by Claudy Conn
Julian stroked her face and cooed to her as though she were a baby. He tried to soothe her with softly whispered words. He didn’t understand why she was crying. It was over.
The prince with Uncle Kennet in tow poofed into the library at that moment, and it gave Breslyn a full view of how ‘things’ stood. “Ah, Lia,” he said sadly.
Startled, she turned and saw the prince’s face. Maxie had often read that Fae were not emotional. She already knew that was not the case. She now had proof. She touched Julian and looked into his eyes before she went to take Breslyn’s hand and lead him to a quiet corner of the room, but even as she started to speak, he put a finger to her pretty lips.
“There is no need to explain, my Lia. You love him. My queen warned me it would be so. I think the first time I saw the two of you together, I knew that my Lia was not meant for me. Still, I wanted you enough to keep trying to make you mine. However, you are not free to be mine. Your heart belongs to him.” He took her hand and bent to put a kiss there, and she threw her arms around him.
She knew he didn’t want to hear the best friend bit, so she didn’t give it. She just hugged him. Julian coughed and said in a light tone, “Prince of Dagda, I must ask you to unhand my woman!”
They laughed, but it was a shaky sound, and Maxie went back towards Julian. Breslyn took Julian’s extended hand and shook it as he said on a guarded note, “I know I don’t need to tell you that the first time you drop the ball, I’ll be there to steal her away?”
Julian’s blue eyes glittered. “Try it, my friend.”
Happily they both chuckled enough to set Maxie almost at ease.
Uncle Kennet went to the couch, and sat down heavily to demand in outraged accents, “Will somebody please explain to me what the hell has just happened?”
~ Epilogue ~
THIS HAD ALL started with the prophesy of fulfillment. It all started with Maxine’s ancestor, with journals and the promise of dangerous trials.
Maxie decided to think that her ancestor’s spirit had finally found the completeness she should have had in her life. She liked to think that her namesake’s spirit had silently co-mingled with her own, and she smiled as she mumbled, “Fine as long as I get to do the talking.”
Maxie thought that somewhere inside her Maxine was satisfied. She knew she was.
Three weeks after Lamia and Shamon’s deaths Breslyn poofed in to tell Julian and Maxine that he had, concealed by the Féth Fiada, visited the coroner’s office and discovered that the authorities had indeed officially signed off their deaths as a murder/suicide pact. They could find no known condition to explain the anomalies in Lamia DuLaine’s blood. That was something they had shaken their heads over and put aside, attributing it to an unknown disease.
Maxie and Julian didn’t see the prince again until the day of their wedding.
They were married at the end of June at MacTalbot, and it was a joyous and beautiful occasion. Friends flew in from the States, and of course Uncle Kennet and Tally were there. The prince of Dagda was Julian’s best man! Maxie’s girlfriends were all over him.
Julian wanted to travel. He wanted to see the new world he had been revived into and learn all about this century firsthand. So they took off for Europe and then America, ending at Maxie’s home on Long Island. He said he wanted to know everything about her life before they met. When they returned at the end of July, they stopped in London, got things going for their London town house, and then flew home to MacTalbot.
They discovered that Uncle Kennet and Tally had eloped while they were away and had moved into her home near the castle, which they were in the process of renovating. Uncle Kennet was having a new study wing added where he could display and use all the books and manuscripts he had collected over the years. His new hobby was finding out anything there was to know about the Tuatha Dé.
Julian gave Maxine a chocolate lab puppy for her birthday. She thought life was better than good. However, happily ever after was, she knew, something of a myth. Happily ever after was always interrupted by life, and life loomed big and greater than they wanted. It hovered dark and threatening on the horizon.
Maxie had a vision of Gaiscioch in the Dark Realm. He and his dark Queen Morrigu had something really huge planned, and it was going to take a great deal to defeat them. Gaiscioch had already released more Unseelie monsters, all with the ability to hide behind human Glamour, than Maxie cared to think about.
The monsters were feeding on humans and they had to be stopped.
The prince of Dagda visited them from time to time. He poofed in and out at will, but they didn’t have the heart to make him announce himself first. Maxie believed that he believed it was his special right bestowed on him as status of being the best man.
He kept them updated on things at Tir, and Max told him about her vision of Gaiscioch. He said that they must all be ready for a massive attack from Gais and his dark monsters, either in August or on Halloween when Dark Magic was at its strongest.
The prince was very proud that he and Nuad the Tracker had been able to keep Gaiscioch from escaping the Dark Realm. On his last visit, Breslyn frantically told them they would be required to use blood, considerable blood—their own blood—at the next ritual. The next ritual was in August. After that was Halloween—Samhain. He advised them that he and his trackers had been killing and containing the Unseelie castes that had been unleashed in the human world. These monsters were feeding on humans, and more and more of the Unseelie lower castes were escaping through small cracks in the prison wall.
Maxie knew the year ahead would be like no other because shortly after the prince’s visit, she had another visitor.
Julian had been busy with some paperwork, and she took a quick ride into Beauly. There was a sale. She was astonished at first. She thought when they hadn’t seen or heard from him in so long, that he had forgotten their earlier encounter.
He hadn’t.
Maxie was just leaving the village, and she was on a lonely stretch of the road when she saw him and he stopped her car. She released the wheel—she needed her hands free. She had been honing her skills.
He hovered with a swoosh of his magnificent wings, his white-gold hair flowing in the breeze, gold dust lighting up the air all around him. He really looked like an angel.
He wasn’t. It was a hard truth … he was Daoine Shee and had even less empathy with humans than their lower caste, Tuatha Dé. He spoke. She listened.
“So then, the prince has relinquished you to a Druid priest.” He said this as a matter of fact. She didn’t think he wanted a response.
Maxie had the Rowan Wand tucked in at her back. When she went anywhere alone, even on their warded land, she took the wand. She had been having these awful ‘feelings’—Druid feelings—and so she armed herself.
Even so, she was blasted with fear, though she tried to control it. She felt her throat tremble when she spoke. “Sluagh, I appreciate your interest. Now why don’t we cut to the chase, and you can tell me why you are here?” She was proud of her bluster.
The Sluagh considered her a moment. “You hold yourself well. It is regrettable that you don’t wish me to host you on what would be the tour of your meager life. However, I shall respect your wishes—you are after all nearly royalty as you are a Fios.”
“Ha!” She couldn’t help herself. Why are you arguing with that thing? Sometimes her mouth moved before her brain. “You were ready to take me against my will only a few months ago!”
“Ah, that was different. You had been promised to me. You are a Seer. I wanted you. That said, I listened to the royal prince’s wise counsel and relinquished my bid. It was Gaiscioch that disrespected me, and time has shown me that he has disrespected all the Daoine as well. This cannot go unpunished.”
This was a Fae she could not trust. The Daoine were self-serving and cold. Maxine believed that they had lost their ‘meager’—to use his word—souls along the way. She answered carefully. “Good. I hope you manage to do that.”
“Indeed. It has come to my attention that he means to release all manner of Unseelie into the world. That will not do. They do not respect Nature. If you lift your wards against me at MacTalbot, I shall assist you in your endeavors.”
“No … Oh no … Sluagh. I thank you and hope that you may assist us, but wards stay put.”
“That displeases me, human.”
She pulled a face. “Human? May I remind you … I am a Seer and a high Druid priestess to boot. I was chosen by the queen to carry the Rowan Wand!”
He swooshed backwards a few feet. “That too displeases me.”
“Then don’t assist us. You have your world—we have ours. We don’t interfere with yours, so …”
“Enough! You must learn how to address such as I.”
Maxie decided sugar was better than spice. “Okay, exalted great Sluagh. We are not always powerless. However, we have no wish to anger you, and would greatly appreciate any help you can give us if you so choose.”
“Better, human.” He smiled slowly and conceded. “Priestess.” He swooshed closer. “Do not point the wand at me, and we shall manage.”
Ah, she thought. So he was, if not afraid, at least somewhat uncomfortable about the power of the wand. Good to know. “Right.”
“I have been told that Gaiscioch suspects you have the Stone of Fal in hiding. We of the Daoine do not wish him to find it.”
“Thank you, Sluagh.” She considered him for a moment and asked the obvious. “Why didn’t you just tell Queen Aaibhe?”
His smile got prettier. In fact, he had been so aloof till now that she couldn’t believe he was capable of such a winning smile, but he was. His smile almost reached those many-colored glittering eyes. “Because then …”—he inclined his head—“Priestess, I would have missed the chance to converse with you.” He sort of shrugged. “And I find conversation with you … amusing.”
She decided to ignore this last and said, “What else can you tell us?”
“Nothing more for the moment, but we have our own Trackers, and they are watching him. Now, Priestess, will you allow me to visit you at MacTalbot?”
“I will discuss it with my husband.”
Back to icy. “I put the question to you, not to him.”
“Still, I will discuss it with my husband.”
He considered her for a long moment, and then damn, he was smiling again. “When you have an answer, point your wand to the mistletoe and call my name.”
Poof, and he was gone.
She drove home like a woman possessed. She parked the Jag and ran like a crazy woman into the house, screaming for Julian.
Julian knew how to contact Breslyn. They had it worked out between them, and it didn’t take more than a moment for the prince to appear. They came to a decision. Maxie was not so sure she liked that decision. But the thing was that they needed the Sluagh’s help.
Maxie sighed as she thought now she was going to have to point the wand at the mistletoe. She wondered what wild mistletoe looked like.
Before the prince took his leave, he advised them that they needed to learn a new chant by Halloween. Julian and the prince shook hands, and Julian told him they would stand as ready as Queen Aaibhe and he needed.
The prince shifted off.
A few moments later, the Stone of Fal that they had been keeping in secret for the queen was gone as well. It was true; they were committed to helping keep the Walls in place, and they would stand ready. However, soon after the prince and the Stone of Fal were gone, Maxie had another vision, and it was the first time she actually got a look at Gaiscioch.
There was no denying that in spite of his wicked, insane mind, he was a handsome devil with long, silky black hair. A wide silver streak traveled the length of his hair from the right side of his forehead. He was standing near Queen Morrigu, who was black-haired and an evil looking beauty. They were smiling at each other, but it wasn’t love. It was because they had solved a problem, and they knew where next they meant to strike. And then, Maxie saw another Fae … not quite a Fae …
Where was she? Who was she? Damn, what was she?
There was a dark cloud coming and blocking their way.
“Okay,” Maxie said out loud, “I know what this means. There is a big and evil ugly at the door, and I have a real bad, bad feeling …”
***
Enjoy a preview of the next book
in the Legend series:
Shee Willow—Legend
~ Prelude ~
The war with the dark Unseelie Fae has already begun. Humans need to know how to protect themselves.
Although we (the Seelie Fae) have stood between humans and the dark Fae, they are escaping in numbers too great to contain, and they are coming for you!
The prison wall that kept the Dark Fae in their Dark Realm has been breached. We used a great deal of our skills—and magic—to keep that wall intact, but it has been dangerously thinning. They escaped in small numbers, but there is another threat—their new and sinister leader whom you may already have met.
His name is Gaiscioch.
The Unseelie creatures (one shrinks to call them Fae, for in most respects they are very different) have been, from the moment they were created, a venomous, bitter, and malevolent race of ill-formed life. They have always wanted human contact. They want it still, and that is not good.
Gaiscioch was one of our own. He turned his back on his own kind. We dubbed him a renegade Seelie. He took refuge in the Dark Realm, and in return for their allegiance, he promised the monsters freedom. He promised them our Fae and human worlds.
Gais freed some of the lower castes through various portals he was able to create before our great Seelie Queen Aaibhe managed to shut them down.
Although Gaiscioch was trapped in the Dark Realm of the Unseelie, he has been hard at work. He found ways to open the gap in the wall, and he will try to make those slits wider. He will need large enough portals for his Unseelie army, and his goal is to bring that army through to your human world—soon.
Gais has no love for the Unseelie, but he has an agenda all his own, and he needs the miserable, heinous things for his war.
The Unseelie monsters have never been free to walk your Earth in such numbers...
Until now...
* * *
We Seelie Fae have always been fond of our Druids.
Some humans thought they might be Fae descendents; perhaps in a way they are.
Humans speak of them as a mysterious group and have written a great deal about the Druid community. They have always been, as they should be, a secretive and select entity, and there is nothing like the skills and abilities of a high Druid priest/priestess.
A Druid priest was sorcerer, oracle, sage, and tribe leader in the Druid, tight-knit communities. He was the mediator between the physical world and the spirit realm. The Druid priests or priestess’ controlled the knowledge and the secrets of their small tribes. They did and do...
Druid priests still have the power to cause storms, and they have many gifts and abilities, given to them by us—the Seelie Fae.
In return for their special gifts, they have for over a thousand years enacted the four rituals that help maintain the prison walls. Druid women, as well as female Fae, have always been regarded as equals to males and had the power to conduct these rituals as well.
And now more than ever, the World—each of our worlds—needs our Druids.
My Fae queen has recruited her loyal Druid high priests. She said they are the answer to this quickly overwhelming problem. She put her trackers out searching for a way to capture Gaiscioch. She managed and placed her Fae warriors in strategic positions.
Even so, the escaped Unseelie are unthinking creatures of horror and are already feeding indiscriminately in the human world. They are even allowing themselves to be seen before they kill, just for the sheer pleasure of witnessing the terror in their victims’ faces. And their numbers—their numbers are becoming almost too great to contain.
>
And so, Gaiscioch has set his stage, and the greatest battle the human world has ever seen has already started...
Who am I?
Princess Ete, royal cousin to the Seelie Fae queen.
~ Prologue ~
Heav’n but the Vision of fulfill’d Desire,
And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire,
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
I HAVE ALREADY introduced myself. I am Ete, royal Fae princess and cousin to the Seelie queen, Aaibhe, and I should tell you at the outset, I have been suffering unrequited love for a Fae prince (whom some of you may already know).
His name is Breslyn, Prince of the Royal House of Dagda of the Tuatha Dé Danaan.
This is not an infatuation. No simple ‘taken’ here. Love is what it is, and who wouldn’t be in love with him? He is, even amongst the best of the Fae, a hunky, beautiful, honorable prince. However, he tells me that I am too young for him, and he has always thought he cannot commit to forever because we are an immortal race—forever, for us, is the real deal.
If that wasn’t enough of a hurdle to get over, I also have had to compete with human women. He has always adored humans—especially human women. Although I haven’t wanted to, I must admit that for the most part humans are quite an endearing lot.
I know that he prefers giving his affection to human women because that ‘forever’ is less than a century. I have heard him say to his friends that he can only deal with one hundred years or so with a woman constantly by his side.
He has just come away from his last adventure with humans. He lost his ‘Lia’ to a Druid priest. He was best man at their wedding. However, he still cannot believe that a mere mortal bested him. It made me giggle—it still does.
