Chapter Eight
“We can't just leave you here,” Tiernan said for the fourth time.
The Anthousai man frowned and looked at the other Anthousai. “We're fine, Your Majesty. And this is our home. Where else would we go?”
There wasn't a communal hall like many fey villages had. The Anthousai gathered in the open. So, we were still in the field, standing at the edge of the village.
“You see, that's the question I'd like answered.” I jumped in. “Where do you think the other Anthousai went?”
One of the women stepped closer. “There's another Anthousai village about ten miles west. Hyacinthia. I think they may have gone there.” She cocked her head. “I don't know why. We weren't in any danger.”
“I just unearthed you from a pile of black ropes that obviously did something to you,” I huffed. “You are most certainly in danger.”
“The vines are from the earth, Your Majesty.” She looked suddenly serene. “They gave us strength.”
Vines? Oh, I didn't like that. It was too close to my magic. Annoyed, I spoke harsher than I intended. “It didn't give you enough strength to get out of its cage.”
“It wasn't a cage. It was a cocoon. We were being transformed.”
“That's just creepy,” I muttered.
“We can't leave them here like this,” Tiernan said to me.
“I think we should send someone to Hyacinthia and let the Anthousai there know that these people have been recovered, but to stay away from here for now.”
“But what do we do with them?” He waved at the Anthousai.
“We take them with us. Hopefully, they'll recover on their own, but if not, we need to help them.”
Tiernan nodded. “All of you are coming back to the castle with us.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the Anthousai said together.
“Fucking creepy,” I muttered. “You barely escaped becoming a pod person, babe.”
Tiernan went pensive. “Body snatchers.”
“Yeah, well done. You got the reference.”
“No, I mean, what if that's what this is?”
“Aliens?” I chuckled. “I don't think so.”
“No, Seren, not aliens. It could be a parasite born of this world.” He looked towards the forest. “A body snatcher.”
“A parasite.” I nodded. “A magical parasite. Could be. Or maybe an entity. You think this might be a hive-mind kind of situation?”
“A single entity invading many minds to control them,” he murmured. “I don't know. I didn't feel anything trying to control me.”
“It had only seconds in you, babe. It probably was in the process of settling in.”
He grunted. “True. All right.” He stood up.
“We'll have to transport them in groups.
Drinu and Rosfin, you'll each take a few Anthousai in a cair.
The Queen and I will do the same in the other two cairs, and then we'll send back more cairs for the rest of you. Those of you remaining behind, watch over the victims.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the knights said.
We took most of the Anthousai with us on that first run, squeezing five of them into each cair.
At top speed, we flew back to Castle Seelie.
I kept glancing in the rearview mirror of the cair I flew, a sense of being followed making my shoulders itch.
But there was nothing behind us. We made it back to the castle without incident, arriving just as the sun set.
That too felt ominous to me—the light shifting to orange and then deep purple.
As all Twilight Fey, I was sensitive to dawn and dusk.
I knew the exact moment the sun began its decline.
Seelie Fey received a power surge during the day, and Unseelie got their surge at night, but Twilight Fey received only two hours—the twilight hours.
Because of this, our power surge was condensed.
I sighed through the rush as I flew up the winding road to Castle Seelie.
My passengers hadn't said a word during the entire trip, but I had expected some kind of reaction to the glory of the Seelie stronghold.
They looked out the windows, up at the white walls painted with the lavender dusk, and then forward. Nothing more.
I shook my head. Even I, the Queen of Seelie, was awestruck by the beauty of this place. It was not the sort of building that could be ignored. The Seelie do not do boring.
Bringing the cair to a stop in the courtyard, I hit the button to release the Air Magic and lower us to the ground.
With a gentle sigh, the cair went down, the wheels bouncing a little before we settled.
I got out and opened the doors for my passengers, certain they'd sit there all night if I didn't. Tiernan was already out of his cair, ushering his charges toward the main keep.
The massive doors opened, and Sorcha Silverlight—Tiernan's mom—stepped out holding Falcas' hand.
Duchess Sorcha looked ethereal as usual, her coloring so similar to Tiernan's that it was impossible not to recognize her as his kin.
Their hair was identical—going from platinum at the roots to flow through several shades of blond and then brown before it darkened to black at the ends—and their skin was the same porcelain paleness.
Only Tiernan's eyes altered in coloring from his mother's.
Sorcha's were deep blue without any metallic striations.
Next to her, Falcas looked like a little thundercloud with his shadow-streaked hair. Both wore somber expressions.
I stopped to look at my son. Shahzy had shifted into her dragon form, Rowan had shifted into snake form, and Caelum had received his mór—the Tromlaighe.
But Falcas hadn't shown any hint of the Shadowcall yet.
We had assumed that's what he'd get, what with that hair.
But you never know with Fairies, especially my children.
Shahzy wouldn't get a mór, not with her being a full-blooded Dragon-Djinn, but Rowan might still get one.
I found it interesting that she had displayed some premonition ability, and now Falcas may be psychic as well.
Would human talent affect their Fey magic?
“What's happened?” Sorcha stayed on the top step with Fal.
“These people have been attacked by the blight.” Tiernan motioned at the Anthousai and then spoke to the guards near the doors, “One of you fetch the steward. Tell him we have guests.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” A guard ran off.
“Take them into the dining hall for now,” Tiernan said to his knights.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The King's Guard herded the Anthousai into the castle, past the Duchess and the Prince of Seelie.
“You.” Tiernan pointed at the door guard who had stayed behind. “I need soldiers to take all the cairs we have to Begonia and fetch the people waiting there.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
With that handled, Tiernan and I went inside with Sorcha and Falcas.
“Tiernan,” Sorcha whispered, her arm around Fal. “What attacked them?”
“The blight, Mother. Seren and I need to research what it is based on the little information we've gathered.
Will you look after our guests for us? Just see them settled in rooms when the steward has them available and see that they're fed.
More will be coming, along with soldiers in the same state who will need looking after as well.
I don't want them sent to the barracks.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Thank you.”
“I can help you with the research, Father.” Falcas stepped forward.
“Come then.” Tiernan motioned to him. “We'll be in the library, Mother.”
“I'll send some dinner to you.”
“Thank you.” I stopped to kiss her cheek before hurrying after my husband and son.
We went through the gleaming corridors of Castle Seelie, and the weight of its history hit me, as it often did.
This was supposed to be my home. One of them, at least. Maybe it was the way I flitted about, going from place to place to be with my family, but the royal castles of Seelie and Unseelie would never feel like home to me.
No, it wasn't the moving because Twilight felt like home.
It could be partially because that was where I first made a home with my family in Fairy, but I think it had more to do with the castles themselves.
My father had built Castle Twilight, and so it felt like family to me.
But Castle Seelie had been built by strangers.
No matter how much I changed the layout in my bedroom or how many accent pillows I added, the place didn't feel like mine.
It felt like a monument I was looking after.
Glancing at Falcas, I wished for something simpler.
For him. My sweet boy had to grow up in this.
No wonder he was so serious. Shit. I needed to get him out of the castle more.
We stepped into the massive three-story library.
Nope, he couldn't even curl up with a book somewhere normal.
Standing just inside the vast room, I scowled at the grandeur.
I knew I should appreciate it. It was better to have too much than not enough.
But again, this wasn't mine. These books, on their towering, hand-carved, glorious bookshelves, were treasures.
Each leather-bound volume with its delicate gilding was priceless.
These books had been collected by the Royals of Fairy for thousands of years.
It was our version of the Library of Alexandria.
And there wasn't a single paperback copy of a J.R.
Ward novel in the entire place. I grimaced.
As I said, this was a treasury. It wasn't mine.
If it were, paperbacks would rule, lined up and stacked upon each other.
Stuffed into every cranny. Their bindings creased in proof of their value.
The scent of old paper would soothe me. Not this fresh citrus bullshit.
And there would be a squishy chair by the window with a little table for my coffee mug.
Not the exquisitely carved sets of reading tables spotting the center of the room over plush carpets older than my father.