Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
“Did you hear me, Unraveller?” The queen’s strident voice broke into Aiden’s thoughts.
“I’m sorry. I was thinking about this evening.” He smiled distractedly. Everything will go according to plan. He just had to have faith in the players of tonight’s engagement. One specifically. He turned away from watching the sun dip lower toward the horizon and back to his liege.
The annoyed expression on Queen Siobhan’s face softened. Her violet eyes twinkled mischievously, and then they darted toward the guards stationed at the edges of the throne room.
“I would wish you good luck, but you don’t need luck. One like you never does. You’re always too far ahead of the rest of us to need it.” The queen shook her head and tapped her fingers against the ebony throne. Her long, manicured nails made a clicking sound against the glossy wood. It was a nervous tick of hers.
Aiden studied her more closely, and what he saw worried him. Circles were barely noticeable under the skillfully applied cosmetics, but they were there. His queen’s night black hair was dull and limp if he looked closely enough at her intricately woven braids studded with jewels and silver bobbles. The glow to her brown skin was missing too.
“What ails you, my queen? You look unwell,” Aiden asked. His voice carried. The closest guard blanched at his words, clearly listening in on their conversation.
Siobhan didn’t miss the guard’s interest either. She growled at Aiden and stood towering above him. A cold wind ruffled her hair, and her fingers curled into claws. Anger clouded her eyes to deep purple. Shadows crept across the throne room, and the guards shifted uneasily. The smell of fear emanated through the air.
“How dare you speak such an insult to me! Could I do this if I were unwell?” As the wind picked up, the queen started to levitate.
Shadows twisted around Aiden and began to pull on his life force. In supplication, he fell to his knees, bowing his head. An unseen force lifted him off the ground until he floated helplessly in the air at eye level with his queen’s snapping plum eyes.
She turned her gaze to the guards. “Leave us!” They hesitated. Her honor guard was supposed to always stay with her for her security.
“Now!” her voice clapped like thunder, and they ran.
Alone in the room with the Queen of the Unseelie, Aiden floated, bound by dark tendrils of shadows. Her cold gaze pinned on him until she lowered herself back to the ground, and the shadows released Aiden mid-air with a snap. He landed on his feet hard, barely catching himself in time.
“By all that is holy, Siobhan, did you have to drop me? I could have broken something.” Aiden walked over to the dais and sat down on the edge. His chest heaved from the physical torture his body had just endured.
“I like to keep everyone on their toes, even you, dear Unraveller,” Siobhan smirked down at him. Then she walked to her throne and threw herself down onto the seat. Her proud shoulders slumped, and he was no longer looking at the terrifying Queen of the Unseelie, who had fought one of the bloodiest Fae uprisings and defeated her own father.
No. Sitting dejectedly on the tall, imposing throne she’d fought so hard to win was a tired Fae who looked like the weight of the world was burdening her, not the great ruler whose ballads would be sung about for centuries to come.
“You’re more concerned about Cybelle than I thought,” Aiden said, getting to the heart of why the queen wanted to speak to him alone without prying ears.
Siobhan nodded. “Why would I allow a Seelie among us? What kind of chaos have I brought into our home?” She ran a hand over her face and shook her head.
“Because you would torture me to death if I ever told anyone, but we both know you have a kind heart.”
Her response was a deep, throaty laugh. Aiden smiled at her and pressed, “Your heart isn’t made of stone. Even I was moved by her request for sanctuary among us. Rarely do the Seelie grace our halls, but she came and clearly needed our aid. Strangely, no one has come for her but none of my intel has anything on a missing Seelie but that’s clearly what she is. The name does not match up with anyone from the Seelie court either. She’s a mystery.”
“Yes,” Siobhan said. She narrowed her eyes and looked off in the distance pensively. “She is keeping something from us, and I don’t know what.”
“She’s glamoured. I haven’t seen something so intricate since...” Aiden trailed off.
A memory of a day long ago in a forest flared up in his mind. The first time he’d seen Riona. He’d been so young and full of himself. He’d just left the Seelie Court. The possibilities were endless. When he came upon Riona, he only saw a young Fae bound by circumstances and sought to free her like he’d freed himself. But he hadn’t freed her. Something like regret settled inside him, but he quickly pushed it aside.
No regrets and no apologies.
“She’s heavily glamoured. She’s hiding something,” Aiden said, bringing himself back into the now instead of the past.
“Whatever that may be,” the queen mused. She turned to face Aiden. Worry creased her black brows. “What if my moment of kindness is our undoing? After all we sacrificed to get this far...” She bowed her head. Her dark braids slid down shaking shoulders.
Aiden stood and walked to where his queen sat. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched but didn’t shake it off. “Cybelle isn’t our undoing. She’s here for a reason, but I don’t think that she means to bring our court down. She’s not a spy. She’s afraid. She’s hiding. I wish I knew why.”
“Find out why and quickly. You’re not the only one who questions her.” Siobhan fixed her violet gaze on Aiden. “Get close to her. Figure out her secrets.”
Aiden nodded and withdrew his hand. “If I can’t?” He didn’t want to hear her response, but she needed to say it for both of them.
“Then you’ll have to unravel her glamour. Publicly.”
“They’ll tear her apart if I do that.” Aiden tried to catch Siobhan’s eyes, but she wouldn’t look at him.
“We’ve grown soft after our conquests.”
“We don’t hurt the innocent.”
“Is she innocent?” Siobhan finally met Aiden’s eyes. There was something there he didn’t like seeing. A cold hardness.
“I don’t know.” Aiden slammed a fist against the hard ebony wood in frustration. His queen was placing him in a position he did not like. She’d never pressed him like this before. There had been whispers and undercurrents in the court, but nothing he’d perceived as a threat to her power. Maybe he’d become too complacent.
“She’s not your sister. Don’t let the past cloud your judgment,” Siobhan said quietly. Almost too quietly.
If anyone other than the queen had spoken of his sister, they would have been their last words. Aiden gritted his teeth but didn’t speak. It was Siobhan’s turn to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Aiden, I need you with me, not against me,” she said softly. Her eyes sought his. The coldness was gone, and in its place, vulnerability. “You’re my closest confidant and friend. I can’t do this without you by my side.”
Aiden smiled. “You don’t need me. You never did.” She didn’t. Not really. Siobhan could have laid waste to the entire Unseelie Court, but instead, she’d waged war where the outcome had survivors.
“I wasn’t talking about our powers. I need my fucking friend. It’s lonely being a queen. There are few I can trust, and even fewer who can know my secrets.”
Aiden gripped Siobhan’s hand, and she squeezed it back. “I’ll always be by your side. Even when you ask the most difficult things of me.”
“Thank you.”
They held gazes for a moment, and then Aiden looked away. The tension in the room was evaporating, and Aiden decided to send it completely away. “Too bad we never became lovers. Could you imagine?”
Siobhan made a face and then laughed. “No.” The idea of the two of them together was not appealing to either. Much to their amusement, they had found that out early on. Kissing the beautiful Unseelie Queen left him completely unmoved as it had her.
“Though we make the best of friends.” Siobhan smiled at Aiden’s words. Then her smile faded.
“I hope you can unravel Cybelle’s secrets before we have to do something drastic.”
“How long do I have?” Aiden was afraid of his queen’s answer.
Siobhan looked out the window at the rising moon. “Until the next full moon.”
Aiden nodded. That would give him time.
“Off you go to more fun assignations.” Siobhan flicked her wrist dismissively at him, but Aiden didn’t move. He stared out the window in contemplation.
A firm hand pushed against his shoulder. “Go. You’re expected elsewhere.” Aiden looked into Siobhan’s laughing eyes.
“As my queen decrees.”
“I do. Now get out of here before the guards come back and see you in the pink of health.”
Aiden moved to the wall and pulled the silken tapestry back.
“Oh, and Aiden.” The queen tossed something at him, and he instinctively caught it. Coldness burned a hole in his palm. He slowly pried his fingers open to find a golden locket inside his hand. The intricate scrollwork pattern on the locket and the delicate golden filagree of the chain marked that it could only be a piece by Burleti, the old king’s jeweler. “Take a look inside.”
The queen laughed. Likely because he was surprised for the first time in a very long while, and it was evident. He couldn’t hide his expression if he tried. A very good likeness of Riona stared back at him. How?
“Finella.”
Aiden didn’t think he could be more surprised. He’d never met her, but he knew who she was. She’d disappeared before he’d come to the Unseelie Court. All the Fae knew her sad story. Her story was the catalyst of the war. And she was Riona’s mother. The revelation shook him.
“This is Finella?” Aiden noticed that his hands were unsteady.
Siobhan nodded. “Finella was a close friend.” The queen is full of admissions today.
“Will you talk to Riona about her if I bring her to court?”
“Why would I do that?” The queen tried to sound bored, but he knew she wanted to meet Riona. He was willing to make sure that she talked to Riona.
“Because I would owe you a favor.” At his words, the queen leaned forward, all attempts at nonchalance gone.
“That is something. You must really care for this girl.”
“Do we have a deal?” Aiden refused to rise to the queen’s bait. He wanted Riona. Nothing more. No deeper feelings.
“I look forward to meeting her daughter.”
There was a finality in Siobhan’s tone that Aiden didn’t miss. His refusal to discuss his feelings for Riona hurt her, and she was being dismissive. She would speak to Riona though, and that was a success. He ran his hand along the wall until his fingers found the familiar groove in one of the countless obsidian squares and pressed against the stone. The wall swung inward, and Aiden walked into the darkness.
“Have fun!” The queen’s sarcastic comment followed him into the inky black of the secret tunnel like she hadn’t just opened Pandora’s box.
Aiden ran a hand along the cold walls as he made his way through the darkness. Walking the path through the tunnels was like second nature to him, even as his mind wandered at the information the queen had divulged.
His feet had worn a path through the stone floor. In a short time, he stepped into an unused room that served as the exit from the secret passage. The room was completely bare. No paintings hung on the scarlet walls. The spindly dark furniture Siobhan was so fond of didn’t grace any part of this room. Even the windows were bare of any type of curtain. But the room was spotless.
If any of the staff wondered why Queen Siobhan ordered the room cleaned and floor polished until the black and silver checkered tiles shined, they never said anything and just chalked it up to a peculiarity of the queen. No one ever guessed that if the room wasn’t cleaned regularly, the secret door and Aiden’s traffic to and from this room would become apparent as the dust gathered in other parts of the room.
Aiden tread carefully toward the door, listening for any noise heralding someone in the halls, but there was nothing. A glance at the window showed that the sun had completely set. The villagers would be beginning their festival. He picked up his stride and then stopped himself.
Make them wait. The only reason he hurried was because he knew that Riona would be there. The thought of seeing the fiery half-Fae caused him to pick up his pace again. There was something about her—he stopped himself from his dangerous thoughts. She was something he couldn’t have until now, so she was always on his mind. Nothing more. If all went according to plan, by this time next week, her intrigue would wane, and she would no longer plague his thoughts.
He cautiously opened the room’s door and slid out into the hallway. The emptiness of the corridor stretched on seemingly infinitely. But there was an end.
His long strides took him through the hallway dotted with black doors and the slightly maddening silver and black checkered tiles into the courtyard. The checkered tile gave way to black cobblestones shot through with silver veins that glittered when the moonlight hit them just right. The silver in the stones was problematic for some of the Fae to tread upon, but it was the Unseelie Court. Hints of danger were present in even the most innocuous places there. Safety was only an illusion among the Unseelie. Aiden smiled as he walked across the stones.
He didn’t have time to admire the riot of reds and greens of the many flowers and vines twining through the statues cut from obsidian dotting the courtyard. The statues were of past monarchs in various shapes and sizes. Aiden noticed that the tentacles of Yhasigaat were being encroached upon by creeping blood red roses. The ancient monarch would be obscured like many other statues if the gardeners didn’t redirect the semi-sentient roses.
Stars gleamed in the sky now. Aiden paused and stopped in front of the tall white gates. He waited impatiently for a guard to swing them open, and then he was through. His body was already shifting as he took to the sky. A shiny black coat began to cover his pale skin. His limbs elongated, and his skeleton shifted. In the beginning, the pain of change was almost overwhelming, but now he’d gotten so used to the pain that it was nothing to him.
By the time he was airborne, he had shifted entirely into a glossy black stallion. The only part of himself that stayed the same was his golden eyes. No matter what he shifted into, his eyes stayed the same. The curse of the pooka.
Soon the village of Loch-Gaar could be seen on the horizon. Aiden landed in the shadows of the village outskirts. The raised voices of the villagers sounded just on the other side of the tall wall. A familiar voice caught his attention. Riona. Every time he heard her voice, it did something to him. Her voice was raised in anger. The villagers were playing their roles to perfection, unbeknownst to them.
Once his feet touched the ground, he shifted back into human form. Aiden couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips at the thought of his plans for a certain villager coming to fruition and how the queen had helped those plans more than he’d expected. Anticipation of what was to come coursed through him. He flung the gates open. Tonight she would finally be his.