by Sumida, Amy
“Call them fey,” I looked away, embarrassed at my outburst, and bent down to right the chair. “Call them family.”
“I do,” he said softly and I looked up to see that his expression matched his voice. “I'm just surprised that you care about what I label them.”
“You know I care about them,” I sat back down. “You saw me give them my blessing.”
“Your what?” He sat upright.
“My blessing,” I frowned at him. Hadn't he walked in when I was blessing them? Maybe it had been afterward but shouldn't he have sensed the magic, felt it connecting us all? “My magic helped me see beyond their appearance and it showed me that they were worthy of love. It's a little blessing but one that has connected us nonetheless.”
“I had no idea,” his face was slack with shock. “I didn't even know such a thing was possible, that a goddess could bless a fey.”
“I'm a goddess?” I frowned, where had I heard that before?
“A human turned goddess,” he nodded. “Some of your magic is god magic, the Love included.”
“And I shouldn't have been able to share it with a fey?”
“Not shouldn't,” he shook his head, “there's not exactly a guide to all of this. It's just never been done before. I mean why would a goddess bless one of us? We're rather opposed to each other.”
“Are you saying the gods and the fey are enemies?”
“No, not exactly,” he sighed. “We're more like competitive siblings, similar but constantly striving to one up each other.”
“Hmph,” I thought about it. “And yet somewhere along the way, I was made, part of both of you.”
“Yes,” he held out a hand to me and I got up and joined him in bed. “And you're becoming more and more a part of me everyday. I had thought it wonderful that you'd gone down there among the Hidden Ones and brought them out of hiding, opened my eyes to their despair, but now I know that there was so much more to it. You looked into the face of nightmares and saw the hearts that laid beneath. Not only did you stand before them without fear but you gave of yourself to them. Tied yourself to them with love.”
“I was afraid,” I swallowed hard and looked away, feeling undeserving of his praise. “It wasn't until after I showed myself to be a dragon-sidhe and they accepted me so easily, that I was able to see my mistake. Then my love magic did the rest. It showed me what they truly are and it was Love that prompted me to give them my blessing.”
“You are Love,” he smiled at me. “The magic has ways of knowing that are beyond yours, yes, but it's still a part of you and it was you who made the decision to bless those who most would label monstrous.”
“It felt like the right thing to do,” I shrugged.
“Vervain,” Arach laughed and lifted my face with a gentle hand. “Warriors, grown fey with strong magic, have pissed themselves with fear, just to look upon the fey whom you walked among, touching and talking to as if they were precious.”
“They are precious,” I whispered. “Their hearts beat fiercely, loyal to those they call their own, and honest in their natures. Yes they enjoy the hunt, enjoy the kill, but that's what they were made to feel. There's so much more to them than blood and death. Beyond that is a need so pure, they seemed to shine to me. The need to love and be loved. Simple, a need everyone has, but in them it's untainted, almost child-like. My magic recognized them because they needed it so badly. They were like a void crying for me to fill them. A yearning, so sweet, that it was unique in its very existence. Many want love but how many choose to want it, knowing they will never have it? They were not meant to feel love or desire it but their souls rebelled, and like fish leaping into the sky, they reached for it. They longed to fly. I could no sooner deny them than I could cut off my right arm.”
Fly. I had taught others to fly with Love. I looked away from Arach's intense gaze, trying to remember the other faces who were tugging at my mind. I had a flash of blue eyes, so blue they almost seemed to glow, but Arach's hand was on my cheek again, forcing me back into the moment.
“When you saved the little pixie girl,” he made an amused huff, “I'd thought you were showing pity on something tiny and pretty. I recall thinking that you might have reacted differently if she were hideous but I was so wrong about you. You showed the same compassion to fey so terrifying that simply viewing them has been known to relieve men of their wits. Then you go back into the dark to sit and socialize with them. You're the most baffling, wondrous thing. Tasting your blood did nothing to prepare me for you.”
“Blood seems to be a big part of your world,” I swallowed hard, finding myself suddenly beneath him.
“You stop my world.”
Chapter Fifty-One
You stop my world. Arach's words ran through my mind over and over in the days that followed. I obsessed over them, what they meant, what he was really feeling for me. I wanted to just taste his blood and be done with it but part of me hesitated. What if he still didn't love me? I'd be crushed because I knew that I was finally in love with him.
He'd changed so much. No, that's not exactly right. He was the same man, he was just more free about being that man now. He was kinder, more thoughtful, and smiled more often. He'd created the council like I'd suggested and they'd already had their first meeting. He was ecstatic over how well it had gone.
He'd begun to show and teach me about Faerie, a little nervously at first but then he seemed to start to really enjoy sharing it with me and we'd get into these long discussions about certain fey or the nature of Faerie, anything we'd seen that day that confused me. He took great pains to explain it all to me, showing me how faerie magic worked not just in the individual fey but in the whole of Faerie.
Everything from the smallest bug to the largest tree was filled with magic in the Faerie Realm. It was the birthplace of magic, the ocean from which all the rivers of it flowed. Then the fey had closed the borders to Faerie and I wondered what that had done to the other realms.
But philosophy was just one of the many topics of conversation for us. He was a good teacher but he was also a good student, having enough humility to accept my knowledge to be as valid as his. Our verbal exchanges could go on for hours sometimes, goblins bringing us refreshments while shaking their heads in disbelief.
Then at night, after all the excitements of the day, we'd set the bed afire. Though not literally anymore. I was able to control my dragon and my fire much better now. I could direct the flame from my mouth to hit something as big as a tree or as small as a pixie... which I'd of course never do again. I could also call it to my fingers, just one or my entire hand, if I really worked up a steam.
I could hear the heartbeat of any creature I focused on and I could track their scent. I could make myself invisible but I had the strangest feeling that I'd been able to do that before. I got a lot of those strange feelings and I'd have these moments of doubt but Arach always found a way to reassure me and I'd wake up feeling refreshed in the morning, like a brand new woman.
But did he love me?
I walked into the bedroom I shared with Arach and stopped short. He was on one knee in the middle of the floor, waiting for me. When he saw me, he held something up and smiled.
I walked closer in a daze until I could see the little bit of metal he held. A ring. I frowned and looked into his face. What was this all about? Then I had a flash, someone on their knees before me, asking me to marry them like a ...
“...human,” Arach started to look concerned.
“I'm sorry,” I shook away my strange thoughts. “What did you say?”
“I said, I thought you might like it if I proposed to you like a human,” he held out the ring. It was a thick gold band with a deep red stone sparkling on top of it. “Will you marry me, Vervain?”
“I...” I started to reach for the ring and then stopped. I had refused someone else before him. Someone I shouldn't have refused but I loved Arach. I shouldn't refuse him either. Unless... “I can't marry a man who doesn't love me.”
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“Vervain,” he laughed and stood up. “Why must you make everything so difficult? I do love you, of course I do. Can't you tell?”
“You do?”
Without another word, he brought his thumb to his mouth and bit it. A drop of blood welled on it as he held it out to me and I had another memory flash through my mind. A man with fiery hair, lighter than Arach's, holding out his bloody thumb to me. I blinked it away and licked the blood from Arach's thumb.
It exploded on my tongue, waves of heat, passionate flutters, and great happiness. Then, at the apex of it all, love. I smiled and fell forward into him, resting my face against his chest as his arms slid around me.
“Is that a yes?” I could feel him grinning against my forehead.
“Yes,” I whispered and held up my hand. I watched as he slid the heavy ring upon my finger.
Chapter Fifty-Two
News had come from the High Court and Arach told me our presence was requested there. The High King wished to officiate our nuptials. So the House of Fire was all in a tizzy, packing everything that needed to go with us for a royal wedding.
I didn't want to go to court, I had this horrible feeling that something awful had happened there but Arach assured me that we'd be perfectly safe. There were none stronger than a dragon-sidhe, none but the High King himself and King Cian was a friend of his. Still, I had that awful feeling.
Maybe it was just wedding jitters. There had been visiting sidhe seamstresses in all week and they'd given me the strangest looks. I'd suffered it in silence since they made the most beautiful clothes and there was this joy that kept rising in my chest at the thought of a wedding. It must have been something I'd wanted for awhile.
“Are you ready?” Arach walked into the library where I'd been waiting.
“Yes,” I got up and let him lead me downstairs.
Arach beamed at me all the way to the carriage and then carefully helped me in. When he came in after me, he chose to sit beside me, putting an arm around me and pulling aside the drapes, so we could watch the scenery as it passed.
We were on the edge of the Forgetful Forest and had to ride to the center to reach the High Court. I had a flash of the Castle of Eight, the castle of eight trees that King Cian held court in. I frowned as I recalled my first sight of it being from the air. Maybe Arach had flown me there.
The forest was restless, as if echoing my emotions. Fey creatures jumped through the trees, ran through the underbrush, or just stared out at me from the shadows. Some even ran alongside the carriage, trying to keep pace with us. Then there were the plants themselves, whipping about and shivering as we passed. I watched the trees breathe and the blades of grass snap at each other irritably. I smiled back at my future husband and wondered if we'd be like the grass someday, snapping at each other because we were too close.
“How soon after we arrive shall the wedding be?”
“We should be there by mid-day,” he smiled down at me, an odd victorious look in his eyes. “We'll be married by nightfall.”
“Oh,” my heart clenched suddenly, and there was a riot of roaring inside me, though I had no idea why. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself.
“Is there anything wrong?” His eyes were more slanted than usual but I didn't sense passion from him, it was more of a calculating look.
“No, I'm fine,” I reassured him and he settled back with a smile.
I held my tongue the rest of the way there because I didn't trust the words that tried to come out of my mouth. I was having the strangest urges. I wanted to kiss him one minute and then jump from the carriage the next. Was I going insane? Maybe my human blood was a taint after all and Arach was about to marry a crazy woman. Should I tell him? Stop the wedding? My heart once again started its crazy pounding and I decided it was too late for second thoughts. Backing out now would disgrace Arach in front of the entire High Court and I wouldn't do that to him. No matter how strange our relationship was, I knew I loved him. I didn't want to be the cause of his shame.
Then we were there, our carriage passing through the huge arch of living wood that made up the front gate. The horses hooves echoed in the long passage, sparking on the stones that paved the path. We passed by the elemental gardens and pulled right up to the stairs of the central tree. A goblin opened the door for us and Arach jumped out first so he could then help me down. I took his hand and emerged into the world of the sidhe.
I'd forgotten how diverse they were, we were. They whispered and stared at me openly with strangely shaped faces and intense eyes. I could guess their affiliations now, the Houses they belonged to, but I remembered walking through the halls of this palace and seeing them for the first time. How frightened I'd been and how determined to not show it. Well, I wasn't frightened anymore and they seemed to sense that. The looks I was getting this time around were not just full of fascination, they were full of admiration. I wondered what I'd done to change their opinion.
Blood. I stumbled up a stair when the thought hit me and Arach caught my hand, giving me a concerned glance. I smiled and continued up but I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd spilled blood there, a lot of it. I looked down at my hands, getting a flash of black leather and steel, magic steel curving over my fingers like claws. I frowned and blinked hard. We were passing through the halls and off to the side, in a doorway, sat a cat-sidhe. He bowed his head to me and I smiled back.
“Stay away from her,” Arach hissed at the cat and the cat backed away.
“Leave him be, Arach,” I hit his arm and he looked back at me, a doting expression on his face.
“As you wish, love.”
We walked a ways, led by a court attendant, and finally were shown rooms in the heart of the castle, evidently a big honor. I would have preferred less honor and less walking but when I saw the room, I stopped my inner griping. It was stunning.
High ceilings showcased the polished living tree with floating globe lights circling it. The furniture, although of the same grown from the tree variety as the rest of the castle, was deep black, in honor of Arach I assumed. It stood out in elegant contrast against the lighter walls and floor, the leaves and flowers adorning it also a stark difference. The carpet was a solid mass of blossoms, releasing their fragrance every time someone walked over them. It led to a magnificent table, the black wood covered with delicate lace and then with fragile porcelain dishes atop that, where a meal was laid out for us.
I took a seat at the table while the goblins came in carrying our trunks. Arach didn't need to direct them, they automatically put our things in their proper places and then headed out the door. I looked over to the sleek, black armoire, door open to showcase the amazing dress I'd be wearing in a few hours. It was shockingly white against all that black, and as delicate looking as a butterfly wing. Arach had informed me that it was a dress of spirit, the traditional element worn at weddings.
The bodice was made of fourteen layers of almost transparent faerie silk, each layer cut in intricate whirling designs made to be shown off by the one below it. Together, it created a spiraling vortex focused inward. With all the layers together it was opaque but it seemed to have such depth to it that I felt like people could see into my chest, straight to my heart. The skirts were a continuation of those layers but below the binding of the high waist, they fanned out, displaying their delicate nature by lifting with every breeze to show off the multiple lengths.
The sleeves were some kind of fey magic fabric. They ghosted over my skin, clear as glass except where they shimmered with light, like an Aurora Borealis. They clung to my arms all the way to my wrists, where they fanned out in a misty end. Attached to the waist with a diamond encrusted belt in scarlet red, was another length of the strange transparent fabric. It trailed behind the dress, a waterfall of shifting colors, to form a train.
For my veil, more of the same fey spirit fabric. A swirl of colors that seemed to be floating in the air, to be held in place by a crown of dragons, white gold encrusted with diamonds, the tradit
ional wedding crown of the dragon-sidhe Queen. It had belonged to Arach's mother and his grandmother before her. I frowned at it and the matching clips that hooked over the tops of my silk shoes. Something didn't feel right.
“You look hungry, A Thaisce,” Arach filled a plate for me and put it in front of me.
“I think maybe a glass of wine?”
“Of course,” he immediately poured some of the strong faerie elixir and handed it to me.
I took a large swallow and breathed through the bite. Then there was a knock on the door. Arach went to open it and found a brownie waiting patiently.
“King Arach,” the brownie bobbed. “High King Cian has been waiting with great anticipation, everything is arranged and he would like to begin the ceremony if you and your lady are not too travel weary?”
“Not at all,” he smiled and the brownie flushed. “We shall be down in a few moments, tell the High King to assemble the witnesses.”
“Thank you, King Arach,” the brownie bowed and ran off.
“It looks like it's time, my love,” he smiled and grabbed the hanger full of his wedding apparel. “I'll meet you downstairs.”
“But I have no idea where to go,” I gaped at him.
“Fearghal is right out here,” he gestured to the red cap standing guard at our door. “He's going to escort you down but it's tradition for me to wait for you at the altar.”
“Oh, okay,” that sounded right to me.
Arach smiled and closed the door behind him. I was alone then, with just my thoughts and that dress. I wasn't even sure how I'd get it on by myself. I started to take off my traveling shoes as I frowned at the innocent dress. Then there was another knock. What now? I limped over to the door with only one shoe on and found two beautiful sidhe women waiting for me.
“We're here to help you dress, Lady Vervain,” said the one with dark blue hair. “I am Damhnait and this is Muirenn.”
