by Allie Santos
The damn meld again. It was a blood exchange to bind mates and complete their bond. It tied mates together wholly, to the point that their lives were bound, and if one died, so did the other. I didn’t understand all the aspects, but it sounded life-altering. To have that and then have it ripped away… I couldn’t fathom what effect that had.
Questions filled my head. She’d been the only human they knew of that had Fae blood when she’d turned. Had she lived in the human world before then? I could have asked any of the questions nagging at me, but what came out of my mouth was, “Do you know Roar—or, uh Jase?”
“Yes.” She smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. “I’m ever grateful to him for helping us have Teagan. I never would have thought him capable of betraying Luz. But, I never liked Sabine. From the very beginning, she’s always been in his shadow, trying to exploit his weaknesses. I just thought he was smart enough to realize what a,” she paused and pursed her lips, “a bitch she was.”
I laughed at the scandalized look on her face when she said the word, like a child saying a bad word behind an adult’s back.
“If only that was all she did to him.” Bitterness edged my tone. She looked at me in askance. I paused before the words poured from me. “She’d been manipulating him. She’d been siphoning his magic like a leech. They were working with a…” I wracked my brain for what they called Hag. “A darkling.”
Cora gasped, her hand coming up to her mouth. “That magic is wicked. Darklings are creatures of pure evil. They siphon their power from sacrifice and death.” Her arm tightened around mine. “It is all making sense. When Jas—Roark and Luz used their magic on Con and me to return the bind so we would be able to conceive, he was the weakest. I thought it strange since he was powerful before magic went away. Conan would tell me stories of Roark’s abilities surpassing others. He’d proven his dominance over everyone but Luz.” That was a weird way to phrase that he was strong. Cora shook her head sadly. “That Sabine was worse than I thought. She was always hateful. Conan had to warn her away from me a few times when he first brought me to Faerie. She hates humans.”
Did she ever.
Cora came to a stop next to a rectangular, chestnut-colored door that dwarfed me. “I’m human, or well, I was. I grew up human in England. I was twenty-one when Conan found me. He brought me here, and I went through my Fae maturity when my birthday hit. But there was a scandal before Luz reclaimed her place. The prior King—Roark’s grandfather—ordered a group of his most devout followers to impregnate human women.” Cora’s lips straightened. “It should have been impossible. Only mates can have children. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me a darkling was involved. That was how mate bonds were forced.”
Sabine had mentioned admiring Roark’s grandfather. It all made sense now. She’d gotten the idea of forcing a meld through him.
“But you have to have the actual mate’s blood for a darkling to mimic the bond…” I trailed off.
“Exactly,” she said grimly. “As soon as Luz found out, she sent Conan to search for half-breeds. His ability is tracking, and it narrowed in on me. It was pure luck that he found me because his ability only tells him the general location of his target. Conan says it was the color of my eyes that told him I was a part Fae.”
Half-breed. Humans that came from a Fae and human joining that wasn’t supposed to be possible. That’s what me and the girls I’d been captured alongside were. I looked closer at her eyes. Interesting. I’d thought they were blue at first glance, but when I leaned closer, the color swirled with purple. A color I’d never seen in a human gaze.
“A darkling was also how Roark and Sabine hunted us down,” I said.
“They’re abominations. Luz would have nothing to do with them. Their price is too steep.” Cora shook her head, a grim expression on her face. “I was lucky to have hit Fae maturity before magic was bound. Or else I would have had to live out a human life and died,” she said morosely. “Just as your ancestors did.”
“Why would the king do that?”
Cora huffed, and her nose wrinkled. “He enjoyed experimenting. Mix that with being power-hungry, he was willing to do anything to exert his strength over others. His magic was persuasion, and with a darkling at his side, he managed to fool everyone into thinking he had the essence.”
“What?”
“The essence is what makes you Queen or King. It’s ultimate power.”
I shivered. That didn’t sound scary… Not. What the hell was inside me? As if answering me, the feeling ballooned under my skin. It was…something… aching to escape. I shook off the tingles and forced it down.
“Luz was and had always been Queen after her grandfather died. She’d been named Heir before his death. But the drawback to the essence is that it takes a long time to tame. She would have been powerless against him, so she bid her time until she had control of her abilities to reclaim her status.” That sounded an awful lot like how Roark had waited to make his move on Luz. The parallels were scary.
I swallowed hard. It had taken Luz years to get control of her abilities. What did that mean for me? What exactly was I looking forward to when—no, if I unbound magic? What if I never managed to figure out how to? I rubbed my stiff shoulder.
Cora caught my hand and clasped it within hers. “Roark was always a volatile man, and he became colder as each decade passed. I’m not sure why I heard such pain in your voice when you asked of him, but please be careful. He had everyone fooled. Rian infiltrated his and Sabine’s plans, and what he reported back was a Fae bent on revenge, one who was willing to do anything to be king.” There was an answering dip in my stomach. She released me and waved to the door. “This is your room, but if you don’t like it, there are plenty of others that you can choose from.” I mumbled my thanks, and she smiled in response. “I’ll leave you to it. I must see to Conan. It was truly wonderful to meet you, Rae.”
I turned away from Cora but paused as the words registered. A small spark of hope ignited inside of me.
“Wait.” I whirled around. “Since Conan is Luz’s brother, shouldn’t he be the King? That’s how linage works, doesn’t it?”
Her smile turned sympathetic and understanding. I imagined that was what a mothering smile would look like. “Adoptive brother, but even if he was blood, it would not be him. Fae have a different system in naming Heirs. Luz made her wishes clear in giving you the essence. You’re the only chance we have.” A hint of desperation broke through her serene expression, and my throat tightened.
Everyone was relying on magic to be freed—relying on me. The pressure around my brain intensified. Unable to give her anything more than a tight smile, I nodded quickly, my eyes flicking to the ground. I gripped the doorknob with a sweaty hand.
“Oh, Rae,” she said, and I looked up. “Don’t go out alone. If you want to go anywhere, let Tyran, Conan, or me know, and we will escort you.”
“Why?” That sounded like I was a prisoner.
She hesitated before she answered. “It wouldn’t be safe.” Her eyes flashed before she turned away.
I watched her light-colored clothing until she disappeared completely from sight. I pushed open the door, itching to slide into bed. My eyes were raspy and tired even though my body was fine. It was my racing thoughts that wouldn’t let up. I hated where they led me to. My stomach twisted, agonized. It had been a few days since I’d seen Roark, but it felt longer.
This was the first time I’d been alone since everything happened—Roark tying himself to Sabine, seeing my sister after years, and learning all about this world. My mind was on overload.
I didn’t even bother looking at my new lodgings. My gaze zeroed in on the large four-poster Victorian-style bed in the middle of the room. I trudged directly to it, flopped down, and closed my eyes. The events of the past days pounded on the walls of my mind. I forced my mind to shut off as tears leaked from my eyes.
6
When I woke up, I was groggy. The next second, I was wide awake. The
minutes it usually took me to rouse my stiff body to a fully awake state were no longer necessary.
The bed was oddly comfortable, although uneven. If the accommodations were modeled after the sixteenth century, that had to mean the mattress was stuffed. I wiggled my body deeper into the cradle of the soft bed. It had to be feathers. It was way too plush for it not to be.
Oh, God. I wonder what the bathrooms consisted of. A vision of a bucket flashed in my head, and I shivered.
I needed to get up and start investigating my surroundings, but I didn’t have the mental energy. I stretched out, and my bones creaked satisfyingly. I gazed through the windowed ceiling, glad the suns weren’t out. My eyebrow wrinkled at the darkness of the sky. The glass above seemed so fragile. I imagined a rock being thrown and the entire thing shattering.
Shaking the useless thoughts away, I thought of Annie, instead. I had no doubt she’d reached the apartment by now if she’d done as she was told and driven straight there and only stopped the bare minimum. I only hoped Jeff kept his word... I shook the negative thoughts off. He said he would, and I trusted him with at least that. I swallowed hard and rubbed my palms against my scalp, frustrated I couldn’t do more.
Cora’s explanation about how I came to exist filtered to the forefront of my mind. If it weren’t for that power-hungry King’s orders, then my ancestor wouldn’t have been Fae. That was my origin story—the experiment and whim of a king.
It was his fault. Roark’s grandfather’s fault. It seemed that whole linage existed to torture me. I swallowed the fresh pain his name brought forth. I needed this ache gone. Never had I felt this way about anyone. Although there weren’t many to compare him to, he somehow made Jeff look like a damn good choice.
Squeezing my eyes to shut out the grey sky, I tried to breathe through the emotions shooting through me. I wanted to smack myself silly over my heartache. What was wrong with me?
I stood, shook my arms out, and stretched my neck from side to side. This self-pity stuff needed to stop. I had a mission, and as soon as I finished, I was gone. That was my motive. Unbind magic, so I could get back to the human world. Back to my life. All this me being Fae with unlimited power was tiresome, and quite frankly, I had no idea what that even meant. I was human with some extra sauce, and that was that.
Now, how to go about freeing magic?
There had to be a lead. I just had to find it. Feeling a renewed sense of inspiration, I took in my surroundings. The space was classically beautiful yet rather bare. Although, it may have been the sheer size of the room that made it feel sparse. Very Victorian-era. A gold-plated side table sat beside the head of the bed, and a loveseat was placed in the middle of the room. A carpet was spread out under it, probably to ward off the chill from the white tile.
The fortress had all been dark glinting colors, scary in its beauty. So far, what I’d seen of the castle was all fairy tales and pale colors. Fitting… and a little cliché.
I let loose my hair, glad it was dry, and slipped the hairband I stole from Annie on my wrist. I needed to embrace the cheer. I’d lived. A puny human had lived against the most narcissistic psychopathic being in existence. Well, at least I hoped she was the worst because if there were more of her, then I honestly worried about the world.
Pale grey light filtered through the ceiling, letting me see a sliver of the blue sky. Nostalgia struck me. It looked like the human sky. Seconds later, the rain turned furious.
I would get through this kicking and clawing. A little smile upturned my lips. There was no other choice. I needed to do this for my sister. For myself. I finger combed the knots out of my hair and pulled it back into a ponytail.
With a new sense of resolve, I marched to the door and grasped the beautiful curving handles of the door. I hesitated, remembering how Cora said not to leave without being accompanied. But how was I going to contact anyone? It wasn’t like I had a phone. I missed the comforting weight in my pocket. I pulled the door open and smacked right into a hard body. I groaned, clasping my head where there was an odd tingling. It should have been throbbing.
I gritted my teeth, wanting to stomp my foot. Luz’s magic spunk was really doing a number on me. I never thought I’d miss my pain threshold being so low, but it was a reminder of how changed I was. I winced as I recalled my pitiful attempts to escape. No wonder Sabine had laughed whenever I fought her.
I was so busy rubbing my forehead that I didn’t notice I had actually bumped into someone. Something that was happening way too much for my liking.
“Hello.” A small, kind smile crossed the face of the handsome dark-haired man in front of me. His skin had an underlying glow, giving him an almost golden appearance. He, just like all the other men I’d seen in Faerie, towered over me. Hell, even the few women I’d seen towered.
He was dressed differently than the Fae Guard. The material wasn’t molded to his body and leather-like. The cream shirt was tucked into dark trousers. The fabric looked soft and breathable, similar to the dress Cora wore. It looked akin to cotton in the human world.
“Uh, hi?” I couldn’t help the suspicious edge to my gaze as I stared him down.
“I am Tyran. It is an absolute pleasure to meet you.” He held his hand out in a very human gesture, but my eyesight was good enough to detect the slight feline grace to his movements.
Tyran… Tyran. It sounded super familiar.
I slid my hand into his. “You were trusted by the Queen.”
His warm chocolate eyes shuttered, but not before I saw the flash of pain. “Yes. I was a close advisor.”
Guilt stung me. What was wrong with me? Of course, these people would be grieving.
“Sorry for your loss.” Feeling like a jerk, I cleared my throat, and my eyes wandered away from his. He squeezed my hand and wrapped it in both of his, long enough for me to bring my gaze back to his. There was a gentleness to him that automatically put me at ease.
“Do not worry yourself too much, my Queen,” he said gently.
“C-call me Rae.”
He smiled as if he found me funny. My pride pricked at that look, but I forced myself not to roll my eyes. “I came to see if you would like to go for a walk.”
I was stunned. It was such a simple request, and so out of the ordinary since all this crap began, that it left me speechless.
My nod answered for me. He took a step back and flourished a hand forward to wave me ahead of him. The slight suspicion that bubbled up when I initially saw him subsided.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up, but you had seemed to be in a coma-like sleep—”
I took a step to the side and plastered my back against the wall as I fully faced him. Waiting for me? Had he been spying on me or something? Was I going to be stuck with more crazy freaks? Maybe all Fae were like Sabine and Roark. Selfish and cruel. My heart thumped against my chest, harsh and scared, like a bird fruitlessly beating its wings in a cage.
“Have you been spying on me?” I asked tightly. He paused and tilted his head as he observed me. “Have. You. Been. Spying. On. Me.”
“No, not at all—”
“Then how did you know I was awake!”
“The sky, it finally changed.” His dark gaze went up as he surveyed the sky through the glass ceiling. “Or as much as it could.” He muttered the last part.
What the hell did he mean by that? I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I’m not explaining properly,” he muttered again. He turned to me, and his hands went up. I flinched, but he just waved them down as if talking to a scared horse. “Your emotions are mirrored by the weather. You were in a deep sleep. Cora tried waking you, but you wouldn’t come to. It’s been two weeks since you first arrived—”
“Two weeks,” I repeated with a rasp. My heart felt like it was going to flutter out of my chest. I’d missed two entire weeks. I gripped the doorknob for balance as the room whirled. That was impossible. I pinched the base of my nose as Tyran kept talking.
“We had a healing Fae
check on you. He said you were in a healing stasis. The influx of Luz’s magic had an effect on your changing human body.” He cleared his throat. “It wasn’t until today that the blizzard stopped. Cora would have come, but she was otherwise engaged.” His face pinkened, and his eyes flicked to the side.
The Queen had caused the same type of snow when she was asleep, but it was because she’d lost her mate. My shoulders tensed as I realized I wasn’t too far off the mark. I looked up and found a pitying gaze fixed on me. I’d been in a damn healing stasis coma for two weeks. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Just add that little fact onto the rest of the crap pile.
“C-can I control it like she did?”
His lips pursed. “You can be trained to, yes. If you are able to control the little magic you have at your disposal, you could use it to clear the skies. That was what Luz did.”
“Crap.” I was screwed. How would I control something if I didn’t know how it worked?
Tyran eyed me, and his slight smile faded. “I wanted to personally offer my apologies at the pain you’ve endured at the hands of Sabine and Roark. We are not all like them.” He sneered slightly, eyes flicking away from me again.
I badly wanted to believe him, but it was all words. I’d come a long way from trusting anything that crossed my path. I’d never even let my father’s misdeeds change me. I yearned for the days when the only worry I had was about my next exam.
But now, I was full-on damaged.
I inhaled and offered him a nod. It was the best I could do. His answering smile was understanding. Turning on his heels, he went on as I trailed a step behind him.
