“I’m sorry. I must be hurting you.” He moved so that she could slide out from under him. Her dress was slightly askew and she had to tug the bodice back in place.
He shifted to sit forward on the couch which put him directly opposite Davido and a little more eye-to-eye. “So I’m vampire and troll, then?”
“Yes. But you’re something else as well. You’re part elf.”
“Elf?”
“Yes. It’s not generally known that I’m both elf and troll.”
Rosamunde interjected. “I didn’t know that. I always thought you were pure troll.”
He shifted his gaze toward her, his lips curving slightly. “Mostly, I am.”
Stone knew something else was in play here and he wanted the whole picture. “Then all your children are elven.”
“Yes. But not an elf like you, Stone. And that’s the rub, that’s why after Inez died, and I saw what you were, I gave you to a wonderful troll family to be raised.”
Vojalie took a step forward, drawing Stone’s attention to her. “You were the reason Davido and I met and the reason I persuaded him to find adoptive parents for you.”
“You talked him into giving me up?”
“Let me explain. Please. Will you permit me to do that?”
He knew and trusted Vojalie, but she’d all but stated she was the reason he hadn’t grown up knowing his birth father. Anger swelled as it always did. He was too quick-tempered, so for once he worked at tamping it all down. “Yes. Please go on.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Stone, I’d had a horrific vision of you and of Davido, that if you’d stayed with him when you were born, you would both have been slain early in your life. You wouldn’t have made it through your childhood.”
“Why?” But even as he asked the question, the pieces began fitting together. Kaden came sharply to mind and how familiar he’d been with Vojalie to the point Stone had told him to back off. Kaden. The elf-lord. Davido. Part elf. “Holy fuck.”
Davido inclined his head. “You never lacked for intelligence.”
A long string of invectives left Stone’s mouth. “Sweet Goddess, this can’t be happening.”
Rosamunde shook her head. “What am I missing?”
But Davido didn’t answer her. Instead, he kept staring at Stone.
Stone grimaced. “Prove to me right now that everything I’m thinking is true. Show me. Now, old man. Or by the Goddess, I’ll pick you up and throw you against the wall.” He wanted no mistakes in understanding, not tonight. And he needed ‘his father’ to know how serious he was.
He wanted the whole truth.
Davido slid off the chair and stood upright. As he’d seen Rosamunde transform into Aralynn, a vibration ran through the room and Davido emerged as Kaden. He even wore a tuxedo that fit his large frame.
More invectives followed coupled with a kind of pacing across Rosamunde’s fairly small parlor that did not give him enough space. He shoved his hands through his hair which dislodged the silver clasp.
An elf-lord.
Davido, his birth father, was an elf-lord, or as near to it as he could be. Stone wasn’t sure of the difference. Maybe it was about capacity.
He moved to stand in front of Rosamunde again, his anger surging. She needed to know he didn’t approve of her part in this at all.
But she rose to her feet as well, pressed her lips together for a moment then narrowed her eyes. She shoved a finger into his chest. “I swear to the Goddess that if you blame me for this, I’ll belt you one, Stone. I swear it! This was your father’s secret. Not mine! And I really didn’t know about Kaden or the whole elf-lord thing. That’s all new to me as well.”
Her cheeks were bright red and for a moment her anger sidetracked him. He kind of liked this side of the very controlled Queen of Ferrenden Peace.
But the other reality, all the elf-lord shit, grabbed him by the nuts again. He whirled on Davido or Kaden or whoever the hell he was. He even saw some resemblance though not much.
Kaden continued. “Yes, you take after Inez. I loved your mother so much and you were all that I had left of her. It’s so rare for any of our kind to perish that I couldn’t believe she’d died giving birth to you.”
Stone watched tears form in Kaden’s eyes. “I didn’t want to give you up and if Vojalie’s vision hadn’t been so grave, I wouldn’t have. But Vojalie talked me through it. She even helped me choose the family.”
Stone glanced at Vojalie. He wanted to hate her for separating him from his birth father, but he knew the woman’s power and he knew her heart. “So this vision was bad?”
“I wept for days, it was so bad. I’d never met Davido before and though I knew of him, I’d had no idea until this vision that he was an elf-lord.”
Stone shifted his gaze back to Kaden abruptly. “Why are you still alive? I thought they killed off the last of the elf-lords thousands of years ago.”
Kaden’s expression grew solemn. “I assassinated the very last one myself.”
“What does that mean?”
“That I’m not a true elf-lord. I never gave myself fully to the power as the others did, though I managed to sustain the ruse. Becoming an elf-lord, in other words embracing the power fully, is always a decision and I chose against it.”
Vojalie moved close to Kaden and took his hand. It was so hard to think that this ugly troll was probably one of the handsomest elves Stone had ever seen. Kaden swallowed hard and Vojalie covered their joined hands with her free one.
Vojalie met Stone’s gaze once more. “Davido led the resistance movement against the elf-lords, even though as Kaden he was part of their number. He was basically a spy and helped isolate each of the elf-lords one at a time until there were only two left.”
“I had to kill the last one,” Kaden said. “By then, he knew what I’d done. After that, I disappeared for a long time, hundreds of years until the elf-lords fell into historical renderings and eventually mythology.
“Even then, I only transformed into Kaden when I knew I was alone and safe.”
Stone felt as though he’d just been beaten into the ground. He returned to sit on the sofa. He was oddly numb. Rosamunde sat down next to him, more on the edge of the cushion, though she angled her body toward him. She settled her hand on his shoulder and nothing had felt so comforting in a long time. He felt her faeness flowing into him, a warmth and love that stunned him.
He covered her hand, much in the same way Vojalie had covered Kaden’s.
He glanced once more in Kaden’s direction, who now sat on the ottoman as he had before in his troll form. “Does the Sidhe Council know about you?”
Kaden nodded. “Vojalie insisted that I come clean. It took five years of the council’s deliberation, of interview after interview, of reading the historical documents before I was allowed to live.”
“It was that bad?” Rosamunde asked.
Vojalie had never appeared more serious. “I almost lost him. I’d found the right man for me then the Council almost took him away. It was the hardest time in my life.”
“Do you mind if I transform back?” Kaden asked.
Stone shook his head. “I guess you don’t want to be seen in your elf-lord form.”
“No. I don’t.”
In the same way he’d watched Rosamunde become Aralynn, Kaden blurred through the movement, his power changing his clothes as well, until he was once more an ancient, charismatic troll. Vojalie drew a ladder-back chair close to Davido and sat down next to him.
“You know one thing that bothered me all this time?” Vojalie asked.
Stone shrugged. “I can imagine there were a lot of things.”
“There were. But what troubled me the most was that you never got to know your half-brothers and sisters.”
“But you brought them round.” His gaze moved back to Davido. “That’s why you were always there, from the time I could remember.”
“Yes, my son. Exactly. But it was paramount that you never learn of my true
identity.” He paused, his lips turning down. “Or of yours.”
“You mean as the son of the last living elf-lord.”
But Davido’s eyes once more filled up. “No. As an elf-lord yourself. That’s what Vojalie saw in her vision. If we’d remained in the same house, you would have one day chosen to become an elf-lord and I would have been forced to slay you.”
Stone leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. He understood so much in this moment that he could barely contain all the overwhelming feelings. That he had such potential explained why he could easily receive and make use of the elf-lord power through Rosamunde.
Unfortunately, it also confirmed why Margetta was after him. Not only could he channel the elf-lord power, but he could become the real thing. What kind of mate would that make for an extremely powerful woman like the Ancient Fae?
Vojalie was suddenly on her feet, her hands clasped together. “Stone, please listen to me. I know this has been a lot to take in, but it’s imperative that you bond with Rosamunde as soon as possible.”
He looked up at her. He’d never seen the lovely fae so tense, almost overwrought. For that reason alone, he knew how serious she was. But it was all too much. “Just tell me why?”
She crimped her lips together the same way Rosamunde had earlier. “I can’t. It’s a fae thing, a knowing without being able to give you a why.”
“Did you have a vision?”
“That’s just it, no, I didn’t. If I had, I’d be able to give you my reasons. But if you could trust me a little in this, I think everything might be okay. Though I think it may have something to do with her blood rose abilities. They might serve to protect you from the seductive nature of the elf-lord power.”
He shook his head. “You’re not inspiring confidence, even as much as I value your counsel.”
Davido left his seat and took one of Vojalie’s hands. “My love, you can’t control this. I know you want to, but you can’t.”
Vojalie, to Stone’s great surprise burst into tears. Davido levitated and embraced her, holding her close.
He didn’t realize Rosamunde had shifted to sit right next to him, her hip and leg cemented against his, until she grabbed his hand and held on tight. Rosamunde was trembling.
He didn’t understand what was happening as he pathed to her. What’s going on here?
I’m not sure. In fact I have no idea, but I’m frightened.
Because Vojalie’s crying?
She squeezed his hand hard. No, that’s not it. I’m feeling it too, that if we don’t bond soon, something terrible, something uncontrollable will happen.
Stone slowly rose to his feet, lifting Rosamunde with him. “Vojalie, please look at me.”
She lifted her tear-stained face to him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to lose it.”
“It’s okay. I’ll make this right, however I need to do it. From the beginning, I wanted to bond with Aralynn. I had no doubts about that. And yes, it was difficult when I learned that she was really Rosamunde,” he tucked her arm around his, “but I know now that I seriously misjudged this good woman who has sacrificed so much to keep the Nine Realms safe.
“I will be very open to the bond, but for now, let’s enjoy the gala which will give me some time to get used to all that Davido has told me. Afterward, Rosamunde and I can discuss the future privately. But it would help me a lot if you would dry your tears because in case you didn’t know, we men can hardly stand it since we never know what to do.”
Vojalie chuckled and wiped at her nose. Rosamunde tugged her arm away from Stone then moved quickly across the room to grab a box of tissues.
Vojalie plucked several from the opening then blew her nose. Afterward, she turned to kiss her husband. “We’ll have to go home for a moment so I can repair my make-up.”
“Of course, my love.” Davido glanced at Stone. “We’ll see you later, son. And in case you don’t know, it gives me the greatest pleasure to say that to you.”
When Vojalie burst into tears again, Davido rolled his eyes and the couple vanished.
It took Stone a moment to gain his bearings. They were a true power couple, because even though they no longer occupied the space, he could feel the vibrations of their shared energy radiating in the space where they’d just been.
Rosamunde dabbed at her cheeks as well. “I feel as though I was just caught in a cyclone and couldn’t get out.”
He turned to her. “That’s it exactly. Sweet Goddess, this was too much fucking information.”
Her lips quirked. “How about I make you a fresh martini?”
“How about a Scotch, a double.”
She moved toward the decanter and picked up a tumbler. “Triple, maybe?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“And I’ll have one myself.”
Chapter Twelve
“There’s nothing worse than deception. Secrets. Lies.”
Rosamunde heard the harsh tone in Stone’s voice and she shuddered. “It’s no wonder then you were so angry when you learned my true identity.”
“Deception is evil and keeping this secret from me? I know I shouldn’t blame you, but part of me wonders if I’ll ever be able to trust you.”
“I’ll say this again: It wasn’t my secret to tell. I only learned of it by accident and Davido begged me never to say anything to you. What would you have had me do, especially when Davido and Vojalie had a reason for their restraint given the disastrous nature of the vision?”
He turned to face her fully and caught her arm. “You should have told me.”
“No. Davido should have. And in my defense, I was the one who forced the matter tonight. I’ve come to know you better and because of the difficult decision we have to make about the bond, I was unwilling to proceed without you knowing the truth. You have to at least give me credit for that.”
She grabbed her black silk gloves from the mantel of the fireplace and began pulling them on. She was shaking, but not because of his anger over his father’s identity, but because she was still holding back one last secret.
She pretended to be having difficulty working her fingers into the gloves, but the truth was she didn’t want to meet Stone’s gaze.
Her cheeks were warm and her heart, especially laden with the extra supply that had grown since cocktails, had started pounding in her chest. Until now, she’d rationalized her silence on the subject of the terrible visions Margetta would send her. Yet, given Stone’s reaction to the current situation, she had a strong premonition she needed to tell him about the visions.
The trouble was, she wasn’t certain Stone would be able to comprehend or appreciate the hopeless situation the visions had placed her in.
“I’m angry,” Stone said.
She finally turned in his direction, ready to face him. He’d replaced his silver clasp but a few strands hung near his face and looked ridiculously sexy. “Can you forgive me for keeping this secret, Stone? If not, I don’t see how we can move forward?”
He held her gaze. “I don’t see that we have much of a choice. Both you and Vojalie are adamant that we bond, that we must.”
“I’m not adamant about any of this.” Her voice grew in strength. “I know there will be a serious problem if we don’t bond, but that doesn’t matter. We have to be of one mind and right now, you’re definitely too angry to even think about sharing the blood rose bond.”
He huffed a sigh. “You’re right. I need time to process. At least the realm is quiet. I’ve checked in with both Harris and Cole and everything remains as it’s been all night: No Invictus attacks in any of the other realms, either. Which has made me uneasy as hell.”
“Me, too.” Rosamunde had felt Vojalie’s fear and her own prescience had confirmed that Margetta would soon bring matters to a head.
She felt as well a profound need to bond with Stone for his sake as well as for the future of the Nine Realms. But for now, he needed time to let some of this new information settle into his soul. He’d just learned that
the most ancient man in the Nine Realms was not only his father but the last living elf-lord. On top of that, even Rosamunde now sensed exactly what Stone was, that he could, with a simple decision of his will, become an elf-lord himself.
And therein lay the greatest danger of all. If for whatever reason, Stone ever gave himself fully to the elf-lord power, Davido would be forced to kill his own son. She also knew, as Vojalie had suggested, that somehow the blood rose bond would protect Stone.
She didn’t say as much. She chose, instead, to let everything rest for now.
Donning her black silk wrap, she took Stone’s arm. Once he was ready to leave, she moved them with a thought to the red carpet entrance of the Sterling Arms Hotel.
The Nine Realms wasn’t all that different from the U.S. and an event like a gala to celebrate the Federation of the Nine Realms was covered by every news outlet in each of the realms. Light bulbs flashed and reporters shouted questions.
“Queen Rosamunde, are you dating the Mastyr of Tannisford?” Since she was holding his arm she could hardly deny the connection, but she merely smiled and waved in response.
“Queen Rosamunde, why won’t you give an interview and tell us what you’ve been doing for a thousand years?”
This time she shrugged and smiled.
“Queen Rosamunde, why haven’t you helped the Nine Realms battle the Ancient Fae?”
She’d intended to keep going, but Stone stopped her and turned to face the reporter. “The queen has sacrificed her entire life, a full thousand years, to do everything in her power to protect our world. She’s served in ways that I can’t share with you at this time, but I promise you that without her, the Nine Realms would have fallen to the Ancient Fae a long time ago. So, I won’t hear a bad word spoken against her. Do you understand?”
He didn’t wait for an answer, but she felt his ire. He was a man with a quick temper. She supposed it made for a good warrior, but it was sometimes tough to deal with moment to moment.
On the other hand, she loved that he’d defended her especially on an issue, which until recently, he would have normally agreed with the reporter.