Pixie-Led (Book 2 in the Twilight Court Series)

by Amy Sumida

  Chapter Seven

  “Tiernan is my boyfriend and he will be my escort to the Ball,” I crossed my arms over my chest. “That's final.”

  I looked down at my petulant posture and felt a lot like Cinderella throwing a temper tantrum. Or maybe not Cinderella but one of her ugly stepsisters. Oh well, I didn't care as long as I got my way. Yep, that was definitely ugly stepsister talk. Just call me Drizella.

  “Seren, you know why that's a bad idea,” Keir had moved us and our volatile conversation up the stairs and into his bedroom suite.

  We had argued the whole way there but in that under-the-breath, sing-song tone that people use in public when they fight. Now that we were in the privacy of his suite, we could let it all out. And I did.

  “Why? Because my grandmother once tried to kill my boyfriend for having the audacity to defend his mother?” I snapped.

  “Yes, exactly,” Keir said in a confused way that conveyed clearly how different fey thinking was from human.

  “Agh,” I flung my hand out angrily towards his fireplace and lit the waiting logs with my pyrokinesis.

  “You must practice your beag magics at every opportunity,” Keir chided and with a wave of his hand, he sent a light mist over the logs, extinguishing my flames. “Try again.”

  “Seriously?” I gaped at him. “You're going to do this now? We're in the middle of an argument.”

  “Building up your beags may help you with your mórs,” Keir said primly, like a human father talking to his daughter about college. “It is always a good time to practice.”

  “Fine,” I sighed and focused on the fireplace again. I held out a hand and the logs sizzled but didn't catch. I sighed, now angry and frustrated. “I get the fire element confused with the pyrokinesis, they feel very similar.”

  “Try again,” Keir said firmly. “You need to be able to sort out magic from psychic ability.”

  “Don't you think they're both magic?” I lifted a brow at him.

  “They could be,” he shrugged. “But they are definitely different and in order to verbally differentiate them, we call one magic and the other; psychic ability. Now stop stalling and try again.”

  I made a face at him but did as he said. This time, I closed my eyes and felt for the magic inside me. There was a slight difference; one was a spark and one was already fire. I reached for the flames. As if it had merely been waiting for an invitation, the fire element filled me up and rushed from my extended hand, straight into the waiting wood. The logs burst into flames, sparks popping off them from the excessive heat.

  “Well done,” Keir nodded in satisfaction.

  “Dad, I love Tiernan and I'm not going to leave him behind because your mother is a psycho bitch,” I growled, trying to get us back on track now that I'd performed for him.

  A wave of magic shot from Keir's hand and sent me tumbling across the room. I conveniently landed on his chaise lounge but it slid a few feet; taking the area rug and a side table with us. A brilliant blue vase full of fairy roses fell onto the crumpled rug. It didn't break but water poured out everywhere and soaked my shoes.

  “What the hell?” I looked up at him in horror as I rubbed a sore spot on my stomach. “You need to practice your beags too?”

  “You don't get to speak about my mother like that,” he narrowed his eyes on me. “She may be a difficult woman but she's also a fairy queen and she's had to make sacrifices you couldn't even begin to understand. You don't know her, Seren. You've never even met her. So what gives you the right to judge and insult her? You hear a few stories and that's it, she's a monster? Have you never considered that the fey do the same with you? Hear a story about the half-human princess and make unfair judgments? You of all people should know better than to judge a person before knowing all the facts.”

  “You're right,” I held up my hands in surrender. “I'm sorry.”

  “Apology accepted,” he huffed.

  “You have to admit that you've kind of encouraged this fierce idea I've had of her,” I added. “Not once have you ever said anything that would discourage me from thinking that your mother is a monster.”

  “Yes, alright,” Keir sighed. “That may be true. I should have spoken more to you about her.”

  “Okay, well, I'm glad we worked that out,” I sat up and picked up the vase, replacing it on the table before I stepped off the rug so I could move it and the chaise back into place with apportation. My beag magic wasn't strong enough to shift the furniture so Keir would just have to deal with it or he could move the damn things himself. His control of Air was obviously strong enough.

  “I'm glad too,” Keir agreed and sent a wave of wind over to help me adjust the chaise.

  “But I'm still taking Tiernan,” I said offhandedly.

  “Seren!” Keir threw his hands up in frustration, accidentally overturning the chaise. “It would be bad form to show up to the Seelie Ball with one of their banished fey.”

  “He was never technically banished,” I protested.

  “The Seelie Queen is not going to be concerned with technicalities,” Keir sighed.

  “Why is it that she gets to be defended by her son but Tiernan's mom doesn't?” I asked.

  “Because she is a queen,” Keir said as if it explained it all.

  “Either he comes with me or I don't go,” I said with the maturity level of a five-year-old. I blame it on all the door opening, it was turning me into a real princess.

  Honestly, Tiernan wasn't the only issue. Or rather, his being allowed to go to the Ball wasn't the only issue. Beneath my desire to have him with me were my American and Extinguisher ideals. All men are created equal, whether they're human or fey. Justice demands that equality and I demanded it for Tiernan. My heart ached for him, for what they did to him and how they made him feel. Humiliated, scarred (beautifully scarred but still), and cast out from his family and his court; all for defending his mother. He didn't deserve that and I'd be damned if I left him behind to go party it up with the people who did that to him. Nope, not on my watch.

  “Perhaps it would be better if you didn't go,” Keir looked at me thoughtfully.

  “Fine with me,” I smiled smugly. “I've never been a fan of pretentious parties. You go and have fun with your mother.”

  “You can't not go!” Keir shouted with annoyance. “You're my daughter and your grandmother has asked to meet you. You are not permitted to ignore the invitation. It would be an insult she could not ignore.”

  “Then my sweet grandmother is going to have to deal with the fact that I'm dating someone she hates,” I shrugged. “Uisdean is polite to me, snarky but generally polite. If he can conduct himself so well around someone he hates, then I have no doubt that the Seelie Queen can do the same.”

  “I wonder what Tiernan would say to this,” Keir headed for the door.

  “Oh hell no,” I pointed a finger at him. “You don't get to pressure him into siding with you. I'll talk to him on my own and if Tiernan says he doesn't want to go, if he thinks you're right, then I'll go alone. How's that?”

  “Thank you,” Keir sighed, obviously confident that Tiernan would choose his side. Actually, I'd be surprised if Tiernan didn't.

  But I never said I'd accept no for an answer.

  Chapter Eight

  “Come on, Tiernan,” I whined. “I don't want to go without you.”

  “I can't go to a Seelie Ball, Seren,” he was aghast.

  “Sure you can, you'll be with me,” I grinned brightly. “And I've got an invitation. I'm pretty sure it includes a plus one.”

  “Seren, you can't possibly be this naive,” Tiernan shook his head.

  “It's not naivety, it's integrity,” I took his hand and rubbed a finger over his smooth palm. It should be calloused from all the training he did but fairies didn't get callouses.

  We were sitting together on the loveseat before the fireplace in my bedroom and his hands were already warm from the heat but his expression was cold. It always was when we talked about t
he Seelie Court. I hated that expression on him, it made him look like a stranger. I wanted him to be able to talk about the Seelie Court without turning into an icicle.

  “You stood up to Queen Iseabal because you knew it was the right thing to do but no one stood up for you,” I looked at the silver swirl on his cheek and sighed. It was only a surface scar. The scars on his heart were much worse and it was his heart that compelled me to continue. “I want to stand up for you. To stand beside you and let the whole Seelie Court know that I think what you did was brave and honorable, not traitorous. To show them that you've become an amazing man, despite the way they treated you. And that although you carry the mark of a queen's hatred, you also hold the heart of a princess.”

  “Sweet goddess, Seren. What you do to me,” he whispered. “Sometimes your words confuse me and sometimes they make me laugh but then there are moments like this, when I wish I could just lie beneath you and let your words fall over me like summer rain,” he hung his head but there was a soft smile on his lips and the cold had vanished completely. “You don't know what that will mean for you. This is your family. You deserve to be loved by them. If you take me with you, you're throwing away any chance of that. Your grandmother will be forced to reject you. Her ego will have it no other way.”

  “Then neither will I,” I smiled at him. “I don't want to be loved by a woman who lets her ego make decisions for her. A woman who can't understand why a son would step between his queen and his mother, even while her own son defends her so violently.”

  “King Keir defended his mother?” Tiernan asked with surprise.

  “Not what she did to you but my judgment of her,” I clarified. “I understand and even agree with what he had to say but I don't think she deserves his loyalty when she scorned the very same thing in you.”

  “You can't keep thinking like a human if you want to rule a fairy court,” he gaze went stern. “Even though I didn't like what happened to me, I understood the why of it. Insubordination for any reason cannot be tolerated, Seren. If I were your husband and you had acted as Queen Iseabal had, if some Count had dared to stand up to you as I had her, I would have killed him.”

  “No, you wouldn't have,” I said with soft assurance.

  “Yes, I would have,” he took my hand. “Because I would know that to let that Count go would mean I'd allowed rebellion to fester and an enemy to grow stronger. They should have killed me and so for that small mercy, I'm grateful.”

  “Maybe they should have killed you,” I said gently. “Because you have become stronger. You've become a true threat and I want them to see who claims your loyalty now.”

  “What are you up to?” He narrowed his eyes on me.

  “Twilight is the neutral kingdom,” I offered. “We are the only hope for peace but in order to achieve that peace, we must convey strength. We need the other kingdoms to see how strong we are, how capable we are of keeping the peace. My father has hid his strength for too long and look what it accomplished; my mother's death and two assassination attempts on my life. If he'd only shown his power sooner, Uisdean might have been too scared to go against him.”

  “And you think parading me in front of the Seelie Queen is going to show them strength?” He frowned.

  “Not just strength,” I amended. “Courage. Daring. The audacity to go up against fairy royals. A fool can accomplish great things because he doesn't know that he can't.”

  “Are you calling yourself brave or stupid?” He gaped at me.

  “Both,” I shrugged. “It may be stupid to bring you back to Seelie and flaunt our relationship in front of my grandmother. But it may also be seen as brave. It will show her and her entire court that I don't fear them. Not only that, I think the idea of being afraid of them is laughable. With one step into the Court of Light, we can show the seelie that we believe we're the stronger court. And if we believe it, then they might too.”

  “I take it back,” he whispered. “Never change the way you think. You'll be a brilliant queen someday.”

  Chapter Nine

  The Twilight Court was in a tizzy over the upcoming Seelie Ball but I had other concerns on my mind. The possibility of mass destruction in HR and my Evil Uncle Uisdean's verbal barbs had left me with the itch to improve my magical skills.

  As a young Extinguisher, I had been trained to use both my psychic gifts and my physical strength. There were lessons to be practiced which improved my abilities, things I could do over and over to make myself stronger, faster, and more gifted. This was sort of true for one type of fairy magic as well. The beag magics, which all fey had the potential for, could be practiced and honed. Things like hovering, manifesting fire, and spurring plant growth were all beag magics. The stronger you were magically, the more you could do with them. So even though there would come a time when you'd reach your power's limit, you could at least strive to that limit. But a fairy's mór magics were a different matter altogether.

  With the mór magics, there were no lessons. There were no tried and true methods to urge it reveal itself to you. My father helped a little by explaining how his magic felt and what he did to increase his control over it, but in the end he'd said it was up to me. Mór magic was a personal thing, it worked differently with every caster and evolved in its own way. Even when it was an inherited magic, like the bloodburn he'd got from his mother, it still altered a little in the transfer.

  Once you received it, you could practice a mór magic to improve your ability to wield it but it couldn't be brought out of you just by trying. I couldn't will myself into having thorn magic, it simply did or did not come forth. Unfortunately, that Yoda crap wasn't working for me. I didn't like sitting around waiting for my magic to either do or do not. How do you do anything without trying? I had to take control and try something. I just wasn't sure what.

  So far, the best advice had come from Mairte, my half-brownie maid. I knew she was only half brownie because she was a twilight fairy and so she must be a blend of seelie and unseelie. Still, she showed no obvious features of a particular unseelie race, so I didn't know what her other half was. It didn't really matter, she was twilight and that was enough for me. If she wanted me to know what her other half was, she'd tell me.

  There were a few combinations that had resulted in entirely new races. These new races, with their own unique traits and the capability of producing more of their kind, were considered purely twilight. Even though the first of them would have ties to the other courts through their parents, their children would not. So these new races were given names, like the bargests and cat-sidhe. Conri was one of them, being a bargest, but Mairte was not. There was no special name for what Mairte was, besides twilight that is. She was simply a blend and like all blended babies, Mairte had been raised by her mother and then been transferred to the Twilight Court when she came of age.

  It sounds sad but I've yet to meet a twilight fey who is unhappy with his or her lot. Probably because out of all three courts, ours is the most tranquil. I don't mean that we're quiet or somber fairies. I mean that on the whole, we're not prone to violence. We are the court which keeps the other two in check, the peace-keepers, and although peace-keepers aren't necessarily peaceful, we do tend to be fair. Fair fairies were previously unheard of. Which is probably why Danu created the Twilight Court.

  Oh but I've digressed, haven't I? Back to Mairte and the one piece of helpful advice that I'd received. Mairte told me that the easiest way to bring forth your magic is to listen to it. At first, I'd thought the advice was silly but then she went on to say that listening wasn't easy. Our minds are filled with thoughts, constant churning streams of words which can block out the voice of magic. Mairte said that I was lucky because Danu had already spoken to me, not exactly with words but with feelings and actions. She had even spoke through me once. I had already learned the basics of listening, now I just needed to clear my mind and hear.

  “Hear,” I muttered to myself as I stalked through the bustling courtyard of Castle Twilight. “How
can I hear anything with all this racket?”

  Cat stalked beside me, looking up at me sympathetically when I spoke. The racket must have been even worse for her sensitive ears. The clang of hammers fought with the boom of swords on shields and below it all ran a constant stream of chatter. As if the chatter in my head wasn't bad enough. You'd think fairies would be quiet, accomplishing everything with magical waves of their little fairy hands but let me assure you, that is not the case. They were as noisy as the rest of us and I needed to get away from it all. Far away. With sudden inspiration, I changed our direction and headed to the stables. Cat perked up and pranced ahead, already getting into her horse persona.

  “Yep, we are so outta here,” I confirmed her suspicions as I went straight to the stack of horse blankets set on a table right inside the doorway of the stables. “Go ahead and shift.”

  Immediately, her form blurred in a sparkling haze and she grew even bigger than she already was; her legs stretching and her belly swelling as her fur shortened. Finally, she came back into focus and an elegant gray mare stood before me. I threw a blanket over her back and gave her neck a pat.

  “Looking good, Cat,” I turned to fetch a saddle but a stable boy was standing directly behind me and startled me. “Jesus Christ!” I swore. “You scared the hell out of me.”

  “No, I'm Searc, Princess. I don't know anyone named Jesus, maybe he works in the kitchens?” The boy, who happened to be a cat-sidhe, blinked large, slit-pupil eyes at me. “And what's a hell? Where is it, if I scared it out of you? Should I get a bucket?”

  “Oh wow, I really need to adjust my exclamations,” I huffed. “Um, no, don't worry about any of that. It's just human nonsense.”

  “Oh, alright,” his face changed drastically with his smile.

  He was suddenly a beautiful boy, with bright grass-green eyes and long sooty lashes. His cheeks were as pink as a baby's and his golden hair was tousled carelessly. So sweet looking... I was instantly wary.