Chapter 30
BELENUS
I returned to our hidden site about an hour before dawn with Slaine and the three fae warriors that King Nechtan had loaned me. I scratched at my itchy stubble as I stepped through the glamour, wishing I’d thought to grab a cream to shave with while I was at the barracks. We dropped off the fresh supplies, and I strolled with Slaine to find the winter king.
“Prince Belenus, how did your meeting fare?” King Nechtan asked, walking away from a conversation with one of his warriors. “Slaine.” He nodded to the winter fae, who bowed shortly in greeting.
“Productive,” I replied, loosening and removing my sword belt. “Unless something changes, I won’t need to return before the day we storm the castle.” I caught King Nechtan up on the entirety of the conversation and the agreed-upon plan. “Drust did well sorting the soldiers out. Now it’s just a matter of sorting out the contract and getting to the queen. She won’t be an easy defeat. ”
“Speaking of contracts, your team arrived a while ago,” King Nechtan replied, placing his hands behind his back. “Your human seems to think he’s close to a breakthrough.”
My heart all but threatened to jump out of my rib cage at his words. I hadn’t wanted to think about their progress, or lack of, in my absence. It hadn’t been looking optimistic when I’d left, but then again, they’d barely started analyzing outside of language loopholes.
“Where’s Koray?” I asked, trying to stay cool. I didn’t want to assume anything at this point, but my body was losing the war against my excitement and disbelief.
King Nechtan nodded in a direction. “Not far from where Hekla’s sleeping. He’s probably still awake. I’m about to retire myself.”
I moved to go find Koray but paused. “How’d our shifters do? How’d Hekla do?” I asked. I’d almost forgotten about everything else in my zeal.
“Shifters did as well as expected. They’re pretty rough around the edges, but their speed mostly makes up for it. Given time, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with,” he answered, looking over at the sleeping shifters hiding in the trees. “Hekla did better. She’s a natural leader. The goddess picked well for you, Summer Prince.”
I grinned and replied, “That She did, Winter King.” I left Slaine and King Nechtan to find Koray, wondering if they’d found progress with the contract language or some other means of freeing me from it.
I found not only Koray, but also one of my original team members and… Dumnorix? I slowed in my approach, spreading my arms and gaping at the master instructor. “What are you doing here? Dumnorix, you joined us? How did you even hear…”
“That was my fault,” Koray said, raising his hand in admission while pushing his black hair away from his face. “I needed his input and swore him to secrecy.”
I scrutinized Dumnorix, hoping he hadn’t been taken unwillingly. The thin fae waved away my dubious expression. “I’m not a prisoner, Belenus. I’m here of my own free will. I think you underestimate how hated your mother is, especially among us folk fae.”
“She’s no longer that to me,” I vented sharply, nearly spitting the words from my mouth. “She’s just the queen. Has been since the day she targeted my fated mate.”
“And Eislyn doesn’t seem like an improvement either. I don’t know your mate well, Belenus, but if she’s meant for you, I know she’ll be a great queen,” he said in turn, speaking gently in an attempt to placate me.
That was probably the biggest compliment I’d ever received in my entire life. I sighed and brushed my hair from my forehead, trying to calm myself. “I know that as well. One of the reasons I’m fighting so bloody hard.”
“We as well,” my team member, Gallcobar, said. I’d brought him in as an expert on fae law, but he had other skills to bring to the table. Speaking of which, it looked like Dumnorix had manufactured a wooden table for their work.
“King Nechtan said we were close to a breakthrough?” I asked them but ended up looking at Koray. He grinned and waved me over to the table, which was covered in notes, bowls, and a plethora of apothecary ingredients.
“So,” Koray began excitedly, “I received a response from the Lunar Coven, and they sent back some notes, suggestions, and theories.” He handed over a small stack of paperwork for me to peruse while he talked. “It all goes down to the language of the magic. I’m not talking about the contract, but about the magical equivalent of equations and variables found in the involved spells.
“The promise is a series of variables stated as an ‘if then’ expression. You marry Eislyn, you are safe. You don’t marry Eislyn, you are killed. What we want is a solution to the latter, so we focus on how you will be killed. Gallcobar—a genius by the way—explained how executions are carried out in broken contracts.” Gallcobar beamed at Koray’s praise but also dismissed the words with an embarrassed hand gesture.
“I’ve witnessed these executions before,” I replied gravely, “but I’ve never inquired about the process. They just… keel over.” I withheld a shudder at how brutally sudden the executions were. Tried as I might to forget them, I recalled every single one in vivid detail. “It’d never been a topic I wanted to discuss.”
“Can’t say I blame you,” Koray replied briskly. “Anyway, Gallcobar here said you’ll be compelled by the promise to sign the admission in the failure and retaliation section when you’re within a certain distance of the contract. After that, the magic in the contract activates, and a spell will force all your organs and muscles to fail until you expire. Needless to say, it’s an immediate death.”
That certainly made sense with what I’d seen. The bodies just… fell and died. I supposed that it was a twisted sort of kindness for it to be so quick, but the finite power behind such an automatic process unsettled me. I made a mental note to revisit our execution laws down the road. We needed more wiggle room in cases where contractual issues weren’t clean cut. Mistakes happened, and I’d hate to see people die over something resolvable.
So much to do…
Thank the gods we have Hekla and Eventide to help, Escort reminded. That relaxed me a little bit. I could definitely rely on our mate to split the responsibilities.
“So we sat down with Dumnorix and went over the notes from the coven. Luan and Senay said that at the very base level, it functions exactly like a cursed object. Mwezi said they have a ton of artifacts locked away that the coven has collected over the centuries to keep people safe. She mentions a ring that compels you to put it on only for it to kill you. She even packaged it in a sealed jar for us to test our solutions on…” Koray then frowned as he looked at the note. “I really, really don’t think she was supposed to do that, th ough…”
He held up a little bottle with a cork stopper for me to study. Inside, clacking against the glass, was a gaudy golden ring covered in diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and more I couldn’t name. At least it was sealed, but if it did what Koray said it was capable of, it was bloody dangerous, and I didn’t want it anywhere near my people. It’d have to be sent back to the coven immediately for safekeeping. Gods above, hadn’t the witches anything safer they could have sent us?
“So… cursed objects,” I prompted.
“Right,” Koray uttered, scratching his jaw with a couple stained fingers. It looked like he’d been handling ingredients already. “The coven only got so far in finding a way to either dispel curses on objects or protect yourself from them.”
“How’d they even bottle this up then?” I asked, gesturing to the ring.
“Probably took the entire coven to manage that from a distance,” he said, shrugging. “I have no idea, but I’m curious. I’m going to ask them when I get home. It’s a good question. Anyway, this is where it gets complicated with the magical equivalent of math and chemistry formulas.”
“The fun part,” Dumnorix interrupted with a grin.
Koray was too focused on his explanation to miss a beat and said, “I’ll spare you the details, but we broke down the execution spell into its base parts and constructed a formula to nullify each stage. Using the notes from the coven, we have everything we need except for one thing, and I can’t for the life of me think of what we could use… yet! Yet, Belenus! I haven’t given up!” Koray poked the table vehemently to punctuate his determination.
“We’re in the process of going through what’s available naturally in our realm, but Macdara’s asleep now. We’ll continue when he wakes tonight. We’re adjusting to the new sleep pattern you’ve all adopted here…” Gallcobar reported, stifling a yawn.
“It’s the bat-shifters. They evolved in the Night Court, so we have to adapt to their schedule, especially if they’re going to join us in taking the throne,” I explained, but from his nodding I could tell he already knew that. “I know you’re all exhausted, and I promise you’ll be more than generously compensated when we take the throne. One last question before you retire. What’s the nature of this last ingredient you need?”
Koray puffed out his cheeks and exhaled. “Well, we have what we need for the recognizer, catalyst, and applier, but we’re lacking the actual core of what’s supposed to eradicate the curse.”
I sucked in a breath, scrubbed a hand over my mouth, and stared at Koray for a long moment. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked up at the clear night sky through the trees. Was this why the Sky Gods gave Hekla her mission when They did? No, the Sky Gods didn’t know anything about the nature of Their children. Was this Fate’s doing?
Or maybe it was the Moon Goddess? You know how She likes to nudge Fate in favor of Her children, Escort murmured.
It’s enough to give a man a headache, I replied, pinching the bridge of my nose. Changing the fate of the entire Summer Court seems like a lot for the Moon Goddess to ask of Fate, don’t you think?
Maybe not in the grand scheme of things… You fae may live for hundreds of years, but it’s still a blink in the eyes of a god.
True… I replied thoughtfully. But the children of the Sky Gods were hidden from all the gods, weren’t they? Ah, I truly need to stop thinking about it. If it’s this simple, I’ll take it in a heartbeat.
We’re going to have to get permission from the shifters.
I know… we’ll do all this when we wake up tonight. The sky was a little lighter. The Sun God would be out in all His blazing glory soon.
“Belenus?” Koray’s voice broke me from my reverie.
“Hmm? Oh. Yes, we may have a solution for that, but I need to look into something first,” I replied, glancing over at three surprised faces.
“Oh, you can’t possibly leave me hanging like this!” Koray protested, splaying his fingers out on the table as he leaned over it.
I would have chuckled at his enthusiasm had I not been so tired. “Get some rest. You’ve done… phenomenally. We’ll meet up at sunset after I make some inquiries.”
Dumnorix and Gallcobar bowed, then left to go sleep, but Koray just looked at me in bewilderment. Finally, he threw up his hands and said, “Alright, well, don’t let me sleep a minute more. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to now.” He strolled off with a short, amazed laugh, and I stalked off to find my mate.
She was already asleep, curled under a wool cover. It looked like someone had brought back some blankets, and I imagined it must have been Emer. I lay down behind Hekla, made sure she was wrapped snugly, and pulled her into my arms. I kissed the back of her head before closing my eyes. This was what I’d been thinking about all night. Through all the planning and debating, my mind always went back to her.
For the first time in weeks, optimism flickered in my soul. Maybe tonight I’d allow myself to dream just a little bit about us being in the king and queen’s bed instead of on the forest floor.
·
I woke just as the sun was setting, alerted by the movement of winter warriors and nearby shifters. I stretched an arm out and adjusted my clothes. As always, waking up next to my mate made for uncomfortably tight pants. I peered over Hekla’s slow-breathing form at what I could see of our camp and observed several changes.
Emer slept nearby as usual, but my brows raised to find Nofre resting two feet from her. He had slung one of his wings over the side facing her to—I assume—make her feel like there was a respectful barrier between them. Still, this was the closest they’ve been after settling.
I scratched at an itchy spot at my temple and slowly absorbed the bizarre new scene surrounding Bidelia. Two winter warriors stood stationed on either side of her, and two female bat-shifters sandwiched her in their sleep with their wings crisscrossing her slumbering figure. I didn’t see King Nechtan around anywhere; maybe he was uncomfortable having a child in the camp.
Hekla’s deep intake of breath told me that she was waking, and I joined her under the blanket for a moment to pull her into my arms. My hands finding bare flesh made my cock strain against the fabric encasing it. Oh, someone had held to their promise.
“You’re naked,” I mumbled as quietly as possible, immediately palming a deliciously soft breast.
She smiled sleepily at me, blinking slowly against the setting Sun God. The last of the oranges and yellows gleamed in her umbral eyes, adding sunlight to her glittering starlight. The quiet moment had me appreciating them all the more. She did more than steal my breaths, she owned them. “Told you that you’d find it gone,” she murmured into my shoulder, caressing it with her soft lips while she spoke. The movement coupled with her batting eyelashes made my stomach twist with yearning. She still made me feel as if we were just touching for the first time.
“Last night went well? With the training?” I asked.
She hummed and nodded. “I think so. Any training is better than none, and they seem a bit more unified, not that they weren’t before.” She stared thoughtfully at the branches above our heads. “The training seemed to unlock something in them. I think they’ve all known each other for so long that they have an easier time reading situations, and that just feeds into their teamwork.”
“King Nechtan said you’re a natural”—I grinned, squeezing her to me—“and that the goddess picked well. I told him I agreed.”
She hid her hot face in my shoulder, but I could feel her pleased smile. “And you?” she asked, muffled by my skin.
“We’re basically ready unless anything changes.” I felt her relax, and I reached around to rub her back. “We’re so close, Hekla. You and me and the Summer Court for centuries.”
Hekla’s relaxation did a full reversal .
Her head shot up, and she regarded me with unease. “Belenus… I won’t live that long. Shifters live longer than humans, sure, but…”
I waved away her anxious expression and said, “We’ve mated, Hekla. My summer magic will keep you alive as long as any fair fae.”
“H-how long is that, Belenus?” Her eyes widened, and I was disconcerted to find them full of fear instead of excitement.
“Many fair fae pass on before they reach a millennium…” I said carefully. “Others, like the folk fae, live about five centuries.”
“Are you saying I’m going to watch my entire family, and their pups, and their grandpups, and their great-grandpups die?” she whispered, digging her claws into my chest without realizing it.
I scooped her hand away before she could realize and feel guilty. “Yes, and you also get to watch over your family and their descendants. You get to take care of them. Keep them safe.”
She swallowed hard and brought her fingers to her full lips. “I suppose that’s a more positive way of looking at it…”
“I’m sorry. I keep forgetting what isn’t normal for you,” I said, shaking my head at myself. She remained still for a while with her face buried in my chest. “I’m sorry,” I whispered again and just held her shocked form.
Eventually, she asked, “So how old are you?” I heard her wet sniffle, and it broke my blistering heart to know that I’d made her cry—again.
I sighed and counted in my head to answer her question. I’d lost track after a while. “One hundred and… eighty-eight?” I guessed, crinkling an eye shut.
She grunted. “No wonder you’re so immature.” She then burst into laughter, snorting into my chest. Her noises tugged a grin out of me, and I chuckled with her. Then, I tilted my head to kiss the top of hers and enjoyed our moment of peace before we’d be forced to rise.
“Belenus?” she asked quietly, and I hummed in response. “How old is King Nechtan? ”
“I’m not sure. Looking at him, I’d guess between two hundred and two-fifty,” I answered and moved my hand to massage her shoulder and upper arm. “Why?”
“Because Bidelia’s his fated,” she whispered so lowly that only I could hear. “She’s only fourteen…”
My eyebrows shot up, and I glanced back over to where the teenager was resting. “Well, now the guards make sense…” I murmured. Some movement by Bidelia’s chin showed that Arse was also sleeping with her.
“How is that possible, though? In our realm, both fated mates must be of age to recognize.”
I hadn’t known that. No wonder she had questions. “Yes, it is not so here. An adult could recognize a newborn if they were fated, but we have laws for that.”
“Really!” She gasped quietly. “I couldn’t even imagine.”
I smiled. Had I but visited her pack several decades ago, I would have found her a newborn. “The adult can choose to support the family if they wish—from the distance of the biding, that is.” I palmed her cheek and caressed it with a thumb, anxious to soothe her worries. “The ‘biding’ is the name for their time spent waiting for their fated mate to come of age. There can be no contact between them until then. The child is not told. We protect our young, Hekla.”
“Why is it so different?” she murmured, partially to herself.
I pondered that for a long moment, idly listening to an evening breeze meandering through the trees. My smile soon faded. The biding Hekla and I would have had meant that I never would have suffered an engagement to Eislyn—unless the queen’s plans had indeed gone back that far. Still, it would have spared us both a lot of grief. Instead of sharing that thought, I said, “Maybe it’s because we live for so long. Maybe the Moon Goddess wants us to slow down, to keep the adult from marrying another sooner… now that they know for a fact they have someone to wait for. Or maybe it’s just to provide an opportunity for us to pr otect and nurture them from a distance. That’s my best guess. It’s just our normal, Hekla.”
“So how does this work? Does she stay with us until she turns eighteen or…?”
“Already a fierce mama wolf?” I teased her with a cocky grin, and she wrinkled her nose.
“No, a reasonable mama wolf,” she huffed. “I just don’t know what’s appropriate here.”
“Like you said. We’ll give them an opportunity to meet when she turns eighteen, and she can make her own decision from there.”
“At least he doesn’t look old,” she mumbled and relaxed back into me.
I laughed softly. “This isn’t unusual, Hekla.” She nodded and leaned up to lay a kiss on my lips. I growled and shifted the blankets so no one could see her naked back.
“I have something to tell you. Can we get time to talk later? Before dawn?” she asked, wrapping her arms around me as she spoke into my lips. I leaned back and looked at her with a surprised grin.
“Pups?” I asked excitedly.
She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “No,” she said with an amused smile. “Not that.”
“Well, shit,” I teased. “But, yes. We’ll talk later, I promise.” I squeezed her to my chest one last time before releasing her to get dressed. More of her love emanated from her as she pulled a dress over her head, and I wondered if she was finally going to confess. Feeling it over the mate bond was cheating, but it certainly wasn’t my fault. Half of me wanted to tease her until she confessed, but I kept that mischievous bastard under tight ropes. Until then, though, I’d savor what I could get, and the warmth of her adoration kept my heart pumping strong, fed my fight, and sharpened my claybeg.
“I brought back some fresh rations, so help yourself,” I said, kissing her lovely brown cheek as I turned to leave. Emer was rising, and Nofre was already on his feet, stretching and shifting away his wings. Finally able to address the crux of my problem, I crooked a finger at him, and we marched to the edge of the camp for privacy.
“You recall the issue I have to face with the forced marriage, correct? The contract that I have to find a way to break?” I asked him.
He was pulling a shirt he’d brought with him over his head and crossed his arms. “A little. There was more talk of it last night,” he said, then scratched behind his pale, pointed ear.
I shifted my weight and stared at the ground darkening from twilight. I didn’t exactly know the best way to ask for someone’s blood.
Yeah, it’s real fuckin’ weird, Escort said. Just do it. I don’t think there’s a perfect way to ask.
I blew out a breath, placed my hands on my hips, and looked Nofre straight in the eyes. “Here’s the situation. Someone, I don’t know who—it could be me, Hekla, or even Emer—will be executed if I don’t marry Princess Eislyn. My friend Koray is close to a solution, but he’s missing one thing. He needs something that is capable of destroying a curse.” I paused before gesturing to him in frustration. “I immediately thought of bat-shifter blood.”
His mouth dropped open; I didn’t know if it was from shock alone or if he intended to say something as well. I motioned for him to pause. “That being said, Nofre. I will never force anyone to bleed for someone else. This is purely voluntary. If no one is interested in donating… well, we’ll have to figure something else out. To be honest, though, it’s not looking good for finding an alternative in time. I can’t imagine we’ll be able to stay undiscovered here forever. Koray may not need that much either.”
Vehemently, he thrust his wrist out at me. “No, I am going to help. If Emer’s life is at stake, you’re welcome to every bloody drop.” His dark brows settled into a straight line. All things aside, his devotion to my sister warmed me.
“I don’t know whose life is at stake, Nofre,” I said gently, reaching out to lower his arm. “It’s probably only mine, but I can’t be sure. I don’t want to take any chances.”
The male shook his head with stubborn adamance. “I don’t want to take any chances, either. You know I’d do anything for Emer, Belenus. Let me help,” he pressed. “We still owe you and Hekla our lives anyway. Blood comes back.”
Sometimes. Sometimes it didn’t.
I reached and shook forearms with Nofre. “Regardless of what happens between you two, you are like a brother to me now, Nofre. Are you comfortable making a promise with Koray or do you want me to be an in-between?”
He nodded with a clenched jaw. “Let’s not waste time. I’ll meet with Koray,” he said, standing tall and tilting his head to crack his neck. I gestured for him to wait and brought Koray back with me, who was just as excited as he was last night. After Koray earnestly promised to keep the nature of bat-shifter biology a secret, Nofre shared everything he knew about their curse-killing lifeblood.
I wished I could have captured the look on the young man’s face as he listened to Nofre. It really was too bad that the kid didn’t have any magic of his own. He would be phenomenal. His mind seemed built to figure out the most obscure puzzles, and if he didn’t know, he was bloody proactive about finding someone who did. I was so relieved that the situation with Eislyn hadn’t destroyed my friendship with him. It’d come close, though.
“It’s exactly what we need,” Koray sputtered, turning and breaking me from my thoughts. “We can use tonight to run some tests and decide how we’ll manifest the counter.”
I winced and asked, “Are you using that ring for your testing, Koray?” When he nodded, I lifted a finger in warning. “Do that far from camp. Is that understood? I don’t want to risk any of the shifters or the winter warriors.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded vigorously. “Of course, Belenus! ”
I looked over at Nofre but continued addressing Koray. “I don’t know how much blood you need, but try to spread it out among other volunteers. I don’t want to weaken anyone too much.” When Nofre opened his mouth to protest, I snapped at him, “No arguments! Everyone stays as healthy as possible. You’re still my responsibility.”
“I don’t know if we’ll need to distill any of it or how potent the blood is, but I can’t imagine needing more than a liter for the testing and the final product. We’ll see.” Koray fidgeted as excitedly as the day I took him to meet Dumnorix, and I felt a swell of pride in how much he’d grown. Before leaving to get some supplies, he insisted, “Belenus, I think we have it. I really do! I’ll find you later once we run some tests.”
I walked away to meet with King Nechtan, shoving my shaking fists in my pockets to hide my nervous excitement. If all went well, we could end up storming the castle tomorrow.
Now I just needed to harden my resolve to attack the queen. I couldn’t choke. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and scrubbed my hands over my face.
Emer and Hekla are all the family I need, I kept repeating in my head, knowing full well that choking could kill.