Chapter 7 #3
With an endearing squeeze of his arm, Lexi nodded. “I appreciate that, but maybe I can help. You never know. Maybe I can be the neutral arbitrator and help diffuse this war before it gets good and started. Then everyone would be the better for it.”
He huffed another heavy sigh. “She is a cruel woman. I dinna ken what she will say to ye. Promise me ye will take nothing she says to heart.”
Lexi gave him a sad smile that broke his heart. “Stop worrying. I’ve come across cruelty a time or two in my lifetime and lived to tell about it. I am not some fragile piece of porcelain that crumbles if you look at it the wrong way.”
He didn’t like it. Even though he had no doubt she was strong enough to withstand Faeniana’s verbal abuse, he didn’t wish her exposed to it.
Once a memory was made, it could not be erased any easier than unringing a bell.
The memory would remain until either old age or death claimed it.
“I dinna wish ye hurt,” he said quietly.
“I have already done that enough and regret it more than ye will ever know.”
Her brow gently puckered with an adorable expression of bewilderment and worry.
“It will be all right,” she said just as softly.
“And for the record, I don’t hate you. I just came off a little strong because I hadn’t had my coffee yet.
” She tipped a quick shrug. “I just want you to be honest with me so I can trust you. Honesty and trust are a big deal with me. I know you have trouble with the way I look, so just be honest about it. You’re not the first person who’s taken a step back when I turn, and they see the right side of my face.
I shock a lot of people. It is human nature. ”
Mairwen’s advice echoed through his mind, and he distinctly heard tell her.
“I hate yer scars, not because of their appearance, but because they remind me of all that ye’ve suffered, and all I could have prevented if only I had found ye sooner in the Dreaming.
Yer scars remind me of how much I failed ye. ”
Her bewildered frown deepened. “My scars are not your fault. You didn’t even know me then, and even if you had, you would’ve been no more than a child. Our ages can’t be that different. How in the world do you think you could have possibly prevented that car accident when I was four years old?”
Even though he feared nothing, he feared this conversation, but was determined to get it right.
“I am over one thousand of yer Scotland’s years, lass.
Time is different here in the Seventh Realm’s Scotland, and the Fae have quite a longer lifespan.
I could have appeared to yer parents in their dreams and warned them of what could happen. ”
Her eyes turned misty, replacing her momentary look of shock.
“My parents knew the risks of drinking and driving. They wouldn’t have listened to you.
” She bowed her head and cleared her throat before squinting up at him as if he were a creature she had never seen before.
“And you are how old in my Scotland’s years? ”
“One thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-one to be exact.” He shrugged. “Give or take a few days.”
“Wow.” She slowly shook her head. “That is…un-freaking-believable. You look my age—thirty-two, by the way.”
“Yer age means nothing to me, lass. Only yer opinion of me.”
“It’s improving,” she said quietly. “Slowly but surely. What exactly is the life expectancy of a Seelie? Or are you immortal?”
His spirits rose, and his heart soared, making him struggle to remain calm.
“We are not immortal, but those of us who die young usually do so because of some sort of injury or war. Illness is a rare thing among my people. A usual lifespan can be tens of thousands of years or more. I canna remember the last death in the Seventh Realm.”
“How do you prevent overpopulation?”
“Sadly, bairns are rare in the Realm. The goddesses cursed us, making it extraordinarily difficult for us to bring forth children. My mother was a rare Seelie found to be fertile, bringing forth me and my brothers, even though hers was an arranged marriage. Fated mates have a somewhat better chance than those who choose a partner for the alignment of certain families. Political unions rarely result in continuing their alliance through procreation.” He took her hand in his, admiring its softness and the way it disappeared within his grasp, totally engulfed and protected.
“Yet another reason for ye to hate me. If ye wish to have children, I dinna ken if we would ever be blessed in such a way.”
“I don’t hate you. Remember?” She rested her other hand on top of their clasped ones.
“And no one is guaranteed to have a child. It either happens or it doesn’t.
” She seemed to draw herself up as if bolstering her strength and resolve.
“We’d better go see your guests. If we keep them waiting, they might get even crabbier. ”
“Crabbier?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Grouchier. Harder to get along with.”
“I see.”
She grinned. “Like me.”
He bowed his head, but knew he failed to hide his smile. “I would say yer circumstances warranted a bit of fractiousness.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Trying to understand.”
“I am trying, lass. Please know that I am trying.”
She patted his hand again. “We had better go.”
Feeling a great deal better than he had earlier, he tucked her hand through his arm. “Stay close to me and dinna trust anything she says, ye ken?”
Lexi nodded. “I am ready.”
He doubted that very much, but knew they had little choice. Onward to battle.
* * *
One thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-one years old.
Lexi couldn’t help repeating that amazing number over and over in her mind.
As they walked down the hallway, she rehashed everything else he had told her as well.
Time passed differently here, he’d said.
Did that mean she would live longer as long as she was here?
She blinked away the prospect as Jeros’s muscular arm tensed beneath her touch.
They must be getting close to the salon.
“Remember what I said,” he told her, his deep voice a raspy whisper that touched her like a caress. “I dinna wish ye hurt.”
She almost shivered, but caught it and forced it away.
“I’ll be fine,” she said more to herself than to him.
She’d dealt with her share of bullies as a child and later as an adult, and Jeros left her with the distinct impression that Princess Faeniana was a bully.
If that was how the woman wanted to be, then so be it. Lexi was ready.
The sight of Aylryd’s rump and slowly switching tail sticking out of what had to be the salon’s double doors made her smile. Good kitty, standing at attention, letting everyone know that no crap would be tolerated.
Once they reached him, she ran her hand along his sleek back, then scratched his ears as a blatant sign that the Fae tiger was her friend.
Then she came up short and swallowed hard.
The Fifth Kingdom’s princess was so stunningly beautiful that it was almost painful to look upon her.
She had the same shining white hair as Mairwen, but this woman showed no sign of old age.
Her eyes were an icier blue than Jeros’s and definitely colder, making Lexi wonder if the princess was soulless.
Well endowed both in breasts and hips and wearing a revealing gown that left nothing to the imagination, Lexi couldn’t help but remember one of her barn manager Sam’s favorite sayings whenever he saw a gorgeously curvaceous woman: Princess Faeniana was built like a brick shithouse.
The icy Fae gave her such a sneering look of disgust that Lexi should have melted into a puddle of tears, then tucked her tail and run.
But she didn’t. This wasn’t her first rodeo with mean girls who got their jollies by cutting down others.
Before Jeros could speak, she held her head higher and said, “I am Dr. Lexington Vine. And you are?”
Faeniana’s eyes went wide with indignation. “Prince Jeros, I came to meet with yerself—not yer pet.”
Jeros covered Lexi’s hand on his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Ye will address my fated mate with respect, or ye shall be escorted out. Understood?”
“Yer fated mate?” The princess hissed a nasally laugh that sounded like a hysterical snake. “Ye would bind yerself with such an ugly, disfigured—”
Aylryd crouched, ready to spring. A low warning growl clicked deep in the tiger’s throat.
“Some are disfigured on the outside,” Lexi said, “and some are terminally ugly on the inside.” She offered the princess her best smile. “When you speak to Jeros, you speak to me as well. What do you want?”
The princess’s entourage gasped, and the woman’s cheeks flared red with rising ire. “Insolent bitch.”
Aylryd shook the room with a thunderous roar.
“I agree wholeheartedly with the tiger, and this is yer last warning,” Jeros said. “Keep a civil tongue in yer head. This is not the Fifth Kingdom. We do not behave as the Unseelie do.”
The silvery-haired woman charged forward, but the Fae tiger’s bared teeth stopped her. She pointed at Lexi. “Ye would marry her and risk war?”
“Yes.” Jeros squeezed Lexi’s hand again. “The prophecy promised her to me. She is my one.”
“A mortal? And a scarred one at that?” The princess shook her head while baring her teeth, revealing an impressive set of fangs. “She does not belong in our world and will never be accepted as yer consort. Ye know that as well as I.”
Lexi made a mental note to check if Jeros had fangs, too.
Was that a Seelie thing or a Fifth Kingdom thing?
She noticed the princess staring not at her scars, but at something on her forehead.
She brushed her fingertips across her brow, then remembered the mark Pegasus had placed upon her.
Deep in her heart, something told her that Faeniana was not only cruel to people but to animals as well.
“Stay away from the unicorns, or there will be hell to pay. Understand?”
The princess spat on the floor and twisted her beautiful mouth into an ugly sneer. “I dinna take orders from a mortal.”
“Ye do when that mortal is yer monarch,” Jeros rumbled with a growl of his own. “State yer business or leave.”
She thumped a fist to her ample chest. “Ye were promised to me. Yer mother, the queen, bade ye marry me.”
“I never signed the contract or accepted that agreement. It is null and void.” He gave Lexi’s hand another squeeze. “I am bound to my own, my fated mate.”
A shiver rippled through Lexi. That spot in her chest where she swore all her emotions lived swelled with a warmth and contentment and a feeling of being wanted and accepted that took her by surprise.
She swallowed hard again. No. She had to go back to Kentucky.
Back to her life. But for some reason, that plan now made her a little sad.
“Then there will be war.” Princess Faeniana bared her fangs again. “The Seventh Realm has dismissed the Fifth Kingdom and all within it for as long as we shall allow.”
Before Jeros could speak, Lexi stepped forward, keeping Aylryd by her side. “What has the Seventh Realm done to your people? How have they mistreated you? Concessions could be made to ensure the Fifth Kingdom knows it is considered a valuable part of the Realm.”
Eyes narrowing, Faeniana stared at her in disbelief. “Ye are not of this world. Not of our race. I will not demean myself by answering yer questions.”
Jeros startled Lexi with a loud clap of his hands. When she turned back to argue her point with the princess, Faeniana and her advisors were gone. “Where did they go?”
Aylryd paced around where they had stood, huffing the ground and growling as if committing their scent to memory.
“I dismissed them,” Jeros said. “They are no longer within Sevenrest’s boundaries, and neither the wards nor the guards will allow them to pass again, no matter what they say or promise. All now know that war has been officially declared.”
“Well, damn.” Lexi had hoped to make a little headway at least with the advisors, since the princess was so intractable. “I wish I could have helped avoid that. Has the Seventh Realm mistreated the Fifth Kingdom like she said?”
“We treat all the kingdoms equally. The Fifth Kingdom takes issue with the fact that they are not singled out and shown favor.”
“Why do they feel they should be shown favor?”
“Because they are insolent, selfish bastards.”
“Well, that attitude would do it.” With a sad shake of her head, she gave a despondent sigh. “I just wish we could have avoided war. It’s never a good thing.”
“No. It is not. But at times, it is unavoidable.” He held out his hand. “Come. I have something to show ye.”
“What?
“Ye will see.”