by Skye Horn
“Pricks,” Kieran repeated, registering the two soldiers who had just appeared from an ornate set of double doors on the other side of the courtyard. “Come on.”
He directed Amara by the elbow toward the guards, ignoring the rest of the royal Fae who had gathered there in the warmth of Gimmerwich’s spring day. The sun’s kiss on his skin had surprised him after spending so many years blanketed in winter. It also infuriated him to think of how these Fae had cowered here while the rest of their realm suffered beneath Malachi. While he and so many others had guarded the innocent for the past fifteen years, these soldiers and Fae had lived perfectly content to let them all die.
Filthy, selfish… His thoughts were not kind, but he kept them bottled up, knowing it would do no good for Queen Ismara to see his disgust with her or her people.
“Kieran,” Amara warned beneath her breath as they followed the all-too-silent guards into the castle walls. He could sense the tightness to her voice, but her warning was about his own tension. His fingers twitched against the hilt of the new sword he carried—yet another reminder of the life he’d left behind. His sword, which had once belonged to his father and grandfather, remained in Ivandor where it belonged. He’d sworn an oath with that sword and, upon breaking it, had punished himself by leaving it behind.
That’s not the only reason you left it, the little nuisance taunted, and even as he refused to think of her, she flooded his thoughts. Her flaming hair and freckled face; her sparkling gray eyes; and her soft fingertips against his silken feathers tortured his shattered soul. He’d left the sword for her, for Thea.
“I’m fine,” Kieran murmured back, releasing the hilt of his sword and dropping his hands to his sides. His shoulders remained tight as the soldiers led them down a long corridor of paintings. Although the layouts of the castles were all different, the royal Fae didn’t vary much in style. War had not tainted this castle as it had Ivandor and Grimwalde. He imagined of the four kingdoms, this one stood the strongest. It was unsurprising since it had remained guarded and untouchable for the past fifteen years. As soon as Queen Ismara caught wind of the fall of Ivandor, she’d had her most talented Fae cast protection runes around the city. These runes were an ancient form of magic, practiced only by the scholars of the Fae species, and were known to have originated with Gimmerwich’s first ruler. It was a magic the other kingdoms could have benefited from during those days, but regardless, Queen Ismara hadn’t lowered the magical wards until the day Malachi died.
The fact that he could walk through the gates still surprised Kieran. The queen must’ve realized that she needed allies during these times, or else she’d have kept those wards up, but Morrigan wasn’t a mere Fae. She was a Goddess who could surely get past the magic if she wanted to.
“The queen will see you now,” said one of the two guards as they stopped in front of two large wooden doors. He placed a hand on the door, pressing it open as Kieran nodded.
“Stay close to me,” Kieran whispered to Amara and then followed the other soldier through the door to speak with the Queen of Gimmerwich on behalf of the King of Grimwalde.
What had his life come to?
Chapter 2
The throne room, where they held most of the council meetings, was on the east side of the castle. Servants greeted Thea while she sped-walked as gracefully as possible through the extensive layout of stone corridors. She’d met many of the servants since her return to Ivandor and discovered most were human or half-Fae, like Mica.
During the first four months of her return, Thea focused on making sure that those servants’ living conditions improved. She also insisted that the kingdom compensate them for their work. Initially, this upset the High Council, who believed her focus should be elsewhere in the court, but Thea remembered that without the humans’ help she couldn’t have defeated Malachi in the first place. So she’d argued until they’d given into her demands.
It wasn’t that they were an ill group of leaders. In fact, they often gave much needed advice to Thea, who knew nothing about being a princess, let alone becoming a queen. It was just that Thea hated the ancient laws they stood for.
Laws that said Ethel wasn’t an equal, because she was human.
Laws that told Iris she couldn’t love Cora.
Laws that made Kieran believe he couldn’t be with her.
There he was again, invading her thoughts, but this time she didn’t banish the agony, because leaning against the wall ahead of her was a face she hadn’t seen in just as many months.
“Mica!” she said and received a toothy grin in response. He appeared to have grown at least four inches since she’d last seen him, and now towered over her as he ran up to pull her into a tight hug, then let go with blazing cheeks.
“Milady,” he bowed low, but the smile never left his face as Thea pulled him right back up into the abandoned hug.
Mica was two years older than Ethel, and despite their short amount of time together, Thea had grown fond of him during her stay in Grimwalde. He was half-Fae, with pointed ears hidden beneath his hair and yellow eyes that Thea knew matched his mother’s. Mica’s father had been a human who had died when Mica was too young to remember, but Thea imagined that was where Mica had gained his handsome face.
“You’re back!” Thea said, kissing both of his cheeks. “Ethel will be thrilled!”
The redness in Mica’s cheeks only grew darker as she smiled at him, because Ethel wasn’t the only one thrilled to see him again. After Morrigan went into hiding and Kieran left Thea to fend for herself in the Ivandor courts, Thea had asked Mica to follow Kieran. It had been the childish request of a broken-hearted girl, but her only regret now was that she hadn’t realized what Mica’s leaving would do to Ethel. The younger girl had been devastated to find out that Mica had left, much like Kieran, without saying goodbye to her, but unlike with Kieran, this departure had been Thea’s fault. She’d asked Mica, as his future queen, to complete this task for her without ever thinking of Ethel. As soon as Thea had seen the devastation on Ethel’s face, the regret had set in.
By the look of embarrassment on Mica’s face, Thea assumed he too had missed Ethel, and despite her own aching heart, she felt happy for them. She knew the age difference mattered, but in a few years it wouldn’t, so their innocent flirting was harmless for the time being.
“I have news for you,” Mica said, trying to regain the soldier’s posture that Thea was sure he’d been practicing. “About Kieran.”
Hearing his name spoken out loud made Thea’s heart beat a little harder against her chest. She struggled to steady her breath beneath the suffocating corset death-trap she wore as her tongue stuck to the top of her dry mouth. Mica, however, didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he pulled Thea away from the ears of the curious servants in the corridor, shoving her stiffened body and large wings into a compact room, which appeared to be the castle’s equivalent of a broom closet. She recognized some soaps and herbs, but before she could think much about what else was inside, Mica had also slipped in, making the already tiny room even smaller.
“Ouch,” she said as he stepped on her foot. “Mica, was this necessary?”
Thea tried to shift her wings and ended up knocking over a pile of rags folded on top of the shelves beside bottles of strange liquids Thea could only assume were some cleaning product.
“You should be careful whom you trust, princess. You never know who might be a spy for her.”
“Morrigan?” Thea asked with a tilted head.
“Shhh!” Mica reached up to cover her mouth with his hand, making her eyes widen in surprise. “I’ve heard rumors that even saying her name allows her to see into your thoughts.”
Thea reached up to wrap her hand around his wrist. She lowered it from her mouth, looking perplexed by his sudden superstition, but she didn’t have the patience to ask about it right now. Kieran’s name still floated in the space between them.
“Tell me what you found out,” she said, her voice dropping into the
monotone level she’d been practicing with her High Council. According to Ethel, it made her sound more like a queen since it shielded the emotions that threatened to explode beneath the surface. If Mica noticed, he didn’t react, but he nodded his head slowly.
“First, Kieran is alive and well.” Thea released his wrist, and he lowered his hands back to his sides, inhaling, as if preparing for her to explode. Thea kept herself composed, though, so he would continue. “He’s been traveling between the villages scattered among the kingdoms, warning people about the Goddess’ return.”
“What about Ainé?” Thea asked, curious to know what Kieran might say about her whereabouts.
“No one knows what has happened to her. My mother has been questioning the seers, but it seems no one has had any visions since that night.”
Thea knew what night he was talking about. The night Morrigan told Thea that Ainé was dead, along with her father. Thea still didn’t know whether to believe the Goddess of Death, but if none of the seers had heard from Ainé, then it didn’t seem like the outcome would fall in their favor. However, with no solid proof, Thea refused to spread rumors that would induce fear.
“I’ve been trying to convince the council to help me recreate the spell that opened the portal,” Thea explained to Mica. “But they don’t believe it’s a good idea for me to enter a Faerie prison world.”
“I can’t say that I disagree with them,” Mica mused. “Who knows what else you might find there? What if your father is waiting?”
“I don’t see how he could have survived it,” Thea said, recalling the agonizing screams of her father when he’d gone through the portal.
“Then how do you expect to?”
Thea shook her head, unable to answer. Part of her hoped the Goddess’ magic would protect her, or perhaps being prepared would keep her safe. But what if Ainé was dead? Or what if it was impossible for a Fae to travel across the realms like that? There were too many unanswerable questions before the council to even consider risking their sole heiress, and without their resources to research the spell Malachi had used, Thea couldn’t even try using dark magic at that magnitude without expecting failure.
“What else?” She directed her attention back to Mica, trying to regain control of the straying conversation.
“The last place I saw Kieran was the outskirts of Gimmerwich.”
“He knew you were following him?” Thea asked as a twinge of anxiety trickled down her spine.
“Did you expect that he wouldn’t?” Mica said with a raised eyebrow. “He caught me the first day, but I just told him I wanted to be a soldier like him. I said I couldn’t learn how to protect the people I love by hiding behind my mother in Grimwalde for the rest of my life.”
If Thea was being honest with herself, she didn’t know what she might have expected from all of this, but Mica’s quick thinking impressed her. Perhaps there had been some truth to what he’d told Kieran, though. Thea knew he wanted to be a soldier, and he’d grown up a lot over the past six months. Maybe leaving had been good for him. Or perhaps Thea was only trying to convince herself of that, to relieve some guilt she felt about her decision to send him away.
“Okay, so he’s in Gimmerwich now,” Thea said, twisting her hands in front of her as she tried to think of any believable excuse for herself to travel to Gimmerwich. It was hopeless though. The council would never let her leave, especially since she’d refused to choose the Queen’s Guard to protect her. “And he’s trying to prepare the people for Mor—the Goddess’ next move.”
Mica nodded, and Thea sighed. Kieran was doing exactly what he should do, and yet, all she wanted was for him to come home. It wasn’t just for her benefit, though. Kieran hadn’t spoken to Ethel or Iris in months because of her. She knew what his family meant to him, and he’d left them behind too. And for what? To prove to her they couldn’t be together? To punish himself? She’d asked herself these questions so many times they felt like a constant part of her thoughts, but she still didn’t have a single answer to any of them.
Familiar regret filled her as she thought of the note she’d burned. Perhaps if she’d read his letter things would have been different, but she hadn’t. She’d been too angry and hurt to see past the envelope of betrayal. The ironic part of the entire thing was that she’d done the exact same thing to Marcus when she’d left for Ireland. Now she was left with unanswered questions, chasing after someone who no longer wanted her with a plethora of bottled-up anger. And still she’d both worried and hoped for months that Mica would come back with news of Kieran being under Morrigan’s control, or news that he was on some secret mission to find a way for them to be together.
She’d been naïve, and karma really was a bitch.
“He misses you,” Mica said, but his eyes didn’t leave the ground. “He’d never admit it, but I’ve known him a long time; I can see it.”
Thea’s throat ached and a bone-chilling coldness rose through her body as she said, “He has a strange way of showing it.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Mica frowned.
Thea’s fingers trembled because Mica’s words had not been a comfort. Hearing that Kieran missed her, even a little, tore her apart inside. She rubbed her temples, guilt consuming her as she looked at the boy who wanted to do nothing more than to please her. Mica had left everything to follow her orders. Even if he’d wanted to become more independent, it had been her orders that tore him away from the safety of his mother and cast him out into a world on the edge of war.
I must really be my mother’s daughter, she thought miserably. It was not a way in which she wanted to resemble Queen Brielle.
“It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have ever asked you to get involved in our drama, but I guess I just needed to know he wasn’t under the mind control of an evil Goddess,” Thea said with a sad smile. That crazy conspiracy had crossed her mind so many times that it almost amused her now. Of course Kieran wasn’t under mind control. He was too stubborn to let anyone control him. Except ancient laws, apparently. “Thank you so much for bringing me this information, Mica.”
“I would do anything for you, Princess Thea,” he replied in an all-too-Kieran way. Her heart ached.
“Then go find Ethel now,” she said. “I’ve kept two friends apart for far too long.”
The weight on Thea’s heart lifted as Mica’s face lit up at the new order. Relief was clear behind his eyes, despite how hard he tried to hide it from her.
Thea pushed the door of the small closet open and ushered him out, breathing out her relief upon seeing an empty corridor. The last thing she wanted to do now was explain why she was locked up in a storage closet with a teenage boy.
“She’s likely still in my bedroom. If you run, I’m sure you’ll catch her,” Thea said.
Mica bowed low, thanking her again and again, before turning on his heels and running down the hallway to find Ethel. Thea watched with a throbbing thump in her chest as Mica disappeared around a corner and out of her sight. There was something so simple about the friendship he shared with Ethel. Thea longed for that simplicity in her own life but knew there were bigger issues for her to tackle today. If Thea didn’t stop Morrigan, Ethel would have a lot more to worry about than her crush on an older boy. Thea needed to protect her and all the other humans from the grave danger that lurked on the horizon, which meant she needed to stop worrying about Kieran.
However, no matter how many times she scolded herself, the little voice in the back of her head would not stop telling her she knew where Kieran was now. If only she could find a way for the High Council to allow her to travel to Gimmerwich.
She sighed, realizing that would never happen, and headed toward the council meeting that she was now extremely late for.
Chapter 3
“Do you even understand the importance of these meetings?” Lord Walshe said as Thea took her place on the throne at the front of the room. It was a gothic-style armchair said to have been crafted from the wood of an ancient willo
w tree planted to mark the grave of Ainé’s murdered soulmate. The crest of Ivandor was carved just above Thea’s head on the chair—a dragon wrapped around a bushel of thistles guarded by two swords, the same crest that Kieran had tattooed on his chest. She tried not to let her eyes linger on it for too long as she sat down.
Lord Walshe’s pointed ears tinted red at her lack of immediate response beneath his silvery hair.
“It would be much easier for me to arrive on time if I didn’t have to wear these ridiculous outfits,” Thea replied in one rush of breath, motioning to her dress. Sure, the dress wasn’t the reason she’d been late, but she couldn’t miss a chance to remind them how much she hated wearing it. “Or if perhaps I felt more necessary at these meetings.”
“More necessary?” gasped Lord Byrne, a younger man with bushy brown eyebrows that made his forehead look tiny. He sat beside Lord Walshe in the semicircle of chairs they’d arranged in front of Thea’s throne. “You are the entire reason we gather here!”
Thea met each of the five sets of eyes. They stared at her in disbelief as she frowned.
How could they sit there and tell her she was the reason they gathered here when not a single one of them cared about her belief that Ainé was still alive or that laws regarding humans in the realm were archaic?
Hypocrisy at its best.
“Enough,” Lord McCarthy’s booming voice drew her attention to his position in the farthest left seat of the semicircle. His shoulders were tense, as they usually were when he played mediator between the princess and her council members. “We’re already running late and we have important matters to discuss today.”
Thea sighed, settling back into the uncomfortable wooden throne while she awaited these important matters that Lord McCarthy claimed needed to be discussed. She tried not to glare at the cushioned chairs that they sat upon or the tunics that they wore, which didn’t crush their lungs with inhumane strength after every breath they took. It was then that she noticed the nervousness behind each of their guarded eyes. That nervousness caused her to sink just a little deeper into her throne. Thea had seen none of them look nervous before. Usually they just told her what she needed to change about herself, or mentioned that she’d be attending yet another party to get to know the kingdom. This was something new. Unexplainable dread prickled between her shoulder blades, making her already uncomfortable wings twitch.
