Chapter 35
Incompatibility Elemental
The following afternoon I sat out on my veranda, knee bouncing in anticipation as I counted down the hours to when we’d meet to discuss the plan for getting the twins back.
A part of me couldn’t believe it was finally happening.
I’d clung onto this goal so hard that the other part of me was almost afraid to accomplish it; because what happens after?
“I can show you how to imbue those, if you want,” Kaelun said from the massive archway that divided outside from in.
I stroked the soft white leather of the bandolier draped over my knee. “You can?” I said. “I thought Endymion wanted Artton to show me because he was the only one that knows how.”
Kaelun shrugged before he walked over and took the twinned chair next to mine, a small, circular table to our sides. “I mean, I’ve never done it before, but I’m pretty sure I could figure it out with my unara,” he said with a great deal more confidence than I could muster.
“Oh, you think so, do you?” Artton’s mocking tone drifted through the archway before he stepped through it, making his way toward us. “By all means then, nephew, show us how it’s done.”
“It’s not like you’ve made it a priority,” I shot back.
“True,” Artton drawled. “Though, if you are going to do it, at least have the good sense to try it far, far away. I’m not sure your other uncle would enjoy his palace taking the brunt of your failure.”
“With pep-talk skills like that, Commander,” I cooed, “it’s a wonder that the Summer Court has a militant presence at all.”
The laugh that ripped out of Kaelun was so sudden, that had he been drinking something, it would’ve flown out of his nose; the image in my mind enough to make me chuckle.
Artton raised a sharp brow at his nephew, who sputtered and sat back in his seat, his chest still bobbing with silent laughter.
“Other than coming here to suck the joy out of your nephew’s life, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?” I said, throwing him a saccharine smile.
The corner of his mouth curved up, if only by a fraction.
“Myron just finished his final exam on Tarrin and cleared him to train at full speed, which he’s doing with your brother right now,” he said, glancing to Kaelun then back at me.
“Which means they’re headed home, and Fiora wanted us to have a late lunch together in the garden before they leave. ”
“Awe, she’s the best,” my shadow said, standing up.
“Wait, you said we, as in you’ll be joining?” I asked Artton.
Kaelun smirked with amusement as he watched our exchange.
“You know, Spark,” Artton began, “present company excluded, some actually enjoy my company.”
“Hey,” Kaelun protested.
Holding Artton’s gaze as I stood, I said, “Do you know which trait I wished held true when it comes to fae folklore?”
“Other than our non-existence, I haven’t the faintest.”
Ignoring the fact that his answer was actually pretty good, I stepped by him toward the archway. “Their inability to lie.” I threw over my shoulder and was rewarded with a loud cackle from Kaelun and a soft huff from the commander as I stepped into my residence.
An hour later, Fiora and Caius kissed one cheek, then the other, saying goodbye to their host after he’d been called away to attend to courtly matters. Artton went with him, promising to rejoin us when he was done.
After their goodbyes, Fiora wrapped an arm around Myron’s waist. He reciprocated by holding her in tight and pressing a kiss atop her head.
Pulling back slightly, she looked up at him as if he was the sun and the stars before rolling up to her tiptoes to kiss him deeply.
He responded in kind, and my chest ached as if yearning for the kind of passion that was rooted in love.
Leaning over to Kaelun, I whispered, “Do you know if they want kids?”
“Uncle Myron and Aunt Fiora?” he replied at full volume, and I cut him a look. “What? There’s no point in whispering—they can hear you, ya know.”
I sagged in my chair, turning every shade of scarlet that existed. When would my stupid human brain remember that I’m fae—living among fae.
“Myron would have a whole litter if I’d let him,” Fiora’s lilting voice filled the air once she finally broke her lips free, only to stare up at him in a way I had thought only existed in love stories. “But I’m good with our two sons.”
“At least for now,” Myron chimed in, then buried his face in her neck, which made her squeal.
“Ew, there are minors here,” Kaelun groused, and I couldn’t help but smile at the fake disgust on his face.
“Please,” Myron said, eyes on us but voice still muffled by Fiora’s skin. “Let’s not pretend there’s a virgin among us.”
“Myron!” Fiora gasped, pretending to swat him away.
“Apologies, my lady. I wouldn’t want to offend your delicate sensibilities.”
Gods, they were cute together.
Giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek, he slid his hand into hers and led her back to take a seat in the outdoor sofa across us, its cream color the perfect shade against the towering summer flowers of the garden.
“You have two sons?”
“They sure do,” Kaelun said, his love for them evident. “Galen and Sylas.”
Both the spring fae’s features lit up.
“You never talk about them,” I said.
“Well,” Myron said, “it seems that whenever we’re in your company, we’re all a little preoccupied.”
I snorted. Honestly, he was absolutely right. It was very rare for any of us to visit without an agenda or some sort of problem we were trying to solve.
“Oh Myron!” Fiora sat up straight, clasped her hands in delight, and looked between her lord and me.
“I know that look,” he said. “What has that beautiful mind of yours cooked up this time?”
It was Kaelun’s turn to lean over and whisper in my ear. “Remember when I called you the most eligible bachelorette?” He waggled his eyebrows at me, which looked utterly ridiculous on him.
“Shush, you,” Fiora said.
Looking to his aunt, he said, “Am I wrong?”
Confused as to what was going on, my gaze bounced between them, trying to understand their shorthand.
“What do you think?” Fiora said, addressing Myron. “Galen or Sylas?”
“Sylas,” both males answered in tandem so fast that Fiora looked affronted for a moment before considering. Then she nodded as if to herself. “Well, either way, Nyleeria, you’d love them.”
“If they’re anything like you two, I’m sure I would,” I said.
Taking the compliment with grace, Fiora slipped forward a little more like she was about to share a secret. “Don’t worry, they are both very handsome.”
Finally understanding what she was getting it, I got reacquainted with every shade of red in a flash.
“Told ya,” Kaelun said, then silently mouthed eligible.
I swatted at him, which he dodged with a genuine laugh that filled the open garden.
“I will admit, Sylas and you would make a handsome couple, don’t you think?” she said, for Myon’s approval.
He pulled her closer and kissed her temple, but stayed silent on the matter. Smart male, I thought.
Trying to shift the subject before I somehow found myself in a conversation about a bride prize, I said, “How old are they?”
“Our eldest—Galen—just turned two hundred and fifty,” his father said with pride, “and Sylas turns two-hundred a week after Kaelun’s centennial.”
I sat there feeling the absurdity bubbling in the back of my throat that wanted to escape through laughter.
This was not normal conversation. And although a distant part of me registered the hypocrisy of how I was feeling given Thaddeus was older than both of them combined, I couldn’t wrap my mind around her plotting a setup with someone who was nearly two hundred years older.
“Well, let’s see if my aversion to males goes away first,” I said, with an awkward laugh.
Fiora looked ready to interject, but Myron chimed in. “Let the poor girl be, my love. She has enough to deal with right now, let alone you lining up suitors for her.”
“Suitor,” Fiora corrected, then let out a small sigh. “But I get your meaning. Although, I would love if you came to us for a visit, Nyleeria.”
My chest filled with warmth as I said, “I’d love that very much.”
“Well, now that that’s settled,” Kaelun said, “Lady Nyleeria and I have to prove Uncle Artton wrong, which means we should go.”
It took a good twenty minutes to say our final goodbyes, Fiora torn between going home and spending more time with Kaelun.
And although I wasn’t sure it was possible, I was starting to believe that she loved that kid more than her sons when she cried as she told him how proud she was of him like she’d never see him again—even though his centennial was just around the corner.
Kaelun valenned us to a large field where I now stood, looking over his shoulder as he knelt on the ground, one of Endymion’s magical blades in hand. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked. “Because the humming and hawing isn’t exactly instilling confidence, you know.”
“Do you want to try?” he asked, holding it up.
I stared down my nose at him and crossed my arms. Just because he’d called me on my bluff didn’t mean I had to act happy about it.
“That’s what I thought,” he clipped.
“Careful, fetus, you’re beginning to sound a little bit like your uncle?”
He looked up at me, wounded. “Take it back?”
“Which part, the fetus or the uncle?”
His eyes narrowed. “Both.”
“Yeah. I don’t think so. Now, are we doing this, or what?”
Knowing we didn’t have time to continue to spar, he refocused on the dagger. “You said that the ancient runes lit up before the magic settled in the chamber?”
“That’s the third time you've asked me. My answer isn’t going to change.”
The space between his eyebrows crinkled as he concentrated on the blade, and I could sense the magic powering his unara as he probed the dagger for answers I wasn’t sure he’d get.
“Whelp, I guess I’m just going to have to try it and see what happens.
What’s the worst that can happen?” he said, looking over his shoulder for moral support.