“Well, I’m not that sort of man, nor monarch,” he replies, shaking his head. “I had you join me for dinner so that we could discuss things besides our sleeping arrangements. Actually, about that . . . is your room comfortable?”
“I couldn’t ask for more. It’s lovely,” I assure him. “Uhm . . . check that. I could ask for one thing. My Guardians?”
“Ah, I will have to look into what we can do about that,” Kaelen says. “Unfortunately, in placating one person, I fear I’ve had to have your men officially roomed with my Solarian Guard. But I will see what I can do.”
It’s not a great answer, but Kaelen’s supportive smile helps as we go back to the dining room to find that our places have been reset and I’m now across from him at the upper end of the table, more like two friends having dinner than a monarch and a supplicant.
Kaelen waves his hand again, our chairs pull out, and I sit down. Another wave of his hand, and we’re both pulled into the table by invisible hands. “Okay, I have to ask . . . how do you do that?”
“What, the telekinesis?” Kaelen asks, smiling as he makes his fork lift up from the table and spin twice around his chair before settling into his hand. “A gift I was born with, very rare among Fae men, actually. But my mother was a powerful sorceress, and my paternal grandmother as well, so—”
The doors to the dining room open, and an officious-looking man in silver and green enters. “Your Excellency, I know this is your meal—”
“But you’re going to interrupt anyway, Duke Silverton,” Kaelen replies in mild frustration. “What does Queen Cassina want?”
“Your Excellency, Queen Cassina points out that it is highly irregular for you to dine with this . . . this halfling,” Silverton replies, spitting the word out like it’s a curse, “who is not even noble, while you have members of the Council eating separately.”
“I can choose whom I decide to share my meals with . . . and whom I don’t,” Kaelen replies evenly, but I can hear the commentary behind his words. “Is the Queen upset with the food the kitchens have provided?”
“N–no, Excellency,” Silverton stammers before finding his bluster again. “But you must agree that being with such a dangerous being alone is a threat to your safety. If this halfling were to escape her bonds like she did in the Vale—”
“I am perfectly safe,” Kaelen says calmly. “Or does Cassina think I cannot protect my own dining room?”
“Regardless, Excellency, when a being—”
“Hey, asshole.”
My words stop Silverton, who for the first time looks at me in utter shock. “I—”
“You’re an asshole,” I reply, my anger pulsing in my mind. “You’ve been bitching about me for a whole minute and a half, and you can’t even look at me. You use the term halfling like you’re saying I’m dog shit. If you want to accuse me of something, you can at least look me in the eye and say you think I’m going to make heads pop. And I have a name. Eve. Miss Carter to you.”
“Her Highness will not rest—”
“Then she will see the sunrise tired,” Kaelen says, cutting Silverton off. “Leave us, Duke Silverton. And see to it that you do not interrupt my private dinner time again. Ever.”
Silverton pales, almost running out of the room, and the door slams a little when Kaelen shuts it behind him, sighing. “Apologies. I do not like such rudeness from the nobility, but Silverton is—”
“Faeledd?” I ask, and Kaelen lifts an eyebrow in surprise. “I was filled in on the concept. Regardless, I shouldn’t have gone off on him like that. It is my turn to apologize. I seem to have . . . well, I’m still struggling with my temper.”
“Is that what happened in the Vale?” Kaelen asks. “When you used your dark powers?”
I shake my head, trying to think back to everything that happened then. “No . . . most of it was the Dark Rider, but there were plenty of things that others did. I mean, Lysette poisoned me, or whatever that potion was. She was a militant psycho and tried to murder me.”
Kaelen watches me with gorgeous golden eyes that are full of understanding emotion. “I know,” he says intently. “And the sooner the Lunar throne is filled by another, the better this realm will be.”
I hum, nodding. “She hates me without even knowing me. It is hard, Kaelen. Every night, I sleep and am visited by the weight of the innocent souls I’ve killed. It’s a small comfort that the Childless Ones I killed . . . at least I released them from their eternity of torment. But the others I have killed? I mourn them every day.”
“Which is why I want you to be my honored guest,” Kaelen says. “And first on that will be a tour tomorrow of the entire royal palace. Or at least as much as we can walk in a day. This building is pretty big.”
I chuckle, picking up my spoon. “Have you even seen all of it?”
“I’m honestly not sure.”
We finish dinner, and as we stand up to leave, I clear my throat again. “Kaelen, I know I should be grateful. You have shown me kindness, and this was an excellent dinner. But I must ask again about my Guardians. I . . . I need them.”
Kaelen nods, his eyes full of compassion, but for some reason, it’s not the same compassion I saw before. “I’ll see what I can do. For now, though, perhaps a walk in the moon garden? While this is the Solarian Court, we have a beautiful garden of flowers that only bloom at night, and tonight is still close enough to the full moon that it’ll be quite lovely.”
“Thank you,” I reply politely, but as we walk I make a decision. Kaelen might be nice, he might have powers that I don’t know the full extent of yet . . . but in his final evasive answer, he’s made up my mind. I’m going to be nice to him in return and try to get on his good side. But no matter how powerful the magic users in the Solarian Court might be, I trust Lorelai more than Kaelen.
So as soon as I can, I’m going to get with my Guardians, and we’re going to get the hell out of Dodge.
Chapter 8
Eve
“Good morning,” Kaelen greets me as I emerge into the clear morning. They’re still uplifting, Fae mornings, and it makes me wonder why anyone would want to surround themselves with such artificial opulence when the pure natural beauty of the Fae world is better than anything I’ve ever seen in my life. “Did you sleep well?”
“As best I could,” I reply, not wanting to admit that I missed my Guardians terribly. I didn’t have our Link, I didn’t have a warm body to snuggle up against . . . I didn’t even have a shirt or something to help. Still, as exhausted as I was after the past few weeks, I still slept like the dead on the amazingly comfortable mattress. “You?”
“Well,” Kaelen says casually, and I wonder if he slept alone or with a willing companion. If he’s looking for a bedmate, I know a body servant who would be more than happy to keep him company.
Kaelen’s dressed more casually today, or at least his tunic isn’t quite so ornate, thankfully. I’ve also switched back to pants, although that took a bit of firm discussion with Daelera before she relented and fetched me something other than a sundress. But I don’t feel out of place next to Kaelen, who’s wearing what I’ve come to understand are the Fae equivalent of blue jeans and a single-shouldered sort of loose upper-body wrap.
Me? I’m wearing Fae trousers along with a thigh-length shirt that’s gathered at my waist with a brown leather belt, which feel normal now, and having my underwear back certainly helps with my sense of security.
“I have to say, the view from my balcony this morning at sunrise was fantastic,” I comment as Kaelen sends a few mental orders out over his Link. “It made eating breakfast a joy. I didn’t realize how close to the ocean this palace is.”
Kaelen nods. “We’re close to the edge of the Fae world,” he admits. “Beyond the eastern shore of the Solarian kingdom, there is nothing but open ocean and a few isolated islands. The Fae realm is a single occupied continent.”
“Really?” I ask, surprised. “So you guys sailed east . . .”
“And
hit the other side of our own continent,” Kaelen replies with a laugh. “We don’t do it often, but we have had explorers go out. There are two other continents, one to the far north, hundreds of miles above the Vale, and another to the extreme south, even further away. Neither is very habitable, unless you think a world of ice is a fun time. So far, going the ocean route is the long way around. Come, let me show you the castle.”
We get started, and as we do, Kaelen’s more than happy to play tour guide for me. “This wing we’re in is the oldest wing, built soon after the Fae and the human realms started to separate,” he says, pointing. “Back then, more Fae had strong magic, so a limited number of people could build massive structures.”
“But why build such a massive castle?” I ask. “Compensating for something?”
Kaelen blinks, then laughs. “I knew I liked you for a reason. Nobody else is willing to be sassy with me like that. No, the outer walls were completed first. The idea was to provide a secure area in case of attack. You know there are dangerous creatures even to the Fae in our realm . . . and the castle was just a last line of defense. When this structure was first built, we could fit every citizen of Solaria within the castle if we had to. More than once, my great-grandfather had to do just that.”
We continue, and a question comes to mind. “Just how old are you anyway, Kaelen?”
“Three hundred and fifty-four,” Kaelen replies with a smirk. “I know, still wet behind the ears, no?”
“Uh . . . no,” I reply, chuckling. “Although my Guardians are all older than you.”
“Yes, I have read their service records. Duke Silverton provided them as an argument against you,” Kaelen says with a chuckle. “What that stuffed shirt clotpole fails to recognize is that it makes your connection with them all the more remarkable, considering you truly are just out of the cradle in Fae terms.”
“Thanks . . . I think,” I reply with a laugh as we continue. “So, this palace was originally functional?”
“It still is, although you may not notice it,” Kaelen replies. “As the castle expanded, my grandfather and father modernized the main palace and pushed the utilitarian structures out toward the outer castle grounds. I haven’t kept it up, but I’ve only been on the throne a few decades. Wait until I’m bored after sitting in that chair two or three centuries. I might just decide on some cosmetic enhancements.”
I laugh. I can just imagine Kaelen trying to paint the main throne room purple or something. “So your father . . . what was he like?”
“Well . . . see for yourself,” Kaelen says, pointing at a statue we pass in an outdoor garden. It’s exquisitely done, all marble but with such detail that I can almost imagine the flowing blond locks and eyes the same color as his son’s. “That was installed about a decade before I officially took over as Emperor, although even then, Jaeryn could see the writing on the wall and was grooming me for taking over.”
“What was it like? I never knew my father, although I have good memories of my adoptive parents. But you spent what, three hundred years with him? That’s a lot of time to get to know him.”
Kaelen nods, looking around. “I remember growing up here, going through this garden. I did my studies in the library here. I played in the courtyards. The first girl I kissed was in the moonlight garden we saw last night.”
“But what about your father?” I ask. “I mean, the little that I’ve heard about your father, he was almost universally loved.”
Kaelen nods. “He was. I loved him deeply, although it’s hard to remember what he was like before the war.”
“Tell me about it, the war?” I ask. “What happened?”
“It was the eighteen hundreds, by your calendar,” Kaelen says softly, looking back at the statue of his father. “Jaeryn had been on the throne for about a hundred years at that point when the demons broke through the Veil. It was a massive attack, a true demon army that swept through the central and eastern kingdoms. For a few months there, the Council was fractured. Until Jaeryn stepped up.”
“Were you in the fight?” I ask, and Kaelen shakes his head. “Why not?”
“My father insisted on it,” he replies. “I was studying my own powers. I was learning the political ins and outs of the throne. And I think my father was worried. He wanted to make sure that the bloodline was preserved, even if I was barely fifty. So he led the armies and strengthened the coalition.”
“No wonder the people see him as a savior.”
Kaelen nods. “He was. But in the last major battle, he was wounded badly. A demon knight got through the outer lines, a suicide mission for sure. The knight killed Jaeryn’s defensive personal guard and then drove an enchanted lance through his armor, piercing his side even as Jaeryn drove his sword through the demon’s skull.”
I wince, shaking my head. “What did your mother think about his being wounded?”
Kaelen sighs, his voice dropping. “She was his defensive guard, the most powerful sorceress in the realm. Jaeryn was distracted as he watched his wife and love slain before his very eyes.”
Unexpected tears come my eyes at the thought, and I have to take a moment to wipe them away. “The feminist in me wonders why she doesn’t have a statue.”
“She does. I’ll show it to you,” Kaelen replies before clearing his throat. “My father survived for a hundred and fifty years after that, but the wound never healed and his life force just . . . drifted. And the worst part was that the wars were a result of the human wars at the time. That time of history, there was so much. Europe tore itself apart, the Americas tore themselves apart, the East tore itself apart . . . and that weakened the Veil. It’s why I want to make sure that particular tragedy can never, ever repeat itself.”
“What would you need to do?” I ask, and Kaelen smiles mysteriously. “What?”
“Until you arrived, I had no idea. I still only have an inkling of a plan, really. But maybe together, we can develop a way to do just what we need.”
“Can we really bring peace?” I ask, and Kaelen shakes his head.
“I don’t think humanity will ever truly be at peace. It is in their very nature to expand, to conquer, to struggle, and to fight. We Fae have the same urges, but nowhere near the same levels. We can at least make sure that human problems stay in human realms.”
I think, then nod. It’s not fair, especially to people like Alyssa, but I can understand Kaelen’s point of view. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?” he asks, stopping.
“For saying ‘we Fae’ like I’m one of you. Most people don’t.”
We continue through the palace, and Kaelen leads me to the top of a tall tower, even higher than my bedchamber, where I can look over almost the entire Solarian kingdom. “This is amazing.”
“I come up here at least once a month to remind myself,” Kaelen says as I circle the huge cutouts that let us see all around. “I know there are plenty who say I’m too young. That I’m not the emperor my father was. That I’m still getting used to the throne, like that particular weight should ever be something one can or should get used to. But I can promise you this, Eve. I might not be the battlefield warrior my father was—I haven’t had the opportunity—but honestly, I don’t want to have that opportunity. I’m going to do whatever I can to protect my people and protect the Fae and the Fae way of life.”
“Speaking of the Fae way of life,” I reply, trying to take the opportunity, “there are humans and halflings who—”
“Should be treated better than they are,” Kaelen says. “I don’t disagree with you. But first, I want to secure my borders, to make sure the demons never, ever have a chance to do to another Fae family what they did to my family.”
We keep walking, and as the sun’s touching the horizon, Kaelen leads me into the same room my trial was in. “Nice memories here.”
“Usually, it’s not so . . . never mind, this room’s almost always dramatic and deadly,” Kaelen says with a chuckle. “This isn’t just a courtroom, though. It
’s the Council chamber.”
“Fill me in on that. What is the Council? I thought you were, you know, the King of Kings.”
Kaelen chuckles. “That’s not guaranteed. The Council was formed before my father’s time, thankfully, during the first great Demon War, which was during another bad time in human history. The Council is represented by all seven kingdoms, and the imperial title can go to any of the kingdoms if their monarch is deposed or gives up the imperial crown. My father was, in fact, the first Solarian Emperor ever. Before that, the crown was Lunarian.”
“Oh, I bet Cassina doesn’t like that,” I say with a wince. “So, when your father died, what happened?”
“Cassina, for all her power, also makes enemies. And a lot of the kingdoms remembered how the Lunarian throne didn’t do much to help the rest of the Council during the war that claimed so many lives. The imperial crown is a totally democratic vote. All vote for whom they wish except themselves. I got four votes, Cassina two, and the Southern King, B’thwain, one. That was mine.”
I chuckle, nodding. “So, what does the Council do?”
“Not as much as it seems. We serve as a sounding board for issues that affect all Fae, and if there is a dispute between kingdoms, the Council mediates that dispute. However, I plan on changing that. We are obviously coming up on another time of crisis for the Fae, and if we are to survive, I feel I need to be more hands-on than my father was. Still, I prefer to rule by consent and not the iron fist.”
“I assume Cassina and her allies don’t like that?”
Kaelen laughs, shaking his head. “Hardly. It is a big change, and as you have noticed about the Fae, change is not something we take to quickly. But it must be done, whether people like it or not. It is why I did what I did for you with the Crystal.”
At the mention of the Crystal, I turn to him, wondering about something. “How’d you know I’d be found pure?”
“You weren’t,” Kaelen says simply, letting the words sink in for a moment. “Eve, the Sun Crystal, despite the myths surrounding it, isn’t sentient. It’s as efficient a death sentence as cutting off your head. But . . . well, telekinesis isn’t the only power I have. I saved you because I think you can be that agent of change the Fae realm needs to be safe again.”
Guardians of Moonlight: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Guardians of the Fae Book 3) Page 5
