Twenty-Seven
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Without any word between us, I went upstairs to my room.
Immediately after I left Julian and Naida in the hall downstairs, I dumped the contents of the bag in the tub, just in case some of the slime made it inside.
Luckily, that wasn't the case and the book Axel had given me stayed pristine.
I picked up the clothes and placed them in the corner where they immediately disappeared.
Somehow, the magic of the house would clean them, fold them or hang them back in the closet good as new.
I continued to unpack, placing everything back where it belonged finding the monotonous task the best thing I could do to keep my mind off of what I just learned.
I peeled my clothes off after and dumped them in the tub so as not to get anything else dirty in the clean bathroom. After showering and dressing, I ran a comb through my wet hair grateful that I was able to get everything out of my hair and the putrid smell off my skin after a good scrub.
It was while I was brushing my hair on the dais near the window that I realized how much I missed Skryen. I never felt comfortable in Tartus. I was on edge the entire time even before the Hounds and the events at the Gates.
Somehow, Skryen felt like home.
I missed the comfort of watching the sprites dancing in the night, missed the low hum and musical trilling of them as they bounded around the window of my room.
I missed the call of the animals in the nearby forest, I missed the way the moonlight would shine down on the tranquil nearby lake.
I missed how the moon painted the dark water in its luminescent silver light.
But there was something else...
Something that tugged at me to go outside ...
I put the brush down and grabbed a light sweater from the closet, tugging it on before leaving the room. The house was dark and eerily quiet as I moved through it and made my way to the grounds in the back.
Once I was outside, I immediately noticed everything was different. It all looked the same at first glance but the more I looked at the trees, the flowers, the bushes the more I realized it was more alive than I'd ever seen them.
The sprites were brighter, the trees were breathing as they swayed in the cool, gentle breeze.
I could feel the life of the animals in the forest nearby.
A small doe seemed to come nearby but stopped.
And a stillness, a soothing stillness in the darkness near the lake.
A gentle silence that seemed to settle over the core of my soul as I neared the still water.
It grew as I approached and once I turned past a large rose bush in the path, I stopped.
It was Julian standing at the edge of the lake as if he were listening to the forest around him too.
I swallowed but stepped closer anyway, needing to feel that silence settle in me more.
"I haven't felt the night like this since I was a boy."
My feet touched the cool wet sand as I reached the lake's edge. He finally turned to me when he spoke again. "I have you to thank for that."
His hair was black again, wet, sticking to his forehead like he'd just finished a shower too.
"What do you mean?" I whispered.
He looked back at the lake. "The kiss the other night, you awakened the Light magic in me again." He chuckled. "I thought it was long dead for centuries."
I shook my head. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let me find out this way?"
He closed his eyes as the cool breeze picked up. He seemed at peace with his eyes closed, hands in his pockets, a heavy jacket on him to brave against the sudden chill. "I didn't deceive you, Emylin. I thought the light magic was gone in me. I didn't think kissing you would bring it back."
I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks and I was grateful that it was too dark to see.
"The kiss wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything wrong. It was our magic calling to each other." He turned to me with a smile. "However, it was a great kiss. In every sense of the word."
I swallowed and almost stammered when I spoke again. "I've had better," I lied.
He laughed out loud and turned back to the lake. "You're a terrible liar, Emylin."
I scoffed and turned back to the house. "I'm out of here."
I felt his warm hands around my fingers, gently pulling me back to where he stood.
I didn't turn but didn't take my hand back either.
"I'm sorry," his teasing tone was gone, replaced by a more sincere one. "I'm terrible. Please don't leave."
I turned around and crossed my arms as he let my hand go. I stared daggers at him as he watched me under the moonlight.
I could see a small smile hint his lips as he looked at me. "I bet you have all sorts of questions for me."
I gave a small laugh. "Actually, I haven't even been able to process it. I came out for some fresh air - to think and somehow found myself here."
"Hmm." I found myself somehow drifting closer to him as he stood there. "I could feel you too as you came over. It's soothing, quieted the noise around me."
I frowned. "How?"
He shrugged. "Hell if I know."
I couldn't help a small laugh. "First time you don't know something." I looked at his dark hair. "Who was your real father?"
He gave a half laugh as he looked at his feet.
He gingerly touched a rock near him with the toe of his shoe.
He seemed more human to me at that moment than ever before.
"I never met him, my mother never talked about him.
My adopted father on the other hand ..." He stopped then shrugged.
"My real father and my mother were lovers.
They met each other while my mother was married to my adoptive father, Jerico.
" He placed his hands in his pockets as he looked at me.
"Jerico was a very rich, very powerful, very vain Lord.
So they had to meet under the cover of moonlight for years.
" He gave a wry smile. "Very romantic." He sighed.
"Eventually, Jerico found out but not before they conceived me.
So he gave my mother a choice." He stopped and looked at me.
"She could only save one: her lover or her unborn child. "
I felt as if someone was clutching my heart in the palm of their hand and was squeezing. How could anyone do such a thing?
He didn't look at me. "She chose him. So Jerico killed him."
I felt the breath knocked from my lungs. There was a knot forming in my throat. I could feel an overwhelming sadness go over me like a cloak.
He still wouldn't look at me. "Jerico made damn sure my mother knew the price of her betrayal."
I swallowed. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
He sighed. "He made it a sport to beat the light magic out of me when I was a boy." He shrugged. "And eventually it worked."
"Jesus, Julian." I couldn't stop the small gasp that escaped my lips.
"I left them as soon as I was able to." After a pause, he continued.
"A little over a century later, they had Naida.
I took her before he could lay a finger on her.
By that time, I made some money by training faes for battle and could afford my own home and a staff.
So the staff and I raised her." He shrugged.
"It's why we're so close." He sighed. "And I wish I could say that it all ended centuries ago but it didn't. To make sure I knew how much he absolutely hated me, how much he despised the Light, he joined Robyn - he volunteered to help kill the Light. "
He scoffed and I could sense his frustration.
"He tried to take the forces of Skryen but I was Lord by then and he couldn't call on them like before.
Almost half of them left with him regardless, out of loyalty.
The other half almost killed me because I would not go.
" He shrugged. "Eventually, I was able to talk some sense into them since I was immune to Robyn's Silvertongue abilities.
All Light fae are. I tried to go to Elysium, the Light Kingdom to fight against them but I barely had the numbers.
" He let out something between a growl and a sigh.
"I joined King Warren but by then it was too late to do anything.
I couldn't do anything. Nothing to stop those monsters -"
Before I could stop myself, before I could even register what I was doing, I closed the space between us and hugged him tightly. I had to comfort him, had to hold him find a way to stop the heartbreaking sadness that was threatening to spill from me.
Or him.
I wasn't sure.
All I knew was that the moment he wrapped his arms around me, I didn't want him to let me go.
Eventually, he spoke again. "The moment I heard about you at Robyn's mansion and that you were the only surviving Light Fae, the new queen of the Underworld - I knew I had to meet you.
I had to see you." He paused. "When I saw you as weak as you were, small, barely a ghost sitting in that chair - I couldn't leave you there.
" He swallowed. "I've always felt responsible for not doing something when it counted. "
I shook my head. "But you have." I looked up at him. "Here I am. With you. Plotting to stop Robyn and save -"
Damien.
The man I loved.
I felt Julian tense as Damien's name died on my lips. I cleared my throat and stepped back, placing a stray hair behind my ear. I could feel the awkward tension in the air.
After a beat, Julian spoke. "I know you can't help yourself around me."
Immediately, I knew what he was doing.
He wanted to distract us, to not think about his sad childhood. I couldn't even imagine the pain that he'd felt reopening those old wounds as he told me his story. He didn't want us to linger on it any longer than we had to.
So he did what he did best.
Shamelessly flirt.
Because he knew how much it irritated me. And if that was what he wanted in order to distract himself from a painful past. I'd give it to him.
"I'm leaving." I started to leave the quiet lakeshore.
He laughed as he followed me through the path back to the house. "No, really, I can't either. It's our magic. It's calling each other."
I shook my head, not turning to him as I opened the gate back to the grounds. "What does that even mean, 'calling to each other'?"
He appeared in front of me abruptly making me almost knock into him.
"It means our magic is feeding off of each other, using each other, giving us each a sort of boost." He smiled as he looked down at me.
He was a full head taller than me. "Since that night both my dark and light magic has intensified.
My power has gotten stronger, my specters too - I was able to hear life again for the first time in centuries - "
"I did that?" I asked incredulously.
"Have you noticed anything different about you?"
I shook my head. "No."
"What drew you out here tonight?"
I shrugged, looking away. "I don't know."
"It makes sense that you would hear the Life here and not in Tartus, the Frozen City or Styx. It's all basically dead there."
I crossed my arms again. "I really haven't tried anything else."
"We should." I could see some excitement starting to bubble under the surface and it made me smile slightly. "Given the circumstances, we can use this to our advantage." I watched a mischievous smile start to spread across his handsome face. "We can intensify it."
If it started with a kiss, gods only knew what he meant by intensifying it.
I rolled my eyes wiping the smile off my face.
"Gee whiz," I couldn't stop the sarcasm as I stepped around him and walked back to the house.
"I wonder what you mean by that." I shook my head.
"You know I love Damien, right? Once this is all over I want to be with him. "
He continued to speak behind me as I passed by the bushes and trees. "Would it be your first time?"
I spun around in my spot and looked back at him. "That is none of your business!"
He smiled. "Judging by the blush of your cheeks, I'd say yes."
A sudden need to throw something at him overcame me.
As if in response, I heard a loud scraping followed by several large objects flying through the air to where he stood.
As they approached him, he disappeared making the glass table, several chairs and a water fountain fall into pieces where he was previously.
My hands flew to my mouth covering it as I gasped.
"Anger is still a trigger, I see."
I turned to his voice behind me not dropping my hands. "I'm so sorry!"
Julian smiled. "That's raw power from you - when you lose control. You're stronger too. And without a moment to lose either."
Slowly, I dropped my hands. "What do you mean?"
He sighed. "Robyn's plans are moving faster than we anticipated. Kymra's already let me know."
"What?" I screeched. "How?"
His eyes didn't leave mine. "She let me know this evening. Robyn's on the move, taking a royal tour. Gods only know what he's planning. He'll be in Skryen in a week."
My heart was about to burst.
"This means we have a week to prepare. A week before we take down Robyn once and for all." He looked behind me. "You're paying for the damage to my garden, I hope you know that."