by Unknown
“Alright, alright,” I pushed her away gently. “I'm glad to see all of you too but someone needs to tell me what's happened.”
“Come inside, Mother,” Samara's alabaster hand reached through the bodies and took mine. “This will take awhile and I think we could all use a glass of wine.”
“What have you done, Princess Samara?” Isleen turned her eyes to my daughter.
Fearghal edged close to me. So near, I could feel the heat radiating off his mustard-brown skin. It was comforting and I laid a hand on his arm absently.
“I've saved us, Isleen. Now, go tell the kitchen sidhe to bring us some wine.” Samara said determinedly as she pulled me towards the castle. My hand slid free of Fearghal but he followed close.
“Yes, Princess,” Isleen ran ahead as we all went into what used to be my home.
Within the castle things were thankfully intact and although the windows facing the Forgetful Forest were closed, the ones looking out on our kingdom were open, so the castle wasn't stuffy. There were plenty of fey lanterns hovering around the ceiling so it wasn't too dark either. The halls were clean, though markedly empty of roaming fey, and when we got to the dining hall / throne room, we found that empty as well.
It looked the same as I remembered though, its polished onyx walls soaring up to a vaulted ceiling. There were tall, thin windows on the right wall but they were covered with metal plates, and there were no windows at all on the left, only a door which led to the kitchens. The high table wasn't out, instead the dais at the end of the hall held only the fire thrones. They were beautiful, golden things carved with dragons. The larger one on the left held a massive faceted ruby at the peak of its back and the one on the right held a yellow diamond. That was my throne, the one with the yellow diamond, and on its seat lay a fire orchid.
I gave a start when I saw the flower. It was a bloom I had magically grown in Faerie. A faerie flower influenced by my human nature. I knew immediately what it was doing on my throne and the gesture was bittersweet to see. It was like standing at my own grave. I turned resolutely away before I started to cry.
“Are you a gold dragon?” I asked my daughter in an effort to distract myself.
“Gold with a scarlet belly,” she nodded.
My gaze fell on the tall braziers which normally lined the central aisle during court. They had been pushed back against both walls; abandoned, cold, and empty. This was odd. Fire fey loved heat and normally every brazier we had was kept burning all the time. I frowned at the nearest of the bunch as I took a seat at one of the wooden tables near the kitchen. Fearghal and his men positioned themselves against the wall before us, standing at attention like we were visiting another kingdom. I would have questioned Fearghal about it but shrieks came from the kitchen and a bunch of fire-sidhe women burst out of the kitchen door. They stopped when they saw me and fell to their knees, sobbing hysterically.
“Oh come on now,” I crooned as I got to my feet. “It's going to be okay, everyone. Come on ladies, get up. I haven't come back from the dead, I've just come forward from the past.”
“Yes, my Queen,” they said as they got to their feet, wiping at their eyes.
“Refreshments, please,” Isleen had regained her composure and was once more the woman I could depend on. She gave a clap and the women all jerked straight.
“Yes, my lady,” they hurried off.
“Where is she? Is it true? Is she alive?” Roarke came storming into the room and when he saw me, he started running. I held my arms open and he scooped me up, lifting me from the floor for a moment. “Damn, V but it's good to see your face.”
He pulled back and I gasped. His own face was marred by a long scar going diagonally across the whole of it. His hand lifted self-consciously and his fiery cat eyes lowered. I grabbed the lifted hand and pulled it away as my other hand brushed back his ebony bangs.
“Roarke,” I whispered. “Who did this to you?”
“Prince Morgan of the Water Kingdom,” Roarke swallowed hard and lifted his eyes to mine, “right before I killed him.”
“No,” I exhaled sharply and nearly fell. Roarke caught me and with Samara's help, he eased me into a seat at the table.
“Wine!” Isleen shouted and ran over to me. One of the fire-sidhe women came rushing out of the kitchen with a glass pitcher and poured some fey wine into a goblet for me. “Here, Queen Vervain, drink this.”
“I can't,” I whispered, my hand going to my stomach. “I'm pregnant.”
“Yes, with Prince Rian,” Isleen nodded. “A dragon-sidhe babe can handle a little fairy wine. Trust me.”
“Rian? We name him; Rian?” I looked to Samara.
“It means little king,” Samara nodded.
“A bit pretentious but I like it,” I gave a little smile as I glanced at Isleen and then at the sparkling, golden liquid she was trying to give me. I pushed it away. “It doesn't matter, alcohol barely makes a difference with me. Just tell me it all, starting with my husband. Where is Arach?”
“The King took your death rather badly,” Isleen was wearing her poker face, which meant things were even worse than she was letting on. “He has withdrawn into the caves below.”
“With the Hidden Ones?” I blinked in surprise.
“The Hidden Ones have given up their home to him,” Samara whispered. “They live in the castle proper now but this is not where we should start, Mother. We need to start at the beginning and it all began with Darkness.”
“Of course it did,” I sighed. “Did Rowan go bad? I'd really thought they were going to make it. Lia was so good for him.”
“No, King Rowan didn't go bad exactly,” Roarke held up a hand when Samara started to speak. “You got her here, Princess. Now let those of us who knew your mother as she is, like this,” he waved a hand to my rounded belly, “explain it to her. You don't know the people as we did and she won't understand your experience of them.”
“What's going on?” I growled. “How the hell did all of this go bad? Someone tell me!”
“You died!” Roarke shouted back at me and then ran a shaky hand over his face. “It all fell apart when you died, Vervain. Your death destroyed us all.”
Chapter Ten
“You'd better rephrase that, fire cat,” I snarled as my eyes flamed and a thin line of smoke trailed out of one nostril.
“I'm not saying it's your fault, Queen Vervain,” Roarke amended. “If anyone's at fault, it would be King Arach and King Rowan. They were the ones who decided to unite their kingdoms.”
“Unite the kingdoms,” I whispered as I remembered Arach's face when he'd said those very words... and the words that followed, “Our dragons will rule the sky.”
“Yes,” Isleen sighed and sat beside me. “He became consumed with the idea of ruling Faerie, uniting all the kingdoms under dragon dominion.”
“Dragon dominion,” I shook my head. “Dragons are too volatile to rule the Faerie Realm. There's a reason Spirit rules; it's the only House balanced enough to be fair. Faerie may be a pain in the ass but she knows what she's doing.”
Well, thank you, Faerie spoke into my head. It's about time you showed up.
“You sound tired,” I said with shock. “Can the consciousness of a realm be tired?”
“Are you speaking to Faerie?” Roarke's eyes widened.
“Yes, she is,” Samara smiled.
Your daughter is the only one who can still hear me.
“What?!” I growled. “You stopped talking to them again?”
They stopped listening again!
“Alright, this is getting too confusing,” I sighed. “Someone needs to finish this story.”
“The Houses of Fire and Darkness joined together, creating the House of Darkfire,” Samara said grimly. “Father had his dragon children; two from you and two from Darkness.”
“Lia and Rowan had two children?” I smiled a little.
“Lia gave birth to twins,” Isleen took over. “Prince Baidhen is Princess Samara's intended and his s
ister Sinnea is heir to the Dark throne.”
“Twins,” I whispered and then looked over to Samara. “You're engaged?”
“Rian refused to marry Sinnea,” Samara gave me a hard look. “He was already in love with a human and wouldn't give her up.”
“Kaitlin,” I breathed.
“Yes, her,” Samara growled.
“Why are you so angry?” I asked her.
“I wasn't supposed to rule Fire,” she huffed. “I was supposed to have the right to choose who I married. I was the second born and that is the path of the second born. But no, Rian was given that right because you gave him your friend's soul and because of that he was afforded special allowances which other heirs would not have had. He stepped down, making me heir, and I was given to Baidhen without so much as a by your leave.”
“Did you seriously just say by your leave?” I blinked. “And you're my daughter. How is that possible?”
“Queen Vervain,” Roarke shook his head and I looked back to see that Samara was on the verge of tears.
“Okay, okay,” I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the seat beside mine. “I'm listening and we're going to fix this.”
“You can't fix that, Mother,” she sighed. “Even if Rian had lived, I'd still have to marry Baidhen.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as my hand clenched over my stomach. The child inside me responded to my terror and the table burst into flames. No fire streamed from my mouth, the flames simply manifested. That's how upset we were.
Everyone lurched back in shock as I held my hands to the fire, pulling the energy into me to use as magical fuel. As Tima to the Intare, I was their source of immortality and that required a lot of juice. Luckily, my fire essence allowed me to convert fire into energy I could use as I saw fit. I'd returned fertility to the Froekn by using just such a method but recently, I'd been using the trick to extinguish all the fires my little dragon-sidhe started.
Fire fey were completely comfortable around fire, so the flames hadn't scared so much as startled the others. They hadn't even left their seats. Samara, however, was horrified when I finally returned my attention to her. Not because of what I'd done but because of what she'd revealed; Rian's death.
“I'm so sorry,” she grabbed my hand tight. “I didn't mean to tell you like that.”
“Rian died?” I whispered, rubbing my stomach in soothing motions to prevent any more spontaneous infernos.
“Saving you,” she whispered back.
“No,” I gasped as a tremor started in my chest and then rose up my throat. “No, not my son. Why do the ones I love always die for me? Why can't they live for me? Not Rian,” I hugged my belly. “Not Ull. Not again,” I whispered, “I'm so sorry, Ull. I'm sorry I gave you that choice.”
“He loved you,” Samara's arm went around my shoulders. “We all love you. He was happy to die for you.”
“They always are, honey,” I swallowed hard. “They're happy to die for me,” I snarled. “But that's so selfish, isn't it? Because I'm the one who has to live! Because they are my happiness and that's what they take with them.”
“You can change all of this, Mother,” she vowed. “Rian doesn't have to die and neither do you.”
“This was why it was okay to bring me into the future with Rian. It had nothing to do with him being unborn and everything to do with him being dead,” I sighed.
“Yes,” Samara nodded. “I couldn't tell you. The ring wouldn't allow it.”
“Then tell me now,” I wiped away the tears I hadn't realized I'd been crying, and lifted my face with new determination. “Tell me everything.” Then something else occurred to me, another presence was missing, though it was possible it was just the passing of the years that had taken him. I didn't really know how long nurials lived. “What happened to Dexter?” I asked with a whisper.
“Dex is alive,” Samara gave a little smile. “He's with Father below. He's the only one Father lets near him.”
“Dexter always annoyed him,” I gave a tear-soaked chuckle and then I sighed. “I'm glad he's okay. Go on, tell me the rest. Starting with who killed my son.”
“It doesn't matter who killed Rian,” Samara said but I just stared at her until she finally whispered, “The High King.”
“King Cian killed my son?” I asked very quietly... my deadly tone.
“Rian was in dragon form,” Roarke spoke in an emotionless voice but I saw the cords in his neck tighten. “A lance brought him down and several fey have reported that they saw the High King throw it.”
“Alright,” I took a calming breath. “Go on, tell me how this all started.”
Darkfire grew too strong, it was Faerie who explained and when Roarke began to speak, I held up a hand to stop him.
“Faerie wants to tell me,” I said to him and he nodded.
Arach and Rowan lost their way amid their own ambitions and you were too worn down from recent heartaches to care.
“What heartaches?” I asked.
Something happened with your other men, she said simply. You lost your will to oppose Arach and you let him run wild with his insane idea to unite the kingdoms. The other kingdoms tried to reason with him but he wouldn't listen, not even to Guirmean.
“Guirmean,” I took a deep breath. “Is he still...?”
He lives but its a life consumed by hatred and revenge. The loss of his son has broken him.
“What happened after Fire and Darkness united?” I pushed away my pity for Guirmean. I could only deal with so much sadness at one time.
The kingdoms of Water, Earth, and Air banded together under the blessing of Spirit in and effort to quell the Darkfire uprising.
“And that was when Rian was killed?” I asked.
Rian was killed in the first battle, making Arach homicidal in his grief. You were inconsolable, no one could break through to you, not even your other children.
“Other children?” I blinked. “I thought you said there were only two dragon-sidhe babies?”
“She means your other children from your non-fey husbands,” Samara whispered. “My half brothers and sisters.”
“There are more?” I smiled but had to swallow hard before asking, “How many? How many children do I have and by whom?”
“You have four more children besides me and Rian,” Samara said. “Rian was the eldest, then you had a son with Trevor; his name is Vero. After Vero came Lesya, your daughter by Kirill. Then you had twin boys with Azrael. They are Dominic and Sebastian. Finally, you gave birth to me.”
“That's a lot of babies,” I whispered. “When I'd never thought to have any.”
Focus, Vervain, Faerie snapped, making me flinch. We have more important things to discuss than your multiple bouts of motherhood.
“Ah, there you are,” I grinned. “I knew that snarkiness was in there somewhere.”
Yes, all I needed was a little of your idiocy to remind me, Faerie chuckled as Samara inhaled sharply. I told you I had a unique relationship with your mother, she said to Samara before focusing on me again. Now, Vervain, listen up. In the second battle both you and Arach were out for blood. That was where Prince Morgan killed you and then Roarke killed him.
“Morgan killed me?” I blinked. “Guirmean's son killed me?!”
Things have changed quite a bit. Now stop your blathering and listen, she growled. When you died, Arach lost his damn mind. He tried to destroy the water fey but they escaped into their twin cites under the Sea. Earth wasn't as lucky and the earth fey are now nearly extinct. There are only a few spriggans and cat-sidhe left, that's all.
“He slaughtered an entire kingdom?” I asked, aghast.
“Queen Aalish laughed when you died,” Samara whispered. “Father burned her to cinders.”
“Holy harpies,” I breathed.
Oh fantastic, I'd been waiting for one of your silly exclamations. Thank you so much for not disappointing me.
“I'm glad to be here too, Faerie,” I smiled sadly. “Now tell me the rest.”
/> “That's mainly it,” Samara said before Faerie could add anything. “Father picked up your body and carried you into the caves with him. He's been down there with you ever since. He won't even let your other husbands near your body.”
“My other husbands,” a shiver coasted through me as I realized what my death would mean to them.
“Trevor died shortly after you,” Samara laid her hand over mine as heartache wrenched through me yet again. “Kirill was able to help Lesya take control of the Intare but they're having problems with Zariel, and Azrael-”
“What problems?” I interrupted.
“Zariel is trying to take the Pride from Lesya,” Samara shook her head. “Don't worry about it, you'll fix everything and then you won't be dead, so there won't be a problem.”
“Don't worry about it?” I growled. “That little punk ass princess is gonna get it. It was my magic that made it possible for her to be born. How dare she try and take the Intare away from my daughter?”
“Mother, the important thing is to find out what made you give in to Father,” Samara refocused me. “Something hurt you, made you incapable of saying no to him, and that is where it all went wrong. We need to figure out what it was so you can go back and change it.”
“Yes, you're right of course,” I stood up. “But first, I need to see your father.”
Chapter Eleven
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I shouted into the massive cavern. My voice echoed off the stalagmites and stalactites (I can never remember which is which) and startled both the sleeping dragon and the sleeping nurial, who was stretched out on the dragon's head.
Arach shot up, revealing a glass box he'd been curled around, and set watery eyes on me. Luckily, Dexter reacted even faster than the dragon, leaping from Arach's massive head, down to the cavern's rocky floor, to bound over to me with echoing, excited yips. He jumped at me and I caught him with a groan, barely managing to hold onto his upper body since he'd grown so damn big. His fox-like face was as large as my head now and he draped his swan-like neck around mine to snuffle happily in my hair. One of the black horns curving back from his forehead knocked into my cheek but I didn't care.
