Mate of the Fae King (Dark Faerie Court Book 2)

by Delia E Castel

  “Tell me more about the cursed Courts.” I walked to the marble desk and sat at the golden chair.

  “Your Majesty.” Osmos crossed the room. “We have more pressing matters.”

  Drayce nodded. “We need to round up powerful allies. Melusina still has supporters maintaining the curses over the Courts of the Living. Many of them are half-Fomorians she rescued from the mist with Ailill’s blood. Destroy them, and we destroy the curses.”

  I cut into the eggs, which bled scarlet yolks. With my blood, the Sword of Tethra, and some strong fighters, we could rid the land of Queen Melusina’s influence and then find a way to destroy the mist.

  Osmos cleared his throat. “We need your help with the humans.”

  I choked down a mouthful of egg. “What’s happened to them?”

  He stepped back with his palms raised. “I’m referring to the humans you ordered Gerald and Coleen to release from their ensorcellment. They are now gathered outside the throne room awaiting an audience with their queen.”

  My throat dried, and I gulped down a mouthful of nettle tea. In all my concerns about ruling over the faeries, I had nearly forgotten about them. “Show me.”

  Osmos swept out his arm, indicating that I should create another doorway. Anxiety fluttered in my stomach like the wings of trapped butterflies. Queen Melusina’s throne room was where she stole the life force of two human slaves and injected them into Father, where King Balor of the Fomorians tried to emerge from the mist, where she tried to consume my body.

  It was where I opened a rift to let Father escape into the human world, and where Drayce ripped out the souls of Queen Melusina’s generals and banished them to the Otherworld, leaving the corpses of my brothers.

  I wasn’t nearly ready to return there.

  Concern etched Drayce’s brow as he stood and crossed the room. I offered him a tight smile and commanded the palace to take me a scenic route to the throne room.

  An entrance opened up into a flint walkway that extended around the building’s exterior, bringing with it the mingled scents of juniper and pine. The sun hung over the distant mountains, bathing them and the treetops in its orange light. I stepped out into the warm morning and let the breeze caress my hair. It was the first time in ages I hadn’t left anywhere with an impending sense of dread roiling through my belly.

  Most days, I would wonder what manner of faerie I would encounter. Recently, worries about Father gnawed at my soul with the fever of rabid hounds. Today, the only thing that consumed me was an overwhelming sense of being swallowed by this new, frightening world.

  I glanced over the parapet that separated me from an unfathomable drop to the bottom of the steep mountain that comprised Apex palace. Did anyone really need me? Father was safe and halfway to Caledonia. Drayce would manage without me if I floated away like a dandelion seed.

  A steady hand landed on my shoulder and grounded me to the stone floor. “Neara, are you alright?”

  “What if I say the wrong thing?” I whispered.

  “That’s why you have a private secretary.” Drayce stared down at me with eyes greener than the forest. “And you also have me.”

  Warmth spread across my chest. It was hard for me to picture Drayce inheriting the power of the Otherworld at such a young age. He had been alone with only Father for company, and then he helped Father escape with me.

  “Of course.” The smile I gave him came from the heart.

  He wrapped a strong arm around my waist, and we continued walking around the stone building, our footsteps crunching over the gravel covering the walkway.

  In the distance, birdsong mingled with the distant nickering of horses, filling my ears with the pleasant sound. I glanced over my shoulder, to where Osmos and Rosalind trailed behind us at a respectful distance.

  “You’re getting good at manipulating the castle,” Drayce murmured.

  “I tried to sneak around behind Queen Melusina’s back to rescue Father, but she turned it around on me and trapped us.”

  “She drained Queen Pressyne’s power the way she took the life-force of those humans and gave them to Ailill.” He squeezed me around the middle. “Now that we have stripped most of her power, she will need to preserve what’s left to stay alive.”

  I paused at the end of the walkway and glanced down at the white buildings, where grooms tended to the capall. “Where did the magic go?”

  “Back into Apex palace,” Osmos replied from behind.

  His white hair shone in the sunlight like moonstone, picking up a myriad of colors as he moved. It contrasted with Rosalind’s whose crow-black hair seemed to absorb the light.

  Osmos spread his arms wide. “This palace is the seat of the Fae Queen’s power, and it recognizes you as its mistress.”

  The door at the end of the walkway opened, revealing a throne room completely different from the one Queen Melusina occupied. An entire wall of rectangular windows illuminated a mosaic-tiled floor patterned into the design of a chamomile flower. Low stools with curved golden legs stood in rows along the room’s edges.

  Drayce squeezed me tighter around the waist as we stepped into the vast chamber.

  “Owing to the violent manner in which Queen Pressyne lost her life, her throne room also closed until you avenged her death,” Osmos said in a low voice.

  I gave him an absent nod as I took in the splendor of the room. Although the walls were white, its doors were edged with gold motifs and gilded cornices spread across a ceiling depicting a forest of gold. I sucked in a deep breath. There was enough wealth here to buy everything in Bresail.

  Osmos swept his arm to the end of the room, where a staircase of white marble led to a single golden throne upholstered in ivory fabric. “Please be seated, Your Majesty..”

  “Shouldn’t there be two?” I eyed the golden statue behind the throne of a woman wearing flowing gowns. This was probably the goddess Dana.

  “I don’t rule over living faeries.” Drayce took my hand and led me across the mosaic floor and up the stairs. “Think of me as your trusted advisor and enthusiastic consort.”

  His words tickled my soul, and warmth spread between my legs as I lowered myself into the soft seat. We had only made love once, but that didn’t count as I nearly killed him afterward.

  While Rosalind positioned herself on the left of my throne, Osmos strode across the room to a set of tall, double doors. He straightened his silver jacket, pulled back his shoulders, and rapped on their wooden surface.

  The door opened, and a violet-haired faerie wearing the silver uniform of a soldier stepped inside and bowed low with a flourish.

  “I am Maith, the new captain of the royal guard.” He rose and met my gaze with eyes as violet as his hair. “Permission to open the doors, Your Majesty.”

  My insides twisted into tangled knots, and a surge of nerves made me feel as though King Balor himself had tipped my throne sideways and I would fall onto the floor. I grabbed Drayce’s hand and squeezed.

  “Permission granted,” said Drayce.

  The doors opened, letting in the faceless gancanagh, whose unlit clay pipe dangled from a slit of a mouth, and Coleen, the blonde-haired human who had been Drayce’s servant. She stared at the gancanagh, her lips parted, her eyes deep in his thrall.

  Behind them, hundreds of humans crowded the hallway. Some wore rags underneath skin caked with dirt, with matted ropes where there should be hair. Others still sported the transparent and revealing outfits from serving as pleasure slaves to the generals. Every single one of them looked weary and miserable.

  A quartet of guards wearing silver armor stood at the doorway, acting as a barrier between us and the enslaved humans. As Drayce didn’t move to attack the guards, I assumed they weren’t leftover members of Queen Melusina’s Shadow Court.

  Osmos strode across the room and stood on the steps a few paces down from Rosalind.

  I raised a hand. “Let them in.”

  The guards stepped aside, and the humans scuttled across the
room and knelt in formation with their heads bowed to the marble floor. Seeing them tightened the knots in my stomach.

  Only one of them remained standing, a bearded man with hair so filthy that it formed clumps around his face. He straightened and stared at me through eyes as sharp and as amber as a hawk’s.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Cathbad Fianna. Proud druid. Brave warrior.” He raised his chin.

  “And you are no queen of mine.”

  I glanced at the gancanagh, whose face remained featureless and blank, just as I had ordered. He raised a shoulder. “The humans have chosen him as their spokesman.”

  My lips pressed into a thin line to hide my amusement. I could see why they wanted him to do the speaking. “It’s good to meet another druid.”

  Cathbad narrowed his eyes. “Are there more? They told me that the other queen had consumed them all.”

  “My father managed to escape,” I said. “His name is Ailill.”

  Recognition flashed across the druid’s features, but he smoothed out the expression. Cathbad probably also heard what Queen Melusina did with the men she captured.

  “We want safe passage home, and reparations for the time we spent enslaved,” he said in a clear voice. “Those snatched from their cradles as infants want to be reunited with their families.”

  The last request sent a rumble of unease through my insides. I was about to explain why, but Osmos spoke first.

  “Children stolen at birth were replaced by changelings.” He cast his gaze around the room and met the eyes of some of the humans who had raised their heads. “Their parents have already buried and mourned their children. Depending on when they were taken, some of those parents might have already died from old age.”

  “But these people have a right to know their families,” replied the druid.

  “A lot of people don’t believe in faeries,” I murmured. “At this time of the year, ships arrive from the outside world. You might have better luck with your families by introducing yourselves as outsiders.”

  Cathbad folded his arms across his chest. “And what about those who were recently taken? Will you detain them, too?”

  “Of course, not.” I turned to Osmos. “Is there a royal treasury?”

  He inclined his head. “There are enough funds to pay every human here a lifetime-worth of gold.”

  Cathbad stepped forward again and fired enough demands to make my head spin. Some of them bordered on the impossible, such as names for those who had been taken as babies. My head pounded as he became bolder and bolder, his shrill demands ringing in my ears.

  Drayce leaned into me and whispered, “You need to end his belligerence, now.”

  I shook my head. “They’re victims. None of what’s happened to them is their fault.”

  “We killed most of the faeries who enslaved them.” Drayce pulled me out of my throne. “Authorize Osmos to take care of the matter. If we don’t deal with Melusina, she’ll return with reinforcements and make these people wish they were ensorcelled.”

  “Thank you, Cathbad,” I said, interrupting his rant. “My private secretary will note down your requests for consideration.”

  The druid scowled, but I walked around the back of the room before he could voice any more complaints. This time, when I opened the door, it led to an external staircase that wound around the mountain’s exterior.

  “Where are you taking me?” amusement laced Drayce’s voice.

  My lips curled into a smile. “If I were your hostage, would you tell me?”

  “I believe so,” he said.

  “You didn’t.”

  He flashed me a grin of white teeth. “If my recollections are correct, you mostly complained about having been deceived.”

  “I’m taking you to the stables, and you’re going to take me out of here.”

  Drayce stopped. “Neara.”

  I paused on the stairs. “What?”

  “This is your birthright.” He placed both hands on my shoulders. “Queen Pressyne had no other daughters but Melusina, and Melusina’s other daughters all died. You’re the only one left.”

  I lowered my gaze to the stone steps. He was right. There was nothing left for me in the human realm. All that iron and saltwater and ringing church bells was enough to repel me from returning to Calafort. And I doubted that I had anywhere else to stay within the realm of the Fae. Living in the Otherworld as Drayce’s consort wasn’t an option because I wasn’t ready to die.

  A huge sigh slid from my lips. “I just need a few hours outside.”

  He threaded his fingers through mine. “Could you take us to the stables? I have an idea.”

  In the blink of an eye, a door appeared at our side that led us into a stone walkway of arched windows that looked out onto a side of the mountain where the view was exposed rock with patches of red moss.

  The temperature dropped, and the air thickened, feeling like the beginnings of a thunderstorm. My brows drew together. We had just come in from what promised to be a warm day.

  Beneath our feet, the sloped downward and the arched openings became smaller until they only let in pinpricks of light. We rounded a corner and found our passage blocked by white smoke.

  I grabbed Drayce by the arm. “Is that—”

  “Fomorian fog.” He stopped walking.

  The muscles of my throat quivered in time with my fluttering pulse. “What’s it doing down there?”

  Drayce released my hand, wrapped an arm around my waist, and backed us away from the mist. “Command the palace to create an enclosure.”

  A wall of stone appeared between us and the fog. I placed a hand on my chest and exhaled. “I thought the generals drove it back last night.”

  Drayce frowned. “Apparently, some of it broke away.”

  “What does it want?” Suppressing a shudder, I turned around and walked in the opposite direction of the fog.

  “Its freedom.” Drayce replied.

  Whispers echoed across the hallway, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I couldn’t make out the words as they came from dozens of voices, but it was the first time I had heard the mist without the booming of King Balor.

  I quickened my pace and willed the palace to show me a way to escape the sounds, but they followed us wherever we went.

  We reached an enclosed chamber, and Drayce placed an arm on my shoulder. “Neara.”

  “What?”

  “The palace wants you to defeat whatever’s in that mist.”

  Chapter 3

  Clenching my teeth, I took several steps back until the reassuring weight of the wall supported my spine. I fixed my gaze on the light streaming in through tiny ventilation holes in the ceiling. Drayce couldn’t be right. The palace was supposed to be the seat of the Fae Queen’s power, so why would it conspire against me?

  Drayce stood at my side and stared at me with compassionate eyes. “I will help you.”

  “We’re leaving.” I squeezed my eyes shut and commanded the palace to create an opening large enough for us to escape. My breaths shallowed until only the barest trace of air touched the top of my lungs. The castle also needed to eject the mist so it could join the others.

  “Neara,” Drayce’s sharp tone cut through my increasing panic.

  Mocking whispers filled my ears. Voices that spoke over each other and coalesced into roaring waves that crashed through the recesses of my skull. My eyes snapped open, and I stared at the white mist that now covered the chamber’s ceiling.

  “What do you want?” I shouted both at the castle and at the Fomorians.

  The mist dissipated with a rattle that seeped through my skin, penetrated my bones, and chilled me to the marrow. Cold wrapped around my heart like a shroud and spread through my veins. It was trying to consume me, trying to claim me for the traces of Fomorian blood that raced through my veins.

  I clenched my teeth. “Who’s doing this?”

  “You.” Drayce placed his large hands on my shoulders
, infusing my body with a warmth that melted the chill around my heart.

  “It’s the palace.” A shudder ran down my spine and settled into my gut. Why couldn’t the palace just cast the mist out?

  One of his hands cupped my face, and he forced me to look into eyes that shone brighter than usual in the diffused light of the mist. They weren’t quite as dark as his cursed appearance. The mist brought out a starburst of gold that radiated from the pupil, leaving behind the dark ring of forest-green that was the Drayce I had come to love.

  “Release it.” The patience in his voice didn’t match the urgency of our situation.

  I shook my head, wondering if it was Drayce affected by the mist and not me.

  “Release whatever’s in that fog,” he said. “Somewhere between defeating Melusina and commanding her generals to drive it from the castle, you must have retained this portion because it was necessary to realize your power.”

  “Has it occurred to you that this might be King Balor trying to trick us?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked.

  “No.”

  Annoyance flickered across Drayce’s features. I was beginning to prefer the scaly version that didn’t communicate every little expression across his face. He might have forgiven me for killing him, but he was still a male with secrets.

  “Apex Palace,” I said in the kind of voice Father Donal used for his most fervent Sunday sermons. “Cast out the foul mist!”

  The stones remained in place, and the whispers increased in intensity. Soon, the buzzing and stinging of a bees swarm filled my head, muffling Drayce’s words. I clapped my hands over my ears and clenched my teeth.

  “Can you hear that?” I shouted.

  “Yes,” he shouted back. “Release what’s in the fog, or the noise will drive you insane.”

  “How?” I already knew the answer. It wanted my blood. It wanted me to slice open a vein, coat my blade in the Blood of Dana, and then open up a rift.