by Jayne Faith
I couldn’t lie. But a sinking sensation filled my mid-section. I had a bad feeling I knew what was coming.
“That’s good,” she said. She leaned back in her chair, propping her elbows on the arm rests and steepling her fingers beneath her chin. “Periclase is refusing to deal with Maxen, and the Duergar king is not a particular fan of me, either. Not after the business with the changeling and your defeat of his brother in the battle of champions.”
I forced down the groan that was trying to make its way up my throat.
“But if you and Periclase’s son have a cordial connection, that could prove very useful,” she said. “Very useful, indeed.”
She was looking at me like I was a piece on her chess board she hadn’t thought to move up to this point. It made me want to turn around and run straight out of the stone fortress.
Just as I was about to find an excuse to get the hell out of her office before she came up with some new assignment that would toss me even deeper into the mire of Faerie political affairs, there was an urgent knocking at her door.
“My lady,” came the voice of the snotty page. “My lady, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have a critical message.”
“Come,” she said sharply.
The page walked rapidly past me and handed her a note.
My eyes went wide. The paper was sealed with the stamp of Titania. It was a message from the High Court of the Seelie.
Marisol slipped her finger under the seal, and it gave as it magically identified her as the intended recipient. Her eyes darted back and forth over the words. She seemed to read it over twice.
When she looked up, her face had gone pale as a sheet.
Chapter 13
“CALL IN ALL of my advisors immediately,” Marisol commanded.
The page turned and scurried away.
“What is it, my lady?” I asked, not really expecting her to tell me.
Her blue eyes focused on me. “Finvarra has returned. The Unseelie High King is trying to stage a takeover of the High Court in Oberon’s absence.”
“That . . . can’t be good,” I said lamely.
She’d turned to her tablet, and I started to back out of the office.
“Stay,” she said sharply. “You’re the champion of the Stone Order. You’re an official member of the Stone Council, and it’s time you started attending these meetings.”
Well, shit. I hadn’t realized that. I knew better than to feel honored. All this meant was that Marisol could pull me in more firmly to Order business.
My mind whirled with the news as people started to arrive. Oliver was one of the first, and seeing his face set off a cascade of little pinpricks of sadness in my heart. I hadn’t even had the chance to tell him what I’d learned from Melusine. I hardened against my unexpected emotions. This wasn’t the time.
As I tried to push thoughts of my bloodline away, Jasper’s face cropped up in my mind’s eye. Finvarra was his blood father. I wondered what Jasper thought about his blood father’s possible coup.
I forced my attention to the present as Oliver came up to me. He leaned over to speak at my ear.
“I heard you’d returned, and I know you completed what you were assigned to do,” he said. “Well done, Petra.”
Praise from the stone man. I pulled in my lips and bit down. Why the hell did he have to say such a thing to me now?
The larger question loomed in his eyes, but I knew he wouldn’t want me to speak of it here.
Maxen had returned. Jaquard, Marisol’s personal guard and one of my old teachers, arrived. Several others came, most of whom I knew by face, but I could only recall about half the names. Amalie, a raven-haired and busty young woman, who was second cousin or some such to Maxen, was the youngest. Two years younger than me, if memory served. As I’d trained for a life of sword-wielding, Amalie had been equally focused on entering politics. I had no idea whether she was good or had gained her position by virtue of her blood ties to Marisol. The monarch of the Stone Order wasn’t one to hand out positions based on nepotism, but if anyone in the fortress valued blood ties, it was Marisol. A strong family of royals was one of the things needed to gain the status of kingdom, and it was something the Stone Order lacked. Marisol’s husband, Maxen’s father, had died many years ago, and Marisol had no other children.
My eyes darted to the lady of the fortress as it suddenly occurred to me that Maxen might not be the only one who would be married off to strengthen the Stone Order’s position in Faerie. Marisol was single, too. And I had no doubt she’d make almost any sacrifice, if it furthered her cause for the New Gargoyles.
Jaquard opened a side door in Marisol’s office, revealing a room with a lectern at one end and diagrams on the walls. I followed everyone else, who was filing in. A closer look at the murals revealed that they depicted all the kingdoms of Faerie. There were illustrations of each kingdom’s castle or stronghold, and of the king or queen of each realm. Seelie kingdoms on one wall and Unseelie on another. Under each leader’s picture was some written information, such as kingdom population and notes about the royal family and kingdom alliances.
There were no chairs in the room, not even a table. It didn’t entirely surprise me. New Gargoyles tended to be physical by nature, and sitting around a conference table really wasn’t our style. Everyone gathered in a loose bunch. Marisol took to the podium, and Jaquard closed the door.
She repeated the news about Finvarra’s attempt to take the High Court, which set off a burst of conversation. My sneak peek of the announcement allowed me a chance to observe the others’ reactions. Oliver looked a bit more grim than usual. Maxen’s blue eyes widened, and his head pulled back a bit. Jaquard just shook his head and looked briefly at the floor. Amalie’s eyes, the deep purple of amethyst, sharpened. She looked neither shocked nor outraged, but intrigued.
Marisol waited for a moment for the initial reaction to die down.
“As you’re already probably foreseeing, this will have an impact on our bid for an official court,” she said. “With Oberon, the possibility of our independence was still on the table, and we had a chance. But Finvarra is Unseelie. He’s much more likely to side with one of the Unseelie kingdoms that’s trying to absorb the Stone Order. In particular, the Duergar.”
She paused, and her gaze slipped over to me.
“I’ve also just learned that our changeling, Nicole, is indeed Periclase’s daughter. This worsens our position and strengthens the Duergar’s bid to officially bring us into their realm.”
Several in the group shot looks my way, some of them charged with animosity, as if it were my fault that King Periclase had sired Nicole. I crossed my arms and glared back until every one of them averted their eyes.
“Now, let’s hear your ideas,” Marisol said.
“Any chance Titania might address the issue between us and the Duergar before Finvarra can muscle in on the High Court’s business?” Amalie asked.
“We will certainly try that route,” Marisol said. “But since Oberon left, she’s seemed uninterested in the pending petitions in the High Court. And now she’s going to be preoccupied with Finvarra’s coup attempt.”
Old Ones could be a childish and dramatic bunch. The rumor was that a quarrel between Titania and Oberon had become heated just prior to my battle of champions against Periclase’s brother, and Oberon had disappeared before the battle. I’d nearly been forced to kill King Periclase’s brother in the arena because Titania had refused to call a victor before the wounds grew too serious, as was Oberon’s custom in recent generations. She’d slumped in the High Court box like a hormonal teenager who’d had a fight with her boyfriend.
The Seelie High Queen seemed to resent the expectation that she would do Oberon’s job in his absence, and so far, she wasn’t stepping up.
“Do we know anyone with a connection to Titania?” I blurted out. It was a question that most of the people in the room probably knew the answer to, but I didn’t.
Marisol fixed her gaze on
me. All heads swiveled my way.
“How did Melusine seem to receive you?”
“Uh, she was irritable, but I don’t think she hated me,” I said, not quite sure where Marisol was going with the question.
“Then you’re our closest tie to Titania,” Marisol said. “Via Melusine.”
Ah, here it came.
I gave her a dubious look. “They’re buddies?”
I seriously doubted Melusine considered any of the other Old Ones close friends. She and the Seelie High Queen shared a similar temperament, but Titania liked to be in the middle of things, whereas Melusine was the exact opposite.
“Legend says they were childhood friends,” Marisol said.
My brows rose. I wouldn’t have guessed that.
“I don’t think Melusine would invite me back in her realm. In fact, she said she wouldn’t receive us again,” I said. Remembering how she’d tasted my blood and gained a view into my deepest self, I shifted uncomfortably. I had no desire to seek out the Fae witch. “I wouldn’t even know how to locate her. It wasn’t exactly straightforward.”
“If things go poorly, you may have to try,” Marisol said crisply.
Great. I just had to go and open my damn mouth. I resolved to keep my trap shut for the rest of the meeting.
There was more talk of using diplomatic channels to try to appeal to Titania and hold off any takeover of the Stone Order, but no one really had any bright ideas. Finvarra had been silent for so long, no one in the Stone Order had ties to him. I slanted my gaze off to the side, suddenly paranoid that Marisol would somehow guess that I had a connection to Finvarra. Well, not a connection exactly, but I knew someone who did.
In the end, the Council decided the best course of action was to go to Finvarra directly. And this time Marisol wouldn’t be sending Maxen or some other representative. She’d be leading the visit.
She drilled me with a look. “And you will accompany us,” she said.
I tried not to grimace.
“At the very least, we’ll want to settle the matter of the changeling’s fealty,” Marisol said. She turned her attention to Maxen. “We need her to swear right away. Before we go to Finvarra.”
Maxen’s face tightened at the mention of Nicole.
“While I have all of you gathered, I’ll update you on the servitor attacks as well,” Marisol said.
She went on to describe the breaches in various kingdoms. There seemed to be no pattern. They attacked at random times and in nearly every Seelie and Unseelie kingdom and Order. The only things that stood out were that the servitors seemed to be able to appear wherever their unknown master pleased, and they were getting larger and stronger with each attack.
After that, the meeting began to break up. Maxen appeared at my side. “Will you help me convince Nicole?” he asked quietly.
His blue eyes were pleading.
“Yes, but only if you tell me one thing,” I said. “How much of your interaction with Nicole is you, and how much of it is Marisol?”
His cheeks reddened slightly, and he looked off to the side. He could choose not to answer. But if he answered, he couldn’t lie.
“I’m part of her homecoming, and my mother is keeping abreast of that process,” he said. I could tell he was picking his words carefully, which put me on alert. “But I also enjoy my time with Nicole. It may be an assignment in part, but I do it willingly and happily.”
“Are you trying to make her think you’re romantically interested in her to persuade her to stay in Faerie and swear to the Stone Order?” I asked bluntly.
His eyes blazed, and his face reddened. “I’m not trying to make her think anything.”
“Fair enough.” I held up my hands in surrender.
I knew. There was something springing up between Maxen and Nicole. It might be subtle, and they probably hadn’t acted on it, and maybe it was too understated for Marisol to even be aware of it. Or if she’d observed anything that seemed like more than friendly interest, she might have thought it was just Maxen being extra good at his job. But I knew Maxen. He wouldn’t fake interest in a woman. He’d be polite and charming, but when it came to romantic matters, he wouldn’t lead someone on.
If this—whatever was developing—didn’t run its course or get cut off by Maxen, I’d have to tell Nicole. She deserved to know the truth, which was that Marisol would ultimately dictate who her son would end up with.
“When should we speak to Nicole about swearing to the Stone Order?” I asked.
“Later today,” he said. “I’ll let Emmaline know.”
Holding back a groan as I escaped Marisol’s lair, it struck me again just how entrenched I was becoming. Only weeks ago, I’d smugly observed how Maxen’s every minute and movement were known and scheduled, thinking how awful it would be to live that way. But there I was, under Marisol’s command and with my very own personal assistant to keep track of my agenda.
Oliver was waiting for me in the corridor, and regret slammed through me as I realized he’d just heard the news from Marisol. Not about Finvarra, but about Nicole’s bloodline. My bloodline.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to tell you before,” I said, my throat tightening around the words. “She got the memo about Finvarra while I was still in her office.”
He bent over me, his eyes tensed and unblinking. “No matter what blood flows through your veins, you are my child,” he said fiercely. “You have blood of stone, even if it’s not mine. Don’t ever forget that. Nothing between us has changed, Petra Maguire.”
His voice had begun to crack, and once he finished speaking, he turned abruptly and strode down the hall away from me.
I could only stand there, trying to breathe through the thickness in my throat, feeling nothing but gratitude for having been taken in by Oliver with no hesitation on his part, even though, all those years, he hadn’t known for sure that I was his.
I wanted space, a moment alone. But it wasn’t to be.
Emmaline was hurrying toward me, her tablet in one hand and a tightly rolled piece of paper with a wax seal in the other.
She gave me the scroll. “This just arrived for you, by raven.”
I broke the seal and a tiny curl of magic, like smoke, lifted into the air. My eyes went immediately to the bottom of the page to see who it was from. My heart bumped as I read Jasper’s signature.
Chapter 14
THE NOTE DIDN’T say much, and I had to read it a couple of times to make sure I understood its meaning.
I have reason to believe the Unseelie High King may have a hand in the servitor attacks. I want to address him directly, and with a Seelie representative, but without any official fanfare or interference.
He named a meeting place, giving the sigils that would take me to that doorway. He also gave a time, and it was fast approaching.
Could he have possibly already gotten wind of Marisol’s plans to take an envoy to Finvarra? She’d made the announcement less than an hour ago. It was almost as if he wanted to slip in before the official meetings could take place.
No, it had to be coincidence. There was no way he could know what had only just taken place in the private Stone Council meeting.
The idea that I was the best choice for a “Seelie representative” was a little ridiculous, but I figured this was another step in his bid to get my help repairing the rift between our leaders. I had no idea how he found out that Finvarra was behind the servitor attacks, but then Jasper did seem to have his unique ways of obtaining information. I didn’t understand his desire to try to do all of this diplomatic work. He was a military man. He was no more a diplomat than I was.
“What’s wrong?” Emmaline asked.
I could tell she was itching to get a peek at the scroll, but I crushed it in my hand. The magic it was imbued with responded, and the note shrank and then disappeared in a brief spark and a thin wisp of smoky magic.
I opened my mouth, ready to tell Emmaline to send a message back to Jasper saying that I declined his inv
itation. I had no idea why he expected me to accompany him to his audience with Finvarra, and he’d given no reason. But then I pressed my lips together, hesitating.
I wanted to see him again, but it had nothing to do with Faerie diplomacy or the threats we faced. It had everything to do with the way he’d kissed me in Melusine’s barn.
No. I wouldn’t go. If he wanted to force me, he could call in the binding promise I’d made him. Otherwise, I wasn’t convinced I needed to be involved. I’d write a note back to him myself, though.
“Do I have any downtime this afternoon?” I asked.
She checked her tablet. “Let me update before I answer.”
I followed her down the hallway a few feet, where there was an outlet set waist-high in the wall. She pulled a short cord from her page’s vest pocket and plugged one end into the tablet and the other end into the wall. With no Wi-Fi in Faerie, the only way to keep up-to-date was to frequently plug into the fortress’s network.
“Lord Lothlorien has requested you meet with him in your apartment at two,” she said, frowning slightly.
That would be Maxen wanting my help with Nicole. “Accept it, and block out now until then,” I said.
“What should I put in the appointment?”
“Whatever will keep people from expecting anything of me,” I said.
I knew I should inform Marisol about what Jasper’s note had said regarding Finvarra and the servitors, but I’d been in the belly of a fish and spent the night on a blanket in a barn spooning with a unicorn, and I had to smell ripe. I’d use the excuse of getting cleaned up to take a brief breather from official business and then go back to Marisol’s office. I didn’t see any harm in the small delay. She needed to know about the possible connection between the Unseelie High King and the servitors, but if it were urgent, then someone would have informed her directly already.
