Betrayal

by Cyndi Goodgame

  I read it myself.

  The story’s told

  Of this I know

  The first son born

  Will bear the one

  She will be queen

  To rule them all

  The courts anew

  The feud’s dispute.

  Odd man out

  Settles all

  He will renew

  The summer

  The winter

  And all!

  I reread it three times.

  “This is the prophecy my courts seer found. I think we read this as I was the firstborn and you were the one I would uncover. But I think we read it wrong. The word bear has another context. And I think it means something altogether different.”

  “And you’re going to tell me what you think that is right now?” I croaked out.

  “I would be guessing.” he said with his usual bravado.

  “Shoot.” My hands tingled from uncovering another piece of my life.

  “I think that it means there is another king alive still.”

  “And you didn’t know about him, why?”

  “Good question.”

  “And you decided all this, why?”

  “Because five years ago, one of my own came to me and revealed a secret that not even Ian or Pike ever told me. That there was one before my father and had him taken away long ago and disposed of due to his treason for falling in love with the enemy. He was sent to live in the human world and erased of all his memory of living in our world.”

  All hell will break lose if he is insinuating that my father is his brother or some weird relation.

  Something didn’t fit with that idea though. It is very irritating to have a thought stuck at the tip of your brain and no matter how hard you close your eyes you can’t bring it to the surface. And it’s worse when someone is staring at you waiting for you to bring it up. I opened my eyes finally finding part of the thought, “That is when you tried to take me.”

  A wide toothy grin played on his lips, “You are quick. I knew then that there was more than one prophecy but finding it under my father’s nose while supposedly exiled was next to impossible and in the end, didn't work. Catrin delivered me the prophecy and left. My father retrieved her as she was leaving and when I stepped in to save her, my father sighted then that I would have to admonish her or bring her forth to the court. He cornered me into announcing a claim on her or letting her die for stepping into the King’s main courtroom. I had no choice. I claimed her as my betrothed to save her life because my father forced me too. She’d left her father’s home to come show me this and she has not seen her family since. And it’s all my fault.” He dropped his head to his hands. “I let her walk away that day in my shock and she was stopped at the doors by our guards.”

  So this girl is not any special interest, but rather a savior. Or dooms day giver. However one views it, it changed everything. “And she is at your court?” I knew this already, but I wanted to know she was still alive.

  “I offered to sneak her home, but she wouldn’t let me for fear of retaliation on her family. I understood and left things as they are. She has been well taken care of.”

  “And she has just sat there for five years in wait.”

  His one shouldered shrug had me baffled. Okay. This was dementedly crazy. Back to me.

  “Why would King Sane offer her as a wife if he expected me to be your wife?”

  Kin’s eyes went faraway for an instant and then came back, “I’m not sure he aims for you to survive.”

  O.kay! Not sure how to respond to that. “And do you know who this older king might be.”

  “I have a theory.” He seemed a little less unnerved.

  I looked at the door. MY really, really long shower had to be unusual to Rion by now. “Out with it.”

  He looked me squarely in the eyes, “I think that it is your father.”

  “My father is human.” On one level of my brain I was in certain utter shock, but on the flipside of my brain I was busy screaming “Liar, liar, pants of fire”. But that wouldn’t solve anything, right?

  “I think that’s what my father wants you to think. And the only other person that knows the real truth that I can find is your mother.”

  “That’s why you were there all those times. It was never to hurt or kill my parents. To find out the truth.”

  He smiled. “You really are smart. Of course, I’d never have thought it in you to pull the fireworks prank.”

  As if I had to prove it to him. Besides, that little incident backfired on me big time. My father, FEY. And from the winter court. I started weaving the web. I have to talk to my mother.

  As if Kin had read my mind, “You need to talk to your mother.”

  “I have to know,” I hesitated to ask but just for clarification, “is my father related to you?” Sane and my father look to be the same age, but in the Fey world physical age didn’t hold any merit to the way one looked.

  “No, we are not related either way. My father was of no relation to yours.” His smile was sad, “I have since found a few of my own court who hemmed and hawed at first but finally told me a few facts that lead in a different direction. I think your father is the lost king of the Unseelie court who disappeared on the night Pike’s mother appeared in our lower kitchens. My father flat out took the court when the chaos of losing their king made it easy. With the Seelie court in disarray to, no one noticed the deception. I was young then and didn’t make the connection.”

  Wow! This tangled web we weave was a hot jumbled mess. MY father? I needed to talk to Ian. Does he know? Is this another secret he’s kept from me? And poor Pike? His mother!

  “This is why you are doing the rescue?” And why King InSane wanted to meet me in the same woods for a little chat about my father. He really was insane.

  “Okay then, sum up any other demented details and let’s get out of here.”

  “Ah Grace, I kind of like the privacy.”

  “KIN!” I yelled silently liking that he was at least back to himself now. He just smiled like the devil he was. A kinder one than I thought, but devilish nonetheless. “But my father, if he is this lost king, would never return to your court or mine?” I conceded.

  “No Grace, he’d not be able to do that. You wouldn’t want that anyway.”

  I didn’t want to ask if that means his father is responsible for every detail of my father’s planned out life. It would only discourage me from what I had to ask next, but he never gave me the chance. I had so many questions.

  “You need to talk to your mother,” he instructed.

  “Yes, I do.” I braved a question his way. “Does my mother know you are a Firebearer?”

  “Yes. Two is rare, but three is a mystery. She never told anyone that I know of.”

  Wow!

  “This is where I leave you. I will be waiting. Call me if you need me.” A long kiss on the cheek and he was gone.

  And that is a lot to leave me with. I turned off the water and started to ask him if he knew why Catrin came to see him with the prophecy or even if she knew what she had, but he was gone. Goshdangit! I need more answers. One day there would be no new news.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  absence-n. the state of being away from a place or person.

  Okay! So my mind raced like a Greyhound with unwanted knowledge of the past, present, and possible outcomes of the future. Catrin’s part in this had to have been wrong, and I couldn’t ask her how the facts could have been possible mixed up over time. If it was true that my father was once the Unseelie court king, then why did none of his own court ever try to rescue him?

  That perhaps explains some of the oddness that these dang prophecies all point at me saying, “You’re the one.” Key word, prophecies and not just one. I was the daughter, the Firebearer, and the one to save them all. But Sane was the villain who orchestrated past the prophecy and stole my father’s heritage and lied to his own son all this time. The facts were twisted beyond the
real prophecy and Kin had figured this out.

  My mind kept me awake all night. When morning came, we left with the dawn and returned to court more quickly than we ever had. I’d stayed to myself in thought the entire time avoiding everyone, including Ian, who didn’t ask me anything that I wasn’t giving.

  Almost to the boundary, I finally flooded the waters of information to Ian as he sent everyone away from the two of us. I appreciated the wait time, but now I was a ball of messed up emotion and fear of what these prophecies were not telling me. No new information answered between us like I hoped. He just listened which was exactly what I needed.

  ***

  Pike was still gone. Where has he been going, now that his mother is relocated, so much that he wants it kept secret? “Where is Pike wandering off to so much lately?”

  Ian shrugged and didn’t look up from the maps in front of him, but picked up his loose dagger instead, “Don’t know if he wants anyone to know just yet.”

  Admission of something for a change...clues to nothing. That doesn’t give me much to go on. “And you’ll not lie to me, but you won’t tell me?”

  He stopped fiddling with the dagger he was examining so carefully and looked at me, “Do you want me to?”

  He meant the lying part. I nodded in agreement leaving it alone. Pike’s absence would remain a mystery for a little longer.

  “We have his mother?” I left the question open for more information that I technically already had.

  “And King Sane knows. So what. Pike has her tucked safely away in our court. She is pampered and adored.” The dagger disappeared under his belt.

  “You say that like it’s not an awful way to live.”

  “It is what it is, Grace.” he continued to schlep with maps at the meeting room table again now trying to avoid the conversation. The room emptied minutes ago, and I took the opportunity to get some information, but I wasn’t getting anywhere.

  “Ian, that’s heartless,” I stood to leave trying to make a point.

  “Grace, don’t make me give in to the heartache of what Pike is going through. He hasn’t paved my road any easier.”

  I was in shock. Guessing I was having a blond moment, I asked why?

  He hit his fist against the desk. “Never mind.”

  “No. Never mind means you think I’m not aware of what you’ve been through. Correct. I don’t. Except for the few things you’ve allowed me to know and what I’ve sneaked out of Sarah and Pike. You tell me so little and then expect me to just understand. Go with the flow. Tell me things like I want from you. It’s a two way street Ian! So what if I know a little more about you that isn’t pleasant. It’s not like I haven’t entertained ideas of what happened in your life before me, but it’s doesn’t mean I dwell on it either. You can’t change it and I wouldn’t want to. It’s what make you...you!”

  I was being childish. I really needed to grow up. I knew he was thinking this like I was thinking how much I know he keeps secrets for my safety, but it still hurt.

  “Grace, what if it is you next? Have you thought of that? Kinsler has taken you twice. He is still that man’s son. If your memory is taken, you won’t even know who I am and there will be nothing I can do to get it back and that is worse than death.” He hit his fist harder against the poor desk. He was full of emotion and I hated that I was the one causing it. No one, including Ian, told me things like that could have happened. If I'd known, I might have been a little more cautious with going with Kin before.

  Yes, death is worse. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  He pounded out a hard sigh of relief and heaved me to him, holding me tight.

  “We both need to let each other in more. I know it seems that I always end up in the strangest predicaments, but I really think that I would fare better if I had a heads up. Like losing my memory before arranging party nights with Sane. I don’t care about what you three bumbled up in the past, but I do care how you go about the future.”

  His chest moved against me, “I know you’re right.”

  Did he just say….

  I wonder how many times one has to be right to make the other feel secure enough to relax the subject? With the two of us, it’s all about physical safety in the world we live in. I think we have had this conversation after every major painful event tangled into our lives, but each time it seems we get a little farther in our relationship with the accepting each other’s faults part. When the fault is making a choice for the benefit of the other’s safety, it is so hard to stay mad.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  conversations- n. the informal exchange of ideas by spoken words.

  Kin stood before me. The “Protect Grace Crew” stood nearby with their just in case stances dug into the floor as he had entered. I didn’t think this would ever happen, but Ian allowed him to come to our court to share information with me about the rescue. I knew he really wanted to tell me about my father publicly. I should have told Ian by now the other details about what Kin told me, but I was scared to death to find out otherwise that something else was amiss with these sordid prophecies. Would Ian already know and be forced to hide yet another secret from me? Or worse, take him from me? Yes, we were back to the secrets. Would they ever end?

  We stood in the meeting room with every guard surrounding me on one side of the table and Kin on the other. He spoke aloud and in my mind. I carefully blocked and guarded my thoughts to find out a few answers I couldn’t get elsewhere without severe embarrassment. Logic told me to just start being blunt.

  “What news do you have?” I asked aloud with a markedly strict air. You said once that Pike and Ian keep hidden from me the power I will hold. What does that mean?

  Kin deliberated a while before saying, “The Nyms were not killed somehow.” When you are finally marked by your mate, if it is me who has the privilege, I will stand beside the most powerful creature to ever exist in our world. A raised to be human queen who was once a king’s daughter who possibly isn't human at all, but thought to be and shares the blood of both courts will have the power over humans not even we can hold.

  First of all, marked by anyone sounded gross. Second of all, I wasn’t in the business of helping out any of these princely dudes in that way. My wedding night would be mine and who I share it with, not a “mark the queen” night. I ignored where his thoughts led and said, I thought my father was Fey when I was conceived?

  I believe my father stripped him of any Fey qualities long before that, but I’m not sure. It’s not something I can just ask.

  Kin not knowing something was inconceivable. Noticing our silence to the crowd I remarked back to his last response, “Thank you for making sure no one got hurt.”

  “I didn’t,” Kin said.

  Fine! Same old, same old Kin, but his words infuriated me no matter which conversation I followed. “What about the others that were not rescued?” I knew this answer, but we needed a reason to meet.

  “Not possible.” The austere short answer attitude was growing, not easing. Garg!

  “Will you try?”

  “No!”

  “Fine! Are we done here?” Are you going to see my mother?

  Already have.

  I raised an eyebrow by accident. Ian watched Kin so I was fine still, but Bane watched me too carefully. Was he trying to listen in? Of course he couldn't.

  “I will take that as a yes,” I finished off.

  Grace, Pike has been following me. He knows where I’ve been going.

  Figures. Well, now I know. I’ll take care of it.

  He smiled so deviously I couldn’t stop the laugh it caused in my belly. Secrets in any relationship can destroy it. I could just ask Ian. Then maybe when I ask him again where Pike has been going, he’ll tell me.

  Kin frowned this time. “Queen Grace.” He turned to Ian. “Ian.” It was obvious by the murder swelling in Ian’s eyes over what we’ve been doing that this would be discussed.

  As he turned away from me, he stopped and looked back t
o give me one quick smoldering despondently driven look. I am sadly jealous of everything he has, but he doesn’t deserve disloyalty. Be honest with him, Grace.

  What the heck did that mean? Now Kin was making me feel bad for keeping secrets from someone who refused to share with me in the first place. Yeah, it was for my safety and all that crap, but I could handle it. Ahhh! And so could Ian for that matter. Kin was right.

  I should have thought more carefully on who to ask. Only days have passed since I’d made the decision that I’d never leave Ian’s side, not harbor any secrets for the sake of safety, and here I was doing just that. Sometimes I wonder if I deserve forgiveness. Being a queen was hard enough with adding wife to the pile of titles. Was anyone ever ready to balance both?

  When the guards disappeared to escort Kin from the court, Ian asked me to sit in the garden. I had a feeling I was being led to a confession booth.

  Once seated, we watched the fountain for a while each keeping our silence as a barrier. Finally Ian asked, “Why do you talk to him that way?”

  He knew and told me so to be sure I knew his look was intended for a purpose. “I know that he is not well liked but he has more than just the evil plot of taking over the world in mind.”

  “And you know what that is?” Ian asked me taking in a tight breath.

  Does a vampire have fangs? Of course I do.

  “Yes.” I admitted. I am in a confession booth, right? “He told me about my father. More than anyone else knows or seems to want to share.”

  That was a silent dig on “keeping secrets for my own good”. He should share more.

  “And that is?” Ian asked.

  “Do you know?”