Fae- Crowned

by Eva Blackwing

  “Did you let him win?” Tristan smirked.

  “No. Definitely not.” Arthur laughed. “He handed me my ass.”

  “About time,” Morgana smiled sweetly. “Maybe now you’ll listen to me when I tell you that you are out of shape.”

  “You were right. Gods, I hate saying that to you. You’ll never let me live it down.”

  “That, dear brother, is absolutely true. It’s going to be fun.”

  “Moooor. Make her stop.”

  “Oh no. I think you could probably use a little bit of that.” She grinned and threw him a kiss.

  “I cannot believe you would take her side.” Arthur straightened up with fake indignity.

  Mor’s grin got bigger. “So. You broke up seven fights.”

  “No, seven brawls. Not just two people fighting. Groups. Large groups.” Ben set a filled plate in front of Arthur and took his seat.

  “Thank you. I wasn’t sure I could get up for that.”

  “So what’s the plan now? How are you going to get them to, you know, not kill each other?”

  “We’re going to wait and see if our little chat with them helped. If not, we’ll start kicking some asses tomorrow.”

  “What about, team building exercises?” Mor asked, an innocent look on her face. “You know, trust falls, shit like that?”

  The Fae laughed while the Dragons stared at them, perplexed. “What is a trust fall?” Arthur finally asked.

  “Oh! I didn’t even think about you not knowing what that is.” Mor grinned. “A trust fall is when you have a group of people and then one of them falls back and the others catch them. It’s supposed to help you learn to work with others.”

  “That’s very interesting, Mor. I don’t know that we should do that.”

  “Probably not. I just thought it sounded funny.”

  “We’ll probably have to beat some sense into some people. Or at least set them on bathroom duty as you suggested.”

  “That would straighten me out, that’s for sure.” Mor grinned.

  “How did your day go?”

  “We planned army movements, shielding strategies, and supply chains. I think we have a good plan in place, though.”

  “It sounds like your day went a little better than ours.”

  “Probably, but at least you got to move today.” Mor grimaced. “Has anyone checked on Amara since lunch?”

  “Trisha said she’s been in her room all day. She hasn’t come out. Apparently, when Trisha brought her lunch, Amara threw it out the door.”

  “Max - “

  “It’s okay, Mor. I think we all know she’s here to spy.”

  Arthur looked thoughtful. “I wonder if there is some way we can use it. Morgana, can you work your magic and see if she is infected by Boris?”

  “That is definitely something we need to look into, but tomorrow I need to try and locate Boris’ prisoners. If I can find them, then that will take out most of Boris’s army. Aside from a few assholes.” She looked thoughtfully at Mor. “I’d like you to help me if you would? I think it will help you with your control. And since you’re a Fae, it may help to connect to ones he has.”

  “That’ll work. I need to work on my control. I’m no good to anyone if I don’t.”

  “I don’t know about all that, my rose.” Arthur stood. “Come, if you plan on working magic tomorrow you’ll need your rest tonight.”

  Mor took his hand with a smile and followed him out of the room. He’d make sure one thing happened right today, anyway. Mor would get a good night’s rest. And he needed one too after the beating that was today. Tomorrow, he’d do it again.

  Chapter 9

  Mor

  The next morning after breakfast, Mor and Morgana set up in the War Room. They were using the map of Fae to try and divine the location of the prisoners. Morgana positioned them one on either side of the table. She’d made everyone clear out because she didn’t want any distractions. But they made sure to have water and snacks. Morgana said that would keep them from being distracted.

  “So what will we be doing?”

  “First, we meditate. We have to be in the right state of mind,” Morgan said. “While you meditate, I want you to clear your mind. We won’t be able to find the missing Fae - and shifters - if our minds are cluttered.”

  Mor closed her eyes and turned her focus to her breathing. For several minutes, Mor tried to clear her mind. But she kept thinking about the Seeing Stone. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. She was relieved when Morgana started talking about how they would be using the map to find the missing Fae.

  “Now, we’re going to focus on the Fae. If we can find them, we can most likely find the missing shifters. But since they are a different kind of shifter than me and you are Fae, our greatest chance will be with focusing on the Fae.” She gestured to the map, “Now, we’ve mostly worked on internal control and focusing inside of yourself. This time, I want you to send your magic out. The hard part will be figuring out a way for you to focus on the Fae that are missing instead of the Fae all around us.”

  “How do you think we should do that?”

  Morgana tapped a finger against her cheek. “Let’s start around the castle.” She waved a hand over the map and it zoomed in on the castle and surrounding lands. “We know there are a concentrated number of Fae surrounding the castle proper. Let’s see if we can find any others near the castle.”

  “Right, so basically you want me to focus my magic on the castle. And tell it to, what, look for Fae?”

  “Yes. It’s actually a fairly simple process if you can focus on it. The trouble is keeping your focus on specifically what you are looking for. If your focus wavers, you could end up spending hours looking for a necklace but then find a hair tie you lost on a run four years ago.”

  “Speaking from experience, huh?”

  “Maybe.” Morgana laughed. “So, the point is, make sure you really focus on what you are specifically looking for. Hold the missing Fae in your mind.”

  “Okay. I can do this.” Mor closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. She had to turn her magic out. “Morgana, I’m not sure how to turn the magic out. I mean, I’ve used it externally, but I’ve never had to push it out. If that makes sense?”

  “It does. When you focus inward, you sink into your magic, right?” When Mor nodded, Morgana continued, “I want you to push it away. It will feel heavy, but keep pushing until you can feel it flow. Now, Max told me what happened when you got stuck in your magic.”

  “Yeah, that was a little scary.”

  “In order to keep that from happening, you’ll need to control the flow of magic. If you just allow it to pour from you like water from a cup, you’ll drain yourself and then have a good chance of getting lost in the magic.”

  Mor closed her eyes, imagining her magic as water. She could feel it flowing through her, but now she needed for it to flow out. But only a trickle, not all at once. Imagining a funnel, Mor forced her magic through it. Well, tried anyway. Morgana was right, it felt incredibly heavy. But the image of water made sense. Water was incredibly heavy, but once it started moving, it could be hard to stop. Mor kept pushing, harder and harder until her magic finally started flowing. She kept her focus divided between moving the magic and the funnel. It swirled around Mor, waiting for direction.

  “Good, now turn the magic toward finding Fae around the castle.”

  “Fuck,” Mor groaned. “Three things.”

  “What?”

  “I have to focus on three things. Moving the magic, funneling the magic, and using the magic.”

  Morgana nodded. “Basically, yes. That’s a simplified way of describing it, but logical.”

  Mor closed her eyes again. “Find the Fae,” she whispered.

  The magic swirled a moment longer before moving toward the map. The magic immediately went to the castle. “Good, now I need you to move the magic beyond the castle to search for other Fae.”

  Mor tried to move the magic, but it wouldn�
�t move away from the castle.

  “It’s okay, Mor. Breathe deeply and focus on the land. Just as you pushed the magic out of you, now push it to a different part of the land.”

  Mor spent the next several hours pushing the magic only to have it snap back to the castle. By the time Morgana called for a break, she was drenched in sweat. She went up to her room to take a quick shower before lunch. She was so frustrated that she hadn’t been able to force her magic to find her lost people. Mor closed her eyes as she stood under the hot spray of the shower. She needed to get this done. Sighing as she turned off the water and got out, Mor got dressed as quickly as she could. Mor wasn’t going to fail in this.

  She walked out of her room, toweling her hair dry. When she finished, she looked up to see Amara sitting on her bed, examining her nails. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “Oh, you know. I just came to check out the woman who stole my brother from me.” Amara didn’t look up.

  “Stole your brother?”

  “Mm-hmm. I was hoping to find that she would be extraordinary, but instead I find you to be nothing worthwhile. You can’t even use magic properly and you dress like a commoner.” Now Amara looked up at her, anger written across her face. “When Ben’s mother told us he and his friends - my brother included - had shacked up with you, I was sick. Boris had told us about you, of course. The rogue lost royal of the Fae who was planning on destroying all that we were. I knew - just knew - my brother wouldn’t be pulled in by your false ways. And yet here we are.” She spread her hands open and stood. “I just came to warn you. You will lose. Your mates will lose. And I will get my brother back. I’ll make him see what you are.” Amara turned and walked out of her room.

  “What the fuck.” Mor stared after her, jaw hanging open. She frowned as she walked out. She needed to figure out what to do about her sooner rather than later.

  Sebastian was on his way up the stairs and saw her walking down. “Are you alright, darling? You look frustrated.”

  “Amara was just in our room.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “She wanted to tell me we would lose, and she’d get her brother back, basically.” Mor’s frown deepened. “We’re going to have to do something sooner rather than later about her. I’m worried about what Max is going to say.”

  “Max is going to be behind whatever we need to do to protect you. And the kingdom. But you first, darling.” Sebastian winked at her then bowed. “Your Majesty, would you care to accompany me to the luncheon?” He held his hand out to her.

  “Why, thank you, my Lord,” she laughed.

  “There’s that laugh. You were looking far too serious, darling. I know there are a lot of things happening, but we are behind you. We’ll figure out Amara, I promise.”

  “I know we will. I just worry about hurting Max if it turns out she hasn’t been poisoned by Boris and she’s…just…”

  “A terrible excuse for a Fae?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  “You have to remember what his family is like. The chances of Amara turning out well were slim, even if he still lived there. He knows that.”

  “I’ll try to remember that.” She hesitated, “Sebastian, I don’t think we should tell the others about what happened with Amara just yet.”

  “Why’s that, darling?”

  “Well, I don’t think we need the extra distraction at the moment. Who was assigned to follow her? She clearly gave them the slip.”

  “One of the scouts, I believe. But I’ll take over tomorrow since I should be freed up by them.”

  Mor squeezed his hand, “Thank you, Sebastian.”

  He kissed her and said, “Now, let’s stuff our faces before we all get back to work.”

  “How’s it going, finding your shields?”

  “Better than expected, actually. I’ve had too many volunteers, and I’m running them through their paces this afternoon.”

  They walked into the dining room and sat down. “So how are you going to organize them?”

  “I’m going to create a new division, the Shields.”

  “Creative name!”

  “I know, darling! That’s why you keep me around. My clever naming abilities.” He winked again as he took a bite of roll. “Actually, I’m keeping it in line with the other divisions. Swords, Bows, Scouts, and so on.”

  “Wait, those are the names of the divisions?” Mor stared at him.

  “Yes, we Fae apparently like very clear labels.”

  “Oh dear. I’d say let’s work on that, but we have a shit ton of other things to do so maybe after everything is settled.”

  Sebastian laughed. “I’ll put it on a list.”

  “How was your morning?” Ben asked as he came and sat down with them.

  “Oh you know, pushing magic and funneling it.”

  “I’m not entirely sure what you mean, but I hope it went well?”

  “Not as well as we’d hoped, but I think Morgana is going to change things up. How are the units today? Any more brawls?”

  “Not as many today, and the unit commanders were mostly able to take care of it. We did have to send a couple Fae and Dragons to toilet cleaning duty. Together.” Ben smiled.

  Smirking, Arthur spoke up, “I checked on them before coming here and they were arguing over the best way to clean a toilet.”

  “They’ll either get it together or be stuck cleaning toilets.” Ben shrugged.

  They finished lunch, Mor followed Morgana back to the War Room. The rest of the day was spent trying to force her magic to obey. It seemed like no matter what she did, Mor couldn’t force her magic to search the surrounding areas. It kept springing back to the castle.

  Morgana expanded the map, thinking maybe they didn’t have enough land to cover, but the magic still focused on the castle. Morgana tried boosting Mor’s magic, then guiding it herself, then trying to force it but that just gave Mor a headache and still the magic didn’t move.

  “We must be missing something,” Morgana muttered, pacing along one side of the table.

  “Maybe there aren’t any Fae missing? Maybe he just has conscripted everyone and separated them into different units or something?”

  “No, word would get around that some of the missing weren’t really missing. They have to be somewhere. We just aren’t looking in the right place, or maybe the right way?” Morgana kept muttering.

  “It’s almost dinner, let’s call it for the day. We’re both exhausted. I can’t imagine we’ll be able to work magic when we’re tired.”

  “You’re right. Even my control is starting to slip.” She sighed. “Tomorrow is another day. Maybe with fresh minds in the morning we’ll be able to come up with - something.”

  “We need to find those Fae. Without them, the conscripts will fight for Boris even if they don’t want to.”

  “I know. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

  Mor nodded as they made their way to dinner. “I just don’t know why my magic isn’t doing what I want it to. Maybe it’s trying to tell us something, and we just aren’t seeing what it is.”

  “We’ll follow that thread tomorrow. For now, eat and rest so we can start back at this fresh tomorrow.”

  Chapter 10

  Sebastian

  Amara was turning into a real problem.

  Today, he hadn’t been able to do anything other than make sure she was caged in after Mor went to bed. He woke up early today and released the wards as soon as he was ready to follow her. Thankfully, he was able to select all his Shields yesterday, so today he could focus on this. He may have really pushed them yesterday, but at least it was done.

  Sebastian let his brothers know what he’d be up to today and they all agreed. Including Max, despite Mor’s worries. They said they’d pass it on to her, so Sebastian dressed in comfortable clothes and dropped a cloak over himself. And then waited outside of Amara’s room. He could see the scout that had been assigned to watch her and her doors. The scout had made no sign to hide himself, but
that wasn’t a surprise. That hadn’t been in the orders given to him.

  Several hours after breakfast, he felt a little surge of magic come from Amara’s room and saw the scout yawn, then lean his head on the wall and fall asleep. That was certainly interesting. He’d have to make sure everyone knew she had that power so they could figure out a way to shield against it. A moment later, Amara’s door cracked open. Sebastian saw her peek out around the corner of the door before giving a self satisfied smile and sauntering out like she owned the place.

  Sebastian followed her, careful not to make a sound as he went. Amara wandered through the house, stopping to watch Mor and Morgana through a cracked door. She stayed there for a while, then moved away when she heard them moving toward the door. Sebastian stayed still, waiting for Amara’s next move. He could see her hiding and watching the door as Mor and Morgana came out of the War Room, frowns of frustration on their faces.

  “I don’t know what to do differently. The magic refuses to move out of that area.”

  “Something must be holding your thoughts there. We just need to….”

  They walked out of hearing range. As soon as they were gone, Amara stood up and walked straight into the War Room. Sebastian raised his eyebrows. Of course, that wasn’t totally a surprise. She was already acting like this castle was hers, anyway. She meandered through the room, flipping through written notes on the table. She found the map stone on the table and activated it with a little whisper. “Interesting.” Her voice was soft as she looked at the map and then back over to the table with the notes. “I guess they’re trying to find them,” she smirked.

  Amara closed the map and went back over to the side table stacked with notes. “What else are you planning for?”

  Sebastian walked silently over to her, wanting to see what she was looking at. He heaved an internal sigh of relief when he saw she was looking at old plans. Nothing about the new plans since adding the Dragons.