31
Keltania
I wake up early the next morning and head to the kitchen. My hope is that I’m early enough to avoid everyone. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one with the thought.
I round the corner and nearly crash into Wren.
“Tania!” She backs away and forces a smile. Things between us are still a bit off, but to the Spring Fae’s credit, she’s been trying hard to move past it. “Up early.”
“Couldn’t sleep,” I say. “You?”
She sighs. “I haven’t been to sleep yet, actually.”
I quirk a brow.
“I suppose I’m feeling a bit nervous. Twitchy.”
“Worried about manifesting?”
“Since I’m not of royal blood…”
Right. She told us she and her brothers had to do some horrible things to take control of the Spring Fae after their monarchy died out. “Do you regret coming?”
“When Zana told me I might not get the magic, truthfully, I did.” She frowns. “It’s no secret that I put my people and their needs above everyone else. I know how that must look, that you don’t trust me, but my people—”
“It’s okay, I get it. And now?”
“Now… Now I just hope I’m able to help somehow. With or without magic—”
“Druid.” Three of Suveo’s guards march into the kitchen. “Our Lord would like to speak with you.”
I nod to Wren. “Good luck with your training today.”
She looks from me to the door, nodding hesitantly, and I follow Suveo’s guards. They lead me around the back path and to his quarters. The one at the front opens the door and steps aside with a sweeping gesture. “This way.”
I walk into the room and glance around. The only one here is the fourth guard. Not good. “Where’s Suveo?”
The other guards come inside and close the door. One positions himself in front of it while the other three flank me. “Did I say that Suveo wanted to speak with you?” the tallest says. He flashes me a wicked grin and bares his teeth.
“You did.”
“I meant to say that we would like to have a chat.”
Something isn’t right. I keep my stance relaxed and my voice even, but I stay on guard. “Did you want a tour of the estate?”
The one on my left leans closer. He stops just short of skimming his nose across my cheek. “You’re pretty friendly with that Autumn Court bastard. And you have a history with this Aphelian bitch. We think you and Autumn are working with her to bring down the other courts.”
“You realize that makes no sense, right? Why would I—”
The tallest gestures to my sword, and the guard on my right pulls it from the sheath. “Mighty fancy,” he says with feigned awe. “How sharp do you suppose it is?”
The one on my left takes the sword from his cohort and swings it around in an elaborate fashion. “Maybe we should test it out?” Pivoting, he brings his elbow up, jams it under my chin, then shoves me back against the wall. “Would you like to change your answer?”
“No.”
The wall I’ve built to keep Valen out slips, letting the link flood between us. His spike of concern is instant and so potent it makes me dizzy. I don’t technically need help, but the choices I have—the tools I’ve got to work with—are limited.
There are four of them, and they’ve got my weapon. There’s a dagger hidden in my boot and one at my belt, but I have no way to get to them. There’s magic—but unless I plan on killing them, tapping into Valen’s power isn’t an option. While I’ve learned better control over the link, honing in specifically on druid or Fae power is still spotty when Valen isn’t near. The magic manifests at random times, and it’s not worth the risk of exposing us.
The leader positions the tip of my blade at the hollow of my throat. “Confess your allegiance with Aphelian, and I’ll make it quick and painless.”
“And if I have nothing to confess?”
He shrugs and pushes the blade into my neck, and my heart hammers. A drop of moisture leaks down as the point punctures my skin. “Then I suppose I’ll just have to gut you for being a filthy human. Your kind has no place here—especially in a Fae court.”
“Not really your place to say, is it?” The drop of blood trickles down, seeping into the linen shirt beneath my leather cuirass. I stay as still as I can, willing my breathing to stay even. “I mean, you’re just a lowly soldier.”
He growls and pushes the blade in just a bit farther. I bite down on the inside of my cheek.
Suveo’s room , I send to Valen. He must have already been close, though, because seconds later, the door bursts open.
Valen stands in the doorway, with Wren a few feet behind him in the hall, looking murderous. His presence is all that I need to use Fae magic without giving us away. I concentrate on my blade—on the hand holding it. The Summer guard gasps and curses—but it’s not because I’ve frozen his arm. The entire room starts to shake.
“How dare you?” Wren says, pushing past Valen and entering the room. There’s a potted plant in the corner, on the windowsill. It’s tripled in size, sending a thorny shoot through the room to wrap around the guard’s arm.
The vine squeezes tighter, and the guard cries out.
“Tania, what are you doing?” Valen’s voice inside my head is low and dangerous. The link is heavy, clouded by fury.
It’s not me, Valen. I—I think it’s Wren!
“But the plants—”
Spring Fae have dominion over the earth. Druids, nature. They’re similar, but I promise you, this isn’t my doing. She’s manifesting!
“You are a guest here,” Wren seethes. “A representative of your Lord.”
The guards arm turns red—then purple. The sound of snapping fills the air as his fingers contort and twist.
“Bitch!” The guard who’d been standing by the door lunges at me—he thinks I’m the one controlling the plant. I pivot and lift my sword, bringing the hilt down across the side of his head as I move from his path. He grunts and stumbles to the floor.
“What is going on in here?” Suveo pushes his way in from the hall. He gasps. “Have you—”
Wren whirls on him, and the vine, previously wrapped around the guard’s withered arm, winds itself around Suveo’s neck. Her gaze is distant and her mouth slack. I’m not even sure she knows what she’s doing.
“How dare—” Suveo coughs, desperate for air, as he violently claws at the vine. Shaking, he lifts his hand toward Wren, and a sudden gust of wind hurls her backward. She crashes into several guards as they try to enter the room, cascading the small group into the hallway.
The vine around Suveo’s neck shrivels and falls away, and he doubles over, gasping for air.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about this, do you, Suveo?” Valen’s voice is eerily calm, his posture rigid. “Because I would hate to think you tried to kill one of my advisors. And my closest friend.”
“There’s just been an attempt on my life, Winter Lord. How dare you insinuate—”
Kopic and Celpin burst into the room. They take in the mess—Suveo, still trying to catch his breath while glaring at Valen—and Wren, on the floor in the hall, out cold. They peer through the doorway, then shoulder Suveo aside and draw their weapons.
“Wren and Suveo both just manifested their magic,” I say. “It got…messy.”
“Get them out of here,” Valen says quietly. I don’t like the stillness in the link. It’s not like him. “All of them.”
Celpin nods and rounds up the guards, ushering them all from the room. Suveo follows, continuing to scold his men. Whether he knew what they were up to or not remains to be seen—and does it even matter? He and Wren manifested. The only thing we should worry about at this point is getting them ready to fight.
“Are you all right?” Kopic pokes his head around Valen to look at me. “When you left with them, Wren came to find me, then went to look for Valen. I was concerned—”
Valen moves to the left, blocking Kopic from coming any farther into the room. “Leave,” he says quietly. “Please.”
“Valen, I—”
Without taking his eyes from me, he says, “You need to leave, Kopic. Now.”
“Of course.” Kopic bows at Valen and, with a fleeting glance at me, steps out.
Valen closes the door behind him.
“That wasn’t nice,” I say. The way he’s looking at me, his rigid stance and odd expression—it makes my heart thunder for some reason. “They saved my life.”
“No they didn’t.” He takes a step forward. “We both know that you could have destroyed those guards in a heartbeat.”
“Not without giving us away.”
“If you’re unwilling to use the magic at your disposal, then why would you go with them?” His tone mellows a bit, and his shoulders sag. “What the fuck were you planning to do if I hadn’t come?”
“But you did come.” Obviously, I would have killed them if I had to. If forced to choose between their lives and mine, the answer would have been easy. It also would have been messy. One dead Summer guard is bad—but four? It would have upended any chance we had for unity. Things with Suveo are tenuous as it is.
“Look at it this way.” I lean back against the dresser. “If you hadn’t come, if they’d killed me, then you’d have one less complication to worry about.” I mean it to be a joke. To lighten his mood.
It has the opposite effect.
“I understand that you’re human, Tania. That while we are very similar, there are key differences between us.” He takes another step toward me. “ I know how you feel about me, but you seem to be confused.”
I groan. “We can’t keep having this conversation, Valen. It’s not going to change—”
“Do you have any idea what it would have meant if something had happened to you?”
“You’d get over it eventually.”
“It would destroy me!” He’s breathing hard as he takes another step toward me. There’s an odd look in his eyes. Not quite unhinged, but not exactly grounded, either. It’s mesmerizing. “ You destroy me—”
In an instant, we’re tangled together and he’s grabbing my face, crushing his lips to mine. Desire, trust, longing, and love—more love than I thought it was possible to feel for someone—all bear down on me. It’s suffocating and it’s freeing, and if I die in this single moment, then every second of my life will have been worthwhile.
Our hands are everywhere. Lips, teeth, breath… By the time our clothes are in a pile on the floor, my mind is numb. I’m drunk on him, and the consequences of what we’re doing?
They’re far, far away…