by Lauren Dane
Aine narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you saying that I would allow harm to come to your wife in my own court, Conchobar?”
He bowed but would not leave. “Of course not, Majesty, but she is my bride and I want to protect her.”
Em heard the plea in his words and marveled at how a man so strong could love her so much that he would humble himself and be willing to invoke the wrath of the queen for her.
“Oh for the love of Brigid! Con, I’ve been around the world a few times, eh? There’s not anyone here that is a match for me. I would never allow harm to come to Em. I can see that you are practically ready to throw yourself down and beg so you may stay in court but Em and I are going to have luncheon and take a tour around the gardens. It has been two thousand years since I’ve actually wanted the company of another woman just to chat with and you’ll not ruin that with your presence. I’ll have you summoned when we are done.”
He looked at Em with a smile and she blew him a kiss and followed the queen out, taking a seat at a lovely table near a fountain. The surrounding garden was lush and bright with sensual scents.
“How are you liking Tir na nOg, Em?”
“It’s really beautiful here. Con took me all over the island a few days back, showed me forests and mountain streams and all of the seas. I’ve never seen anything so lovely. The shimmering thing is pretty cool, too. I want to try to sift but Con wants me to work on shimmering for a while longer. I tried to explain to him that I understand the mechanics of it but he won’t listen. Said it took him a year and that there was no way I could do it after a week.”
“I’m sure you can do it, I can feel it. But Con, well, he’s afraid to lose you. If you make the wrong calculation while sifting between worlds it could be disastrous. He lost someone special, it haunts him.”
“He told me about his father.”
“Nessa was an incredible man. I loved him deeply, I miss him to this day,” Aine said, the mask of pain on her face clear.
“Loved him? Like a brother, loved him?”
Aine gave her a measuring look. “No, like a woman loves a man, loved him. Nessa was everything any woman could desire. He was mine before Titania came along. He was Con’s age when we became lovers. Gods, he was incredible in bed. Made a woman remember why she was a woman. Exciting and tender. We were together for twenty thousand years.
“I was stupid and we broke things off. That’s when he met Titania and the rest, as they say, is history. I was with Con a few times…he reminds me so much of his father but the spark wasn’t there. It’s never been there with anyone else.”
“I knew it!” Em said with a smirk. “Today he gave me a lecture about calling you Your Majesty, and then I told him you’d said to call you Aine and mentioned that he sometimes called you Aine and then he got all nervous.”
Aine laughed. “It really wasn’t a big deal and it was two thousand years ago anyway. Just a few weeks, both of us grieving for his father. You have nothing to worry about. I’d hate for you to feel uncomfortable, I do so enjoy your company.”
Em smiled at Aine. “Three months ago I would have felt panicked, I’m all right now. I know he loves me. I’m sorry about Nessa. From the way you and Con speak of him he sounds like an amazing man.”
“He always stayed at my side, even after he’d married Titania. Threatened to leave once, after I’d tried to seduce him back into my bed. Told me he’d made a life with Titania. By then they’d had Finn, and he wouldn’t have betrayed that. It made me love him even more, the fool.” She smiled up at Em.
Em reached out and squeezed Aine’s hand. Aine looked surprised and then touched. “I haven’t been touched like that, out of genuine friendship, since I was very young. Thank you, Em.” Aine stood up and gestured around the garden. “As a boon for your friendship, ask anything of me and it’s yours.”
“Aine, you don’t need to reward me for my friendship, that’s free of charge.”
“You see, an old queen can learn a few new things. I do not wish to insult you by making such an implication. How about this, would you care to see the library? My private library?”
Em’s eyes gleamed and Aine laughed with delight.
“Come then, let’s go,” she held out her hand and Em grabbed it. They walked through the gardens into another part of the house, castle, keep, whatever it was, and down a long hallway.
Em could feel the magics protecting the place. She watched as Aine’s hands moved, undoing them as they passed. Em turned up her own magic, casting out to see what she could feel in the spelled hallway.
It was fairly quiet as they walked together. Em could feel the guards at the other end and some faint glimmerings of emotion floating on the air. But as they neared the doors at the end, Em felt something in the pit of her stomach. “Something is wrong,” she murmured and Aine stopped.
“What do you mean?” Aine demanded.
“There’s someone here who isn’t right. I can’t explain it. You all feel a certain way, this is not the same.”
Aine relaxed. She was confident in her own spells and her people. “I’m sure it’s that there are books here that contain some of the oldest dark magic in the worlds, as well as our own magical historical texts. That’s probably it.”
Em nodded, relieved but feeling dubious. She was still adjusting to her new level of power since she’d taken the spell the week before and she knew Aine was incredibly powerful. Talking herself into being mistaken and confused by the magical texts, they walked through the double doors and Em lost her thoughts as she took in the sight. She gasped, the room was simply magnificent. She could feel the magic humming in the air and as Aine had said, she felt the currents of the positive and negative magic swirling about her.
Em wandered the rooms, fingertips caressing the spines of the books. She heard the voices of thousands of beings older than recorded human time. She was in heaven.
“Aine, these are breathtaking. If I lived here, I’d end up sleeping in here at night,” she said with a laugh and Aine smiled.
“Here then, look at the book you found for us after it had been lost for so many years.” Aine handed her The Shifting Veil. Em read through it, amazed that she was able to understand it all.
They spent a few hours there, Aine delighting in Em’s appreciation for the magical history of the Fae.
“I am so glad that you are pleased. I will leave notice with the guards that you are to be granted admittance at any time you wish. You can’t sift or shimmer into these rooms, or even the hallway. It’s warded against that. Feel free to come any time you want.”
“Oh thank you, Aine! What a lovely gift.”
“And you waste it on this human filth.”
Em turned around just in time to see Aine slump to the ground. She looked up and saw a tall, blond man with rugged features holding a heavy wall sconce. “She may have a lot of power, but she can’t fight a blow to the back of the head. And you, well, you can’t fight that either. Immortality won’t save you from a crushed skull. Oh how Conchobar will grieve for you, knowing that he left you to be murdered just like his father was, on his watch.”
“You’re Dark Fae!”
“Astute for a human,” he said indolently.
She turned her mind inward and saw the wards which blocked shimmering and sifting. She reached out and began to unravel one. It wouldn’t allow her to go very far but if she could just escape this room she’d have a chance to save her life and the life of the queen. She untied it like she did the knotted Christmas tree lights in her parents’ garage each year.
“I’m not a human, you know. I’m immortal too.” She wanted to keep him talking until she could open a space in the wards.
“Your ears show your birth. You may have been granted immortality by the queen but you still come from human stock. It’s really too bad you were so baseborn. If you were Fae and common, I’d make you mine in a second. Con will most certainly miss you in his bed. But that will only push him into madness quicker, which is ju
st fine.”
She almost had it. “What is your glitch anyway? Why are you angry at Con?”
“His father killed my father for daring to act like the god he was. Because he didn’t bow and scrape to the humans he was executed. And then his son, your precious Conchobar, killed my brother. That family has ruined mine and they’ll pay. He’ll lose his loved ones as I lost mine.”
She shimmered and caught the beginning of his roar of frustration.
She ended up in the audience chambers and began to scream for help. Jayce was the first person she saw that she knew. He ran to her and grabbed her arms.
“What is it? Em, are you all right?”
“The queen, she’s been knocked out in her library. Hurry, there’s a Dark Fae there, Aillen’s son!” she explained hastily.
Con shimmered into the room, feeling her distress now that they were joined. He shoved Jayce out of the way and pulled her into his arms. “Em, gods, are you all right? What’s happened?”
“We’ve got to get into the library.” Jayce grabbed them both and shimmered to the end of the hallway where the wards started and then ran before she could even tell him that she’d untangled the wards.
Em reached out but the dark feeling in the pit of her stomach was gone. “He’s gone!” she called out, running behind Jayce and Con.
“Go back, Em! Damn it, you could get hurt,” Con growled as they reached the doors.
“I’m not going anywhere, she’s my friend.”
They burst into the rooms and others came in behind them. A healer of some kind attended the queen.
“You can shimmer her out, there’s a hole in the wards,” Em said and the healer looked surprised but they shimmered out.
“What happened here, Em?” Jayce asked.
“She was showing the library to me. I love books and she wanted to share this.” Em looked around the room and noticed the space where Aine had shown her the book Con had brought back. “Shit! The book! Con, he took it!”
“What book? Who?”
“I think it was Aillen’s son. He said your father had taken his and that you had taken his brother and he was going to rob you of those you loved. He was going to k‑k‑kill me,” she said, the realization of what could have happened suddenly hitting her.
He pulled her tight against him.
“He took The Shifting Veil.”
Con pushed her back so that he could look in her face. “Are you sure?”
“Aine, the queen, she showed me the book before he came in. It’s not there now.”
“How did he get in here and how did you get out?” a dark-haired man demanded of her.
“I don’t know how he got in here. As to how I got out, I saw the wards and I unraveled one of them, a short one, and shimmered into the audience chamber.”
“We’re supposed to believe that a human broke one of the queen’s wards? And at the same time as someone else figured out a way around them? This after they’d been unbreached for thousands of years? Do you think us fools?”
“Are you accusing my wife of conspiring with Dark Fae to kill the queen and steal the book?” Con demanded.
Jayce stepped forward and stood at Em’s other side.
“She’s the one who tracked the book down so that we could get it back, Poul! Why would she do that only to conspire to steal it?” Jayce demanded.
Em closed her eyes and focused. There were so many people in the room, so much background noise from their thoughts and feelings as well as the virtual ocean of magic ebbing and flowing from the books. Why was this man so angry with her?
Her eyes flew open. “You’re one of them,” she said softly.
Con jerked his head and faced her. “What?”
“He’s one of them, the Dark Fae.”
“Poul? He may be an arrogant ass but he’s not a traitor. You’ve got to be mistaken, Em,” Con said.
“What makes you say that, Em?” Jayce asked.
“Why are we even wasting time with this? She’s a traitor and she’s trying to throw blame my way,” Poul sputtered.
“They feel different than you do. Even the Fae that hate and resent me, all at the base, feel the same. The Dark Fae, they give off this…well, they make me sick in the pit of my stomach. They just don’t feel right,” she told Jayce.
“We’ve got to kill her,” Poul said.
“What? Oh no, you don’t!” Con said.
The room was dividing and Em could see that there was going to be a tricky couple of minutes to come. It could go either way at the moment.
“She killed the queen!” another Fae called out.
“She did not!” Jayce said.
Em gave a shrill cabbie whistle and the room quieted. “Jesus! People, the BOOK is gone! Who has it and where is it? Shouldn’t we be out trying to find it? Put me in jail or whatever if you have to but find that book! My family could be harmed with that book, the innocents we protect are in danger.”
“Kill her. Who cares about that book?” Poul said.
Con’s eyes gleamed. “If you so much as think about killing my wife again I’ll kill you with my bare hands. She found the book, she is the one who made sure I got it to bring back here. If she’d wanted to use the book for ill, she could have. She cooperated with me every moment. She has a pure heart.
“As for who cares about the book, your queen does. She’s the one who sent me to watch over Em in the first place. She wanted that book back here in safekeeping, out of hands that could use it for ill.”
“Only on humans. Why do we care what happens to them? And anyway, the queen sent you to watch this creature because she didn’t trust her, so why should we?”
“Because I do.”
They all turned and saw Aine standing there and the whole room bowed. Em went to her and hugged Aine tightly.
“Are you all right? I was so worried about you.”
Aine smiled. “Just a bump on the head. Bron has a lot to learn about rendering a killing blow.”
With a last smile at Em she turned her gaze out into the crowd. “You dare speak of killing one of my subjects without an order from me?”
“Majesty, we believe her responsible for the attack on you,” Poul said.
“Why on earth would you think such a ridiculous thing?”
“She found a way around your wards at the same time that this Dark Fae found his way around them. It can’t be coincidence.”
“It isn’t a coincidence.”
Everyone gasped, including Con, who put his hand out and pushed Em behind his body.
Aine saw and laughed. “My sweet Con, I have no desire to harm my dear friend. What I meant was that I did not redo the wards as I walked down the hall toward the library when she and I first came in. Anyone with a half-decent ability to lay a detection spell would have known when the wards went down. As for Em finding her way around my wards, I know. She’s got a knack for it. She sees the magic and understands it somehow. It’s her gift. A gift that saved my life. And to address your incorrect comment, Poul, the Fae have compacts and covenants we are beholden to as well and the book, if used by the wrong people, is a danger to us as well as humans.”
“Majesty, I believe you’re making a mistake. To not kill this human will be your undoing,” Poul said vehemently.
“No, Poul, your insistence on it is yours. How long have you been with them, Poul?” Aine asked, her words laced with a compulsion spell so strong that Em felt the crack of its power yank at her.
Poul went to his knees, struggling not to speak, his eyes screwed shut, mouth gaping open and snapping shut. “Die, human lovers!” he cried out and suddenly was holding a silver knife that he stabbed himself in the neck with before anyone would move.
He slumped over and fell to the ground, dead.
A panicked murmur filled the room.
“One of the Queen’s Favored was Dark Fae. If Bron has the book, I have a feeling that he was informed of it by Poul. What is his plan?” Jayce asked no one in particular.
“There is no way Con would have married a woman who wasn’t honorable and from what I’ve seen, you have a great talent for understanding people.” He shrugged with a gentle smile.
“Freya! Something Freya said to me the other day. She said that the demon lord had other servants and that people serve for different reasons. Oh god, Bron is going to give that book to the demon lord. I’ve got to get home right now!”
Aine grabbed her arm before Con could do it. “Em, you can’t be sure of that.”
“Yes, I can. I know it.”
“You can’t put yourself in danger, Em,” Con demanded.
“I will not stay here while my family is in danger. I can sift back myself if you won’t help me but I won’t sit and do nothing.”
“Jayce, you go with them,” Aine said to him and turned back to Em. “We can only have so many Fae in your realm at one time. I have my own compacts to adhere to. Take Jayce, he has great powers and is nearly as strong as Con.” She pressed a kiss to Em’s forehead. “Be well and come back soon, friend.”
Con gave the queen a glare but saw that Em would go one way or the other. Sighing, he held out his hands and Em took one while Jayce took the other.
* * * * *
They sifted onto the sidewalk in front of Lee’s house, ran through the gate and burst into the foyer of Lee’s house. Em immediately yelled for her sister.
“What?” Lee’s face poked out of the hallway upstairs. Her face lit with surprised delight at seeing her sister. “Oh! Em!” Lee ran downstairs and pulled her sister into an embrace. “Honey, you look worried, what is it?” She looked at Con with narrowed eyes. “Did you hurt my sister again?”
He put his hands up in defense but before he could say anything Em interrupted. “No! He’s not the problem. The book, the book I gave back to the Fae—it’s been stolen. I think that the Fae who stole it took it to the demon lord.”