“I’m sorry, honestly.” How could I explain my fear and insecurities to two supernatural creatures without appearing weak? They looked at me expectantly and I caved, sticking to the apology and holding my worries hostage in my mind. “I’ve been a little nutso since all this started after I left the stone circle. It’s made me a bit, well. A bit something. Unpleasant? Seems some of what I’ve inherited as the Niteclif is a wicked temper and a sharp tongue. I’ll try to be better.”
“It’s only been four days, Madeleine…Maddy,” Tarrek said, correcting himself and surprising me. “You’re doing remarkably well. I think we’re all a bit on edge, or nutso as you so delicately put it.”
Bahlin hung back a bit, not trusting my radical mood swings or, apparently, my apology. While I was sincere, I couldn’t blame him.
“Look, Bahlin, I’m sorry. Really, I am. It’s only that it’s all so new and I’m not handling it entirely well, especially internally, despite how things appear.” I smiled up at Tarrek. “The voices in my head have yet to quit screaming and for the love of Pete, I was shot then poisoned. Can’t a girl catch a break?”
“Who’s Pete?” Tarrek asked.
I burst out laughing and suddenly Bahlin joined me.
“Faerie, you’ve made my day. Let’s go greet the High Council.” He turned toward me and held out his arm in a courtly manner. “Fair lady?”
I walked toward him, working very hard to appear graceful. I took his arm and he smiled down at me. All appeared to be forgiven, if not forgotten.
“Tarrek?” Bahlin asked. “You’ll need to lead us to the others. We’re not familiar with where we’re going in your catacombs.”
“The sithen is not a catacomb any more than it is a place for the unwelcome visitor, Bahlin. You will do well to remember that.” Tarrek stalked forward and offered me his arm on my available side. To keep the peace, and because I couldn’t help but wallow in a little female satisfaction at being put between two such unearthly, stunning creatures, I took his arm. Oh, there was some fear there, don’t be mistaken. But I was the Niteclif, and we don’t cop to fear too easily…out loud, anyway.
We walked out of the room with Tarrek still muttering, “I still don’t understand. Who is Pete?” and Bahlin and I trying our best not to goad the faerie with our suppressed laughter.
The two men led me out of the room, with Tarrek slightly in front as we went through the doorway. The minute we stepped out of the bedroom Tarrek’s guard fell in around us, three to the front, three to the back, and one next to Tarrek. Bahlin’s side was left unprotected. The hallways were more than wide enough to accommodate the four of us as we walked toward our destination. The same lighting seemed to be present throughout the sithen, as if there were another sun that shone solely for the benefit of Faerie. With every step down the hallway, my stomach seemed to get tighter and tighter. I might be the Niteclif but I was human, and I had a feeling that nothing else I would meet tonight would be.
The guards seemed to know where we were going without any need for direction, so it felt as if we were swept along in the tide of leather and weapons as we moved toward our destination. Bahlin’s arm tensed under my hand and I felt his anxiety. Maybe some of his stress compounded mine? I don’t know, I only know I felt it through every fiber and nerve ending in my body. Hold it together, I thought to myself. Now’s not the time to make your insecurities public. Deep breaths, straight back, one foot in front of the other, Niteclif.
“Maddy?” Tarrek looked at me. “There’s nothing to fear tonight.”
“How do you know I’m afraid?”
“You’re going to draw blood with what’s left of your fingernails if you don’t relax your grip on my arm at least a little.” He was compassionate in his words, but I could tell he meant it. I looked down and realized he was right.
“Sorry,” I said, and attempted to draw my hand away from his forearm.
“I didn’t ask you to let go of me, only to relax your grip.” He looked over my head at Bahlin, who stared back.
“Of course,” I muttered. I wondered what the guards thought of my miraculous recovery. I was shot, now not. A human up out of bed so quickly would bring questions, and there were only so many answers that were logical.
“Uh, Tarrek? What will we tell people who ask about my speed in healing?” I whispered.
“Not to worry, Maddy.” Tarrek squeezed my hand then looked around at his guards. “My closest men are trustworthy and discreet. They’ll have a good idea how the healing occurred, but none will share the speculation with anyone outside my contingent.”
I wondered about that, because he’d had absolute faith in Maddox too. And that hadn’t turned out so well for me.
Bahlin snorted, apparently as concerned as I was at Tarrek’s blind trust of his people. I squeezed his arm, hard, and he looked down at me. His eyes glittered in the muted light and it was disconcerting. There shouldn’t have been enough light for that type of reflection. He continued to stare at me, and I stared back until Tarrek cleared his throat.
“We’ve arrived,” Tarrek said. And the guards drew open the huge wooden doors. Showtime.
The room we were led into was cavernous. Carved out of the subterranean stone and floored with the continuing theme of marble, the room was structured like a Roman amphitheater. Hopefully the entertainment venue wouldn’t be the same. Seats and tables went up three sides, the seats filled with what I could only assume were the residents of the sithen. I was surprised at the number of fae, which I estimated to be around two thousand. Who knew? As Bahlin walked in I heard the murmur, “Dragon!” and “Niteclif!” over and over so that it sounded like wind speaking through the dry leaves of a tree: soft, whispering, persistent. Bahlin never visibly faltered, and I did my best to follow his lead.
Deep breaths, I reminded myself.
Straight across from the great doors was a huge dais, and on it were two thrones made of giant carved tree trunks polished to a glass-like shine. Jewels were set in recess into the wood and the value of each had to be enough that it could have provided Greece’s financial bailout several times over. The thrones were empty. Across the floor of the amphitheater and in front of the thrones, a large table had been set up and covered with a diaphanous cloth. Refreshments sat scattered across the table, but I couldn’t have told you what was on the menu. I was too absorbed with the beings sitting behind the table to notice.
Sitting at the center of the table was one of the most imposing men I’d ever seen. It was hard to tell how tall he was because he was seated, but his upper half was impressive. He was well muscled like a Mac truck is large, and his skin was very lightly tanned as if he worked in a garden regularly. His hair hung down to the middle of his back and was that blond that’s graced with darker and lighter colors. His eyes were pitch black, like his pupils had eaten the iris and left nothing behind. It was scary as hell. The power radiating off of him made me stop in my tracks, causing the others around me to stop awkwardly. There was a shift somewhere inside me and I felt like my soul reached out to him, as if we’d somehow known each other before, yet this had to be our first meeting. I would have remembered him, if not for the fact that his eyes scared me then surely because I inexplicably yearned for him from somewhere deep inside.
“Hellion, that’s enough,” said a soft, rich voice, thus breaking the spell. My eyes shifted over to the left, and I was suddenly looking at one of the most striking women I’d ever seen. I could tell that she was petite even though she was sitting, but she was no wallflower. Her hair was as dark as Hellion’s was light, her eyes equally dark, and she had the same mild tan he had. Her power was immense. It felt like a weight pressing against my whole body. I could tell she was holding it in check, almost as if she was waiting to see how I would respond to Hellion. I relaxed a bit, and felt the fingers of invasion in my mind. I thought, “No.” Just like that the mental door was shut. She smiled a genuine smile and revealed perfect white teeth. I wondered what these two were to each other
. I looked up at Bahlin and raised my eyebrows in question.
“Mates,” Bahlin whispered. I didn’t think he was talking about them being best buddies, either.
“Who’s on the council?”
He squeezed my hand in warning and said, “Hellion is our Council member. He requested special permission to bring Gretta for this single meeting.” His implication was clear. She was a guest, and her crap wouldn’t be tolerated. Oh good.
“So it’s true,” she said. “We have a new Niteclif. And a woman, at that. Very good.”
Hellion looked at me with his soulless eyes and said, “You and Bahlin seem unnaturally close for such a short acquaintance. Is there anything you wish to disclose?” And with the word disclose I felt compelled to tell him everything that had happened. Before I could speak, I noticed that Gretta and Hellion had taken each others’ hands, presumably in an affectionate gesture unless you were attuned to the increase in metaphysical pressure in my head. I blindly reached for Bahlin’s hand and, just as I was about to spill all my secret suspicions right down to my guess at his shoe size, the pressure was relieved.
“Hellion, Gretta, that’s rude,” said Bahlin in an almost casual manner. His hand had tightened on mine to a point just this side of pain, and the pain seemed to have helped me think more clearly.
“She should be able to stop me, mentally, if she’s truly the Niteclif.”
That pissed me off. I had taken so much on faith in the last few days, been dragged into a world of make-believe without much explanation, been shot and then poisoned and here he was questioning me?
“I would think that my initial efforts would have counted toward convincing everyone. Apparently I’m wrong.” I dropped Bahlin’s hand and stepped forward, but he stopped my progress by dropping a heavy hand on my shoulder. “It only seems fair that if you’re going to increase the game by siphoning power off each other that I should be able to use what defenses are available to me. Or do you two not play fair?”
Black Beauty arched her eyebrow at me but set her hands on top of the table. Hellion gave a lopsided grin, shrugging.
Tarrek laid a hand on my other shoulder and said, “Gretta, Hellion, this is Madeleine Niteclif, though she strongly prefers to go by Maddy.” No one else was bringing up my quick healing, so I left it alone. I wouldn’t have to answer questions that were never asked. Profound, that.
Gretta inclined her head toward me, ceding this round, I supposed. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to look at the woman sitting to Hellion’s left. She smiled, and I noticed her canines were sharper than normal. Her skin was as pale as milk, and her hair was as dark as Tarrek’s. But her eyes were her most startling feature. Her eyes were the color of the Caribbean sea. I gasped, guessing immediately what flavor of the supernatural she was. Vampire. She was sitting at the table in a leather dress that left little to the imagination, looking more like fetish-wear and uncomfortable at that. She stood to offer me a hand, and I realized the dress was slit up to her waist on each side. I was instantly embarrassed, and Gretta and Hellion chuckled.
“You’ll have to get used to Imeena,” Hellion said, his voice deep and melodious. “She has her own sense of fashion, and it often involves as few pieces of clothing as possible.”
“It will likely take her as much time to get used to me as I’m remiss to express my fashion sense beyond jeans and a T-shirt.” I smiled.
Imeena smiled back. “You are kind to make no more of my aversion to boring clothing than it is, Niteclif.”
“So you believe in me?”
She let her head fall back, and her laughter sounded like sex and dark nights and mystery. “Oh, I do at that, precious girl,” she said. “I feel your heritage in my heart, for I knew your great-grandfather well. Therefore I will defer to your word as law. I will accept your rulings to be fair and just.” She inclined her head slightly at the last word, and I felt a shockwave ripple through me. Those were the same words that Tarrek had said at the restaurant four days ago when he affirmed me.
“And that is enough then, isn’t it? Because our two fair brethren have already made up their minds.”
I looked at Bahlin, and he sighed. “I’ve yet to affirm her.” He turned and looked at me. “If I say the words, Maddy, it’s done. There’s no going back because it will be a High Council majority. What would you have me do?”
“Aren’t we missing someone?” I asked, counting through them again. Bahlin, Tarrek, Hellion, Imeena—yep, four.
“Sarenia is not here, but we have enough for a majority.”
I thought about it. I had already begun to sense a difference in my thought process, more logical and less influenced by the ordinary. I knew, deep down, that my genealogy was true and that I was a descendant of the greatest sleuth of all time. The biggest shift was realizing he’d been real, not fiction. But I had to accept it. I’d gone from a mild-mannered, out of work copyeditor to a shot-up detective in a matter of days. Nothing like this happened to “normal” people, or mundies. I realized that there really was no backing out at this point.
“It’s okay, Bahlin. I don’t know if I believe this is my legacy, but it’s where I’m at and I’m responsible for it. It began five nights ago with my own wish, and I think it has too much momentum to stop it now. Affirm me so we can get on with this.” I felt a hand run down the back of my hair, and I turned my face toward Tarrek. He was like the night amid all this white stone and marble, though I knew he was a creature of light and life. But he looked so sad.
“I’m sorry, Madeleine. I would go back and stop this from being set in motion if I could.”
“No, Tarrek. No apologies, okay? My dad used to always say that you ended up where you were supposed to be. So I’m here. And it’s all right.” I bumped his shoulder with my forehead. “Besides, I’ll fake it ’til I make it, right?”
“Or until you are killed,” said Gretta.
Oh good. An optimist. I looked at her and said, “No need to be threatened by a mundane like me, Gretta. Not if you’re the real deal.”
She scowled. “The real deal? What do you think I am?”
“A witch.” Ah, so many connotations came to mind, but I actually meant the literal translation, even if I did say it with a little forcefulness.
Gretta’s smile was just as snarky as my response in that it held worlds unsaid. “Very good, little Niteclif. Very good. I suppose how we proceed depends on Bahlin, then.”
All eyes turned to him, and we waited. His gaze shifted to me and me alone. The amphitheater may as well have been empty.
In a voice resonating with leashed power, Bahlin’s voice rang out over the silent amphitheater. “I will defer to your word as law. I will accept your rulings to be fair and just.”
It was done.
Chapter Six
The room erupted in cheers, and I jumped like someone had stuck a cattle prod to my bare skin. Two people emerged from the crowd and began walking toward us. Male and female, they were tall, almost equally so. He was fair-skinned with hair to his waist, a slim yet muscular build and intelligent eyes. She was like the sun, hair of spun gold that hung to her knees, bronzed skin and tall, with few curves evident beneath her clothing. If not for her hair and her delicate features she could have been described as androgynous. The difference in their expressions, hers wary and his curious, was plain for everyone to see.
“Son,” said the man, “introduce us to the Niteclif.”
Tarrek inclined his head and then turned to me. “Madeleine Niteclif, allow me to present to you my father, Kelten, King of Faerie. And this is my mother, Gaitha, Queen of Faerie. Father, Mother, this is Madeleine.”
I didn’t know whether to shake hands, bow or curtsy, so I made a mixed attempt at a bow and curtsy and probably looked like I was having a mild seizure. But the introductions were made. So much for being cool, I thought, silently grinning at the absurdity of it all.
Kelten, his eyes on me, addressed the crowd in a strong voice. “Made
leine Niteclif has been affirmed. The High Council will meet here and discuss the murders. Maddox has been disavowed and will be killed on site for his involvement in the attempted murder of the Niteclif.” The room fell so silent you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. “The queen and I will remain for the High Council meeting and will share what information we may regarding Jossel’s disappearance and the murders to date. Return to your activities.” The room’s residents began to move quietly, with no more than a rustle of fabric as they made their way out the doors.
The king and queen took seats at the table. Tarrek and Bahlin both approached me to escort me to the table, which was flattering and frustrating. I looked from one to the other and said, “Look, if we have to work out a system for taking turns, we will. But for now, let’s all sit, okay?” I moved passed them and sat next to Gaitha, directly across from Hellion. The two men stood staring at me, then took seats at the head and foot of the table, though it was beyond me as to which was which. I think if they’d been able to discern the head from the foot they would have fought over who sat where if it hadn’t been for the king’s glare at Tarrek.
Kelten turned to look at me, leaning past his wife so that he could make eye contact. “Madeleine—”
“Just Maddy, please, sir.”
He quirked an eyebrow and in that instant I saw Tarrek in his face—the same eyes, the same jaw, the same mannerisms. It dawned on me that Tarrek was truly royalty. I bit my bottom lip and glanced at Tarrek. I’m ashamed to say it changed the way I thought of him, if even for a moment. Not that it made me any more or less attracted to him, but maybe that I was more aware he was royalty.
“Maddy,” said Kelten, drawing my attention back to him. “I want to extend Faerie’s deepest regret that one of our own, nearly a member of the royal family, caused you harm.” I looked up in time to see Hellion and Gretta clasp hands and Imeena look down and away. What was with the avoidance? These creatures came from a world that was apparently more used to violence than humans, and definitely more than I had ever been exposed to short of CNN. So why look uncomfortable?
Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 Page 10
