A War of Three Kings (Dying Lands #2)

2. Keira

Chapter 2

Keira

I nky darkness engulfs me on all sides, only partially broken by the fire orbs that hover around us. Their warm light illuminates the heavy dust motes that hang in the air of these ancient dungeons. I struggle to breathe as panic claws through me and my heart pounds frantically.

I have to find him. I have to find him.

It has been six days since they took Aldrin from me. I cannot bear the possibility of him being locked down here, in a cell that hasn’t been disturbed in hundreds of years.

The only sounds are the scurrying of rats and the dripping of water. Dirt and muck coat the walls of the narrow corridor that leads deeper into the dungeons.

The cells are rank, scattered with yellow bones and decaying cloth, as though people were shoved down here then forgotten about. Each room we pass falls back into complete blackness as our orbs recede.

A person could go mad down here in six days.

A sob wrenches out of me at the very thought. A vision flashes in my mind: Aldrin screaming and screaming in a cell and no one being able to hear him. It breaks my heart.

An arm wraps around my shoulders, and I flinch despite myself.

“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think Father is cruel enough to keep anyone in these old dungeons.” Diarmuid whispers the words, as though he is afraid of waking old spirits. “Especially not when they are in this condition.”

I stop and turn to him, pulling a thick spider web from his hair. He shudders visibly at the sight of it. “I need to be sure,” I say. “I’m sorry to drag you down here again, but I couldn’t do this alone.” My voice breaks.

My brother’s hold on me tightens. “Nor should you. Like I said, I am here to support you in whatever capacity you need me, but we did search this place thoroughly yesterday…and the day before.”

Guilt washes through me for dragging my brother to this horrible place that should be left to the old bones and vermin. For not being able to find Aldrin, no matter where I search.

He could be dead already for all I know. My throat constricts as pain burns through me. Tears prickle my eyes.

Surely my father would not lie to me about that.

No matter what Aldrin has done, no matter who he really is, he doesn’t deserve to be kept in a place like this. To be abused or mistreated.

“What if there is a trapdoor we have missed? Secret chambers or a hidden staircase?” My voice turns shrill. “I cannot leave him here.”

As I start spiraling, Diarmuid takes my arm and leads me on. “Then let’s search this place and leave no room for doubt.”

We already visited the active prison multiple times, but there were only humans in the white-tiled rooms, waiting for their trials. I have always been proud of the fact that my father has never used this dank, inhumane dungeon. That our prisoners have clean beds, blankets and full bellies.

The apartments for securing highborn prisoners are also empty. Those lush chambers have every amenity available for comfort, while bars, guards and wards ensure none can break out. That is where I want Aldrin and his band of supporters.

We trudge through the dungeon in silence, and my helpless panic slowly recedes as we confirm every corner is empty, with no hidden doors or tunnels.

“What if he isn’t in the keep?” I whisper as we make our way back.

“He will be. It is far too great a risk to transport all those fae elsewhere. Their capture, and the fact that they were not executed immediately, is a well-guarded secret. Besides, Father said he spoke with Aldrin.”

I take my brother’s hand and squeeze it. “Thank you.”

He pulls me against his chest and gives me a quick hug. “You would have done the same for me.”

We take the stairs up from the old dungeons and blink as we step into beams of bright daylight seeping into a rarely used foyer of the keep.

I cough as the fresh air enters my dust-filled lungs. I instinctually bring a hand to my mouth, but I quickly cut the motion short. My fingers are grimy, and my sleeves are coated in dirt and spider webs. Diarmuid smacks at his clothes with vigor, causing a puff of dust to rise around us.

A deep despair fills me at my continued failure to find Aldrin. Does he believe I have abandoned him? That I will allow his death?

I am constantly so afraid for him, I cannot eat or sleep—but it doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely livid with him. It doesn’t mask the betrayal that coats my tongue with bitterness, or the hollowness of my heart. It doesn’t prevent my rages whenever I am alone in my rooms, tossing pillows and books against the wall.

I trusted Aldrin. I gave him my heart and my body, and he lied to me.

How much of what happened between us was true? A shiver racks through my entire body at the thought and it threatens to turn me into a weeping mess.

These obsessive searches for Aldrin help me as much as they help him, because they serve as a distraction from the emotions closing in around me.

I don’t know what I will do if I find him. I am not ready to look him in the eye and have an honest conversation about the things that lie between us. I am not ready to hear him out. I think I would make sure he is safe, then slap his pretty face.

My steps down the corridor speed up as my mind spins in circles, rage brimming within me.

Diarmuid grabs my elbow and slows me to almost a stop. “Speak to me. Or if not me, at least Caitlin or Brianna.” His hazel eyes are clouded with worry, and his light brown shoulder-length hair sticks up in tufts coated with dust.

I rub my temples. “There are a thousand thoughts in my head. I am so angry with him and so scared for him. Part of me is elated that he came for me, but another part is horrified at the idea that he could have been manipulating me this whole time. How could he not tell me that he tried to take me before? That he fought our father over me ? What if he is like every other aggressively possessive fae?”

Footsteps echo through the corridor behind us, growing closer, but whoever it is hasn’t rounded the corner yet.

Diarmuid glances quickly over his shoulder in their direction. “I find it hard to believe that every person in an entire race could be exactly the same. Our father and grandmother will tell you one thing, but in the end, you have to trust your own gut. None of us know Aldrin and his supporters like you do.”

A shuddering breath leaves me. “I don’t know what to think anymore, Diarmuid. I’ve lost my faith in my instincts. I was so wrong about Finan.”

Those footsteps grow louder, and then they are upon us. “My gosh! Keira? Diarmuid? Please tell me the two of you haven’t been searching the dungeons again.”

I turn toward my mother’s voice. Her features are in their usual strained expression, her arching eyebrows raised high and her dark eyes wide. Not a single strand of blond hair is out of place in her updo. It never is.

“The two of you look like street criminals, not a lord and lady.” She reaches us and her fingers fly to my hair, swiftly tidying it. “Were you looking for him again?”

I straighten my back. “Mother, I am going insane. Why won’t anyone let me see him?”

“Is that what you really want? Are you sure you don’t want your father to handle this? He is trying to protect you from heartache.” She keeps fussing over me, not holding my gaze while she talks.

“I am not a child in need of protection!” I swat her hands away. “Has everyone in this family forgotten that I have made the crossing? I have proven time and again that I can take care of myself.”

She sighs. “I’ll have to remember that.” She glances at my brother. “You really shouldn’t indulge her, Diarmuid. Keira is having enough of a difficult time without having to comb through dungeons and witness whatever horrors were left down there.” She visibly shudders at the idea, but my brother shrugs.

My mother is strong in her own way. Court intrigues and the deadly game of houses don’t make her bat an eyelid, but the mere mention of violence is more than she can handle.

She witnessed the massacre of her entire house when she was younger than I am now and has traumas beyond what I can imagine. She has never told me exactly what happened, but even the smallest drop of blood sends her back to those moments.

“Where is Aldrin?” I force her to hold my eye.

“He is in the keep, in a place far nicer than those dungeons.” She forces a rigid smile, then places her arm around my shoulders and leads me down the corridor. “Come. Speak of it with your father. And please, for the love of the gods and those around you, try not to get into another yelling match with him.”

My father sits at the large mahogany desk in his study, quill in hand and sheets of parchment all around him. His large form is framed by the leather covers of tomes placed haphazardly in piles on either side of him, and on a tall bookshelf at his back.

My eyes skirt over the gold letters on the spines, noting that he reads of old fae history, but the texts are too recent to be accurate.

As I sit in one of the dark leather couches opposite him, Father’s emerald eyes flick from my drawn face to the grime on my clothes that indicates where I have been and who I have been looking for.

Then they flash with an unreadable emotion.

“Here to cause more trouble for me, Keira?” He folds his arms before him. “Shouldn’t you have moved to the Sanctuary of Magic by now?”

“Edmund!” my mother chastises him, placing her hands on my shoulders.

“It’s just an observation, Maeve. Finan needs to believe she is devoting herself to the temple. It is the only way to absolve this protectorate of any blame for her leaving him.” His gaze flicks to my brother as Diarmuid flops into the other armchair beside me. “Are all my children ganging up on me now? Caitlin was at my throat just minutes ago.”

Diarmuid opens his mouth, but I don’t let him speak. “Where is he, Father? What have you done with Aldrin?”

His teeth clench and his frown deepens. The intensity of the moment builds and builds until I can’t handle it anymore.

“I need to know if he is okay,” I spit out.

“Why? Why does it matter if a convicted criminal is okay?” His hands scrunch the parchment beneath them, seemingly without him noticing.

“Because whatever he has done, I can’t change the way I feel about him. I need to hear him out and understand this from his perspective.” As the words pour from me, they rip a hole in my heart.

“Why do you think I haven’t executed him already?” My father leans forward over his desk, the muscles of his arms bulging. “Why do you think I question him instead? Do you know what I risk in doing that? I take this burden gladly for you, Keira. I need to determine for myself if this man’s lies will break my daughter’s heart a second time.”

“You will NOT execute him! And I do not need you to safeguard me!” I toss my head. “You keep me in ignorance like a child, but it doesn’t benefit me!”

He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes for a long moment. “Why him? Why a fae? I would have supported you falling in love with anyone else. A commoner, even. But a fae ? What am I supposed to do with that, Keira? Allow you to be dragged away by that monster into the Otherworld? It is a father’s worst nightmare.”

I grind my teeth as wave after wave of anger rolls through me. “Aldrin said we could stay here, in this realm, if I wished it. We won’t have to return to the Otherworld if I don’t want to. It is my choice.”

“That’s no life, Keira. Lords and peasants alike would hunt you down in every kingdom.” He deflates back into his chair.

A silence drags out as we glare at each other. I refuse to break it, to back down from this. Aldrin may have shattered my heart and destroyed whatever trust there was between us, but I am the only person here who will fight for him.

My mother gives my shoulders a quick squeeze before releasing them. “Perhaps Keira can join you the next time you question Aldrin?”

“It is her right,” my brother chimes in.

A shudder runs through my father. “Keira, to be very honest with you, I don’t want you to see him in this state.”

“What state ?” I stand and slam my hands on his desk. “What have you done to him?” I snarl, the tips of my hair floating upward in a phantom breeze.

Every image from my worst nightmares floods my mind. Aldrin, bloody and sliced up after being tortured, with broken bones and burnt skin. His body starved, ribs showing, his face gaunt with dead eyes. I think I will be sick.

My father waves a hand to dispel my reaction. “No, not like that. No one here has raised a hand against him. There is a side to Aldrin you don’t know, Keira. I suspect the possessed, aggressive man I see is different from the fae you came to know.”

I fall into my seat. “Tell me.”

My father looks away. “He demands to see you. Claims you are his property, his right , with such viciousness you would think him a wild animal. Aldrin does not believe he has done a single thing wrong, and I suspect that extends to the lies and half-truths he has told you. And the graphic promises of violence he has made to us, to your frail grandmother as well…we have only spoken to him once, and he tried to lunge at us immediately. I had to bind him to his seat with ropes of air so he wouldn’t harm us. Maybe Aldrin can’t physically drag you out of this realm against your will, but have you wondered whether one of his cronies will do it for him? Or maybe he will use sweet words instead.”

“No,” I whisper. “That doesn’t sound like him.” I can’t believe it. I won’t. But there is so much about Aldrin that I hardly know.

My father’s eyes flash with intensity. “He lost his temper and said he will take you back by force. That he has the means to do it, despite his oath. Aldrin admitted more fae are going to make the crossing to help him snatch you, and probably take whoever else they want. They were to follow after him if he didn’t make it back after a certain amount of time. Does the name Cyprien mean anything to you?”

My whole body shakes and I hold my head in my hands. “No. No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. I can’t believe that.” Tears leak down my face as my heart twists so painfully it will surely seize up. Diarmuid hands me a handkerchief, peering into my face with concern.

“I don’t say these things to be a cruel man, Keira.” My father’s voice is gentle. “Only for you to understand the truth of the situation. I will not lose you to another abusive man. Don’t think the way Prince Finan treated you hasn’t eaten me up inside. I hate myself for it every moment of every damned day.”

“Maybe Keira needs to witness this side of him, Edmund,” my mother says from behind me. My father stares at her for a long moment, a muscle ticking in his jaw. He avoids looking at me completely.

They discuss me as though I am not in the room, and I fall into a downward spiral unchecked. Diarmuid reaches over and squeezes my hand in his.

The only thing that pulls me out of it is the click of heeled boots on the wooden floors, and the sudden emergence of my grandmother. She scrutinizes each of us in turn with gray eyes framed by delicate crow’s feet.

“I thought I heard a battle of wills from the corridor.” Her hard voice silences all of us, despite the fact that she is no longer the lady of the house. “It is time, Edmund.” She walks to his desk. “Long past time to tell Keira exactly what happened when Aldrin visited these lands years ago.”

I tense as my father’s eyes narrow on his mother and they seem to have an entire conversation in that stare.

“Come now, Edmund,” my grandmother coaxes.

He lets out a long sigh. A horrible, nervous anticipation wrings me out.

“I would blame my actions on being a younger man back then, a more foolish one, but I seem to make just as many reckless choices now with that fae.” My father pauses, clearly picking his next words carefully. “Aldrin sent word ahead of his first visit, claiming he wanted to meet for diplomatic discussions on trade. I thought about our diminishing magic and how fae goods could not only enrich our dangerously low treasury, but also bring magic back to these lands. The notion intoxicated me.”

“So much so that he didn’t listen to reason.” My grandmother seats herself on the edge of his desk. “I wasn’t High Priestess yet, and my predecessor was far more liberal than I.”

I bite my lip, waiting for the blows to come.

“Aldrin arrived with much of the same entourage and more, bearing gifts of rare fruits and their seed stocks, spices and magic-imbued jewelry. A taste of what a trade agreement would bring, he said. He still held his throne back then.” My father runs a hand through his hair. “I thought we’d negotiate for select human merchants to travel to the Otherworld or to make exchanges at the portals, but Aldrin spoke of free migration between realms. He wanted an introduction to King Willard, and you can imagine how that would have gone.

“It became clear that his main goal was to convince humans to immigrate to his realm. For our fertile women to bear their children and become their consorts. He wanted to buy our women with trade.”

My heart pounds painfully. “Did he say as much?”

“He didn’t need to.” My father’s intense gaze never leaves mine. “He kept pushing and pushing for open borders, to dispel old prejudices between our people and to share our cultures.”

“There is nothing wrong with any of that,” I interject.

My grandmother’s body snaps straight and she raises a single eyebrow at me. “That is how they get a foothold in this kingdom. Then there will be no stopping them. We cannot allow ourselves to be vulnerable to the fae again.”

“I thought the same as you, Keira, at first,” my father says. “That maybe we could test the waters and set up safeguards that would allow us to expel them again if needed. But then Aldrin asked for you, like you were a possession I could give away. My second daughter. He would have taken my baby girl, my child, away from me.” His voice cracks. “Aldrin proposed it as a marriage to solidify our trade agreement, but I knew better. Fae men treat human women as slaves.”

My grandmother doesn’t miss her opportunity. “I believe in that moment Aldrin marked you as his, and he will not stop coming for you.” She walks around the table and holds my hands in hers. “You know what I went through on my pilgrimage. Aldrin is like all fae. He turned vicious and aggressive in his fight to claim you back then, and he will do anything he can to steal you now.”

“The scuffle that broke out wasn’t just his fault.” My father picks up a crystal decanter at the end of his desk and pours himself a glass of whiskey, taking a sip. “It was my temper that flared out of control when that fae threatened to take my daughter as his consort. My little girl . I set my guards on him. Things got out of hand and a battle broke out as we pushed them out of this realm. I told Aldrin if he ever touched my daughter or returned to these lands, I would personally kill him. Immediately. And now, Keira, you have made a liar out of me. Perhaps the other lords are right, and I am far too indulgent with my daughters.”

My entire existence narrows down to the agony blooming within my chest, doubling then tripling. A loud ringing fills my ears and I cannot hear a single thing. Betrayal ripples through my body, my soul, until it is all I know.

These revelations taint every memory of Aldrin’s kindness and the intimacy we had, making me wonder if any of his actions were altruistic or if it was all one giant manipulation.

He tried to steal me from my parents when I was a child. To take me to his court to grow up, so he could then claim me as his queen. That is what he has always wanted from me, isn’t it?

Fatigue rolls through me. I can’t trust my own judgment. My self-confidence withers. Maybe I am still that naive girl who gives her heart away too freely.

All eyes are on me, and I feel the weight of those gazes. “I still need to speak with him, Father.” The fight has seeped out of me, but I will still have this one last thing.

He sighs. “You can see him when the time is right.”

My grandmother gives him a sharp look.

It is a small win, suboptimal when I need to see him now, but maybe it is all I can manage.

At some point, Diarmuid left the room without my noticing, and he returns now and pulls me up from my seat by the elbow while our parents and grandmother argue over the top of my head.

“You don’t need to hear any more of this,” he says softly, leading me out of my father’s study and into his small personal library beyond. Both of my sisters are waiting there and fall into step with us. We don’t stop our fast pace until we reach my bedchamber, and the door is locked behind us.

I drop onto my bed, sitting there and staring at the floor while a hundred fears race through my head and my heart shatters to pieces.

All I can see is the tenderness in Aldrin’s eyes when he knelt before me in the priestesses’ temple and told me that he would live whatever life I wanted, in whichever realm I picked, so long as I chose him over Finan. That he would cherish me above all else.

He brushed away my tears while he offered all of himself to me and asked for little in return. I cannot believe that was false.

“We need to talk to you, Keira. Please. We are concerned.” Brianna leans down to peer into my face, her pale blond hair brushing my cheek. Her blue eyes are wide, and the worry in them drags me back to the present. My baby sister always knows how to reach me.

I drag in a deep, ragged breath and glance at Caitlin. “I’m guessing Diarmuid left the study to tell you about the fight.” Shame floods me. I cracked so easily under their two-pronged attack. I don’t know if my father is outright lying, exaggerating or telling the truth.

“Of course he did. Diarmuid cannot keep anything to himself. He might explode if he tried to keep a secret in.” Caitlin rolls her eyes at him, flicking her auburn braid over her shoulder. Secretly, she is delighted. My big sister always wants to rush in when I am under attack. But some problems she can’t fix for me.

“Harsh.” Diarmuid takes a seat on the couch opposite me. “I needed backup. Things were getting intense, and I could no longer tell the truths from the lies.”

“I was already hiding in the library and listening in.” Brianna takes my comb from the dresser, sits behind me on the bed and pulls the pins from my hair, soothingly brushing the long strands. “When a servant informed Grandmother of the fight, I may have followed her and strategically placed myself in a hidden spot.”

I cover my face with my hands. “I’m so confused. Everything they said about Aldrin is at such odds with the man I fell for. I thought I knew him, inside and out. That we had shared so much of ourselves with each other. Then to find out there is this whole hidden side of him? It doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I’m not the best judge of character. I got Finan completely wrong.”

Caitlin stalks across the room, squatting before me and placing her hands firmly on my knees. “ I am an excellent judge of character. It is my job as heir to the Lord Protector, and I got to know Aldrin as well. I became good friends with Cyprien and Odiane. You can’t tell me they were all devious and savage. That they treated us with anything but respect. And Cyprien bringing a small army here to kidnap you? Please . I don’t believe it.”

She lets those words hang in the air and a spark of hope ignites within me. It burns through the thick layers of confusion like dry kindling.

“Have you questioned whether it is our father and grandmother who are manipulating you instead of Aldrin?” Diarmuid asks, casually crossing an ankle over his knee.

“They wouldn’t,” I whisper. If I cannot trust them, then I can trust no one.

“They would, if they thought it was in your best interests. If they believed you were in serious trouble and it was the only way to save you.” Brianna squeezes my arm, then begins braiding my hair. “I’m not implying everything they said was a fabrication, but the way a person presents information can have a huge influence on its impact. Perhaps they exaggerate how Aldrin behaved when they questioned him. If he truly came here because you called him, then he would have a right to feel angry. Maybe key details were left out in Father’s story about Aldrin’s first visit here and how the battle broke out. Father might have convinced himself that a fae army is on its way to threaten us, so he tells it to you as though it is the truth.”

Caitlin lets out a long breath. “Remember, our grandmother had a very traumatic experience in the Otherworld. This fuels both her and Father’s prejudice against the high fae. To discover that a fae traveled across realms in search of her granddaughter would have been very triggering for her.”

My eyes dart between my three siblings. I know this. I have been fighting for Aldrin for days, but I needed to hear it again. To know that I have not lost my mind.

“We are not saying he is innocent.” Diarmuid slowly cracks each of his knuckles. “He might be the crazed and possessive fae they fear, but if you think there is even a chance he is not, then he deserves to be heard out.”

Brianna pins my hair on top of my head. “If Aldrin truly traveled here knowing the risks to himself to save you, and if he offered to give up his crown and be on the run just to be with you, then that is the most romantic thing I have ever heard.” When I glance over my shoulder at her, Brianna’s cheeks are rosy and her gaze is suddenly far away. “I would die if a man gave up everything and defied all odds just to be with me. If I were loved that much.”

My head hurts with the pendulum of thoughts swinging through it.

Caitlin stands. “Don’t forget he made you that oath, to never bind you or hold you against your will. Why would a fae do that if he saw you as his property or right? It could be argued that it was a manipulative tactic to earn your trust, but why go to the effort if he is a crazed fae who would force his will on you? He could have locked you up the first moment he met you, but instead, he escorted us to that portal when we left. We need to find him and his people. We owe them that much.”

“Do you know where they are?” I ask.

A smile grows on Caitlin’s face. “I have a lead. One that our dear brother Diarmuid will bring to fruition.”

My heart tumbles at those words, and I dare to hope.

“Me?” Diarmuid’s eyebrows shoot up. “If I knew where they were, I wouldn’t have combed the damned dungeons multiple times.”

“I spoke with Liam and Aiden, who escorted Father’s fae prisoners,” Caitlin says. “Apparently, there is a prison cut deep in the castle’s bedrock, warded with spells and built specifically to hold fae.”

I lurch forward with a hundred questions on my lips, but she holds up a finger.

“The access point is behind the barracks. We’ll need a letter of authority from the head warden of the prison to enter. Maybe even for him to escort us there in person.”

I crash hard, bitter disappointment raising bile in my throat. “Father would have given Warden Lucien specific orders against allowing us access.”

“That’s where he comes into play.” Caitlin flicks her head toward Diarmuid, who has a slow smile growing on his face.

Brianna giggles behind me. “Diarmuid plays cards with the head warden. I heard the man is quite a heavy drinker in his downtime, and he was part of the group our dear brother used to get into a lot of trouble with when he was my age.”

Diarmuid’s eyes dart to her. “How do you even remember that? You must have been five at the time.Anyway, Lucien holds his liquor well, so most people cannot tell when he is absolutely wasted. I’ll butter him up and take away his wits, then Caitlin can come in and bark orders at him. I’ll be too drunk myself by that point to stagger down to the prisons with you, but we’ll get you to Aldrin, Keira. I promise you that.”

I am so painfully close to finding Aldrin, it terrifies me.

I don’t know what state he will be in. My mind immediately recoils at the idea that my father could be cruel to anyone, but I can’t reject it completely.

I don’t know how I will react to finding Aldrin. I want to slap him and kiss him at the same time. To be bound up in his strong arms, and to never let him touch me again. I want to scream and scream at him while I pound his chest. To sit with him and listen patiently to his story while I stroke his hair.

My confused thoughts bounce from one extreme to the other so quickly I am left with mental whiplash. I just need to find him, to know he is safe. Everything else can come later.