You know that. Taranath confirmed it. So why,” She pinned him with her gaze, “Am I different?”
“You are different. I can’t be certain of what will happen. I don’t worry with fae—”
“I am fae!”
“Because I don’t want anything to happen to you! Because if something happens to you, I couldn’t forgive myself!” His voice echoed around the room. Shouting did that. And if something happened to you, I don’t think I could control myself, he thought. This time, someone really would die. “Because I can’t be responsible for thinking I’ve killed someone else I…” he stopped. “I care for.”
Iris’s mouth formed an O, and then slowly, as though time stood still, the corners of her mouth turned up.
“You care for me?” Her voice didn’t rise above a whisper. The sound of it sent a chill through him that went straight to his groin. He forced himself to ignore it.
“I do. You know that.”
“I do not. You’ve never actually said it. I know that I care for you, Brennan. I love you.”
He whirled around, exploding into movement, looking for escape and finding the small room hemmed him in. If he didn’t stand still her words wouldn’t land, and she wouldn’t be trapped here.
“You can’t love me, Iris.” He didn’t look at her, because he knew he’d see the hurt on her face, and his resolve would be lost. “You are young, very young, and you don’t know what you feel. This is…it’s…” he searched for the words all while his head and his heart screamed at him to be quiet. “It will pass.” He couldn’t believe he’d gotten the lie out.”
“No, Brennan, it won’t.” She came up behind him, and placed her hand on his arm.
A thrill ran through him at her touch. It felt as though she had lightening in her hand. He looked down at her, so small, still so human. So fragile, so vulnerable. So easily broken.
As she had once before, Iris seemed to know his mind. “You didn’t kill your brother. You’re not going to hurt me.”
”How do you know that? I could not live with myself if I hurt you, too.” Everything he feared ran through his mind. With the trouble with the Dragon Realm, with Cian still at large and no clues as to how he’d gotten into the castle, Brennan worried constantly.
“I love you. I am not the same girl you dragged through the bathroom. I’m something else, something different. And I love you. I always will. Denying it won’t change that fact.”
“Iris, you have your whole life ahead of you. One free of conflict, one where being fae in the Human Realm will be to your benefit. You don’t need to choose the chaos that is erupting here. I can’t guarantee your safety—I can’t guarantee anything!” Frustration made him run both hands through his hair, avoiding the soft hands still on his face
She stood on her toes, pulling his face towards her at the same time. “I don’t care. I love you. I would rather live with you in chaos than live a peaceful life without you.” She pulled him closer and kissed him.
Brennan felt his world explode. She loved him. She’d said it—not only once, but twice. She loved him.
This, right here, this kiss—this had been the reason for keeping away from her. He pulled back but she yanked him to her again and kissed him harder.
Iris
Why was he fighting this? I gave up trying to be sweet and loving, and kissed him like I wanted nothing more than to fall into him and never come up for air. I felt as though kissing him didn’t bring him close enough to me.
More than that, I wanted him to stop being such an ass and stop fighting what everyone around us had seen for ages. I hadn’t wanted to admit it because I was sure he didn’t feel the same. How could he? The Goblin King and me, plain ol’ Iris Mattingly. It made no sense. Then, he’d tried to send me away. I’d saved his life again. Why did he still fight this?
Really.
When I kissed him, it made all the sense in the world. The feeling I’d had before that everything was right in the world intensified as we kissed. This was right. I was meant to be with him.
I just needed to get him to see it. He didn’t have a choice any longer. Neither did I. I could not give him up, leave him. I had no intention of doing so. I no longer could imagine life without him. In the short time we’d been together, he’d become the center of my world. This was it. I couldn’t let him go. I feared that I truly might die if he sent me away.
“Brennan, don’t push me away. I am here with you. I won’t leave you. I will be with you, at your side, no matter what. But you have to let me in.” I held his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me.
“We are meant to be. We’ve been meant to be since we met. All this other stuff—that’s all it is. Stuff. We can get through this. And we will.”
I stared hard at him, willing him to see what I saw, to listen and hear what I said.
Shit. I couldn’t tell what he thought. He had the neutral face on.
Brennan
She looked at him with trust, with surety, with…love. With love. Her face, still open and pure as it had been from the first. In spite of all the intrigue, the fact that both of them had nearly died—she still looked at him with the open face of love.
He gathered her to him and buried his face in her neck.
For the first time in six hundred plus years, Brennan felt that he had come home.
Chapter Twenty-One
Iris
“Are you ready?” Brennan asked me. He smiled as he spoke.
Almost as much as I’d been smiling.
Ever since that night after his parents had dropped their bombshell, the two of us were together nearly all the time. I had rooms next to his and spent the entire day with him. Not only for safety reasons. I still felt weak, and Taranath hadn’t declared me healed until yesterday.
Ailla, his brother, Dhysara—were still out there. The entire realm still teetered on the brink of war. We still didn’t know the true motives of all the parties involved.
Which still sucked.
Balancing that out, Brennan had tossed out all of his objections to our being together. Today, we were traveling to see my parents. To tell them that I would be staying here. Unlike my grandmother, I had every intention of moving between my two worlds. After all, I belonged to both.
“I am so ready.”
He gathered me to him, kissing me gently on the lips. “As am I.”
We still had a lot to deal with. My parents were not going to be happy. He still wasn’t speaking to his parents. Our few arguments had been regarding their actions. I kept trying to defend them, but wow, it was hard. I found it hard to forgive them as well. The thing that kept me trying was that I knew, in my heart, if Brennan and his parents remained estranged, Cian and Ailla would win.
You could say I fought for my life and my future.
“Let’s go, then.”
“I love you,” we said at the same time.
He opened a portal, and we stepped through.
Together.
Epilogue
The room darkened as the light from the portal faded. The only sounds were from far away, from other parts of the castle. Then the fireplace flared into life, lit by an unseen hand.
A man stepped into the light of the now merrily crackling fire.
“You are right to be worried, Brennan. Your time is ending, little brother,” the man sneered.
The room went dark as he blocked the fireplace, leaving only the smallest amount of light in the room.
A whisper of movement and the fireplace died as though doused in water.
The quiet of the night returned.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Manifold is fortunate to live in the amazing state of Colorado with her husband, two kids, two dogs, and one offended cat. She enjoys skiing and carting kids and dogs to wherever they need to go, and she adores “tr
easure hunting” at local thrift stores. Her other hobbies include costuming within her favorite fandoms and periods. Lisa is very (probably overly) involved with her regional writers’ organization, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. To her great surprise and delight, Lisa has been nominated as a finalist for the RMFW 2016 Independent Writer of the Year award. She is the author of the Sisters Of The Curse series, based on the Grimm Brothers fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Her new series, The Heart Of The Djinn, is a trilogy that shows what happens when a free-lancing djinn does his own thing. Three Wishes, the first book in The Heart Of The Djinn series is out now.
If you enjoyed the first book of the Realm Trilogy, you can pick up the second book, To Wed The Goblin King, available for pre-order now.
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Sisters Of The Curse
THEA’S TALE
CASIMIR’S JOURNEY
ONE NIGHT AT THE BALL
The Heart Of The Djinn
THREE WISHES
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If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review! Amazon will allow you to do that before you are done. It would be greatly appreciated, because reviews are lifeblood to authors. Thank you, and thank you for being part of this story with Brennan and Iris. Book 2 of The Realm Trilogy will be released in mid-summer 2016, with the final book in late summer 2016.
Heart Of The Goblin King (The Realm Trilogy Book 1) Page 22
