Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
H yax stormed into his mother’s office. He wasn’t going to be fobbed off this time, not with the information he’d heard from Gwil. The Coronet of Alphal was as close to holy as the fae got, its seven stones were not a metaphor or a story about how the seven tribes had formed but were truly magical. Not the origin of fae magic, as was once believed by the elders, but they were the reason why certain fae were stronger than others, and why his ancestors had become the royal family and were now custodians of the coronet, whereas the other tribes had other important items.
How Gwil had got the information about a potential missing stone was a different story. Despite Gwil saying he hadn’t slept with Chase, Hyax couldn’t believe he’d have refused the attentions of a Queen’s Concubine, they’d been trained to deliver ultimate pleasure and were masters of seduction. It hurt to think about how either Gwil had lied to him, or he had somehow developed trust issues because of his jealousy. But that would need to wait, there were bigger things at stake than his heart.
Queen Talia folded her arms across her chest, her expression neutral, as Hyax approached. “Son or not, you do not barge in here uninvited.”
“I know about the Stone of Ljin.” He sat in the chair opposite. “I won’t be sent away so easy as last time I asked what is going on.”
“What is it you think you know?” she asked. He’d seen her act like this with senior politicians, both fae and from other species, but never with him.
“That the one currently mounted on the Coronet of Alphal is fake, and you have no idea where the real one is or who took it.” The latter part was conjecture based on Goya being involved. No way would Talia have resorted to outside help if it had been something she could have rectified herself.
“A bold claim. One you can substantiate?”
“Chase.”
Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. “Listening to a traitor? Not a very princely thing to do.”
“I might have dismissed it if he hadn’t been the victim of an orc attack to keep him quiet, or that Goya hasn’t been a visitor, meaning you think it’s somewhere in the human realm.”
“You’ve always been the smartest of my children. There are days when I believe that we shouldn’t risk the succession to the chance of whoever is born first.”
“You’ve always underestimated Wavel.” He didn’t mention that Pawl, oldest and next in line, was not what he’d consider to be an intellectual, but he at least wasn’t na?ve and would listen to his siblings for guidance.
She smiled, a knowing look suggesting she knew what he was doing. “Rather than explain this to you and have to repeat it all to others I will call everyone together. Meet me in the family room in an hour. That should be sufficient to round them all up.”
He headed to his suite, preferring to spend the time alone in a place he wasn’t going to be disturbed. It felt strange to fly through the halls of the castle knowing that most of those he passed would have no idea of the lurking concern. It wasn’t just that the stone was missing, but that they didn’t know who had taken it.
An hour sounded a little excessive to him, but he’d not expected her to admit anything so quickly so he wouldn’t push. This was a victory, and he might be able to offer his further involvement through the work he did with Gwil. They had built a solid reputation over the years, his mother commenting a number of times that it was good for him to have an interest outside his royal duties—the part about Gwil being a vampire she wasn’t so enthusiastic about. He buried the pang of jealousy at the thought of Gwil and Chase. What did the traitor have that Hyax didn’t? Or maybe Gwil hadn’t been lying. Chase was capable of engineering a situation to his advantage and Gwil had been angry, and defensive, when Hyax had accused him of fucking a flower fairy.
He couldn’t let himself brood on this. Gwil wasn’t his boyfriend, he could sleep with whoever he wanted. There’d been a couple of incidences of late where they’d both been touchy over the other one going out, but was he trying to read something into the situation that wasn’t there?
Hyax changed into clothes more fitting for a fae meeting than a human assembly, nothing formal but jeans, no matter the designer, were not suitable, neither was a T-shirt. A tailored mandarin-collared jacket and matching trousers were a better choice. Once dressed, he didn’t have that much time left to get to the family room, which was the inner sanctum where a handful of trusted servants were the only non-family members allowed inside.
Hyax took the circular staircase closest to his rooms as far down as they would go, and a left turn to what appeared to be a dead end, but as Hyax approached a doorway opened and he entered the larger circular chamber known as the family room. His parents and four siblings were already there. His sisters Fazat and Qual were seated at the table on either side of Pawl and there was an empty seat for him next to Wavel.
“Now we are complete, I can begin,” Talia said from her position at the head of the table. “We have a serious situation that, up until now I, as your queen, have been handling on behalf of the tribe. However, as information is beginning to leak out, I felt it was time to bring you all into my confidence. I can only stress this is a delicate situation, not even the other tribal leaders are aware.”
Hyax had suspected there would be a spin to the way the news would be delivered, and his role in the timing would go unsaid.
“It has recently come to our attention that the Stone of Ljin mounted on the Coronet of Alphal is a replica. Despite extensive investigations, we are still unable to ascertain exactly when the switch was made or by whom, or where the original may currently be.”
Pawl hissed, and Fazat gasped. Several people tried to talk at once but Talia brought them to order. “Settle down, this is no way to communicate.”
“That’s why Goya was here, wasn’t it?” demanded Wavel. Hyax’s siblings were furious, which was to be expected. “Do you think the stone is in the human realm?”
“Yes, in both cases. A series of raids has been conducted but with little outcome. I will make the security council reports available to you all and you’ll see the exhaustive nature of our efforts to date. But the reality is, the human realm is not somewhere we have jurisdiction or in-depth knowledge, which is why we engaged Goya and his team.”
If he hadn’t prior knowledge, he would have been as shocked as his siblings but even this short amount of time had given him space to think.
“But this can’t be the humans. Apart from it being unlikely they would know of the stone’s existence, none of them would have been able to infiltrate the fae realm. It must be one of the paranormal species that are cohabiting,” Hyax said. “Do you have a suspect?”
“You’re right about the humans, and there are more likely culprits than others. As you can imagine we can hardly accuse anyone as first we would have to admit there was something missing.”
“Any reports of the wider fae population realising?” Pawl asked.
Hyax hesitated, but knew if he didn’t mention his experience and it became known later he’d be reprimanded. “I was working on a retrieval case in London, and I noticed an interference of sorts. Nothing major, and I was balancing three different spells at the time.”
The look his mother gave him was all the confirmation needed that she already knew about his unpermitted use of the portals. “Similarly to Hyax’s experience there have been a handful of cases where more complicated spellcraft was being used and the caster felt a lapse in concentration or slight loss of control. But nothing from the wider population up until now. There’s been no intelligence from the other tribes so we can infer it’s fairly contained.”
Qual’s brow crumpled, his older sister was a healer by training, and like his other siblings she had a different flavour in her skills. “That’s unlikely to last indefinitely. Are the other stones somehow compensating?”
“As far as we can tell. It’s not something we’ve encountered before.”
“What has Goya been told?” Wavel asked. “How much does he know?”
“Just that it is a precious stone and we would like it back.”
Goya was many things, stupid wasn’t one of them. Hyax didn’t think he’d have fallen for that explanation given he was rumoured to be part fae himself, but Goya may have had to accept he wasn’t going to be told much more.
“Surely you should have asked Hyax,” Wavel said. “Hyax and his business partner no doubt have a different reach to what we or Goya’s official channels would have.”
“We’d be delighted to help,” Hyax said. “We’ve specialist communication agents we can call on.”
Hyax made a mental note to remind Gwil about asking his dirt devils for information. The sewer dwellers weren’t the easiest to get hold of but they were able to find out things like no others.
“Hyax, you know we have no issue with you being friends with Gwil, but as a vampire we could not condone including him in something so sensitive.” She paused and he thought she’d guessed it might be too late for that. “Something for us to discuss between the two of us later. In fact, why don’t you stay behind?”
“Okay. As I said, we’d be honoured to help.”
Talia went on to explain the investigation reports would be sent to them all, but at this moment there was little more she could add and they would meet as normal at the weekly family gathering where she would answer any questions she could. As the others were dismissed, he remained seated, keen to get Talia to agree to let him and Gwil investigate on behalf of the Fae Crown.
“Before you say anything, I know Gwil is a vampire, but we’ve worked together for years now and I trust him with my life.” Life yes, his heart was a different story. “I am positive we’d be a lot more useful than Goya, who will have to work within the Met’s rules.”
“Maybe, and we can discuss it later. There’s something else we need to talk about now. It’s a timely coincidence that you arrived when you did.”
Hyax didn’t believe in coincidences, not when his mother was smiling at him in a way he’d seen when she was about to reprimand an aide who’d been pissing her off. “I can’t imagine what you need to talk to me about.”
“Hyax, there comes a time in every young royal fae’s life where you have to accept certain responsibilities and do your duty.”
“I’ve never shirked my duty. I’ve been a liaison to the security council for years helping track down suspects and wanted criminals in the human realm.”
“Hardly the most onerous task.”
On the surface it would look to most that he had a string of expensive dates and nights out at the expense of the tribe’s treasury, but his mother knew better than that. “But not something I’d do unless I had to. I give up a substantial amount of time to help support the Crown.”
“Yes, I know you do and I am grateful. But now you’d be able to stop that.” She steepled her fingers and stared at him coolly. “It’s time Hyax.”
“Time for what?”
“For you to get betrothed. You’ve reached this age without finding a special someone, so it’s time for you to accept a political marriage—and you’ve a long list of approved suitors to choose from. The rite of Relmain cannot be ignored.”
This could not be happening. He thought he’d have decades before his mother pulled that particular trigger. Ancient rites related to being part of the succession were not something he could deflect. She was doing this to distract him from the investigation, but he wasn’t going to let her do that. He needed to think. Royal protocol couldn't be fought off once unleashed, and if he didn’t want his parents to force him into choosing who to marry from their approved list he would need to stop it now. And unfortunately there was only one sure way to do that.
“I hadn’t wanted you to find out this way. But I am already betrothed.”
Talia raised an eyebrow. “Really? To whom?”
“Gwil.” His name was out before he could stop himself. It was a stupid idea, and Gwil would very likely hit the roof when he found out.
Talia got to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “You’re engaged to Gwilym Hilt. The vampire?”
“Yes.” He sat straight, refusing to be cowed. Just because it wasn’t true didn’t mean he wasn’t going to defend his life choices. “So you see, me and my fiancé would be perfectly placed to investigate.”
“Hyax, you have some serious explaining to do.”
“It’s pretty simple. We became close after working together. But he’s a good man… er… vampire. You’ve nothing to worry about.”
She huffed, and Hyax knew, that at least for now he’d averted a matrimonial disaster. Telling Gwil his mother thought he was his fiancé and the fallout from that, was a different clusterfuck.