Chapter Twelve #3
“You mean they only kept the pretty babies.” But it made sense, didn’t it? A horrible, disgusting sort of sense. “That’s… That’s bloody madness.”
Fae had too many anatomical inconsistencies to conceive or give birth easily. Children were precious.
Zyr shrugged. “They claimed stillbirths. Changelings. No one saw the bodies to argue otherwise.”
“Tch. Death and life aligned? May as well ask for a string of lost babes. Difficult enough for a death aligned to be born, let alone make life, in a pairing like that.” Old whispers between one of his minders and a visiting friend.
Gossiping, and little Declan with his toys.
“Perhaps that’s why this family has so many little deathlings.
Same alignment, easier to conceive. Though I’m shocked she’s not miscarried even once. ”
“It’s much the same now,” Declan heard himself murmur at a distance. “Stillbirths. Though the popular explanation is clashing alignments.”
Zye set his book aside again with a short nod. But this time, he rose to his feet. The sudden awareness of how big the man was tugged Declan out of his quickly twisting thoughts. Like Aultyr, he dwarfed both human and sluagh, but his shoulders at least looked door-friendly.
Bloody gigantic fae. Barghest and beithir and brownies, even. Declan, shorter than Antonio and slight even when glamoured, just stuck with his bond, with his just as impressive arms and shoulders, dragon or not.
“So, we’re all on team ‘eugenics suck,’ ” said Antonio, the gorgeous, dark-humored man. “You’ll help us.”
“Firmly on team ‘eugenics suck,’ yes.”
“We’ll talk in the library,” was the beithir’s response, his tail lashing with a restlessness the rest of him didn’t show. “I’ll answer your questions. Whether that helps is up to you.”
Even with the hill behind them, the door Zyr opened shouldn’t have led to the room it did.
There was no way a cottage had room enough for that staircase, the massive, floor-to-ceiling shelves, the display cases, the books and scrolls and tablets.
It took all of Declan’s restraint not to gape, as used to Faerie’s ideas of size and space as he was.
Unlike the sitting room they left, Zyr’s library was neat, meticulously so. Among the shelves were three large, leather chairs Declan suspected Faerie had manifested for the occasion. Zyr didn’t strike him as the sort to entertain often.
Zyr sat, waving his hand dismissively at the other two chairs.
They were just out of arm’s reach when seated.
Comfortable and easy to sink into, exactly the sort of furniture one might expect in a library such as this.
But too far away from Antonio, and the man already worrying at the tattoo on his wrist as well as his bracelet.
Would Zyr take it as a slight for them to sit together? Antonio’s discomfort burned like heated metal, scenting the air with rust.
“Bad news first,” Zyr said, successfully pulling Declan’s attention back. “There’s never been a human on the Council.”
Ah. They’d need to take an ax to the wall after all.
“That implies some kind of good news. Human advisors, perhaps?” He smiled as he said it, bland as his tone. “The Monarchs took a human lover who helped shape policies regarding allowances of them on the Council?”
“Good would be a stretch. What do you know about pre-convergence bonds?”
As he spoke, he waved vaguely toward a shelf. A few heavy tomes and one slim volume made their way, gracefully turning in the air to the table between them.
“They were about balance, like most things then, I believe.” Declan shifted in his seat, watching the easy drift of the old tomes, Antonio’s discomfort a continuous discordant ring in the bond. “Unseelie and seelie. Winter and Summer. Light and dark. Old magics.”
Another shift. Another glimpse of Antonio and his fingers on dulled titanium and black ink.
“Correct. Balance kept the world aligned.”
Discomfort like charred leather, a not quite flash of nettles on tan skin. Declan let out a breath and offered the beithir a quick, apologetic smile.
“Pardon me, but would you mind terribly if I moved my seat some? It’s a new bond and, ah,” a slight shrug, rueful, “I’m afraid I’m still a bit clingy.”
“Or I could stand,” Antonio started to suggest, but before he’d finished the word ‘stand,’ the seat shifted under him. It took a new shape, wider, and suited for two.
“There,” Zyr said, with a grunt. “Fuck in my library, and I kill you both.”
And with that blunt statement, the chair Declan had started to stand up from stopped existing. Just like that. Threat, fingers grasping at nothing, floor. And Declan laughing at the sting of his ass hitting the hardwood.
“I deserved that.” Declan pushed himself to his feet, then settled beside Antonio. “We’ll not fuck anywhere near your lands, especially the library. Mother might beat you to the murdering. Your forbearance is appreciated.”
The reassurance didn’t prevent him from pressing his knee to Antonio’s, enjoying the quiet hum of it.
“Good.” Zyr’s smirk, for Declan would swear there had been a shadow of one, was gone. “It would be a waste to kill a Hollow.”
“Because being shit at fae stuff is so useful,” Antonio muttered.
“Yes,” Zyr said, as if it were obvious. Another book floated over and settled lightly on the table. “Are you ready to listen? Or do you require a break to cuddle?”
A bit brusque, his mother had said. Something of an asshole, she’d clearly meant, what with the way he watched in pointed silence as Antonio shifted closer, until they pressed together, shoulder to ankle.
Touching him, just for the sake of touch, the warm hum of it. Zyr could cope.
“No break necessary, but you’re very kind to offer,” Declan said politely, fucking with the beithir a little while his world felt like a song of sun-baked earth and lilac ink, Antonio’s fear melting to relief and the sense of safety.
“We were speaking of balance,” the beithir said. “Seelie to unseelie, life to death, order to chaos. There was a time when intra-court bonds were rarer than inter-court bonds are now.”
“And humans?” Antonio interjected, hooking Declan’s ankle with his foot.
“Not unheard of.” Zyr’s attention was back on the books, one of which opened itself and started flipping rapidly through its own pages.
“Especially as tensions grew between the courts. Indeed, humans were a named cause for the convergence takeover. And no such bond survived past the Monarchs’ ascension. ”
“Great,” Antonio muttered.
“There’s a dark bit of irony at play there,” Declan said, all bitter amusement. “Humans named as a reason for slaughter, and yet Faerie has recognized a kelpie-human bond in the style of the Solstice Kings for the last three years.”
Zyr blinked at him, the slight furrow between his brows. “Solstice Kings.”
“Oh, aye. Any attempt to remove their crowns draws blood. Even if at their own hand.”
“It would have to be a kelpie and a human,” Zyr mused as if speaking to himself. “Or at least, an unseelie and a human. And if Faerie found a pair reckless enough to invite it into their bed after so long, of course, it’s being possessive.”
“Into their…” Declan sat back in his chair, scrambling to get his thoughts in order. “Are you telling us that Everil and Bo are shagging the bloody world?”
“Realm,” came the answer, as if that made it any less mind-boggling. “I’ll need to speak with them.”
“Shagging the realm.”
Declan didn’t know whether to be horrified or laugh until he soiled the leather chair. A mildly hysterical giggle bubbled up until he cleared his throat. Coughed.
“More or less. Most of the literature I have on the topic is pornographic. Entertaining, but not a credible source. I believe it’s a form of mild possession rather than actual, physical manifestation.”
A few more books, all slim and flimsy, made their way to the table. Bloody flicker books. Inside them, Declan knew, would be crudely done art of, presumably, other Solstice pairings. Holly and oak leaves lined the border of the book on top, framing a very acrobatic illustration.
“No,” said Antonio flatly, with a glance at Declan. “Not for anything.”
Zyr actually laughed at that, a low, near-vibrating rumble. “You needn’t worry. There’s only ever one Summer King at a time. And I don’t think a Hollow could channel forces involved.”
“Thank fuck for that.”
“As charming as I’m sure Faerie is, we’re agreed on the ‘no.’ You didn’t give your friend enough credit with ‘kelpie fucker,’ ” Declan managed, his voice unsteady with bitten-back laughter. “How in the world did that man go from professional skeptic to tumbling Faerie?”
“Fuck if I know. Told him not to mess around with fae. ‘Course I’ve moved into a glass house, there. Shit.” But Antonio grinned at Declan as he said it, bond a warm hum between them.
Zyr cleared his throat. “Do we need to return to rule one? Or can we move on?”
Declan kept his explanation on the difference between smiling and fucking to himself and nudged Antonio with his shoulder instead.
“You were saying, about an unseelie and a human. Why must it be that combination?”
“Symbolism,” Zyr answered. “Understand, the solstice sacrifices are more than ritual. Faerie feeds on them. The turn of the courts, of the seasons, is representative of Faerie’s very nature. And tied to it.”
Declan frowned, the hand not on Antonio now tapping at his own knee. “I understand unseelie as the role of Holly. Winter, death, chaos. But why a human as the other half? They aren’t fae.”
“A question heatedly discussed for age upon age, pre-convergence,” said the beithir in a tone that almost sounded like he didn’t disapprove of Declan’s existence.
“All that’s truly known is that the part of Summer must be embodied by a human for the ritual to be effective.
Which brings us back to your initial question. ”