Chapter 3
Her name was Gessamyn, but she was smart enough not to tell him that. As he disappeared his sword into a fae pocket—a clear sign that he was a soldier, but he wasn’t on duty—before he took her hand and began to dance, she told him to call her Myn.
With a quick nod, he said, “Ash.”
“Oh. I know that.”
Of course she did. Even if he wasn’t the recent talk of the Seelie Court, he’d been a fixture as one of the Fae Queen’s main guard ever since he finished training at the Shadow Academy two centuries ago. Most of the queen’s inner circle knew who he was.
There was a time when he would’ve bedded them all, too. As a soldier, the ladies of the court were eager to keep him and his comrades company, something he took full advantage of in his youth. After a while, he grew tired of them, only searching out a female when he was itching for a lay.
And then he found his white-haired human and he realized after that first touch that he’d never want anyone else in his long, long life.
Myn wasn’t the first noble that Melisandre sent his way.
Ever since the cuffs came off, she’d been choosing them, only giving him more freedoms when it appeared as if he was interested.
So Ash did what he had to, just like how he spent the rest of that ball pretending as if any of Myn’s chatter was interesting.
Hours passed and Ash was wondering if he had done enough to satisfy Melisandre and if he could excuse himself from Myn’s clutches when, suddenly, the Seelie noble said something over the swell of the music that caught his attention.
“Did you hear about the halfling?”
He’d been slowly leading her toward the exit to the ballroom, eager to escape Melisandre’s eye and make his escape while he could. With that one word, though, Ash spun her away, causing her to giggle coquettishly as he pulled her closer.
And if he only did so because he needed to be sure he heard her correctly, ah well. Whatever it took.
“What was that?” he murmured, ramping up his glamour. Even his true form was gorgeous—there wasn’t a single fae that wasn’t—but his glamour turned him from gorgeous to perfect. The way Myn’s eyes lit up told him that the extra burst of magic didn’t go unnoticed—or unappreciated.
She was also aware that was the first time all night she’d truly had his attention. Eager to capitalize on it, she said, “The halfling, Ash. As a human lover yourself, I would’ve thought you’d have heard by now.”
Human lover… in the Fae Queen’s Court, it was considered a derogatory term, to be called a human lover.
Despite the fact that nearly every fae derived pleasure from touching a human, and most had brought a touched human to their bed before, a human lover took it one step further.
It meant a fae who was willing to treat one of the mortals as an equal rather than a plaything.
Before Callie, Ash tossed the name around like many of his other soldiers did. To fuck one was one thing, but to actually care for one? Such an action was worthy of the scorn.
And then he found his mate in a human and, for Ash, the whole world shifted. Myn wanted to call him a human lover? Well, he was, wasn’t he?
He let the name go, instead focusing on what was important. “Assume that I haven’t?”
Another giggle. It was a struggle to keep the charming smile on his face, even with glamour.
Myn placed her hand between their swaying bodies, trailing her nails down the front of his pristine uniform. “You know? I could go for a drink.”
He raised his eyebrows. “The halfling?”
“There’s an inn nearby,” she said, surprising Ash that one of the Seelie nobles would know of it.
She was quite right. Not too far from Melisandre’s grand crystal palace, there were a few inns that were mainly frequented by the lower races: trolls, gnomes, redcaps, goblins, and more.
The soldiers were known to frequent it, especially since the Seelie courtesans all had beds on the upper levels of the boisterous inns.
“Buy me a goblet of fairy wine and I’ll tell you all you want to know. ”
He’d already been intrigued as soon as she used the word ‘halfling’—and for good reason, too.
Ash was also well aware that the queen was still watching.
Having her see him pull Myn out of the throne room by the hand would only help him.
Let him think he was taking her off for a quick lay.
The more he acted the part of the proper fae soldier, the closer he got to seeing his mate again.
Halfling...
As if she could sense that the promise of the story was the only thing keeping Ash with her, Myn refused to say another word on the rumors until they were seated at the nearest inn, an ale in front of Ash, a goblet of the potent fairy win in front of her.
He waited long enough for her to finish one goblet, then take a couple of sips off her second before he said, “You were saying… there’s talk of a halfling? You can’t be serious. Melisandre would never let it live past conception.”
“That’s the best part! She knows and, so far, she claims not to be worried about it. Like she thinks the Shadow Prophecy is just ancient rubbish and nothing that’ll affect her.”
Now that, Ash knew, was horseshit. If Melisandre wasn’t concerned about the Shadow Prophecy, she never would’ve forced him to turn Callie away that he had.
Well, no. She would’ve if only because she got pleasure out of others’ pain, but that didn’t change his initial impression.
Melisandre was desperate to keep a halfling from being born.
In fact, he’d heard from other whispers that there hadn’t been one born since she was queen.
Of course not since the queen confessed that she always separated any fated mates that might produce the prophesied halfling before they could bond, let alone produce the fated child.
In between sips of her wine, Myn tried to convince Ash that her sources—who couldn’t be named, he noticed—were certain that a human female was carrying a fae’s child in the human realm.
He listened, but he didn’t want to believe it.
Ash was almost sure that, if the rumors reached the queen’s ears—and, as the ruler of all of Faerie, certain fae would be tripping over themselves to tell her—he would’ve been the first accused.
Every faerie in the Summer Court knew that Ash had been punished for sleeping with a human, but Melisandre knew for sure that Callie wasn’t just a human pet.
She was Ash’s ffrindau, his soul mate, and if he had impregnated her, any child they had would be a halfling.
Half-human, half-fae, and, according to the ancient Shadow Prophecy, fated to bring about the end of Melisandre’s cursed reign.
She told him herself. Right after she forced him to reject Callie with the entire Summer Court as witness, Melisandre confessed that she forced any fae whose fated mate was human to forsake them. No mixed matings meant no halflings. Without a halfling, her reign was secure—or so she believed.
Her belief was all that counted. And though Ash admitted that it was hard to interpret the lines passed down of the prophecy as anything different, just because he’d bonded with Callie, that didn’t mean that their prospective children would ever be a threat to the Fae Queen.
Melisandre disagreed, though, and if she discovered a human was carrying a fae’s child, she would’ve immediately accused Ash of being the father.
But she hadn’t. Apart from how often she kept throwing courtesan after courtesan at him to make up for his loss, Melisandre was content to keep him as one of her guards.
Though she no longer relied on the crystal cuffs to keep him at her side, she didn’t have to.
She already made her point. If Ash chose Callie over her, she’d kill her.
And if Callie was the human woman who the rumors spoke of, she’d be dead regardless.
Would Melisandre delight in rubbing that in his face?
Part of Ash said yes. But the soldier who had stood behind the queen for years, who knew that a shrewd mind was hidden behind that seemingly innocent face…
he thought otherwise. If she was so certain that she owned Ash, that he was never going to return to the Iron…
why would she sacrifice his loyalty to her by letting him know she had his mate killed?
But if Melisandre was acting as if the rumor of a halfling was nothing to worry about, there had to be a reason. What did she know?
It all came down to the Shadow Prophecy.
It had been foretold ages ago, though it wasn’t until recently that it became clear that Melisandre was the ruler it spoke of; the lower races unknowingly calling her reign the Reign of the Damned cemented the fact.
Because it was so old, though, most of it was hearsay.
The part involving a halfling child was well-known, as was the nickname of her reign.
Was there more to that? Ash didn’t know. As every instinct inside of him shouted that it was far too coincidental that another human female carried a half-fae child so soon after he loved, then lost his Callie, he knew that he had to find out.
And then, before Melisandre could beat him to it, he had to get to Callie.
If she was the female the rumors spoke of, she was in danger and she had no idea. No wonder the queen was so eager to pawn him off on countless other females. Ash had been sure she was testing his loyalty and his obedience. But what if she wasn’t?
What if it was a distraction.
Pushing his untouched glass of ale away from him, Ash rose up from his seat.
Myn had still been talking, though he had stopped listening once he couldn’t shake the realization that the human female she was disparaging was actually his Callie. Once he stood up, though, she stopped, looking up at him through the fringe of her thick eyelashes.
“Where are you going, Ash? To get more wine?”
“I could.”
Because he could. Was he going to?
Hardly.
She beamed regardless, her golden eyes gone glassy. “Maybe see if there’s a room available, too. Yes? I’m feeling rather… tired.”
Ash gave her a tight-lipped smile.
Sure she was.
Ash couldn’t leave Myn’s words as easily behind him as he did the Seelie noblewoman herself.
Though he knew she was expecting him to bring her upstairs to one of the inn’s bedrooms like so many other soldiers did—like he had done himself in the time before he met Callie—he flagged down the huldra serving the tables, ordered her another fairy wine, then left before she could figure out his plan.
His intention was to go straight to the barracks and return to his room. But, for once, it seemed as if fate was smiling on him again because, as he strode down the hall, he happened upon a familiar face.
Inspiration struck and, instead of marching past him as if he wasn’t there, he arrowed right for the gliding Dark Fae.
“Ninetroir. How glad I am to see you.”
At the sound of his full name, Nine stiffened. Over the years, he’d tried everything he could think of to break the hold that Ash had on him. For as long as Ash had Nine’s pebble in his pocket, he was owed a life debt, an obligation that the Dark Fae hated more than he hated most things.
And, considering this was Nine, that was saying something.
He’d offered a lesser favor although the fae, as a rule, did not do favors. Nope. He sacrificed his true name, and though Ash accepted it, he preferred to think of it as a gift so that he could keep the pebble.
Just then, he was glad he had. What other leverage did he have to get an Unseelie to do something for him?
Though, since this was Nine, the fact that it was another subtle way to disobey Melisandre might’ve been enough...
“I thought you were still at the ball,” Nine said.
Funny. Ash thought the same thing about him.
“The queen released me early. You?”
“The same. I thought I would do some reading since I was relieved from duty.”
Not a surprise. When he wasn’t training or on duty, Nine could usually be found in the castle library. He always said he was looking for something, but Ash never really cared enough to ask what.
Still, a fae fond of the library… just another reason why he chose the proper Dark Fae for the job.
“That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear. Tell me, in your reading, have you come across the Shadow Prophecy?”
“I might have.”
“The full prophecy?”
“Most of it, though I can’t imagine it would be too difficult to find all of it.”
Ash couldn’t keep the cunning grin from splitting his lips. “Good. Do that for me then, would you?”
Nine’s normally unreadable expression twitched, turning suspicious. “And why exactly would I do that?”
Ash pulled the pebble from his pocket.
“Ah.” Nine’s bright silver eyes swirled in sudden understanding. He nodded. “I’ll see what I can discover.”
Folding his slender fingers over the small yet meaningful hunk of stone, Ash returned the Dark Fae’s nod.
“Do that.”