Mark of the Fae: A Fated Mates Fae Romance (Shadow Court Book 2)

by KJ Baker

  Simeon inclined his head, conceding the point. “Perhaps. But it will sow division amongst the Seelie. There are some who won’t accept a mortal queen.”

  “Like you, you mean?”

  A faint smile curled the corners of his lips. “Me? You misjudge me, Your Majesty. I am, as ever, a loyal servant. I merely seek to inform you of the possible pitfalls in this choice.”

  Like Spire you do, I thought. If there is division, it will be because you will sow it.

  I pushed my chair back and climbed to my feet. Placing my palms flat on the smooth stone, I leaned on the table and glared around at my assembled courtiers. All the great families were here: Ash, Oak, Stone, Quartz. Some I knew I could count on, others I knew I couldn’t, but I fixed each and every person with a stare that left no room for argument.

  “I have not come here to ask your permission,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “In case you’ve forgotten, I rule here. Unless anyone wishes to challenge me?”

  Deathly silence met my words. They might chafe and back-bite and vie for dominance under my rule, but none of them were stupid enough to think they could best me in one-to-one combat.

  “I thought not. So listen very carefully. Asha Grant is my mate. She will be your queen. End of discussion. Understood?”

  “Fates! This is not what we’ve gathered for!” snapped Meridian Stone seated to my left. Head of the Stone family, she was known to be a hard mistress but fair, and had supported me many times in the council. She tossed her auburn plait over her shoulder and clasped her hands on the table. “Who King Arion takes as a mate is his business. To be honest, I couldn’t care less if she’s human, Fae, or a dancing dryad. There are far more pressing concerns facing us. We should be discussing the Unseelie threat rather than debating gossip.”

  To her right, Jaspar Quartz nodded his agreement. Soon everyone around the table was nodding, accepting Meridian’s words. Finally, Simeon Ash nodded, smiling tightly.

  “Good,” I said, giving Meridian a quick, grateful glance. “Then let’s get down to business. I want a full briefing of everything that’s happened while I’ve been away.”

  I sank into my seat and Meridian Stone rose to her feet.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors, Your Majesty. Unfortunately, those rumors are true. As we suspected they would, the Court of the Sun took full advantage of your absence. They’ve been spreading their lies, exerting their influence at the Spire and amongst the other courts. We thought it the usual empty Unseelie bluster that would die down. We were wrong. Seven days ago, the Court of the Sun launched an invasion against the Court of the Moon.”

  My fingers tightened on the arms of my chair. This is what I had feared all along. The Court of the Moon was a Seelie court, and my close ally. The Unseelie had grown confident indeed if they dared such a thing, bolstered no doubt by Taviel bringing them the Orb of Tir. I swallowed thickly. “Does the Moon Court hold?”

  Meridian shared a glance with Jaspar Quartz. “No, Majesty. They fell within two days.”

  My stomach clenched. “And my brother?” I’d sent his unit to the Moon Court to help coordinate their defense in the event of an Unseelie invasion. Had I sent him to his death? If anything had happened to him...

  “Alive when we received our last report,” Meridian answered. “And leading a rearguard action with the last of the Moon Court’s warriors to allow their survivors to escape.” She fell silent, her expression troubled. Meridian was far older than me, old enough for her age to have begun to show on her face which was rare for a Fae. She must have endured countless difficulties in her long years but in all the time I’d known her, I’d never seen the look on her face that I saw now. “The thing we feared has come to pass, Your Majesty. We cannot escape it. Civil war has come to the Fae.”

  At her words, the council broke into an uproar. Everyone started talking at once, demanding answers, giving their own opinions, voicing long-held fears. Through it all, Meridian Stone stared right at me and I stared back. In her eyes I saw the truth.

  I had failed. War was upon us.

  I let the tumult ebb around me then brought my palm thumping down onto the table top.

  “Enough! Thank you for your report, Meridian.” She inclined her head and sat down. I leaned forward. “We must prepare for war. We will meet the Unseelie head on. We will take back the Moon Court and send the Unseelie dogs running.”

  A murmur of approval flickered around the room—at least from some. But others shook their heads and then Tollun Oak, head of House Oak, pushed himself to his feet. He was short for a Fae and had the bandy-legged look of someone who spent most of their life on horseback. In his prime he had been one of the most skilled cavalry generals the Summerlands had ever seen. But that had been long ago. These days, Tollun Oak was rumored to be more interested in wine and women than the business of governing his House.

  “There is another option,” he announced, looking around at everyone sat at the table. “We talk of civil war without even considering the alternatives.”

  I frowned. “What alternatives?”

  His pale eyes found mine across the council table. “The Court of the Sun have stated that they want no more bloodshed amongst the Fae. They’ve offered a truce. Perhaps we should accept.”

  “A truce?” Meridian Stone snapped. “Have you lost your wits, Tollun? You truly believe the Unseelie would honor the terms of any truce?”

  “Out of the question!” Jaspar Quartz added, tugging on his short silver beard as he was wont to do when angry. “You know what the Unseelie will do if we allow this outrage to go unchecked! They’ll continue to expand, to take more territory, until they are knocking on our doors! It cannot be allowed!”

  “It’s more serious even than that,” I said. “You haven’t yet asked me why I went to the mortal realm in the first place.” I drew a deep breath. “My spies amongst the Unseelie discovered a plan they were hatching: one that involved the mortal realm. They sent two agents through the Veil with the aid of a portal cube: Shezl and Taviel.”

  There was a murmur at this. “The Galadri are known to be the Unseelie’s most skilled trackers and assassins,” Meridian said.

  I nodded. “Shezl is dead but Taviel escaped me. Whilst in the mortal realm I discovered their plan. They mean to tear down the Veil and enslave human kind once more. They make war on the Seelie because we stand in their way.”

  Silence met this statement. Jaspar Quartz and Meridian Stone stared at me as if not quite able to believe my words.

  “Would that be such a bad thing?” Tollun Oak said into the thick silence. “Why should we care about humanity? After all, they murdered the Spire! If the Unseelie wish to make war on them, why should we interfere?” There were rumbles of agreement around the table.

  I glanced at Simeon Ash. He had said nothing throughout this exchange but merely lounged in his chair, a satisfied little smile on his face. Had he put Tollun up to this? House Ash and House Oak had always been allies. What were they planning?

  I ground my teeth. Was this what we’d come to? Bickering political factions, trying to gain advantage at every turn? Was this what the Shadow Court had become?

  “You fool!” I growled at Tollun. I wanted to hit the man, to pound some common sense into his complacent face. “Have you forgotten all we stand for? All that the Shadow Court means? We are the guardians, the keepers of the boundary between realms. You swore an oath, as did every one of us here, to protect the Veil.”

  Tollun said nothing. He glared at me, his face flushed with anger.

  Jaspar Quartz cleared his throat, diffusing the tension. “This is all irrelevant. Even if they try, the Unseelie do not have the power to bring down the Veil. Only one thing can do that: a melding of the magics of the Seelie, the Unseelie, and the Spire. Such a joining will never happen.”

  “Actually, there is one other thing with the power to destroy the Veil,” Meridian responded. “The Orb of Tir.”

  Jaspar snorted. “The O
rb of Tir has been lost for centuries! From before the Veil was even erected!”

  Ah. And there it was. We had come to it at last.

  A cold hard, ball of dread formed in my stomach. My shoulders slumped, my head dropped and my hair fell forward to curtain my face.

  “Your Majesty?” Jaspar Quartz asked. “What is it?”

  I did not want to do this. Right now, I wanted to be anywhere but here. I wanted to be with Asha, to be alone with her in the woods of the human realm like we had been right before we’d come here. Things had been simpler then.

  “Your Majesty,” Meridian Stone said. “It seems there is more to this than you’ve revealed. What else did you discover in the mortal realm?”

  I lifted my head and met Meridian’s stern gaze. “Shezl and Taviel were sent to the mortal realm to retrieve something that would help the Unseelie in their quest to bring down the Veil. That something was the Orb of Tir.”

  Meridian Stone’s nostrils flared but she did not flinch. “And did they find it?”

  “Yes. I tried to get it back.” I steeled myself. “But I failed. The Unseelie hold the Orb. As soon as they’ve built their strength and subdued the Seelie, they’ll bring down the Veil and launch an invasion of the mortal realm.”

  I don’t know what kind of reaction I had expected. Outrage? Anger? Confusion? Maybe all of those things. But what I hadn’t counted on was the stunned, fearful silence that met this statement. The room went so quiet all I could hear was my own breathing.

  “The Orb of Tir?” Meridian Stone said after a moment. “The Spire searched for it for years with no success. How can it have fallen into the hands of the Unseelie?”

  “It was lost because it was trapped behind the Veil, trapped in the mortal realm. My spies in the Court of the Sun learned that the Unseelie had discovered this and were sending two of the Galadri after it.”

  “This changes everything,” Jaspar Quartz breathed. “If they bring down the Veil, there will be war with humanity once again.”

  I nodded. “You’ve not seen the mortal realm. In the centuries since the Veil went up their world has changed. They have weapons beyond your imagining and their numbers are limitless. In any war there would only be one outcome.”

  “But the Unseelie must realize this too? So why do they follow this course of action?”

  “Arrogance. Blind faith in their own power. They cannot conceive that they won’t be victorious. They cannot conceive that mortal kind, once their slaves, might be any threat to them. We must unite the Seelie courts. The Unseelie must be stopped. Do we have an agreement? Does the Court of Shadow speak as one?”

  Jaspar nodded and a second later Meridian Stone did the same. All around the room people followed suit until finally, everyone had given their assent. All except Simeon Ash. He lounged in his chair, one leg dangling over the arm.

  I glared at him. “What say you, Simeon?”

  His grin widened and he climbed to his feet, giving me a flourishing bow. “House Ash is with you, Your Majesty.” Then he spun on his heel and strode out.

  I should have felt elated. I’d gotten what I wanted from the council. So why did I feel like I’d somehow been outmaneuvered? I watched Simeon disappear down the corridor.

  I had missed something; I was sure of it. I just didn’t know what.

  Chapter 3

  ASHA

  “Move your feet!”

  I ducked as the pole came swinging towards my head, pleased when it missed by a few inches. I was getting better at this! A second later, the pole whacked into my shins hard enough to make me grunt and hop about on one leg.

  “Ow! That hurt!”

  Ffion rolled her eyes at me. “It will hurt a whole lot more when an assassin sticks a knife in your ribs because you’re too slow to stop him!”

  We were in a small courtyard garden surrounded on all sides by a canopied walkway that had tall flowers and vines growing over its decorative stonework. Raven had been up at first light after a long session with the council that had lasted until nearly midnight, and Ffion had come to collect me before I’d even finished breakfast. After a brief tour of the palace that had rushed by so fast that I could barely remember any of it, Ffion had brought me here.

  And promptly proceeded to beat seven bells out of me, although she liked to refer to it as ‘training’.

  She placed one hand on her hip, the other holding the wooden pole by her side. Her glare would have melted lead.

  “Again.”

  I groaned. We’d already been at this for an hour. Where was Raven? Why didn’t he come to save me from this torture? Ffion was taking her duty to keep me safe very seriously indeed. She’d vowed that she would have me trained in basic fighting techniques by the end of the week—enough to defend myself should I be attacked.

  I swallowed thickly at that thought. Neither Raven nor Ffion seemed to think I was entirely safe here, despite the fact that I was in the middle of the Shadow Court. I still wasn’t sure what they thought the threat was but I could detect undercurrents swirling around me. Not all was peaceful within Raven’s kingdom.

  With a sigh, I dropped into the crouch Ffion had showed me, making sure to watch her hands. She came at me like lightning, swinging the pole at my head with enough force that it would probably have cracked my skull if it had connected. More from luck than judgment, I managed to duck under the blow and danced quickly backwards to avoid the second blow coming in at my shin. The memory of the first blow was enough to remind me to move swiftly out of the way.

  Ffion put up her staff and nodded. “Better. Remember to never expose your back and keep your eyes on your opponent at all times. There will always be trigger movements that will give away what they plan to do next. The more you practice, the more adept you’ll become at reading these. Again.”

  I held up a hand to stop her. My lungs were burning and my limbs aching. “Can’t we stop for a break?”

  Her eyebrows pulled down in a scowl. With a grunt, she turned and walked over to one of the stone benches that lined the courtyard. I heard her muttering about ‘mortal’ and ‘weak’. I limped after her, sinking gratefully onto the bench by her side.

  A servant who’d been lurking in the shadows came over bearing a tray on which sat some goblets of watered wine and some tiny, white cakes that I’d discovered were delicious. I took a goblet and a cake gratefully, nodding my thanks to the servant. The man bowed so low I thought he would topple over. Jeez. I didn’t think I would ever get used to that.

  Ffion did not take a drink but merely sat straight-backed and tense, eyes scanning the garden. She made no attempt at conversation.

  “So,” I said, determined to break the ice. “How am I getting on?”

  Ffion glanced at me and snorted. She didn’t deign to answer.

  “You don’t like me very much do you?”

  This time she turned her head to look at me. “I don’t like anything that endangers my brother or my people.”

  “And how exactly do you think I do that?”

  She studied me for a long moment. Her eyes were a slightly lighter shade of purple than Raven’s but she still had her brother’s intense gaze. “Why are you here?” she asked at last. “What do you want from my brother?”

  The question took me aback. “Want? What do you mean?”

  “My brother might be blinded by lust but I’m no such fool. What’s in this for you, mortal? Power? Wealth?”

  A hot flare of anger went through me. “Is that what you think? That I’m some kind of gold-digger? I’m here because I love your brother. Is that so difficult to understand?” I realized I’d jumped to my feet and my hands were curled into fists. I was so angry I could have slapped her. Who the hell did she think she was?

  A faint smile curled her lips. “So there’s fire in the mortal after all.” She rose to her feet in one fluid motion and stood facing me, her face only inches from mine. “Let’s get one thing clear, mortal. I will keep you safe because I promised my brother but I do n
ot trust you.”

  I took a step closer. Now our noses were practically touching. “Fine. Then let’s get another thing clear. I will tolerate your snarkiness because I understand you are trying to protect your brother but I will not tolerate you insinuating that I have ulterior motives for being here. I came to the Summerlands because I had no choice. Despite what you are anyone else thinks, I love your brother. I won’t apologize for that—or for being mortal. You’re just going to have to learn to live with it. Got that?”

  Something flashed in her eyes—anger and then a grudging respect. “Very well.” She hefted the pole once more. “Time to go again.”

  “No,” I replied, turning and walking away. “I’ve had enough for today.”

  “Where are you going, mortal?” she called after me. “I will accompany you—”

  “No you won’t,” I replied, turning and walking backwards away from her. “I can find my own way back. And one other thing—my name is Asha, dammit! Start using it!”

  Then I spun on my heel and hurried away before she could reply. I passed through an arched doorway and into the palace. I halted in a wide vestibule with four grand passages running from it and a wide staircase spiraling upwards in one corner. The walls and floor were of polished marble and the decoration fit for any five star hotel back home.

  But this wasn’t what had caught my attention. A huge portrait hung on one wall and beneath it garlands and bouquets of flowers had been laid. On a small table beneath the portrait, a single candle burned. Intrigued, I approached the painting. A beautiful, silver-haired woman gazed down at me. Her expression was serene and the artist had captured both benevolence and compassion shining from her eyes. On a small brass plaque beneath were inscribed the words, Eliana Rose, our Spire and mother to us all. Gone to the Twilight Lands. Never forgotten.

  I balked. This was her. The woman whose death had caused upheaval in Fae society. And if the number of bouquets and garlands laid in her memory were any indication, a woman whose death still cut deeply.