by Unknown
“How appropriate,” Anna laughed.
“Yes, very,” I motioned to Roarke. “Tell me more about the Dream Realm.”
“The Realm of Dreams,” he corrected. “Humans are limited in their abilities there. Some who have magic in their blood can actually alter their dreams with supreme effort but most are very vulnerable in the realm. We fey can use the realm to enter any human's dreams, all we have to do is focus on the person or randomly pick one, if you're so inclined. Once there, we can alter the dream or just watch it unfold.”
“Or kill the dreamer?” I watched Roarke's face turn serious.
“What's this about, V?”
“King Roarke!” Anna reprimanded Roarke's lack of my title.
“It's fine, Anna,” I waved her concern away. “Behind closed doors I prefer to be more familiar.”
“Oh, okay then,” she shrugged.
“I've met a dream god,” I told Roarke. “He goes into the dreams of humans and kills them. He uses their energy to prolong his life.”
“I thought gods needed to be offered energy to consume it?” Roarke was frowning.
“It doesn't seem to apply to the Realm of Dreams,” I sighed. “Maybe because there's no physical body to protect the energy?”
“Possibly,” Roarke agreed. “If he takes their energy in the Realm of Dreams, they'll die in the Human Realm. Their physical body will become an empty shell.”
“Yes, I know.” I was all too familiar with empty shells.
“Are you going to try and stop him?” Anna's face was drawn in concerned lines.
“Yes, if I can figure out how.”
“Well you already have an advantage,” Roarke brightened. “You're fey and he's a god. His power comes from human belief, yours comes from your blood. You have more right to rule there than he does.”
“I do?” I blinked and gaped. “That puts a whole new spin on things. Maybe I won't have to tell the others after all.”
“Yeah, you could totally kick his ass by yourself. Like that,” Roarke snapped his fingers.
“Sweet,” I felt an immense weight lift from my chest. I hadn't realized I'd been so worried about Vex. “Now let's go over these fables. There's one called Snow White, about a beautiful Princess whose father marries an evil witch and then the father dies and the witch has a huntsman kill the girl because the girl becomes more beautiful than she is. There's even a mirror in it that the evil Queen talks to, to make sure she's the most beautiful woman in the land.”
“Cora the kind-hearted?” Roarke gaped at me and then turned to look at Anna, who was gaping too. “Do you think that's who she means? She did like to go on about how pretty she was but then that's not uncommon among fey.”
“It must be her,” Anna's eyes were wide. “Cora met a king and fell in love with him. The king had an evil daughter who wanted nothing more than to rule the kingdom some day just so she could subject her people to horrible tortures. Cora married the king and upon his death, discovered that the Princess was a sadist. The girl kept servants tied up in her room so she could cut them up whenever she felt the urge. Cora saved the kingdom by having her secretly executed.”
“That's an interesting spin,” I blinked wide eyes at them.
“It's the truth,” Roarke added. “I'll be the first to tell you that fey can be evil but Cora wasn't. Her fable is one of the few in which the fey is merciful. Most thought she was too kind to give that girl a quick end. She mirrored several fey about it and they all encouraged her to have the girl publicly whipped to death so that the people could have the satisfaction of seeing their monster die.”
“Cora the kind-hearted, huh?” I huffed a laugh. “Well boy did she get some bad PR. What about Rumpelstiltskin? That's about-”
“Of course Rumple's one of ours,” Roarke laughed. “He was a boggart. I know the story well. He was making trouble all over the Human Realm and got caught in one of his own spells. It's used as a lesson to all young fey. You never give your victim a way out. That's just bad business.”
“Okay,” I laughed. “Hansel and Gretel?”
“Greedy little children,” Anna shook her head. “They got what they deserved. What kind of person eats a stranger's house?”
“What kind of person builds a house of candy?” I countered.
“It wasn't candy,” Anna looked at me like a dozen miniature swallows had just flown out my nose. “Who makes a house of candy? That's ridiculous.”
“It was fruit,” Roarke added.
“Wait, what? Fruit? Wouldn't that rot?” I looked over their confused faces and remembered that magic had a way of changing things. “So in your fable the children don't kill the witch?”
“No!” Anna made a horrified face. “And she wasn't a witch obviously, she was a dryad. Those kids were stealing her fruit and cutting her branches without permission. They ate it in front of her, the hooligans, and played with her branches like they were swords.”
“Oh,” I cleared my throat. “And so she ate them?”
“Ate them?” Anna looked at Roarke and they both started to laugh. “No. She whipped them with the stolen branches and chased them all the way home. They tried to fend her off with their picnic basket but she broke it and they ended up leaving a trail of food in their wake. They ended up feeding the creatures of the forest instead of themselves. Ironic, I think, considering that they were stealing food from the forest in the first place.”
“Wow,” I laughed. “Um, okay. What about Little Red Riding Hood? It's about a little girl visiting her grandmother. The grandmother gets eaten by a wolf before the little girl shows up and the wolf impersonates the grandmother so he can eat her too.”
“That's not ours,” Roarke laughed. “I know the story you're talking about though. I watched the movie with Aidan. You should know better, that's obviously a Froekn tale. Ask them about it.”
“The Froekn don't eat people,” I shook my head at him. “It's one of their rules.”
“Well you saw how Cora was misinterpreted,” Roarke rolled his eyes. “Why would you think a Froekn story would fare better?”
“Oh, right,” I grinned. “I guess I should ask Trevor after all. What about Thumbelina? The tiny girl who was the size of a thumb?”
“Pixie,” Roarke nodded.
“The Little Mermaid?”
“Water-sidhe obviously,” Roarke shook his head. “Fell in love with a sailor. That's never a good idea, even if you're human.”
“Rapunzel?”
“That doesn't ring a bell,” Roarke frowned.
“Her mother was forced to give her to a witch when she was a baby and the witch kept her in a tower without a door. The witch would call out for her to throw down her hair and Rapunzel had this really long hair that she'd toss out the tower window. The witch would climb her hair to spend time with her in the tower.”
“That wasn't hair,” Roarke laughed. “I think you're talking about Eilidh. She was an air-sidhe who had a thing for human knights. She had this tower built with no door, just a big bedroom at the top with a window she could fly into. When she wanted some company, she'd hang a flag out the window and all the knights knew that she was there and looking for company. They'd go to the tower and sing or recite poetry to her. When she found one she liked, she throw a rope ladder out the window and he'd get rewarded for his efforts.”
“Rapunzel was a slut?” I whispered, horrified.
“She was an air-sidhe,” Anna shrugged. “They can be rather flighty. They throw their affections wherever the wind blows. It's their nature and sex isn't such a big deal to us fey. When you live as long as we do, you need something to pass the time.”
“Sure,” I looked up as Arach came into the room. “Talking about passing the time,” I started to grin as both Anna and Roarke laughed.
“What?” Arach glowered at all three of us.
Chapter Thirty-One
“I hate him and his stupid blue hair,” Nora growled as I sat down next her. Her normally sleek hair was wild
around her, as wild as her flashing, red, phooka eyes.
“Excuse me?” I set my mug of hot cider down. I'd just come down to the dining hall to get a warm beverage and saw her sitting alone. I guess there was a reason for her solitude.
“Your friend,” she sneered. “The King of Water. I hate him.”
“Okay. I know I'm probably going to regret asking this but why?”
“He wants to do the fertility ritual, like you and King Arach did for us,” she turned her fiery eyes on me, her sweet doll face turning evil.
“So?”
“So he doesn't want to do it with me!”
“Oh,” I gaped. Guirmean was a good man, I knew it. So why would he tell his girlfriend he wanted to have sex with another woman. “Did he give a reason?”
“He's afraid my fire will hurt his people,” she muttered.
“Oh,” I nodded. Yep, now that sounded like Guirmean.
“I understand it but he wants my approval,” she huffed. “You can't ask for my approval to cheat on me. That's ridiculous.”
“Not even to save his kingdom from infertility?”
“Now you're starting to sound like him,” she narrowed her eyes on me.
“Well, think of it like this,” I chewed my lip. “He could have just done it without telling you. The fact that he's not only telling you but wants your approval, says that he cares about you. I personally, would have just done it and asked for forgiveness afterward,” I gave her a lopsided grin.
“Huh,” she pondered. “Yeah, I could see that.”
“What if you needed to have sex with one of the phooka men in order to ensure the fertility of your whole race?” I pressed. “Would you ask Guirmean's permission?”
“Probably.”
“And would you expect him to understand?”
“Probably,” she stood up with a growl. “Damn it, Queen Vervain. Now I feel badly.”
“Well don't tell him that,” I widened my eyes and she laughed, then slowly sat back down.
“No? What should I do?”
“Make it seem like you're reluctantly sacrificing your ego for the sake of his fey,” I whispered conspiratorially. “Then he'll feel indebted and impressed. He'll probably give you something really expensive.”
“You're definitely a Queen,” Nora laughed. “I'll do it. Thanks for the advice.”
“Anytime,” I stopped her when she stood to leave. “I just want to make it clear that I take no responsibility for this if it goes badly, only credit if it goes well.”
“Another Queenly answer,” she laughed and took off.
I smirked into my cider. Guirmean was in for a rocky ride.
“Tima!” Aidan shouted from the doorway to the dining hall. I spewed cider all over the table and turned to gape at my lion. Behind him were Lucian, Ryan, and Jared. It was an Intare invasion and Danal stood off to the side, glaring at me.
“What are you doing here?” I stood up, wiping my mouth, and went over to them.
“You said we could come visit Roarke,” Aidan deflated.
“I also said you needed to tell me first so I could let Arach know,” I looked over to Danal. “Let me guess, you found them at the End of the Road?”
“Yes,” Danal grimaced. “Could you control your pets, Queen Vervain?”
“Hey now,” I narrowed my eyes on him as the Intare started to growl.
“Just give me a warning next time,” Danal rolled his eyes. “Or your cats are gonna lose one of their nine lives.”
“Fine,” I sighed. “Thank you for bringing them here, Danal.”
“You're welcome, Queen Vervain,” he nodded curtly and left.
“Now for all of you,” I snarled.
“Tima,” Jared looked from the other Intare back to me. “We thought we were invited.”
“Because you guys don't listen,” I growled. “You hear half of what I say, then you get distracted and just-”
“Aidan!” Roarke came through the door with some of the new fire cats. “Lucian! Jared! Ryan! Did you come to see me? Man, I missed you guys.”
“...take off,” I finished with an aggrieved expression.
“Roarke!” They all yelled at the same time.
“We heard you've got some hot pussy here,” Aidan joked.
“Aidan,” I growled.
“What?” He grinned at me. “They're fire cats, right?”
“Hot pussy,” Roarke was laughing his little kitty butt off while the rest of the cat-sidhe just stared at my lions in confusion.
“Oh, I give up,” I pushed past them. “You're responsible for them, King Roarke. Make sure they don't get into trouble or it'll be your ass!”
“What will be my ass?” Roarke called after me.
“The part of you that I beat to a bloody pulp,” I called back.
He shut up then.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I went back to the God Realm a few days later when time had caught up between the realms again and I took the Intare with me. I was in a much better mood now that I knew how to deal with Vex, which was a good thing because I had to attend Fenrir and Emma's wedding. No one likes a part pooper at a wedding, especially one in Hell
Fenrir had become good friend's with Luke, Azrael's Dad, and Luke had a replica of Atlantis in his back yard. No, not a tiny scale model, an actual Atlantis landscape that he'd created with the power of the territory. Fenrir desperately missed the wilds of Atlantis and wanted nothing more than to get hitched under some big tree in Luke's remake world. Luke was thrilled with the idea, as he'd be getting married soon himself, and he liked being able to have a trial run with Fenrir. The devil could be a bit of a perfectionist. Like Martha Stewart perfectionist. It was kind of scary but then, he was Satan.
The downside was that all the wedding guests had to tromp through the bad bits of Hell to get to Luke's lovely house with its Atlantis themed backyard. I wasn't really looking forward to the journey even though I'd been growing accustomed to it, what with the number of times Az had taken me to see his father. Luke had thought ahead though and rigged cloth barriers around the path through Hell, so all we had to deal with was the burnt sky and flying demons. Oh, and a little glimpse of the Ice Blocks because they were just so damn tall. I kept my eyes set firmly ahead and the trip wasn't so bad.
“Oh, Vervain,” Emma whispered as she lifted the gift out of it's wooden chest.
We were in an upstairs bedroom of Luke's Gothic style mansion, getting her dressed for the ceremony. Trevor was waiting outside in the hall for us but everyone else was down in the meadow behind the house. It was my right as the resigning Rouva to help Emma dress for the wedding and then Trevor, as first born son, would escort Emma to his father.
My present to her was a traditional crown that the Froekn women wore to get married. It was delicate and tall, with silver spikes topped with diamonds, very similar to one I'd worn to exchange vows with Trevor recently. It should be similar, since I'd gone to the same source and told them I wanted another for Emma.
“Do you like it?” I helped her put it on over her veil. “The earth pixies made it.”
“It's a faerie crown?!” She gasped like a little girl. “Oh my god, this is the most awesome gift I've ever gotten.”
“Yes, it's a faerie crown,” I laughed and handed her the bouquet of white roses and jasmine.
She looked amazing, her long hair was loose down her back, another Froekn tradition, and her dress was a replica of Grace Kelly's. So elegant and so perfect for her. I'd lent her my diamond shoes for a little bit of sparkle below the hemline and with her crown she looked like a Princess but I guess she was really about to become a Queen. Rouva to the Froekn, wife to the Wolf God, and now immortal. A goddess without magic.
I'd asked Fenrir about the immortality process for new gods and he'd said that now that there wasn't so much focus on them, any new gods created didn't have the restriction of myth set on them. That sounded really good but you also didn't get any special magic beyond the immortality and
basic god spells. Emma would be able to trace and could perform simple magic if she applied herself to study it, like invisibility, but she'd never have anything that was just hers, like my love magic. Looking at her shining face, I highly doubted that she cared about any of that.
I fluffed out her veil and then spread her train behind her before I went to open the door. Trevor looked over to Emma and smiled, offering her his arm. She took it and they started down the stairs and toward the back of the house. I grabbed the Rouva torque from where it was lying on the bed and followed them. Emma had already been given the torque but it was traditional for the old Rouva to present it to the new, if possible. Rouva was a title for the highest ranking female Froekn, so it had been handed around a few times but this time would be the last. The Froekn would finally have their Queen.
We went down a path into the moonlit meadow and the murmur of voices settled into silence. When we reached the meadow's edge, a group of Froekn violinists started playing a slow song for us to walk down the aisle to. The aisle, made with an outline of white rose petals, was lined with gods and shifters. They all smiled brightly at Emma as she walked toward Fenrir, who waited at the opposite end of the meadow, beneath an arbor hung with white flowers. Around the edges of the crowd, torches were lit, adding a wild element to the elegance.
Standing beside Fenrir was Loki, his father. Loki had offered to perform the ceremony and I was glad Fenrir had accepted. The Trickster God had made a complete turn about where his family was concerned and he was trying very hard to do well by his son. I believed in second chances, especially for family, but if he hurt Fenrir again, I'd cut Loki's devastatingly beautiful face up into ribbons.
I lost the entire Loki train of thought when I neared the end of the aisle. There was a face among the crowd that I hadn't thought to see there. A face that was half white and half black. I mean that quite literally. The woman was entirely pure white on the left half of her body, including her hair, and entirely jet black on the right half. It was a startling look, especially with those icy blue eyes, but what was more startling than her appearance was who this goddess was. It was also kind of ironic. Hel was visiting Hell.
