Chapter 17
KAELERON
Ashrill sort of ringing filled my ears as I grappled with those words, with that cold but undeniable declaration that my brother had never set foot in the Summer Court, as if Oberon spoke the truth and had proof to confirm it.
I was not sure I had ever been so still as I stared at him. As my body locked up as if frozen in ice while my mind raced, whirling swiftly through a thousand possible reasons Oberon might know what had happened to him.
None of which I seemed to be able to reach out and grasp to bring into focus.
“How do you know that?” Five words that fell from my lips in the midst of the storm raging in my mind, as another hundred reasons unfurled there.
Oberon did not answer me.
He continued to nudge at the rim of his cup, toying with it as I felt he was toying with my feelings.
“I am in no mood for your games, Oberon,” I growled and scoured my mind, focusing to snare every possible reason my friend might know that my brother had not reached the Summer Court.
I cast away several of them, not wanting to contemplate that Vyr was right, and focused on the simplest answer. “Have you met my brother?”
Oberon dipped his dark head.
My heart seized, my words rushed as I said, “Is he alive?”
It felt as if the fate of the whole realm hinged on that answer, or at least my very existence.
His response was a single word.
“Yes.”
I sat back, gaze falling to my knees as I gripped the arm of the chair, fighting to get air into my lungs as that word echoed in my mind to taunt me—to give me hope.
“Why did you never tell me about my brother?” The next logical question in a long line of them, and one that might spare Oberon from my wrath. “We have known each other centuries, and not once did you mention you knew my brother.”
“It was your brother’s choice to be dead to his family.
” Oberon’s response shook me to my core.
I went to shake my head, to deny that my brother would ever behave like that, some line about how much he loved us and that he would never hurt us that way rising to my tongue.
Oberon stilled my head and my tongue with a look, one that demanded I let him speak.
“It is better this way. It is less dangerous for you and Jenavyr, and for the Shadow Court. Better everyone believes him dead than the alternative. This way the shadows that chase him cannot ever touch that land or his family again.”
I was not relieved by his words. I was not placated. Not anywhere near satisfied.
“Our brother loved us. He strove to protect us, yes, but not like this. He would not treat us like this. He would not do this to Vyr. Letting her think he is dead. Whatever these pursuing shadows you speak of are, we are strong enough to face them together.” I swept up my cup and hurled it at the fire, anger getting the better of me as I refused to believe that he would do such a thing, but part of me felt he might have.
That need to protect us might have led him to do something so foolish. So desperate.
So cruel.
And, if I was being honest, I would likely have done the same to protect our family.
“You owe me a cup.” Oberon arched a brow at me.
I ignored him. “I want to see him.”
He slowly shook his head, the solemn mask that fell over his face telling me that he would not be moved from that answer, no matter how I begged or threatened.
“He has more important matters that require his focus right now.”
“More important than his family?” I snapped, shadows blanketing the room. I struggled for control over them, trying to stop them from breaking more of Oberon’s precious cups, but it was hard when I was tired, the events of the last week taking their toll on me.
And now this.
He continued as if I had not even spoken.
“Perhaps in time, your brother will return to you… but this is not that time. A great many things must be set in motion and come to their conclusions before your brother can return to his family.”
“What things have kept him from his home—from his own flesh and blood—for so long?” I was tempted to use my shadows to snatch the cup from Oberon’s fingers as he lifted it to his lips, casually sipping it as if we were discussing the weather and not something of great importance.
“The same things that drive you towards a vengeance that might seal your fate in the worst of ways.” He lowered the cup and regarded me closely, a note in his voice that was terribly close to chastising.
A note that if any other had used it on me, I would have put them in their place, reminding them that I was a king of this realm and one of the most powerful among them.
Oberon was above the law though, operated outside the rules of this realm, doing as he pleased and answering to no one.
He was also a skilled spy, and collector of secrets, and knew something he should not judging by the roguish smile that curled his lips before he spoke. It reeked of delight. Of triumph over me.
“You play a dangerous game, Kaeleron, and your vengeance might cost you everything—far more than you know. There is a reason Ereborne delays you.”
Shadows shot towards him, wrapping around his wrist and snaring his throat, hauling him towards me as I growled.
“What does the high king have to do with this, other than our agreement?”
An agreement that was secret. That only my sister knew about. Apparently not only my sister knew about it. How long had Oberon known the details of my deal with the high king?
“Everything.” Oberon tempted my shadows away from his throat, letting them curl around his finger instead, smiling at them as he stole control of them, his grave tone at odds with the amused look.
“The best way to eliminate a threat is to weaken it first. Or in your case, weaken it and leash it before it ever knew it was a threat.”
I was not following, but I understood enough that my shadows tightened around his fingers, turning them purple.
“I have not been leashed,” I bit out.
Oberon’s look called me on that.
“Do try to remember that I know about your agreement.” He coaxed my shadows, convincing them to loosen their hold, as his eyes clashed with mine. “One that demands loyalty to Ereborne.”
I thought about the agreement I had rashly, desperately, made as a boy, and how Elduin treated me, and began to wonder if perhaps I had been leashed.
The high king had grown increasingly cautious over the centuries, and had been summoning me to Ereborne more and more frequently, and the accord between the seelie and unseelie had been put into place to control me and stop me from entering the Summer Court.
Which I had to admit did stir a sense of suspicion inside me.
“Elduin watches me too.” Oberon lifted his hand and flicked his finger, and my shadows flew free as onyx butterflies.
I scowled at him for transforming something so deadly into something so delicate.
So breakable.
“Why does he watch you?” I waved my hand through the air, dissipating the shadow butterflies.
“Because I am a puzzle the high king cannot solve, and I would like to keep it that way.”
“The accord was put into place to keep me from the Summer Court, and recently I have begun to suspect it was not to keep peace between the two sides of Lucia.” I leaned back in my armchair and rested my ankle on my knee as I formed a steeple with my fingers above my lap.
“I have begun to find Elduin’s desire to keep me from that court… suspicious.”
“I find it suspicious too. I have found it suspicious for a long time now.” Oberon grinned when I glowered at him.
“I did not like to tell you. I much prefer people figure things out for themselves. It is more entertaining that way. But I digress… you are in the mood to question motives at last, so let us question them. Why was an accord made with you in mind—to control you in particular—and why would he forge such an agreement with the seelie if he wanted you to have your revenge so you would have to wed his daughter?”
“Perhaps he does not want that now.” It was a reasonable explanation.
Oberon scoffed. “He wants it still. He would not summon you to play suitor every lunar cycle if he did not want it. No, he wants it still. Marriage to his daughter, being indoctrinated into his bloodline, is the ultimate form of control. A leash you could not break. Elduin would demand loyalty, no matter how heinous his crime, and your bond to the female would make anything but obedience impossible.”
I opened my mouth to dispute that, not liking him talking about me as if I had no backbone and would do all Elduin commanded without question.
Oberon continued. “Have you ever thought to yourself… there must be a reason Elduin believes vengeance is still possible despite the fact the Summer King is dead?”
That cold, unsettled feeling in the region of my chest returned as I ran through all I knew, every conversation I had had with the high king, and what I could remember of the agreement.
I had thought about it once or twice, or maybe more than that.
Maybe I had wondered countless times why vengeance was still possible, but there was a reasonable answer.
“I swore I would make all in the Summer Court bleed for what they did to my family. I have not done that.”
Oberon shrugged and inspected one of the cuts in his tunic. “Is that what it says in your agreement with him? I presume it was recorded and signed?”
“It was.” But I could not remember the precise wording, and I had a nagging feeling perhaps I had added my need to make the Summer Court bleed as part of my vengeance much later, when I had matured and had developed a seething sort of loathing for their breed.
Before he could say anything, I added, “I do not know why Elduin believes vengeance is still possible, but I intend to find out, whether that is from Elduin himself or by going after Saphira.”
He lowered his foot and leaned towards me, expression so serious his eyes were like diamond blades. “Do not enter the Summer Court so recklessly.”
“Neve has seen me there.”
“And you will go then… but must it be now?”
“I feel it must.” I toyed with the ring on my finger, reaching into the hollow inside me where our bond had been.
“The bond is broken. I do not know if she lives. I do not know if she survived the removal. I fear she does not and this space where she had been tied to me is now hollow and cold, devouring me from the inside out. I need to know she is safe, Oberon.”
He nodded towards the moon ring.
“It is not enough.” I lifted my hand to admire it, silently willing it to reveal her location to me. It shifted to sapphire to mock me. “The ring does not tell me if she is alive. It only tells me where its twin is.”
“I suppose that is true.” Oberon regarded the ring for a few seconds longer and then me. “But Neve did not see you in the Summer Court at this point. You said you must wait.”
I had said that. The corners of my lips turned downwards as they flattened. It was typical of Oberon to remember everything someone had said and use it against them when he felt the timing would be most amusing.
“I must wait a while longer, but I cannot. I must see her. I must know she is alive.” I turned the ring, spinning it in a full circle, tormenting myself with that sapphire.
“Do not do it. It would be unwise.”
“I need her back!” Shadows lashed at the room, shattering several plates.
Oberon held his hands up. “I can go for you. If I am caught there, there would be no retaliation against the Shadow Court.”
His offer reminded me that I already had someone scouting the Summer Court.
Malachi was due to return soon, and he might have seen Saphira in that time.
I also reminded myself that Neve had seen me in the Summer Court, and that Saphira had been alive when I had been there.
It was only a few weeks. It felt like forever.
“I will monitor the situation in the Summer Court for you, whenever I am able,” Oberon said.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
I appreciated his help, because the more I thought about the time I had to pass before I could go to my little wolf, the more I felt I needed that time, even though the wait was excruciating.
“You look as if you have made a decision. What will you do?” Oberon angled his head, a curious glimmer in his eyes as he waited for me to answer.
“I will not go yet. I have things to do. Pieces to move into position and plans to set in motion.”
I twisted the ring again.
“Starting with keeping a promise.”