by C. J. Anaya
“You wanted King Moridan’s assassin to kill not only me, but the human child?” Roderick asked in horror.
It matched my own horror for sure. I still didn’t understand much of this, but I couldn’t believe he had had the human baby posing as me slaughtered. He had allowed an innocent child to be killed?
“I had to save Crysta. I knew it was only a matter of time before he figured out the baby was human. And it gave me the opportunity to lure you to the castle so you could be killed along with her.”
“Rodri,” Kheelan said, staring at him in disbelief, “all this time you swore your brother was at fault. You swore he killed Insley.”
“He did,” my father said, tears streaming down his face, “She figured out my plan and ran back to warn him and save the child before I could stop her. She was there when that vampire attacked. I followed her as fast as I could and froze him with magic, but not before he’d ripped her throat out. You hadn’t arrived yet, so I had to think fast. I killed one of the guards and made it look like me, and then I released the vampire and fled, hoping he would finish you off once and for all.”
I startled when I bumped into Kheelan. I’d been slowly inching away from my father without even realizing it. Kheelan pulled me against him, wrapping a protective arm around my waist, but it failed to give me the comfort it would have before I found out about these lies. Jareth made a disgruntled noise and stepped forward, but my uncle restrained him, studying Kheelan and I with a wary glance before his stormy look landed on my father.
He had to swallow a few times before he spoke again.
“Do you mind telling me why you wanted me dead? Why did you never tell me King Moridan had threatened Crysta? Why didn’t Insley for heaven’s sake?”
“Shocking, isn’t it? You shared everything with each other. You were her lover after all.”
Um. Wow.
Now that I had an opportunity to hear the truth, I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.
“What did you expect, Rodri? You stole her from me centuries ago, and after she couldn’t produce an heir you began having affairs with some of the nobles. Do you have any idea how devastated and lonely she became?”
“And you were right there to console and comfort her,” my father snarled.
“I’d always been there. I’d always loved her. It took her time to see it, but eventually she turned to me and we were happy. You had your affairs and we ended up with each other just exactly as it should have been if you hadn’t interfered so long ago. And I would damn well want to know if someone was threatening Crysta, considering I’m her real father.”
Well…this was a real, what the hell, moment.
There’s nothing quite like a big reveal to get the blood pumping. Unfortunately, I didn’t experience a jolt of adrenaline at King Roderick’s announcement.
Nope. Quite the opposite.
Jareth stared at Roderick in disbelief, Graul nodded his head like Roderick wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know, Mira gave everyone looks of disapproval, Kheelan muttered a few expletives under his breath, my father’s face turned purple with rage, and I nearly lost my footing once the blood drained from my face.
The only one in the room who didn’t seem to be affected by this was King Vargis. He looked annoyingly entertained to be perfectly honest.
“Crysta is my daughter,” my father said in a cold voice.
“No. She’s not. You always assumed it was Insley’s fault she couldn’t produce an heir, and you enjoyed flinging that in her face as a constant reminder of her failure as queen of the Unseelie Court. Apparently, you were the one at fault.”
“No,” my father said, shaking his head back and forth in denial. “No, we’d recently decided to fix our relationship. I recognized my faults. I made amends for my weaknesses. We found out she was with child a month later.”
“Really?” King Roderick said, sarcasm thick and biting. “Because I knew she was pregnant a month before that. We both agreed if you ever found out, you would never forgive her. She and Crysta would be banned and stripped of their magic or worse, and you would take on another wife. I begged her to simply leave you and come with me, but she was afraid you would go after Crysta. I had to sit back and watch as you, once again, took everything I loved from me and never once appreciated it. I didn’t kill Insley, you scum sucking pixie. Her death is on your head, the death of that human child is on your head, and if you ever think of harming Crysta now that you know the truth, you won’t live long enough to be tried for the crimes you’ve committed.”
So my murdering uncle was now my overprotective father, and my resurrected father was now the uncle responsible for ending my mother’s life.
I failed to feel any warm fuzzies with this family reunion.
Stunned silence reigned for a few moments before King Vargis cleared his throat.
“If you’d like to strike him down right now, I won’t interfere,” he said in a lazy tone. “Everyone already assumes he’s dead, but I caution you not to be too hasty. For all his faults and wrong doing, he has important information that may help us cure this griesha.”
My response was automatic.
“No one is killing my father,” I said.
“Don’t you mean your uncle?” King Vargis asked in amusement.
“I…”
I stepped out of Kheelan’s arms, making my way toward the man I had believed to be my father. I studied him for a few moments, trying to understand this man I’d allowed myself to love, trying to understand how he could have let King Moridan assassinate a tiny baby. He must have seen something in my expression, some hint of what I was thinking.
He hung his head for a moment, face pale and hands shaking.
“We’d waited so long for a child. Centuries of heartache and frustration. You can’t imagine how much I cared for you. The lengths I went to keep you safe after King Moridan accused you of being Jareth’s mate.”
“Jareth’s fated mate,” I said in a flat voice. “Not Kheelan’s?”
My father shook his head.
“Not Kheelan’s.”
“Crysta, I can explain,” Kheelan said from behind me.
I ignored him even though it killed me to do it. He’d broken my heart with his lies and now, all I wanted was the absolute truth.
“Why did you lie to me? Why did you let me believe I belonged with Kheelan?”
My father let out a pained sigh.
“The problem began when King Moridan’s seers prophesied that you and Jareth would one day become fated mates. A beautiful union to be sure, but because you both possess different elemental magics, your union would cause an imbalance within our realm. He fully believed it would destroy us, and he threatened your life. Your mother and I gave you to a human family and took their child in your place. Years later, King Moridan somehow discovered you were still alive. I don’t know how he found out. He tasked his team of assassins to take care of it, never once considering Jareth might take the job since the prince was otherwise occupied at the time.”
“And that’s how Jareth and I first met. He found me in the human realm. He was sent to kill me.” Jareth had already told me this, sort of, but I thought if I said it out loud, this convoluted scenario might not seem so ludicrous.
Rodri remained silent for a moment, looking at me as if he feared I wouldn’t be able to handle what he had to share next.
He was probably right.
“When Kheelan told me that Jareth fell in love with you and gave up his kingdom to be with you, I realized everything King Moridan feared was true. We had simply thought he was crazy. We thought this business of fated mates between faeries with two different elemental magics to be impossible, but he was right, and he was also correct that you either had to be separated or one of you had to die.” My father shook his head in frustration. “Then Kheelan said his father had been ranting about a soul link. Jareth had linked his soul to yours to make certain his father couldn’t go after you again.”
“I don’t understand. How does that protect me?”
“If Jareth dies, you die, Crysta. Your souls are…were…linked, that is, until I convinced you to sever that link to keep you safe,” Kheelan said
I finally turned to look at him. He didn’t look a bit regretful, though. If anything he simply looked determined.
“Kheelan and I had been working together for quite some time to overthrow my brother and King Moridan,” my father continued. “I wanted to punish Roderick for what happened to Insley. Kheelan at the time, however unwilling, recognized that you and Jareth couldn’t marry. It would destroy the Fae realm, something we had been working so hard to avoid. Our only option was to kill you both.”
Kill us both. Kheelan and my father had tried to kill us both.
“Is there anyone in this room who hasn’t tried to kill me?” I said.
The Saytr King began to raise his hand, but I waved him off.
“Rhetorical question,” I muttered.
“It wasn’t what either of us wanted,” my father said, sadness and despair whirling in the depths of his eyes. “Kheelan and I fought so long and hard to keep you hidden, but when Jareth found you and began the process of bonding to you, there was nothing we could do. I had embedded a death trap and binding spell around your core as a fail safe when you were a baby. A last resort just in case King Moridan’s words proved true. It would prevent you and Jareth from ever marrying so long as the spells were never broken, but there’s always a way to get around a spell. ”
My eyes were wet with tears.
“You weren’t willing to fight for me after that?” I asked. “You did some of the most questionable, most heartless, most horrific things just to keep me safe, and in the end you and Kheelan were the ones trying to kill me?”
My father nodded, head hanging low.
“Rulers must make difficult choices, Crysta. Whether you’re my daughter or my niece, one life does not matter more than the fate of the Fae realm.”
Jareth’s angry growl sounded feral. “This is such a load of pixie dung—”
“Then why am I not dead now?” I said, anger coiled taught within me. “I’ve been with you both for several weeks and you’ve done nothing but love and protect me. Why didn’t you get rid of me?”
“When our attempts on your life failed,” Kheelan said, “I knew the only thing to do was visit the Unseelie Palace on the pretense of helping you and Jareth. Getting close to you to kill you was my main priority. And then I ran into this beautiful faerie on the way, one who was brave and selfless, trying to keep a mountain troll’s attention on herself instead of her friends. It intrigued me. I wanted to know you, I couldn’t help but want to get close to you. I didn’t recognize who you were because I hadn’t seen you since you were a baby.”
Kheelan kept his eyes glued to me, begging me for understanding maybe, but this betrayal went so deep I didn’t know what to think or how to feel. I waited for them to continue their long, sordid explanation, but Kheelan seemed lost in thought for a moment.
“You wanted to get to know me,” I prodded.
He nodded, blinking himself back to the present.
“I wondered if maybe this self-sacrificing attitude of yours could be used to not only save your life, but save my brother’s. We had the Stargis continue their attack on his physical health so you would think your soul link was hurting Jareth. I played on your loyalty and love for him to convince you to sever it. You willingly did it to save him, but your memories were lost in the process.” He pushed the guard back and grabbed me by the shoulders.
“We just wanted to save you and Jareth if we could. By severing the link you could marry me, the fated mate bond between you and Jareth would never be established as a result, and everyone would be safe. It was the only solution.”
“It was the only solution,” my father agreed in a tired voice, “right up until she absorbed the Stargis King’s magic and you failed to tell me about that, Kheelan.”
“Then she did absorb it?” King Roderick asked in wonder. “She was truly able to take in another elemental magic?”
“She just proved it to me and Mira. She worked autumn magic right before our eyes,” the Saytr King said.
Roderick looked at me in wonder. Jareth’s eyes held a glint of pride and very little surprise. As if he knew that would be the case all along.
So Kheelan…and my father, who was now my uncle, had wanted to save the Fae realm by any means necessary, even if it meant lying, manipulating, and killing those they claimed to love most.
My head was fuzzy and my aching heart felt raw and ragged. I felt a massive headache coming on. The smells of the fresh fruit combined with the mystery meat left at the long tables to the side of us made bile rise to the back of my throat. I stared at the cracks and dips of the cold floor beneath me and absently wondered if there was a spell I could work that would allow me to sink into the cracks of the stone and live out the rest of my life in blissful obscurity.
“All this time we’ve believed that Jareth and Crysta’s union would be the death of us all, and yet the minute you had new information you hid it,” my father continued as he stared at Kheelan.
No, not my father anymore. I’d have to refer to him now as my fake father…or just Rodri.
“I…had to,” Kheelan said. His deep emerald eyes pulled me in for a moment, their swirls of varying shades of green and flecks of gold mesmerizing me even though I knew the truth. “At that point I couldn’t imagine ever standing back and letting her marry someone else.”
“We can’t keep her from her fated mate,” my fake father said. “I’m sorry, Kheelan. I’ve done many things that I’m not proud of, but I can’t deny my daughter’s fated mate bond.”
“My daughter,” King Roderick ground out.
My fake father ignored him. “You need to give her those memories back. You said you had the power to do it.”
“What?” I said, glaring at Kheelan. “You told me you hadn’t found any spells to heal my mind. You said it was nearly impossible.”
Kheelan didn’t look a bit remorseful. “I lied. I could have healed you immediately, but then you would have gone back to Jareth, and I couldn’t let that happen. I fully intended to restore your memories once we were married.”
Up until then, Jareth had held himself back, coiling with tension, but this last revelation seemed to be too much for him. He let out an angry growl. His hand shot out and a blast of bright light burst from his fingertips hurtling into Kheelan’s chest and flinging him across the room into one of the long benches tucked under a sturdy table.
The bench broke in two from the force of Kheelan’s impact. I let out a cry of dismay, fearing Kheelan was broken as well, but he merely brushed some debris from his shoulder, gave Jareth a challenging smirk, and jumped to his feet just as Jareth pummeled him with another blast of power.
My natural instinct was to run over and help Kheelan no matter what he had done to hurt and confuse me, but my fake father grabbed me from behind and held me back.
“I’m afraid he deserved that, Crysta.” He kept his arm tight around my waist as Jareth advanced on Kheelan and landed a heavy blow to his face before his brother could get off the floor.
“Stop,” I yelled, but Jareth was absolutely out of his mind with rage.
“Crysta,” King Roderick said as he approached my fake father and me, “You’re going to have to let Jareth and Kheelan work this out between them and not interfere. You have no memory of how significant and special a fated mate bond truly is, and Jareth is perfectly within his rights to kill Kheelan for taking you from him when Kheelan knew the truth of things, though I doubt Jareth would be so heartless. He loves his brother.”
I noticed Graul inching toward the wrestling match, watching with interest, letting out a grunt of approval when Jareth landed a brutal punch to Kheelan’s middle. He turned to face me and gave me a broad grin.
“Your fated mate good with hand-to-hand. Don’t worry, Crysta. He make his b
rother pay.”
I buried my face in my hands, trying to come to terms with my new reality, with the truth of my history and this brief rehash of things I’d forgotten. Important, life changing things. All the while, the grunts and groans of Kheelan and Jareth beating the crap out of each other played out in a sickening soundtrack behind my swirling emotions.
King Vargis joined us as the fight continued and clapped a hand on Roderick’s shoulder.
“Never a dull moment with you, highness. I don’t suppose you and Crysta would like a bite to eat while these two get this out of their systems?”
“I never turn down a good meal.”
Uncle Roderick deftly pulled me from Rodri’s embrace and placed an arm around my shoulders. King Vargis nodded to his guards. Rodri held his hands out and shackles were placed on his wrists. He didn’t even bother fighting it. His guilt was obvious, his crimes confessed, and his shame apparent.
He placed a hand on my arm. “Never doubt my love for you. I don’t care if I sired you or not. You’ve been my daughter since the day you were born.”
His eyes were wet with tears, his firm jaw was now weak and trembling with emotion.
I was so torn by how much I had grown to care for him and how disgusted I was with his actions against me, my mother, and King Roderick.
What emotion, at this point, was I justified to submerse myself in.
It was easier to feel numb.
“I doubt everything, father…Rodri. You’ve made me doubt everything.”
He nodded his head as he blinked back his tears. King Roderick slowly pulled his brother’s hand from my arm and nodded at the two guards.
“Take him away,” he said.
“Where are they taking him?” I asked as King Roderick sat us down at the end of one of the tables. I did my best to block out the fight going on behind me, but honestly the entire thing felt so surreal and my emotions had run so high and been varied for so long, I almost felt indifferent to however bad those two brothers bloodied each other.
