by C. J. Anaya
Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Author's Note
About The Author
Other Books by C.J. Anaya
Copyright
Eighteen Years Ago
Insley stood beside the Lake of Beatha anxiously awaiting the arrival of her dear friend Chantara. Her emotions were equal parts excitement and trepidation considering her reasons for seeking out her friend. Rodri’s insistence that their child was in danger merely supported her own recent suspicions of being watched. She knew threats from the Seelie Court were more commonplace than anything else these days, but Rodri’s decision to spirit their child away to the human realm meant tensions between the Courts were coming to a head.
And Rodri refused to tell her why.
The tiny gurgle of her sweet daughter in her arms brought tears to her eyes.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right to be separated from her child, but the dangers of keeping her within the Fae realm were too great.
Motion within the lake brought her out of her tumultuous thoughts as Chantara’s lithe form lifted high on a silver, frothy wave only to be gently lowered along the shore. Her magnificent fin slowly morphed into two perfectly formed legs.
Chantara held her arms out in delight.
“Is this the babe we’ve anxiously awaited to welcome into our world?”
Insley handed Crysta over, reveling in the brilliant smile on her face. It had taken centuries of emotional pain and heartache before she’d finally been blessed with a child.
“I’m thrilled you came for a visit,” Chantara said. “How long before you must leave?”
Insley studied her friend for a moment, knowing what she must tell her, what she must do, but also afraid to move forward because it meant acknowledging, in a very real and unmitigated way, that things were changing within the Fae realm and not for the better.
“Chantara,” Insley said, steel lacing her voice as her decision to move forward with her plan solidified. “There’s much to tell you. Much that needs explaining, but first I must ask you, do you know if The Diadem of Titania still exists?”
She watched as her friend’s lighthearted expression grew serious, her face draining of all color.
“Insley, what is going on?”
The queen looked at her daughter held tightly in Chantara’s arms. Urgency gripped her, stealing away any hope of putting this off, of burying her head in the sand and pretending the signs and portents weren’t there.
She knew what her daughter would become and what that meant for the Fae realm as a whole.
“Insley?” Chantara said. Her terse voice snapped Insley’s attention to those black orbs of hers. “Why are you asking about my mother’s diadem?”
The queen took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before she spoke.
“I’m going to start from the beginning, but first, I need you to tell me the story again. Tell me everything you know about The Rending.”
Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and body aches. Obvious signs of the flu, according to everything I thought I knew about my symptoms, although, I really couldn’t say I knew much since I didn’t have any memory of my life before waking up two days ago.
Lovely.
This illness absolutely sucked.
Kheelan reassured my father multiple times that I was suffering side effects from severing the link. I had no idea what “the link” was or what that meant, and when I asked him about it he said Jareth, his brother, the assassin sent to kill me, had tried to use a magical link to rid the earth of my existence.
Annihilate me.
Kill me in the most gruesome and painful of ways.
Rude.
The idea that this pompous prince thought he could just exterminate me like some annoying pest seriously rankled.
I’m a nice person, dang it all!
Or maybe I wasn’t? Maybe I’d been a spoiled, snotty, uppity little thing who had some sort of god complex due to my class and station in life. When I brought that up, Kheelan nearly toppled over with laughter and assured me I was all things sweet and kind. The very picture of what a well-bred Fae princess should be.
Well-bred?
That attribute didn’t seem to fit me either, but, again, I had no memory of anything pertaining to me…or anything else.
Kheelan explained that Jareth’s motives had nothing to do with who I was personally and everything to do with who I was politically. Which brought on a plethora of new questions with complicated explanations that, if I’m honest, failed to make a whole lot of sense.
It must have been an awful thing for him to go through, saving his fiancé’s life after an attack like that. He looked so sad and unsettled when he explained it to me. I wanted to comfort him, put my arms around him, and thank him for saving me, but I still felt so unsure and hesitant when he was near me. He was a complete stranger to me now. Somehow, I needed to remember I once loved him enough to agree to marry him. I foresaw a whole lotta awkward moments in the near future.
Then there was “the cause” my father and Kheelan constantly referred to.
Apparently, daddy needed to meet with other royals to persuade them to join a cause involving the overthrow of the Seelie King and the healing of the Fae realm and its magic.
A tall order in my opinion.
I wanted to be all gung-ho on the subject, but I felt like an outsider suddenly stumbling upon a new world, a new race, and thrust into a conflict I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around. It didn’t feel like my fight, but I was heir to the Unseelie Court, which meant it was my fight…and these people were my people. I had to care about them being slowly poisoned to death by their own magic, but it seemed so far removed from me emotionally and physically. It didn’t feel real. None of it felt real.
I’ll tell you what did feel real.
Kheelan.
His hot gaze on me every time he looked at me. The intense way the green of his eyes flared with heat whenever he took my hand to reassure me or rubbed my arms to comfort me through the pain.
Then there was the way he held me when my illness became too much for me, whispering kind words and wonderful reassurances in my ear as he embraced me.
I didn’t remember him or the feelings I must have had for him, but his warmth and comfort were real and immediate…and the only things keeping me grounded through the suffering…suffering that continued to get worse.
And Chuck.
My unexpected pet dragon was also my familiar, and man did this little guy hate to see me in pain. He spent hours in my lap or curled up against my chest, breathing cool air on my face, gurgling and cooing as if he were a parent comforting his young. At one point he scared the hell out of both me and Kheelan when he jabbed a claw in my chest, releasing some built-up pressure squeezing my ribcage.
Afterward, Kheelan chuckled in amazement and I breathed easy for the first time in a long time, not caring that he’d stabbed my chest since I felt a million times better as a result.
“He siphoned some of the built-up magic within your body,” Kheelan said with some relief. “I had no idea a Fae dragon could do that, but it b
uys us more time.”
He just shook his head at my questioning look.
“Later,” he said, giving a surreptitious look my father’s way. “We’ll discuss it later.”
If I hadn’t been so exhausted and fed up with my situation I might have insisted on an explanation. Most of what they discussed went over my head, but at this point, surviving from one minute to the next was foremost on the agenda so I didn’t really give a damn either way. I just wanted these side effects to end.
Back to the cause and all that entailed, my father’s meetings with various officials to get the whole “let’s overthrow the Seelie King” party started had been put on hold. He was reluctant to leave me, hovering over me with worry and stark fear in his eyes, which made Kheelan, for some unknown reason, extremely antsy.
Yet, I was relieved to have him here. I understood their end game, but it was risky. It was dangerous. We were currently in hiding from King Moridan, his son Jareth, and all those in the Fae realm who followed him.
Hiding in enchanted living quarters within the Sprite Mines.
I didn’t understand the magic involved, but my father had managed to carve out a home within the mines completely impenetrable to others’ magic. We were virtually undetectable in this enchanted mini palace. In my more lucid moments, I could appreciate the warm golds of the decor within the room.
A fireplace was fixed to the right, giving off precious heat to sustain me since my illness had seriously messed up my internal temperature. Pristine white walls gave off a brightness of energy I couldn’t manage to match, which made it seem like I was being taunted a bit.
Annoying, but not my main concern.
I simply continued to lie there, sinking into the warm folds of my silken blankets and cursing the soft mattress I couldn’t appreciate due to my body’s unending misery.
And while I convalesced, helpless and pitiful, a conflict outside these enchanted walls continued to brew, promising the very upheaval of the Fae realm and all its inhabitants.
King Moridan and King Roderick had waged war against us, laying claim to both the Unseelie and Seelie Courts, and as long as we lived, their rule would always be threatened. Jareth was an even bigger threat in many ways since he coveted Kheelan’s right to rule. If I married Kheelan, Jareth’s claim to the throne would lie in tatters.
I didn’t know how I felt about this whole takeover thing, but I definitely didn’t want my father to be discovered and captured while trying to garner enough support.
And still my illness wore on.
After two days of unending physical pain, I was ready to call it quits, begging them to knock me out. My father was beside himself with worry. He spent several hours with Kheelan working spells in an attempt to relieve my suffering, but nothing seemed to be working.
“Is it possible the side effects could lead to death?” my father asked at one point when he thought I’d fallen asleep.
“It won’t come to that, Rodri. You know I won’t let anything happen to Crysta. There is nothing you can do here. You can’t continue to stay here at her side when there is so much to be done.”
“I don’t want to leave her until I’m certain she will be well. I just got her back, and your marriage to her will be the only thing that saves her from this fated mate business. After years of resigning myself to her absence and probable death, I’ve finally allowed myself to hope. We have to find a way to fix this.”
I puzzled over my father’s words while Kheelan reassured him that the side effects weren’t permanent. I figured I must have misunderstood my father’s words and resigned myself to the fact that my illness had probably caused me severe brain damage.
“You are worrying over a problem that will eventually work itself out when you are supposed to be meeting with the nobles of other races and petitioning our cause. I’ve been trying to get you to leave for two days now. We only have three more races willing to join us so far, and only if the Saytr King also sees King Moridan as a threat and agrees to help. Then we have to worry about the Unseelie King. Nothing can be finalized in their eyes without King Roderick’s backing.”
My father scoffed at this.
“I may not be presiding as king at the moment, but lawfully, I am the only one who can sanction an act of war against the Seelie Court.”
“That doesn’t do us any good at the moment since you use a glamour to disguise your identity. I understand the need for secrecy since King Roderick helped my father kill your wife and nearly managed to kill you and Crysta eighteen years ago, but none of the races are going to willingly jump into an all out war without the backing of the Unseelie Court.”
I blinked my eyes open, getting ready to insert myself into the conversation. Just how many times had someone tried to kill me? Did that mean we’d been in hiding longer than they’d led me to believe? Was I hallucinating this conversation?
Kheelan continued, ignorant of my eavesdropping. “The time for anonymity has passed. Surely you’ve spoken to enough royals to plant the seed of doubt needed for an official vote. They must know you live. You have to tell them.”
“They will find out soon enough. My brother has called together a meeting of all the royals in our Court within a few months from now. He wishes to discuss several things, one of them being Crysta’s reappearance and disappearance, no doubt—and I can’t wait for him to bumble around on that subject—and the other being the slow poisoning of our magic. I plan to attend the meeting, submit my proposal of war before the entire Court, and call for a vote. I’ll have garnered enough support or at least planted enough doubt in the minds of several royals to get the vote I want, especially when I reveal my true identity, but you and Crysta must marry before that meeting. He’ll most likely want to enlist the royals’ aid in finding her, and we don’t need that extra headache. Better to come out of hiding and reveal our plan, but we can’t do so until Crysta is married to you, severing her fated mate claim with Jareth.”
I shot up out of bed at that last remark.
“Excuse me? What fated mate claim? Why would I share anything with Jareth?”
Kheelan rubbed his temples and murmured a few expletives as my father let out a sorrowful sigh
“I thought she was asleep,” Kheelan said. “We should have had this conversation in the adjoining room. I just hate to leave her unattended no matter how short the duration.”
“She’ll have to know everything eventually,” my father said.
Kheelan’s head shot up. He opened his mouth, getting ready to protest at the same time I was getting ready to let loose some rapid fire questions.
“She’s going to find out what we’ve stolen from her,” my father insisted. “That’s not to say I feel you’re a bad choice for her. You’ve become like a son to me over the years, Kheelan, and I know she will eventually learn to love you, but this is going to be hard for her once she finds out the truth. Trust will be broken and must be reestablished.”
Kheelan’s panicked glance landed on me. He whispered something and waved a hand in my direction. My thoughts suddenly scrambled, becoming indistinct and surreal.
What was going on? Was I hallucinating?
I blinked my eyes several times, but I couldn’t bring Kheelan or my father into clear focus.
Yep. Definitely hallucinating. Or this conversation really was happening and these two had a ton of explaining to do. I voted for the former, preferring the brain damage to any duplicity on their part.
That’s really what was happening here. My ability to understand my own language had been impaired.
Could I even read anymore?
What if I couldn’t remember the alphabet? Was it called the alphabet? Had I just made that up?
I started singing the ABC song in my head.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G…so far so good.
“How long before the meeting is held?” Kheelan asked.
Awesome. This was a topic of conversation that definitely made sense.
My father sighed, allowin
g him to change the subject.
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P…yep, I can even visualize the letters in my head.
“You know how long it takes royals to set up their entourage and willingly leave their safe havens. No one will be allowed to use magic and apparate since all the royals of the Court will be converging in one area. Traveling on foot from all over the Unseelie Court lands will take time. I’d say you have two months to build a relationship with my daughter and marry her before we show up at the meeting.”
Q, R, S, T, U, V…bring it home, girl. W, X, Y, and Z.
Nailed it!
“You want us all to be there?” Kheelan asked in surprise.
“Of course,” my father said. “Crysta and I will need to reassert our claim to the throne and Jareth must see the evidence of your marriage. It will be a brutal reunion between the two of you, but in time, Jareth will understand, and he will be unable to make a claim on her ever again.”
So no brain damage. No hallucinations. Bummer. Time to face the music and reinsert myself into the conversation.
“What are you two talking about?” I finally managed.
I furiously blinked my eyes, determined to stay present even though my aching body and fuzzy thoughts were doing a number on my cognitive skills.
Kheelan looked at me with anguish in his eyes.
“Crysta,” he said as he sat down next to me and pulled me into his arms. I winced at the physical contact since my nerve endings were raw and aching. He noticed my discomfort and released me with an apologetic frown, but the intensity of his gaze held me still.
“We love you. Please believe that. Though you may not appreciate our methods, your father and I have your best interests at heart. Please remember this when all is said and done. We just want to protect you and keep you safe. This is the only way to do it.”
“What way? You’re really scaring me, Kheelan,” I said. “Just tell me what’s going on.” My breathing came in rapid gulps as sweat trickled down my hairline. I felt so incredibly awful, and I wanted nothing more than to sink into sweet oblivion and not face the pain, not face the questions, and not face whatever terrifying truths awaited me.
