7. Present Day
7
PRESENT DAY
Caly
“ Y ou’re here!” The woman shoved me aside to launch at Eli with enough force to send us all onto the perfectly manicured lawn.
Thankfully Eli had anticipated his sister’s move and steadied me as he greeted Princess Tarani.
The fae squeezed her arms around Eli so tightly, I listened for the soft cracking of a rib up until the moment she released him. Her golden-blond hair, draped across her shoulders like a cape, caught the sparkling sun. I couldn’t remember how old she was, not that it mattered. Fae didn’t age in the same way humans did, and it had never made any sense to me anyway. Once they hit around twenty, their looks remained the same for decades.
She looked young, like a fresh-faced and sheltered eighteen-year-old human. Like all fae, she was unbelievably beautiful. Her large amber eyes were the focal point of her slightly rounded face. What her sweet eyes didn’t take up, her contagious smile did. She had the same bright smile as Saracen and Eli—the kind that, even if you didn’t want to, you couldn’t help but smile when you saw it.
“I’m so glad you’re back! I’ve been bored stiff since you left.” She smiled. Her twinkling eyes landed on me as though she’d just noticed someone else was with them. “You are the human I hear so much about,” she said, losing the smile. Her face hardened, and I was completely caught off guard by the venom that dripped from her words.
“Uh—I—” I stuttered.
“Suns, Tarani, let us in the door first before you start. Cal, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, this is my younger sister, Tarani,” Eli said with a large grin. He reached out to tousle his sister’s hair.
They fondly looked at each other, and I couldn’t help but feel a pinch in my chest.
They smiled and teased each other, and it dawned on me that I’d probably never been as happy as the two of them appeared to be in all my life. While these two had been pampered and waited on, surrounded by a family that loved them, I had been stuck in my own realm, without a family, tracking insects and killing fae that rubbed their mother the wrong way.
The smiles fell from the sunlit pair as they noticed the few tears falling down my cheeks, breaking through the dam I’d built.
“What’s wrong, Calypso? Tarani didn’t mean anything, she’s just protective,” Eli said, stepping closer to comfort me.
I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand and silently threatened the other tears before they thought about falling as well. “I just can’t believe I’m finally here,” I lied, emphasizing it with a smile and a limp wave of my hand.
Eli’s eyes held mine for a beat before he ushered us inside. The guards all moved around us, one of them grabbing for my bag.
“I’ll carry my bag, please,” I said, turning my attention to the sentry and attempting to take the leather duffel from the gold-armored guard.
“It’s part of his job, Caly. Let him. You’ll need to adjust to people helping you now that you will be living in the castle. The bag will be taken to your room for you. Let’s go inside; I know mother is dying to see you,” the princess said, sounding more than a little annoyed. She laced her arm in Eli’s, who linked his in mine, and guided us forward—away from my things.
I smiled wide, making certain it reached my eyes. I gave Eli’s arm a light squeeze before deftly unlinking it as they continued. “Just give me one second,” I mumbled in their direction.
With the smile still plastered on my face, I walked back to the guard who held my bag and scanned his gold armor. They were either really powerful and didn’t need very good armor, or they were foolish and it was for decoration. Either way, it was ineffective. I noticed several arteries fully exposed. Even their helmets left their faces open for an attack. I didn’t deal with magic very frequently with the fae I killed in the human realm though, so I had to assume that they were far more dangerous than they appeared. It didn’t help that every one of the guards also had a small, creepy grin on their face. I would need to adjust to that.
The guard with my bag paused for a second, likely trying to figure out why I was approaching him.
Smile still plastered to my face, I leaned in and whispered into his slightly pointed ear where small tufts of white hair peeked out, “You are going to hand me my bag.” I leaned back to look in his face, gave him a bright smile, and let out a giggle. His smile faltered but returned once I giggled again. “You are going to give me my bag right now, or I am going to take it from you, and trust me, you don’t want that.” I laughed, reaching out to touch his shoulder.
Like a good guard, he glanced to Eli, who rolled his eyes and nodded, no doubt having heard every word I’d whispered with his foxlike hearing. My hand tingled slightly on the guard’s shoulder, and I pulled it away to take the bag from him just as he and everyone else noticed the wisps of smoke trailing into the sky from my hand.
What the fuck was going on with this? I needed to run some tests and figure out exactly what caused it to react. It hadn’t gone off when the portal guard had touched me and had even stayed dormant a few times when Eli had. It didn’t make any sense.
I shifted my bag’s strap over my shoulder and rejoined the group, smile still in place. I wanted to make a mental checklist of things to test for, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin with this kind of thing. As soon as I got settled, I would ask Eli about a library.
My arm once again looped through Eli’s, I began to walk before he caught my gaze, tilting his head a fraction. The customary best-friend check to make sure I really was ok. Barely hidden concern leached out of his pretty honey eyes. I nodded back with a real smile this time, and we continued up the mammoth-sized stone steps into the Seelie castle.
If I had thought for a single moment that the outside of the Seelie castle had been obnoxious, the inside was like a punch to the face.
Mendax and Queen Tenebris’s castle had been opulent, but the Seelie castle made theirs look like a small manor in comparison. It was deceptively large, even considering the outside made it look like an absolute monstrosity. The inside felt repulsively grand—and gold.
Bright, shiny gold—not the deep, dark gold of human jewelry, but a neon, sparkling, gleaming gold that bathed every inch of the interior, making my eyes tremble and squint. The unbelievably tall ceilings, marble floors, intricate molding, and carved doors that seemed to go on endlessly down a hallway were all gold.
Holy shit.
What was I doing here? I didn’t belong here.
“I’m going to go find Mother. She is going to be so excited to see you,” Tarani said with a sly quirk to her smile as she left Eli and I in the entryway.
I craned my neck and saw the ceiling wasn’t simply gold, but bright rays of sunshine also beat down harshly on every crack and crevice.
Already, I missed the gentle comforts of the darkness. This hurt my eyes and made me feel…exposed. Did everyone feel this way under the scorching ceiling? Perhaps they had done this intentionally.
“Just the hallways are spelled to have the sunshine on them,” Eli added as he watched me try and relax my face. “The Seelie royals are the house of the sun, and we are light wielders. The queen, Princess Tarani, and I are the only SunTamers left,” he said proudly, tracking my reaction.
“Was Langmure a SunTamer?” I asked, regretting my words the moment I said them.
“Yes. My brother was a SunTamer before Mendax killed him,” he snarled and looked at his shoes.
“I’m sorry, Eli. I-I didn’t mean to bring it up,” I apologized.
What the fuck? This was the worst possible entrance to the Seelie castle I could have made.
“Cal, you have nothing to apologize to me about. You killed my brother’s murderer. I should be thanking you.”
The burning in my lungs threatened to knock me down.
When would I feel good about what I had done for my family? Would it ever feel right?
I had killed many times before. As an assassin, I had killed a lot . It was all I knew.
In all the times I had taken someone’s life, not once had I felt as broken and hollow as I had after Mendax.
What a fool I was.
There was no hiding that I had started to fall in love with Mendax. I deserved every hollow moment that I got for being such a fool. Once I got the other half of my heart back, I would feel differently. I had to. I would stop thinking about him. Stop missing him. It would all be a part of the past.
If I could go back, I would kill Mendax all over again just for making me feel so miserable without him.
“Are you certain you do not wish to get settled and cleaned up before you see Mother? It’s been a long time since you have seen her.” Eli spoke to me with the same gentle undertone he would a child.
“Please, Eli.” I fought it, but another tear freed itself. “I just need to feel whole again,” I mumbled, looking into his amber eyes. Being with my best friend again was so nice. Just the thought of being separated from him again was painful.
He nodded solemnly, and we continued through the castle. A few incredulous looks came our way from the servants. I wasn’t certain if it was due to my now-rumpled sundress (even these servants wore fancy clothing, much more garish than the servants at the Unseelie castle) or if it was due in part to me being so clearly a human with my non-pointed ears and boring, ungoddesslike features.
“Stop this very instant, Prince Aurelius.” A stern, clipped voice came from behind us.
Eli stopped moving instantly, grabbing my arm just as I had begun to reach into my bag for a weapon. I scowled at my friend before I shook my arm free.
“What on sun’s soil is the meaning of this? You cannot be bringing a human into this castle. Do you want the Ancients to kill you?”
“It’s all right, Samuel,” Eli said gently, putting his hands up in surrender.
I barely hid my disapproval as I turned to observe the man responsible for such sharp words.
My eyes found a stiff, angular man no taller than myself, with lowered, fluffy brown eyebrows that sat above his slightly asymmetrical green eyes. He looked a human sixty, so there was no telling how old he truly was. He could have been hundreds of years old with the way the fae aged. I expected to see the gleaming armor of a guard or the white ceremonial garb I had seen Eli wear at the trial in the Unseelie realm, but to my surprise the assertive man wore something that bore such a striking resemblance to a human chef’s jacket that my mouth dropped open in surprise.
“Don’t you dare it’s all right, Samuel me, Aurelius!” the man shouted, taking an erratic step toward me.
Eli quickly stepped in to block me, though I did notice he seemed to be protecting the old man more than me. “It’s her , Samuel—it’s Calypso.” Eli grabbed the curmudgeon’s shoulders.
I stepped back a little, my brown ballet flats sliding a bit on the polished floor. Something about the way Eli had responded seemed odd, like he was speaking to a close family member, not a cook.
The man stilled instantly, and they continued to look at one another for a moment.
“I’ll be,” the man muttered.
They stood grinning at one another so long, I lost interest and took the opportunity to try and map out exactly where I was with regards to the castle’s layout.
Out of nowhere, a warm force pressed into my chest and gripped tightly to my shoulder blades. My nerves got the better of me, causing my somatic reflex to snap. Just as your hand flees from a hot stove, I moved quickly—so quick I surprised myself.
Within a second I had dropped the force—now noticing it was the old chef—and stood over him with my shoe pressed firmly into his trachea.
“Oh my suns! Calypso!” Eli hollered, quickly moving to push me off of Samuel’s neck.
“Calypso! Get off him! Is this what you do to someone who tries to hug you?” His voice held alarm, but his eyes danced with a hint of amusement. “Samuel is my dear friend—he’s like a father to me, Cal. Let him up. He knows all about you,” he exclaimed with a wide, boyish grin.
Crimson crept into my cheeks. “Never sneak up on an assassin,” I nervously sang.
Eli shot me a harsh look.
“I-I am so sorry, Samuel,” I stuttered as I helped the man up. “I guess I’m a little more on edge than I thought. Please forgive me. Eli has told me so much about you.”
I weakly hugged the chef.
I needed to get it together before I ruined everything. I cleared my throat, readying a more convincing apology and chastising myself for further embarrassing humans in the fae world, when a beautiful voice poured in from the hallway in front of us.
“And you thought I acted harshly about my overcooked oats this morning.”
As though the voice held the strings to my expression, my mouth pulled up in a wide smile.
She was a vision of grace and beauty standing in the bright hallway, watching me, her smooth, tanned face overflowing with laughter and joy.
I swear, even more rays of the sun appeared inside of the bright castle to backlight the queen. Her dazzling flaxen gown shimmered, the train of it in a small pool behind her. A deep breath let loose from my tight chest as I felt for the V-shaped scar on my hand.
“Queen,” I said. Talking was hard right now. I didn’t want to say anything I shouldn’t.
I couldn’t believe I was here. Finally.
Chef Samuel had taken my distraction as an opportunity to roll away from me, but he never stood. Instead, he kneeled, bowing.
A noise kind of like a forced cough came out of his throat, and I immediately felt a little bad for hurting Eli’s friend.
It was almost over. I was here. I looked to Eli, who was also making the same weird noise as his friend and was also in a deep bow.
Samuel’s side-eye caught my gaze as he nodded his head in short flicks, signaling for me to bow.
Realizing I was the only one not bowing, I immediately stumbled over myself and into a clumsy curtsey like I’d seen in the movies. I felt so stupid.
In the human world, I had never been told to bow to Queen Saracen. Nor had Aurelius bowed to his mother. I noticed several servants and guards had moved out into the hallway from the dozens of rooms all around to get a look at the queen. A quick glance up showed a few leaning over the intricate gold railing that seemed to climb never-ending heights.
“Calypso. My Unseelie destroyer, my favorite child!” She winked at Eli. “Come, Aurelius, bring Caly into the drawing room. There is much I wish to speak with you about. I have hardly slept a moment since sending you that last letter. Tell Tarani to join us for some tea.”
I breathed out, preparing to see the princess again. It was touching how much Eli doted on her.
It was a shame I had to kill her.