Court of Frost and Embers (The Pair Bond Chronicles Book 1)

by Leeann M. Shane

I crawled to the end of the bed, trying to find where the voices were coming from. There was a sitting area beside the rug. A fire burning of nothing but carmine red flames flickered in the glass fireplace. Sitting on two glass chairs were two of the strangest looking people I’d ever seen.

  I blinked.

  I blinked once more.

  They weren’t human. But they could be. If it weren’t for their pointed ears. Their skin color reminded me of caramel sauce, but it was without imperfections. No scars, no veins, nothing but a body robed in cooked sugar. Their eyes were amber.

  Much like mine, I thought, unnerved by the fact.

  “Has anyone ever told you that your eyes look like fire? The lovely parts of fire, that is. The gold and the amber and bronze. Fire scares people. It can start so small and within seconds it’s an inferno. It can tear through the coldest of places and leave nothing but ash in its wake. But some of the greatest things in life have risen from ashes.” He leaned close, so close I could see everything he was thinking. “I think we’re one of them.”

  Erosive blazes burned their way across my heart, turning it into ashes.

  “Maxell.”

  I still wore the same clothes I’d worn since we’d fled from Port Inlet. They were sweat ridden and soaked in salt and ice. But my bare feet touched the warm glass floors. My boots were on the floor, neatly tucked together, so out of place in the glass and fire opulence before me.

  “Is this heaven?” I asked, my voice eerily level. I cleared my throat, but nothing felt wrong.

  Both people looked at each other, their brows shooting up. Then they both guffawed. Their laughter sounded like crackling flames and wind chimes. If it wasn’t at my expense I would have thought their laughter sounded pretty. But it was at my expense, and I was tired of being the butt of everyone’s jokes. Of being a human girl who would never be the same as her pair bond.

  “No, Princess. You are nowhere near heaven.”

  The other man held his finger up. “We aren’t sure she’s a princess yet. Don’t ordain her before the king says to do so.”

  I frowned, rubbing at my chest. “Princess? King? Where am I? Where’s Maxell? Did you find Maxell?”

  The one who’d called me Princess swung his legs over the arm of the chair, relaxing as he appraised me. “What is this Maxell?”

  “He’s my pair bond.”

  They both shared a look before the second one spoke up, clearing his throat. “You mean to tell me that you, a halfling, bonded with the undead?”

  I nodded slowly, unsure what the heck he was talking about. “What’s a halfling?”

  “Princess, I hope you find this of respect, but fairies cannot bond with a vampire. We are alive. They are not. It isn’t possible. Perhaps this vampire lied to you?”

  I shook my head. “Maxell would never lie to me.”

  They shared another look, both of them rising to their feet just as movement on my left caught my attention. A partition in the glass wall swung aside, and a woman with skin the color of lightly steeped tea poked her head in. Her hair was a fiery orange and her ears were pointed just like the other two men in the room.

  “Gather her and bring her robed to the king’s quarters within the quarter sun.” She barely gave me a glance, leaving as quietly as she arrived.

  Both men bowed, but she was already gone.

  “Who are you guys?” I asked, backing away from them. “What’s going on? I need to leave. I have to find Maxell.”

  “My apologies, Princess. My name is Meek. And this here’s Hoodlin.” He touched his friend, whose eyes were more red than amber. Both had black hair, but Hoodlin’s was slightly longer and had orange highlights. When Meek looked to him, I noticed his hair had red streaks in it closer to his pointed ears. “We were assigned to be your royal aids. You’re our first royal. Probably our only.”

  They both grinned, showing off pearlescent white teeth, all of which seemed sharper around the edges and shinier than human teeth.

  I shook my head, trying not to be deterred from my main goal. And that was Maxell. It would always be Maxell. I reached for him with my heart, and in the brutal tug of pain, I breathed deep, because at least he could feel it too. With Maxell on my mind, what could I do but nod? These two strange creatures weren’t going to explain things the way I needed them explained, and it wouldn’t hurt to gain information. I had to keep myself safe. For more than just me now.

  To be safe, I had to be smart.

  To be smart, I had to ask the right questions.

  “Where am I?” Maybe it was easier to ask one question at a time instead of letting the confusion in my brain have free reign of my lips. Which did seem safer than letting my lips have control of my heart. But they’d never know that.

  “You are in the Fire Court. More specifically, you are in the Throne of Cinders. Even more specifically, you are in King Tealson’s palace.” Hoodlin cocked his head to the side, studying me with narrowed eyes. “You are not aware of anything, are you?”

  Tealson. There was my last name again. I’d never heard it said that way. With so much respect and weight. As if it mattered when before it had only been a name. One so many forgot. I wasn’t sure if it were smart to be clueless here. “So, you’re saying I’m in the fairy realm? And you are both fairies?”

  They both nodded simultaneously.

  “And this is the Fire Court, and I’m in the palace of the king of the court of fire, and his name is King Tealson?”

  They again nodded in sync.

  “My last name is Tealson,” I mumbled, my heart wondering if it were even worth pounding for, what with it cracking in my chest, like a slow spreading break. What would I do if it shattered? How would it still beat if it wasn’t intact?

  Could a heart still feel if it was in pieces?

  They shared another look and Meek spoke up that time. “We’ve been waiting seventeen years for you, Princess.” They both bowed their heads.

  I closed my eyes. “Stop.”

  “If you wish,” Meek replied.

  I reopened my eyes to find they were upright again. Confusion was thick and cloudy in my mind. They were saying words, and those words made sense in the sense that I knew the words individually but put together their words were nonsensical.

  “Seventeen years is admittedly not that long, but it is when your kingdom is constantly under siege and the old blood cannot protect you the way new blood can.”

  Meek nodded to what Hoodlin had said. “We grew up in the middle of a war with you as our only hope.”

  They were doing it again. Saying things that made my head hurt. I didn’t want to respond, even if I did have an appropriate response to give. I clamped my lips shut, afraid I’d hit some kind of emotional threshold I didn’t know I had.

  They glanced once more between each other.

  “Did we break her?”

  “Humans are frail.”

  “She is hardly human. She’s more fae than human, if you think about it. Her mother was a halfling herself. The king is a full-blooded fae of royal lineage. That makes the princess three-fourths fae and only partly human. Her human side should begin to dissipate soon. Being back home will see to that.”

  Tears ran down my cheeks. Stop talking!

  “Why does she appear so human?”

  They stepped closer to me, touching my hair and pinching my cheeks. “Does she? She’s beautiful like a fae. Have you seen a human face this proportionate? No. Her eyes are teeming with fire like her father’s. Much like the entire Fire Court. She smells of embers and heat and life. The fae in her is dying to be set free.”

  Hoodlin inhaled and his eyes fluttered closed. “My magic, she smells like the sun.”

  Meek took a sniff himself. His eyes glazed over. “Not just any sun. She smells of the sun that lights the entire world of the fae.”

  “She is light and life.”

  I trembled; my hands formed fists at my sides.

  Maxell.

  I wanted my pair bond.
>
  To be a part of something that mattered without having to make sense of it.

  He had made sense in that perfect given way. Nothing else ever had.

  “Stop,” I whispered.

  Both aids stepped back immediately, mirror expressions of admonishment on their faces.

  “My apologies, Princess. We’ve never been this close to royalty before.”

  “Our mother was an aid to your grandmother. Our grandfather one as well. We grew up in the aid chambers, running around beneath the kingdom, waiting for our chance to be a part of your reign.”

  “Stop,” I repeated.

  Their lips clamped shut.

  I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes, rubbed my chest once more, and then I took a deep breath and tried with all my might to think around the emptiness overtaking my brain. That couldn’t be healthy. To feel nothing and be nothing but pain. That couldn’t be smart.

  “The quarter sun is almost here,” Meek said quietly.

  I pried open one eye to find them both standing there expectantly. “So?”

  “We need to robe you. For the king.”

  I let a pitiful sigh fall from my lips. “Fine. Robe me.” Whatever the heck that was.

  Hoodlin took my hand and Meek led the way as Hoodlin half pulled half guided me to a door in the corner of the room. It was the actual corner of the room. Right where the two glass walls met, a single pane of fire-filled glass moved aside, showing us a room with a much different aesthetic.

  It was made of stone stained gray from ash. Some of the stones burned bright, like they were held over open flames. It was even warmer in this room than the other. And yet, the longer I inhaled the thick, muggy air, the further the memory of ice became. I could barely remember what was so scary about it. Could hardly recall what was so good about cold when the heat thickened in my veins.

  Meek walked over toward the far center wall of the room. There was a raised groove of stone in the shape of a square an inch above the floor. A small hole was in the center, and when Meek tugged on a robe descending from the ceiling, water rained down.

  A shower.

  It was just a shower.

  In the fae world.

  My expression must’ve been sour, because Hoodlin spoke up. “We can run you a bath, Princess. If the falling bath isn’t pleasurable?”

  “Is indoor plumbing too much to ask?” I sighed. “A shower’s fine.”

  Meek grinned. “This is the fae realm, Princess. Indoor plumbing doesn’t exist. Nor does electricity.”

  I gaped at them. “What? Why not?”

  They frowned at me. “You are a fire child, Princess. If you want light, bring it forth.”

  I studied the falling water. “I don’t want light.”

  “What do you want then?” Meek asked, eyes meeting mine, as if he truly cared what my answer was.

  But I didn’t know Meek. And I didn’t know what I wanted. I wiped at my eyes and shook my head. “I don’t know.”

  “When you figure it out, let us know. We’ll do our best to give it to you.”

  “Why?” I asked them, holding their amber-hued gazes.

  They spoke in unison. “You’re our princess. And we are your royal aids. We’ll serve you forever. And forever leaves a long time for dreams.”

  They spoke the way Masters had. They were only being who they were, speaking only on what they knew. It wasn’t their fault that I was human and didn’t come with a fairy manual.

  “If you’ll step beneath the water, we’ll tend to you.”

  I balked. “As in wash me? Naked?”

  They blinked at me. Meek spoke up. “How else do you cleanse your dirty skin?”

  I blushed. “I usually do so naked, by myself,” I added, because come on. I wasn’t letting them wash my naked body.

  “If you wish.” Hoodlin bowed, walking over to a wooden armoire. The ornate carvings on the side looked like flames. He pulled open the doors and motioned toward the contents. “There are coverings and such in here. When you are clean and covered, since that seems to matter so, call us back in. But do be quick, Princess. The king is waiting.”

  They both left me alone, but for some strange reason, I heard them through the door, even though they whispered. I’d never had such good hearing before. If I closed my eyes and focused only on my hearing, I could hear the water sloshing through the walls before it even reached the spigot in the stone ceiling. I could hear a tinkering sound, and it reminded me of my mother cooking; what I heard was the sounds of a kitchen being used. My heartbeat pounded strong and even in my chest, the sound like white noise in my ears—I barely registered it apart from the other noises.

  I shook my head, wondering if almost freezing had messed with my brain somehow.

  I wasn’t exactly sure why showering was required, but I did need one and meeting any king covered in sweat and tears probably wasn’t the best approach. I undressed on weak knees, delicately folding my dirty clothes and setting them aside.

  Naked, I studied the stone bathroom once more. There was a slab of stone along the wall near the door, reminding me of a spa table. There was a large basin on my right. It put every lavish tub I’d ever seen to shame. This one was off-white, the color of bone, and the feet were carved into stars. A painting of flames shooting through the night sky decorated one side of it. A spigot hung overhead. I bent over to find that there was another hole below the drain.

  I wondered where the water ran off if they didn’t have indoor plumbing before I climbed under the spray, and the hot water pelted my naked body.

  Despite my hollowness, a sigh fell from my lips. The water was the perfect temperature. That luscious shade of warm. It caressed my scalp and kneaded my muscles. I washed the dirt and sweat off my body and out of my hair, wondering if I’d ever bathed in water that clear before. It was crystal, with a slight blue shift, like lake water. I opened my mouth to taste it, finding that it tasted so fresh and it coated my tongue.

  I’d drunk my belly full before someone knocked on the door.

  “Princess, are you about ready?”

  I scampered over to the armoire and grabbed the first thing I touched. In that case, it was a silky robe the color of dark cherries. I had just tied it around my waist when the door opened and Meek and Hoodlin came back in.

  Meek turned the spigot off and Hoodlin gently took my hand, leading me into another door in the glass fire room. This one was a closet. It was stacked with clothes I’d never seen before. Meek and Hoodlin wore brown pants and a dark red tunic shirt made entirely of a fabric that looked like velvet but when I drug my fingers along Meek’s shoulder, I found that it felt like leather. On both of their shirts, there was the same image.

  Flames burning atop a full moon.

  “Princess, please,” Meek grumbled when I pulled my robe tighter when he moved to pull it free. “You’re being human, and it is rather disappointing.”

  I glared at him. “What does that mean?”

  “He means you’ve learned nothing from Adam and Eve. Come on. Disrobe. We’re already late, and the last thing you want to do is make King wait. He’ll cut off our heads for this. Let us aid you.” Hoodlin snatched my robe loose and I was naked in front of them both.

  Heat kissed my cheeks and shoulders, but they didn’t seem to care whatsoever. They moved quickly, helping me into the strangest pair of underwear I’ve ever seen. It was a mix between silk and lace and so inappropriate I balked. They ignored me, plunging a gown over my head, and then they both pinned my hair back before Meek rubbed something sticky and sweet smelling on my face, and Hoodlin dipped behind me to cinch my waist in.

  I gasped, grunting under the pressure. “What is this torture device?”

  “It’s a corset. Don’t be obtuse. As princess, you must look your best not because of vanity, but because your best is our best.”

  They both stepped back, giving me a look over. Hoodlin smiled first and then Meek; they shared another look before they nodded in approval.

&n
bsp; I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass walls before they whisked me out of the room. My gown was black on top, and it tapered down from red, orange, and ending in yellow. My feet were left bare, which I thought was odd, until I realized they too wore no shoes, and neither did a girl we passed in the hall with wild fiery hair and the same brown and red outfit. She stopped and stared at me, her mouth falling open. I pretended she was looking at them and not me. My hair had been pinned back out of my face but left down in the back; it trailed after me as they rushed me down a hall made of glass and decorated with signs baring that same image.

  Fire burning on top of a full, glowing moon.

  We broached a set of steps before ascending them. There was a long winding set that went down and another on the story we were on, leading up to what I assumed to be another floor entirely. At the top, there was a gaping hole in the wall where the stairs met the hall.

  I gasped, stopping to stare at the panoramic view before me. I stepped closer, sticking my finger out of the open space. There was no glass. It was a huge opening in the middle of a palace, and before me, for as wide and far as I could see, was nothing but pure, unadulterated magic. I’d never seen anything like it in my entire life.

  I expected Fire Court to look, well, fiery. I anticipated ash and flames. Burning desiccation. But what I got was a sky that bled orange and red. The clouds were gold. The sun, too. It even glinted on black birds with large wings and sharp beaks flying past the open window. Hills in the distance met mountains made of enormous crag, their summits topped with ash. There were pockets of civilizations, cities upon cities. There was a forest so thick and wide, with trees I’d never seen before and lights dashed in and out of the thicket. People walked around. All nimble, all beautiful—all fairy.

  In the distance, volcanoes shot fireballs into the air, sending shooting stars raining down over the forest. The air was tinged with a scent so lovely, I poked my head out of the window and inhaled it deeply into my lungs. Cloves, campfires, burnt sugar, blackened cakes, vanilla, hot stone, scorched custard, and on the edge of everything there was the overpowering scent of fire.

  It made goosebumps sprout on my arms. It made parts of me come alive that had never lived. The scent was so complex and deep, I could spend an eternity trying and failing to come up with the right words. It wasn’t just a smell. It was a feeling. It was passion and desperation. It was rebirth and second chances. It was terror and captivation. It was hell with just a hint of heaven.