“What had you planned to do before… us?”
“Finish college. Get a nine-to-five. Move out eventually.”
“That’s it?” he said. “It sounds so… dull.”
“Can’t have magic and ball gowns for the rest of my life,” I said. “This has been like… a stop in time. I took a break from the real world, and now I have to go back. Everything will be normal again, and I’m scared I’ll…”
“Miss it?”
I leaned back against him with a sigh. “You have no idea. Before, after the first night, I felt so empty when I left. I thought I would go mad. It really is an addiction, isn’t it?”
“Some say. And you think this has been an indulgence you won’t recover from?”
“Remember Ronnie?”
“Who?”
“The lecturer from my college who stabbed Drake’s father to death. Ring a bell?”
“Oh, that. What about it?”
“That’s me in thirty years. She told me she couldn’t stop thinking about her night, and she always wanted to go back. Grim thought she was jealous of me, even thought I was in danger. That’s the kind of madness I’m afraid of—longing for something I can’t have or feeling desperate to change the past when it’s too late. I’m more afraid of that than ending up as a summer wife.”
“Some people are more susceptible than others,” he said. “Some summer wives last the entire summer. Others only last a month. You can’t compare yourself to another. You could be the exception. You could be strong enough to beat your fears.”
“And if I’m not?”
“We’ll deal with that when it comes. I owe you a favour, Cara. I made you a promise to grant you a boon, and now you’ve gone and saved me on top of that. Whenever you need me, whatever you need me for, I’ll be there for you. Do you understand how important this is? How serious a promise is from a king?”
He reached around to turn my cheek. I stared into his emerald green eyes.
He was serious for a change. The light-heartedness was gone, and a royal stood in its place. “Whenever you need me, you come and find me. I owe you, and I won’t hesitate to pay that debt.”
“What if you change?” I whispered.
He gave me a crooked half-smile. “Then you’ll be there to remind me not to get too big for my boots.”
I turned my head to swallow down the lump in my throat and the longing to wrap my arms around him. He knew how to lure me completely. “It’s weird,” I said after a few minutes. “You don’t feel like a stranger.”
“You spent more time with me than Drake,” he said, sounding offended.
“I mean your real body.” I laughed. “I didn’t recognise you, but I do. I kind of don’t know how I ever got confused before.”
“You were never confused,” he murmured. “Don’t lie to yourself.”
I laughed again and urged Dubh to run faster. We gained a fair bit of distance on the others.
“And I thought Realtín was the devil on my shoulder,” I teased.
“And I knew you preferred the devils,” he replied smartly.
I was about to elbow him when Dubh suddenly slowed. Brendan gripped me to stop me tumbling off. A rustling from the trees made me freeze. Reynard jumped down from a tree a few yards away, landing neatly on his feet.
“Heard there was a king coming this way,” he said. “We’ve been waiting all day.”
He looked at Dubh then at me. “And you again. I reckon we’re owed a toll, so we’ll take you and all.”
“Who are you?” Brendan demanded, putting his hand on his sword.
Reynard smiled. “And the king walks straight into my path. So the leanan sídhe told the truth for once. Well, this saves me a trip, I must say.”
“What do you want, Reynard?” Arlen snapped as his horse stepped up beside Dubh.
“You can go away,” Reynard said. “Unless you want to leave the pixie as a gift.”
Arlen rolled his shoulders back. Anya shifted uneasily behind him.
More of Reynard’s gang appeared from between the trees. “All right,” Reynard said impatiently. “Off the horses. You’re coming back with me to wait on our new king. He requests an, eh, audience with the old king here.” He grinned at Brendan.
I noticed that he had made no reference to Drake. I frowned. What new king wanted an audience?
A faery had a sword pointed at Anya, so Arlen reluctantly got off the horse. Reynard approached me. He raised his hand to touch my leg, but I whipped a small knife out of my boot and aimed it at his neck.
“If you ever touch me again, I’ll rip out your throat,” I said in a steady voice.
Laughing, he held up his hands. “Well, the little human has balls. I didn’t feel that last time.”
I leaned back and kicked him in the face. Dubh reared up and scared away a couple of the fae. All at once, everyone was pulling out weapons and leaping into fighting positions.
“At last.” Brendan leapt off Dubh, looking delighted as he pulled out his sword. He swung it at an attacking fae. “Stay on the horse!” he commanded me.
I obeyed but only because Dubh was running around and kicking fae away from us. I urged him over to Anya, meaning to help her onto the horse in case we had to run. She held her hand out to me, but a movement nearby caught her attention. I followed her horrified gaze.
Arlen was sword-fighting one fae, but another was running up behind him, aiming a spear his way. With a shriek of anguish, she ran to Arlen. At first I thought she was running to push him out of the way, but instead, she jumped behind him to protect him from the strike.
“Anya!” I screamed as the fae drove the spear into Anya’s side.
Arlen turned in time to catch her as she fell. I screamed, jumped off the horse, and ran to her, pausing only to shove an attacking faery out of my way. Arlen let me hold her while he destroyed the surrounding fae, his face a mask of rage.
Reynard and his band finally fled, but Anya’s eyes were glazing over. I had done this. I had started the fight.
“Anya,” I whispered. “Please, please, stay awake.”
Her eyes rolled in her head.
Arlen knelt and took her from me, looking more lost than I had ever seen. “Somebody do something.” He looked up at Brendan, grief and pain heavy in his eyes.
“This isn’t something I can help,” Brendan said softly.
“The Miacha!” I cried. “They’ll help her. They have so much medicine.” I fumbled in my bag. “Something for the pain. I have some left. I hid them for emergencies.” I found a leaf and pressed it into Anya’s mouth.
Arlen tried to persuade her to chew then helped her sip some water.
“We need to cut the spear,” Brendan said. “But we can’t remove it. She’d die before she ever reaches the Miacha.”
“What if I can’t find them?” Arlen asked in a panic.
“I’ll show you the way,” Bekind said, surprising all of us. She had been in cat form for so long, I had almost forgotten she could be a woman, too.
“Take Dubh,” I said. “You’ll get there faster than the wind.”
Arlen cradled Anya while Brenden and Drake tried to cut the spear to make the journey easier.
I went to Dubh. “Please take them to the Miacha,” I whispered to him. “As fast as you can. Don’t let her die.” I had no idea if the faery horse could understand me, if he knew what was happening, but I wanted to believe.
Brendan and Drake managed to snip off the protruding spear. Anya screamed in pain, but she had swallowed the leaf. The pain wouldn’t be so bad soon.
Arlen shoved me out of the way and climbed onto Dubh. Brendan carefully lifted Anya up to him. The large warrior faery cradled her in his arms as if she were the most precious cargo in the world.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
Arlen refused to look at me. “I can’t speak to you right now, true child.”
In that, I had everything he refused to say. It was my fault, and he agreed.
Dubh galloped away. They were soon out of sight. I looked down at the blood on my shirt, and my knees weakened. I ran my hands through my hair, devastated by the consequences of my own actions. My father had been right. I brought trouble with me everywhere I went.
“The Miacha will save her,” Drake said, taking my hand. “They helped you.”
“She might die before she gets there. What was I thinking?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Brendan snapped. “He would have taken you for himself.”
“The new king,” I said, remembering. “What do you think is going on?”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Brendan said grimly.
“Sadler,” Drake said. “It has to be Sadler.”
“But how?” Brendan asked. “Is he branded? A self-proclaimed king? We need to get back. We’ve wasted too much time. They’ll be following, searching for us again. The last parts of our journey could be the most dangerous.”
Brendan and I climbed onto Arlen and Anya’s horse. I missed Grim. He would have known exactly what to do. For all we knew, we had sent Anya off to ride to her death.
“We have to follow them,” I said, “in case they’re attacked.”
“They won’t be,” Brendan said. “Only kings are wanted today.” He glanced at Drake. “But only if their name is Brendan, it seems.”
“I promised her she could come with me,” I said in a low voice. “Arlen loves her. I didn’t realise.”
“Loves her as he has for many a year,” Brendan said.
“Hold on,” Drake said. “Let me get higher and look around.” He dismounted and climbed a tree.
While we waited, I asked Brendan. “If he’s loved her for years, then why aren’t they together?”
“Because he’s above her,” Brendan said. “She’s one of the lowest class of fae. The bodyguard to the king can’t love a pixie.”
“So he chose you over his love? I don’t understand.”
“That’s because you’re human. It’s never about choice. It’s about suitability. It’s about politics. He’s important. She is not.”
“She’s important to me.”
“Again, human.”
I stared at him. “Did you ban them from being together?”
“He hasn’t asked me,” Brendan said. “And in case you’ve forgotten, I haven’t been around much for a long time. I couldn’t ban a thing.”
“Then what makes pixies lower class? Why can’t someone like Grim become king?”
“It’s all about the blood and heritage,” he said. “And it’s not fair, but that’s how it works.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but Drake climbed down from the tree, interrupting him.
“I saw the castle,” he said grimly. “I didn’t recognise the flags.”
“Did you see a way we can escape this place?” Brendan asked.
Drake nodded. “The bridge is narrow, but it’s a way out between the castle and the Hollows. We should make it. The horses might not. Are we on?”
“What about Anya and Arlen?” I asked.
“They’ll head for the Hollows,” Drake said. “It’s the quickest way. We’ll go the other way as a distraction. It’s Brendan they want.”
Brendan nodded. “Let’s move on before the new king’s people regroup and come back for us.” He had on his kingly expression again. “We need to get back and find out who is trying to steal my realm.”
Drake arched one eyebrow. I knew he was thinking, “Our realm.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brendan’s anger emanated from him. He was in front for a change, unable to contain the need to lead. I wrapped my arms around him, shocked by the stiffness of his body.
“It’ll be okay,” I said. “When they see you return—”
“Nothing about this is okay,” he said. “It’s bad enough I have to share the realm, but with two other kings? The twin queens couldn’t manage to co-exist. How will three of us?”
“He’s a usurper,” I said. “Or he tricked them all into branding him. Or it’s complete bullshit.” I could tell by the tension in his back that I wasn’t helping. “Tell me something. The queens had their lust and bloodlust. What do you have?”
“It’s not that simple,” he said, but he relaxed a little. “That bloodlust is in me.”
“Like the Unseelie queen?”
“Yes, but from what I know of that one, she couldn’t handle it. Her death must be a peaceful one.”
I thought about that for a minute. “Your eyes are the exact same colour as the Seelie queen’s were.”
His shoulders shook with laughter. “I’m not surprised. Technically, we’re cousins.”
“Cousins? Are you serious?”
“How else could they steal the realm?” He sighed. “Although, they didn’t steal it first. Their father was my uncle, my father’s brother. They were close, and my uncle wasn’t so ambitious. They worked. Ambition among princes never ends well.”
“So what happened?”
“A woman got under his skin.” He shrugged. “I can’t place all the blame on her shoulders. After my parents left, he grew sickened by my behaviour. He might not have directly taken part in sending me to the Fade, but he reaped the advantages afterward. They knew he would step in and be that woman’s pawn.”
“Your uncle did that to you?”
“Yes, but Grim tells me his death was organised by his own daughter, so I suppose karma found him in the end. It’s a blessing that his bloodline hadn’t carried on further. Those queens were as wrong as a faery can be. The fact that they were murdered isn’t unusual. That it took so long is quite surprising, however.”
“You fae are about all the drama all the time.”
“And look who’s talking,” he said with a derisive snort. “When have you had a drama-free life?”
I decided not to answer that. “You keep talking about bloodlines. Why is that so important? Why is there a class system amongst the fae? I mean, you love chaos. Why have an actual system?”
“It’s just the way it’s been for a long time. There’s a hierarchy. It makes sense, no?”
“Grim is wise,” I said. “But he was treated like an object, as if he didn’t have a heart or a brain.”
“His kind are lower than even Realtín’s. I know they are partners, that they would die for each other, but others would shun them for it, see them as weak. They won’t be safe amongst the fae if they flaunted their relationship. We might be all about debauchery and freedom, but none of us are free at all. Even kings follow rules.”
“So rule-breaking Grim is braver than his kings? Interesting.”
He chuckled. “You’re a trial, Cara.”
I liked being able to make him laugh. “But where do I stand in the hierarchy? If pixies and sprites and brownies are lower class, where do humans fit in?”
“At the bottom,” he said softly.
“Then why have you been nice to me? Why have any of you? Wherever I go, somebody tries to look after me. Why?”
“You’re a novelty. Humans don’t generally wander freely around the fae realm, and some faeries never venture into the human realm. It’s unusual.”
“I’m like a pet. No, I’m like a Christmas puppy, and they’re all excited kids who’ll spoil me for a few days before getting bored.”
“Well, you could put it that way if you were in a bad mood.”
“So how long will it take for you to get bored with me?” I demanded, feeling prickly again. “I mean, humans are at the bottom of the food chain. A king would never be allowed to care for a human if a king’s bodyguard can’t even care for a pixie, so why does everyone pretend that they can do whatever the hell they want?”
“Travel does nothing good to your temperament,” he said sharply. “Why do you always make everything sound like an accusation?”
“I just like to know where I stand.”
He snorted. “Where you stand? You stood to lose Drake forever, but you threw yourself
at him. You stood to—”
“Shut up, Brendan. I don’t throw myself at people.” Well, maybe a little. “And I didn’t give up. That’s a good thing. It says something about my character.”
“Yes, that you’re constantly in denial.”
“You’re lucky Dubh isn’t here,” I said. “He would totally bite you for me.”
“Ah. Another follower to add to the list.”
“Shut up,” I said again, feeling miserable. “I’ve been separated from all of my friends. Don’t you think that’s punishment enough without you picking on me?”
“I think you’ll find it’s you who’s been picking on me, but I’ll let it go. You’ll see them all again soon. Although, I am a little disappointed that I don’t count as a friend.”
“You’re a king,” I said spitefully. “You can’t have friends. You’re not allowed.”
He sighed. “That’s likely the truest thing you’ve said since I’ve returned. I’m a king again, so the old times we had are over.”
“The old times? It wasn’t that long ago.”
“It feels like a lifetime.” He glanced over his shoulder at me. “And I thought we had some fun.”
That was true. I slumped a little, feeling nostalgic. “I liked when you really talked to me. Not in a fae way, but in a real person way.”
“Am I supposed to have any idea of what that means?”
“No. You’re a king now. All of your imagination is gone.”
“You wait,” he said. “As soon as it’s official, I will show you imagination.”
“Are you going to go straight back to your home?” I asked. “Wherever that is.”
“The castle, you mean?” he said, sounding mocking. “That place isn’t a home to me. I don’t know where I’ll live. I haven’t put much thought into it.”
The other horse slowed until it came to a stop in front of us.
“Do you hear that?” Drake asked. “Sounds like drums.”
Brendan cocked his head to the side. I listened. At first, all I heard were the leaves blowing in the trees, but then the drumbeat shuddered beneath us.