Chapter 2
TWO
Dirge
Istared up at the fae queen and king, then over at my lovely mate, back and forth, blinking rapidly as if surely, I had to be mistaken.
But there was no way. The resemblance was uncanny.
Shay had told me she’d grown up in foster care and simply that Brand was the man who found her and saved her after her wolf went feral. But now, seeing the familiar male next to the fae queen, I could connect the dots.
Shay’s eyes were his, the same knowing gray depths I saw looking down at me now. The queen? Her hair was different from Shay’s softer curls, but the cheekbones were the same, the tilt of her lips, the smile that was so gut-wrenchingly familiar.
Did you know? I asked through our bond, not wanting to speak aloud with so many around to overhear.
Know what? she asked, shooting me a confused look.
The resemblance is uncanny. They have to be your family somehow.
It was presumptuous to label them her parents, yet.
But… I had a more than sneaking suspicion that the two rulers on stage were the ones who’d abandoned my mate in the human world, leaving her to the cruel clutches of foster care and eventual abuse.
My wolf snarled in my chest, taking an instant dislike to them for abandoning her. But I couldn’t give in to the same impulse; I had to bide my time, use my head.
More than anything, I had to support Shay. Why she was blind to the resemblance, I didn’t know, but we could take things at her pace.
The queen’s expression changed as she gazed down at Shay with wistful longing. “You’ve come to speak to the leaders of faerie?” Her melodic voice was part bells, part sultry bubbling brook.
“Yes, my lady. We have a request from the high alpha of the nine great packs.”
“Please, allow us to host you in our private chambers.” The queen gestured to the leaf man, who bowed deeply and then stepped aside, waving for us to follow the queen off to the side of the dais.
He moved to follow, but Brand lifted one hand, and leaf man stopped in his tracks, making a sour face as he turned back.
Interesting. Brand had power here—not to mention the golden crown that rested in his silver-streaked hair—but the fae didn’t accept it easily.
Understandable, given that Shay had assured me that Brand was a wolf, and my own nose confirmed it.
How had a wolf shifter come to wear a crown in the fae realm, anyway?
It was only one of many, many questions I had.
But I kept them to myself as we trailed Brand and the queen through a pair of towering hedges away from the court.
We walked in comfortable silence, though I could feel Shay’s nervousness through our bond. I sent her a wave of reassurance back, hoping to soothe her fears.
A shimmering palace came into view, crafted entirely of mother-of-pearl. Shay gasped, and I squeezed her fingers in mine as we climbed the front steps. Still, no one spoke as a butler opened the massive front doors, welcoming us inside with a stately bow.
“Queen Lyrica, Consort Brand, and beloved guests. Welcome.”
I glanced sideways at Shay, gauging her reaction to the strangely familiar greeting, but she didn’t seem to notice it. Why, though? The strangeness is nearly hitting us in the face.
But we were ushered inside, with no time to ask her in private, before we were led directly to a small, cozy sitting room toward the back of the castle, tucked back off a small hallway.
It was oddly worn in for a home so grand.
Not in a way that it was unloved or unmaintained, but almost a bit shabby.
As if the occupants of this room didn’t put on shows here, they actually lived here.
My wolf instantly liked the fireplace crackling in the corner, the stacks of teetering books on every surface, and the plush, oversized chairs that were obviously well made but had gone the smallest bit threadbare in some spots. Too favored to replace, perhaps.
“I hope you don’t mind that we’ve brought you to our private sitting room,” the queen said, hiding her fidgeting hands behind her back as she studied both of us with a warm smile.
“This is our personal space, and the other rooms we entertain in just feel… colder.” She tucked a strand of dark curls behind her ear, almost as if she were nervous that we might react badly.
I wrapped an arm around Shay’s waist, giving the queen an easy grin. “This is much more to our tastes, thank you for the consideration.”
“Oh, good. Do you like tea, coffee…?” Brand offered, directing the question to Shay, and my suspicions that these were in fact Shay’s estranged parents only climbed higher.
“No, thank you. We were advised not to eat or drink while we were here, if at all possible. Time passing strangely and all that.” Shay’s words were crisp and polite, and the two monarchs looked deflated at the words.
“I’m sorry,” I interjected, glancing back and forth between them all with confusion. “Are we not going to discuss the elephant in the room? You three look remarkably alike. Shay doesn’t know her parents. We’ve been received into what seems to be the family room, but nothing?”
“Dirge,” Shay hissed at me, shooting them an apologetic look. “I apologize for my mate. He’s right that I have a fae ancestor, most likely a parent, but we’d never assume it was the two of you simply because of your hospitality.”
My jaw dropped as I looked down at her, even more confused by her instant denial.
Brand cleared his throat and shot a pointed look at Lyrica. “Dirge, why don’t you and I take a short walk and grab those refreshments from the kitchen?”
Are you okay alone for a minute? I asked Shay through our bond.
I think so. The queen seems nice. Nothing like I expected.
I arched an eyebrow but didn’t argue. “Sure, I’d love to,” I added aloud for Brand’s benefit.
He nodded his head toward the door and met me in the hall.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, then he let out a weary sigh. “We’d hoped that if she ever came back here, the magic binding her memories would wear off.”
I stopped mid-stride in the middle of the opulent castle, gaping at Brand. “Excuse me? You’re telling me Shay has missing memories, and you two had something to do with it?”
“Don’t bite my head off, I’ll explain. You’ve obviously noticed the resemblance. Odd that she doesn’t, no?”
“Very odd.”
Brand nodded. “Shay’s a smart girl, just like her mother. Powerful too, if I had to guess?”
There it was, confirmation that he knew who Shay’s mother was. The queen, dollars to donuts. Making Shay very important to the fae, indeed. I inclined my head to agree with his assessment, not wanting to speak and interrupt him if he was going to tell me what the fuck was going on.
“We had to do it. The fae court is no place for younglings, especially not of the royal line. She would have been under constant threat as she grew up. Under normal circumstances, we would just have all gone back to Earth and let her grow up with us, but we couldn’t.
Not after Lyrica had sacrificed her immortality for me.
She’s not able to leave faerie, or she’ll die. ”
“Wait, what?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair as we stopped just at the top of a staircase that probably led down to the castle kitchens.
“It was controversial at the time. But she knew I was hers, just like my wolf knew she was mine.” He shook his head sadly.
“I nearly died in the omega wars before we bonded. She saved me by giving up her own immortality. Only a greater fae can do it, bring someone back from the brink like that. But you’ll never hear of it outside these walls, because most of the fae are so damn selfish, they’d never even consider locking themselves in the fae realm forever.
Hell, they’d never consider anything that was a detriment to themselves. ”
“But Lyrica did?” I asked, invested now. I wanted to know more about Shay’s parents. I wanted to understand how they could abandon her to the awful childhood she had. I was furious with them, but there had to be more to the story, considering the way they’d looked at her just a few minutes ago.
As if she was a miracle in the flesh, as if she was someone they desperately wanted to know.
“Lyrica did. She loved me more than her own freedom.” His voice cracked.
He was still obviously choked up by that long-ago memory.
“So, we returned to the fae realm, and we lived here together for hundreds of years, happily. She ruled, I supported her, and we couldn’t leave, but we had each other, and it was enough.
And then Shay came along. We were absolutely over the moon. Never happier, either of us.”
He meant it. Damn him, I wanted it to be simple so I could hate them, but I saw the love and pride etched into every line of Brand’s face.
“It changed everything. Shay was born without an ounce of fae magic.”
That startled me. “What? But she has it now.”
He nodded, lips pressed together grimly.
“For her early years, though, she didn’t.
And my wolf couldn’t sense any canine magic in her either.
We thought… we thought she was fully human, or possibly shifter, because Lyrica had sacrificed such a large part of her own power.
At first, we were glad. A human child in the fae realm was an oddity, of course, but no threat to the status quo.
No one expected Lyrica to hand over her crown one day to a powerless child.
We had a plan. We’d stay in control for the length of Shay’s natural life, and then Lyrica would give up the crown.
We didn’t want to outlive our daughter, after all.
No parent should.” He cleared his throat, and I saw the sheen of tears he was trying to hide at even the thought of Shay being gone, and it tugged at my own heart.
“But when she was about six, Lyrica sensed it. My mate is more powerful than I, even without her immortality.”
“Sensed what?” I asked, confused.