by D. D. Chance
The king shrugged. “It’s near the castle. I haven’t been there in a while, so I thought it better to approach more circumspectly.”
That surprised me. “They’re not expecting you?”
“They are not. When the High King returns to his castle, there are protocols to follow, meetings to be had. I haven’t had time or patience for either. Wouldn’t be doing them now except…”
“Except you had to randomly go and yank me here, when I was doing perfectly well minding my own business.”
“Your business clearly could use an influx of gold, and so could the rogue witches and monsters you shelter,” he shot back.
I stiffened, reflexively wanting to deny the accusation—helping witches leave their covens was another crime that could be laid at the Hogans’ tavern door, but one we’d kept successfully hidden for generations. And harboring refugee monsters definitely would get me in trouble, if anyone knew or cared enough to look too closely at the patrons of the White Crane. How had he possibly…
The king’s dark chuckle swept over me. “I know everything about you, Belle Hogan. It’s one of the benefits of being king. There’s nothing you can keep from me.”
Oh, we’ll see about that. Fury rekindled, I wasn’t going to do the High King the honor of denying the truth or demanding answers. For the moment, I was weak and he was strong, so like it or not, I had to play by his rules. He could have that glimpse into my world if he wanted it that badly. God knew I was going to get a waterfall of an introduction to his.
“I want to see the contract,” I said stiffly.
“You will. But first I need you to understand something.” He reached out and turned me to face him, his blue eyes hard. “I will not have you create any reason for the others to doubt what you’re doing here. It’s for your own safety. Because, make no mistake, I will kill you if you betray me.”
He spoke with credible sincerity, and I suddenly had no doubt that he did kill on a regular basis, and he was good at it. Probably not the best time for me to bring up that I could kill him too. Instead, I shrugged.
“Sure. I mean, hey, at least we’re getting off on the right foot.”
He snorted, but I peered around, trying to pull answers from the trees.
“Is there anything else I need to know? Am I supposed to bow and scrape to your entire family, or simply wander around looking silent and mysterious? And do you have a name, or do you prefer King of the Asshole Fae? Because I’m happy to work with that one, for reals.”
He chuckled, and I had to grit my teeth and look away, stuffing down my heart’s fluttery tremor at the sound. What the hell was it about this guy? How could I hate him and be all jacked up by him at the same time? Was it some sort of spell?
As soon as I thought it, my mind seized on that idea. A spell, I decided. Had to be. Damn but the Fae were a tricky bunch of assholes.
The king, fortunately, didn’t seem to notice. “My name is Aiden,” he said. I was glad he couldn’t see my face. The name sounded like a breath of cool wind after a summer storm, a whisper of birdsong just before dawn. I closed my eyes, savoring it as I tried to pull myself together.
He continued, apparently used to talking to the backs of people’s heads. “And as to what you will be doing, I don’t think that will be a problem. It’s been many years since we opened the academy. There are generations of the court who haven’t been taught. You’ll be busy with that.”
“Generations of…” I frowned, glancing back at him. “You guys didn’t even try to teach your family on your own? My great-grandmother went poof, and you all just picked up your magic books and went home?”
“Don’t mock me,” Aiden growled, and there was enough real anger in his tone that a chill ran down my spine. I held his gaze defiantly, but it took everything I had not to shiver. “You of all people know that Reagan Hogan left us without enough magic to last. And there was never any need for us to teach our own before. That’s what we had you for.”
“Well, that worked out well for you, didn’t it?” I pushed, knowing I was skating on thin ice. I didn’t care. I didn’t like this guy. I didn’t want to like him. I sure as hell wasn’t going to feel sorry for him.
“My family weren’t the ones who suffered,” he informed me coldly, as if daring me to ask more questions about how poorly the Fae were treated by my great-grandmother.
I didn’t give him the satisfaction. “So is this fabled academy somewhere on the grounds of the castle? Or is it somewhere farther off?”
He scowled, squinting at me a little askance. “From what I have been told, it’s a building that appears when the Hogan witch appears. It’s near the castle, though. All the accounts agree on that.”
“Oh.” I glanced around. “Like, how near? Here in the forest?” That, at least, would be nice.
I was destined to be disappointed as Aiden shook his head. “You will step foot upon the castle grounds, and we’ll see what magic you have within you. The size of the academy is directly related to the strength of the witch, or so the legend goes. We’ll see if you can generate a one-room schoolhouse, or the fabled academies of old.”
Oh, great. Dread curled in my stomach. I should have run when I had the chance.
A long, clear note sounded, and Aiden turned, grimacing as he peered off to the left. The sun was high in the sky, but I had no sense of orientation here, so I didn’t know if he was looking to the east or to the west. He gestured me forward, toward a break in the trees I hadn’t noticed before.
“That didn’t take long,” he groused. “We’d best get going if we want to arrive on our own two feet.”
I turned with him. I knew nothing about the lives of the high Fae. I had avoided the Laram like they were the plague, and the stories I’d been told about their more exalted cousins were equal parts myth and cautionary tale. My grandma had stopped shy of suggesting that the high Fae ate human babies for breakfast, but not by much. Nevertheless, if I was going to work with these people, even for a short period of time, I needed to buck up.
“Meaning what?” I asked boldly as we stalked through the forest. “Do they not let you set foot in the castle on your own? I can’t imagine they carry you. But…?”
The king shot me a startled glance, then snorted.
“I forget how little you know of us. The castle will send horses, but not just any horses. Enormous steeds draped in parade finery, meant to convey that the king has returned. All very nice, and all very unnecessary, especially considering there are enemies of the Fae who might be watching from beyond our realms, waiting to strike.”
His tone had turned unexpectedly dark, and I thought for a split second about his comment about people suffering. Exactly how much danger could the high Fae be in? I didn’t get a chance to ask anything more, though, as Aiden roughly gestured me forward.
“Can you keep up?” he asked with legitimate curiosity, as if humans weren’t made for real movement.
Then again, he was a Fae. “With you? Probably not. I’m thinking you can run hella faster than I can, so hopefully you haven’t conjured us too far away from your happy home. Or, maybe you can make one of your little doorways out of thin air and we’ll be there in no time flat, right?”
“Wrong,” he said, wincing. Sooo…that little trick didn’t work as well as he wanted it to? Good. He was an ass, and maybe magic didn’t like asshats so much in the Fae realm.
“We’ll walk until you falter, then I’ll carry you,” he decided. “Until the borders of the great lawn. Appearances are important to the high court, whether I like it or not. They’ll need to see you on your own two feet, holding your own.”
I liked the sound of that, but as annoying as it was, I knew walking side by side wouldn’t be efficient. “We’ll go through the forest?” I asked, and when he nodded, I stepped closer to him, steeling myself for what needed to happen. “We’ll make better time if you carry me on your back the whole way until we need to do the whole ‘she’s not a puny human’ trick. That’ll b
e better, yeah?”
Something rough flashed across his face, but he nodded. “That will be better.”
“Okay, then, High King of the Fae,” I said, straightening my clothes and nodding to him, like this was a completely ordinary thing for me. “Let’s see how fast you can move with a human on your back.”
10
Aiden
I didn’t know what game the witch was playing, but this one I approved of.
Even though I knew I should at least try to use my portal skill to get us closer to the castle proper, I much preferred having more time alone with the human. Besides, I got the distinct sense that she didn’t often depend on anyone for help, even—especially—when she should. But here she was deferring to me. Simple expedience? Or did she crave me holding her? Did she yearn to rely on my strength and speed?
I caught the half-choked laugh, then swung around to see her flushing with embarrassment.
“Um…so I don’t know how things are supposed to work between us. Do you?” she asked frankly, her honesty mostly a function of her disorientation, I could tell. “Because I can’t read your thoughts, but I can pick up your emotions. And I’ve never been good at keeping my opinions to myself. So if you’re going to continue the whole Turok: Son of Stone act, if that’s simply how you usually treat females in your realm, I need to know. Because while I get the fact that it’s just how you roll, it’s not how I roll. So if we’re going to pull off the whole deferent human scam, we need to come to an understanding, or you need to legitimately hurt me. Otherwise, I may end up laughing at the wrong time.”
I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“The Hogan witches are supposed to be physically afraid of their king, right? I mean, how else did you keep us here?”
I blinked, but she kept going. “You have to understand, the stories my great-grandmother told to my grandmother and so on through my ma to me made you out to be assholes. But I don’t know if that was because of the way you treat humans, the way you treat witches, or the way you treat everyone. It’s maybe to your advantage to put a little bit of the fear of the gods in me so I don’t misstep out of a false sense of confidence or security.”
It was an impressive speech, made more so by the fact that despite her bold words, the witch was shaking by the end of it. I got the sense that she honestly didn’t know if I might strike out at her in fury. What barbarians must she live around? That said, I knew an advantage when I saw it, and I planned to take every advantage with this woman.
“The Hogan witches were our allies, not our slaves, no matter what you were told. As long as you remain an ally, you are safe with me, and you remain under my protection,” I informed her. “Still, your concern is well-founded. There will be those in the castle who may seek to discredit you, those whose relative influence has increased in the absence of a magic-wielding High King. But we waste time. Up you go.”
I turned, bracing one leg, and extended an arm.
The witch looked like she’d just lost a fight. “Right,” she sighed. Her face tightened, her clear discomfort pleasing me far more than it should. She was affected by me. She might not want to admit it, but that didn’t make it any less true.
“Don’t drop me, okay?” she muttered. She stepped up, wincing as her weight settled on my thigh, then swung her leg around my back. My arms moved automatically to brace her, pulling her legs forward and up.
“It will be better if you set your knees high as if you were riding a horse. I may have to shift quickly in the trees. So hold on mostly with your arms.”
She grumbled something incomprehensible, but she did as I asked. A second later, her head lay against my neck, her mouth almost even with my right ear. I took a step, ostensibly to adjust my hold, but more to calm the racing of my heart, the firing of my blood. My body was hard and ready—too ready. But at least the witch had given me the grace of a warning.
No Fae could be read by a human in ordinary circumstances, and even a Hogan witch couldn’t read the High King if he didn’t want it. I veiled my thoughts and emotions, and was rewarded by Belle’s breathing evening out. There would be a time when she would know exactly what I was thinking, a time when that would be very much to my advantage, but not here. Not yet.
We took off, and I gloried in the weight of the witch on my back, the satisfaction of a successful campaign, and the first glimmer of hope I’d allowed myself to feel in a long time. I shied away from thoughts more primal than that, as every time I touched on them, I could feel the witch adjust her hold, then relax it, muttering dark curses to herself. She was as attuned to me as the finest harp to its master.
Another hiss, and I hid my grin. Not yet, I decided, but far sooner than she ever expected.
I bent closer to the ground, slightly picking up the pace, and the witch exhaled at the sudden movement, reflexively tightening her hold. My head swam with want of her, the touch of her breath to my ear conjuring up images so real, I could almost feel her in my arms, not on my back, her body arching up toward me in wanton need, not flattened to my back in a desperate attempt not to get scraped off by branches. I fought down the arousal as best I could, because it certainly didn’t make running any easier, but it was good that I’d traveled this path through the forest many times before. Because my mind was certainly not on my feet.
We reached the forest edge far too soon for my preference, but I couldn’t wait any longer. Those among my court who were most loyal to me would sense me at this range. They’d be looking.
The moment I stopped, the witch loosened her hold and slid down the length of my body. I closed my eyes, immediately regretting the loss of her weight and heat.
“Alrighty, then.” She blew out a long, unsteady breath. She was equally affected by me, if not more. Good. Then her next words surprised me.
“Okay, so what’s the plan here? Are you dragging me in by my hair, am I cowed but defiant, or do we act like this was the plan all along? What gets you the most leverage with your people?”
I slanted her a glance, but she merely shrugged. “I may not know the high court of the Fae, but I understand how covens work. Appearances matter more than anyone wants to believe.”
I grunted. I knew the answer, but I didn’t think she could pull it off.
Once again, she startled me with a soft, knowing laugh. “Try me,” she said, reminding me of her sensitivity to my emotions, if not my actual thoughts.
“Be scared,” I informed her. “It’s how most humans react to the Fae, those who aren’t so blinded by their mythology of us that they expect us to sprout wings and flit from bloom to bloom.”
She bit her lip. “But could you do that flitting thing, though? Just for a few minutes?”
I rolled my eyes. “Humans are pitiful barbarians, and simpleminded. The Hogan witches could see us for what we were, and even they feared us.”
“Uh-huh,” Belle shot back. “Shocking, since every witch who came back to my family after her tenure with the Fae, did so with her memories wiped, and only the vague suspicion that she’d been treated like crap. I can’t imagine why we’d not be big fans of you guys.”
I tightened my jaw, giving her a curt nod, but the truth was, I didn’t actually know how to respond to this accusation. There certainly were no stories of my family brutalizing the witches, but those accusations probably wouldn’t be shared, at least not in polite company. And they would never reach the ears of the high Fae who supposedly perpetrated such offences.
“Assume the worst,” I finally offered. “That’s how I’ve always approached my family.”
Something in my voice must have tipped her off, because she peered at me, curiosity uppermost in her thoughts for the first time since she’d arrived in my realm, replacing dread, resignation, and real fear. I liked the change.
“When was the last time you were here, at your castle?” she asked. “I think maybe time works differently for you all, but how old were you?”
I peered through the forest to the
far-off castle that had become my dungeon. “Ten years, in time as you would recognize it. I was a boy of twenty, summoned to dance attendance on my father. Instead, I demanded to be sent to the front, and to the front I went, for all that I was his only son.”
“Really?” She frowned. “Weren’t you supposed to be protected as the heir to the throne or whatever?”
“My father had every female Fae in the court vying for his attention. If he needed other children, he could’ve made sure he had them. But he already had one heir, and unless and until I died, he didn’t want another.”
“There’s a whole lot to unpack with that line,” Belle drawled, but I waved her off.
“Unpacking can wait. My court is here. Try to look miserable.”
She barked a short, rueful laugh. “I’ll do my best.”
11
Belle
We only had to go a few more feet before the forest thinned dramatically, and I could glimpse what lay beyond, maybe a half-mile distant. “Whoa,” I managed. “That’s your castle? It’s huge! Or is this some kind of illusion magic?”
“An illusion for humans, perhaps. It’s sometimes difficult for you to believe what you see, even when it is right in front of you.”
That sounded a lot like a criticism, but I didn’t mind it. My gaze was trained on the distant white wall that stretched the length of the lawn between forest and castle. It was topped with decorative golden finials that gleamed in the sunshine and there was no gate at all that I could tell. Beyond the wall, set back some distance if I was judging the perspective right, was the High King’s castle. It almost had to be, because I reacted to it with a visceral dread, as if the fear of this place had been bred into me, the same way most humans innately feared snakes, spiders, or people who didn’t like coffee.
The castle rose like a series of daggers out of the forest, its turrets sharp and aggressively jutting up into the sky, all of it gleaming white. Even at this distance, I could see that tall windows lined every high wall. Walkways and balconies ringed several of the turrets, while bridges arched between them. This would be a castle filled with light and movement, and just looking at it made me want to collapse in fear.