I became the first queen in Fey history to have more than one child. Our daughter was born in summer. Her name, Gina. After my mom who was buried ten years back. A son was born not a century later. His name, Pikin after the two very close friends who were there when he was born.
Bane and Sarah finally married and have four children, the most of our kind. All four are boys who look just like Bane. Poor Sarah. Yeah, right!
Pike never married. I’ve heard it said that some are just not the marrying type. Even Fey men. He seemed to fit that type in every single way. He remained a good friend and sometimes too good for Ian’s taste. Occasionally he would disappear for months on end. When I’d ask, he’d get that dark, sad look in eyes and force a smile. If it was something he wanted me to know, he’d tell me. He never did.
And Kin. He married Catrin, the arranged marriage. They are happy. He is very fond of her. They have a son. His name, Grayson.
Kin has taken his court to a new level. It’s still surrounded with various unethical happenings, but that’s just the way of it.
I studied Henry David Thoreau sophomore year and would have never thought his words would describe something so dear to me. “There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.” The only puzzle piece in my life I never quite fit into a perfect place was Kin. But as the words say better than I can admit—Kin was never goodness from the start, therefore, he was forever tainted.
I feel very blessed to have such great friends and to still be looked upon as this grand figure in the Fey history. Of course, we are writing it as we go since our generation of the current court changed everything based off a page’s worth of words called a prophecy about little ole me. And with a few centuries to go in my life, I will cherish every second of it.
Prophecies
We’ll come seek you on one hallowed eve (Fey winter solstice)
When grace upon you is in full bloom (Grace, the half Fey, half human)
A queen emerges among us all (both courts involved- now know means Grace is a daughter of both courts. mom Seelie dad Unseelie)
To take us into a peaceful rule (solve two court’s long disputes against each other)
A prince will name her to his own (one of three- who?)
Guard her well from friend or foe (current queen designated Ian got this role)
Come seek us at the pass (when the queen claims who she chooses)
Otherwise, you shall not last. (all will perish if she doesn’t)
To rule them all (Grace)
The courts anew (combine both courts)
The feud’s dispute. (the long overdue feud between two courts)
Odd man out ((Pike)
Settles all (settles courts long dispute)
He will renew (saves Grace in end)
A Prince’s rule under burn (Kinsler)
The summer (Grace – summer Firebearer)
The winter (Kinsler- winter Firebearer)
surpasses all! (all other Fey)
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!
Cold
Warm
the fire burns on
unite the two
before it’s due
and the courts shall
be made anew.
A SNEAK PEEK
Here is an excerpt of Guardian, for which is the story of Deception retold by Ian’s point of view. The book takes you back a hundred years to before Grace and what life was like for him. You see what he wishes he could say to Grace, but never seems to find the right time or place or ability to let down his shield of hidden feelings that he’s held in for so long and never thought it manly enough to tell the one who matters most. He couldn’t lose her, but he just didn’t know the eloquent ways of saying it the way she needed.
We know in the end that Ian has her heart the same as she holds his. How did that love develop and come to be, is the question.
Guardian
Fey Court Trilogy
Companion
Novel
by Cyndi Goodgame
“I’m leaving you man,” I told Pike. He didn’t mind taking his sweet time. I left anyway. He’d catch up.
I arrived at the clearing near the old abandoned warehouse from thirty years ago that the humans had left decaying and covered now in poison ivy. The dead oak tree beside it would deter any wayward humans in the other direction. Kinsler had long glammed the face of it to keep anyone from anointing our dungeon of play.
I aimed for the nearest bird of choice. Aiming my bow for the fun of it, I nailed the sucker dead shot to the neck. I didn’t usually make it a sport to kill the animals of the forest, but after nearly a hundred years of boredom, a few birds would not be missed.
Alone. I was tired of being alone. That’s what brought three enemies together enough to agree to disagree and “hang out” as the humans say. I’d watched plenty of humans in my time. They were arrogant, foolhardy idiots who lived among a hidden, fantasy world that they assumed didn’t exist and wasn’t nearly as glorious as they thought it to be from the stories they liked to tell.
“You missed,” the deeper than a drum voice sounded behind my back. I ignored his attempt at sarcasm knowing I never missed.
“Pike coming?” Kinsler asked sauntering up closer.
“Yeah, late,” I returned. We never spoke in large sentences. I favored reading, but long since gave it up for no one gave any conversation to it.
“Here!” Pike’s voice rose above the trees. We looked up to see his arrogant ass looking down the shaft of his arrow aimed at us.
“Dead!”
We both glanced at each other and shrugged. We were all lethal to each other anyway you look at it. We all had equal status. Well, except Pike. When his mother, the previous queen of the Seelie Fey court disappeared, her assumed death left a new queen, my mother. He has since resented me. In MORE ways than just that.
However, since the three of us have nothing in common but weapons in our hands that were meant to defend us against each other, we gave in to a truce to have something to do. I heard a human once call it “frenemies”. We most definitely not friends. More like “agreeable enemies”.
“The old place could be a perfect trap. We have yet to put it to use.” Kinsler always saw the possibilities.
“Or love nest.” Pike was always focused on one thing. Anything female and what it could gain him for pleasure alone. His self-respect was non-existent.
Ignoring the promises made by their twisted minds, I walked around the building contemplating my own. It could be anything. Snaked between the two courts, it was a great meeting place for three of us.
“My father knows about it, but doesn’t seem very interested in its possibilities,” Kinsler offered.
That sparked my interest. I aimed my glare at him unable to always hide the ill-tempered feelings towards him. “What will he do about it?” Meaning…any evil plotted plans.
He shrugged one shoulder and leaned on the Oak, “Don’t know. He might have mentioned housing slaves.”
Pike jumped from the tree now. “Like what slaves?” He folded his arms and stood aside me as if the two of us could really take him. Like I said, the friendship wasn’t fisted on too tight.
“Don’t know. He always likes to make a wave and screwing with your court that way is just his thing. You know this. I’m just giving you a heads up.”
With Kinsler, everything was called a “heads up” when it pertained to the father of evil.
***
“Don’t bring her!” I told Pike. He had one of his many females on his arm.
“Oh, come on
. She wants to see the love nest,” he cooed in her direction. Female in question giggled back at him. I knew her. That made me angrier.
He could be disgusting sometimes. Hell, I loved a good time with a girl alright, but there was a line to cross about taking a girl in the woods and just hanging out. Making out was one thing, but Pike had no morals at all.
That’s the problem. Many of the Fey had no morals. Tinia was cute. Fun! But only wanted the name. She didn’t care about me. Jem was the same. They all were.
Any girl I even remotely found interest in wanted to know what it would be like to be king and started mentioning betrothals and marriage days into any type of relationship. That’s just it, they never developed into anything that could be called a “relationship”.
My disgusted look did nothing to change Pike’s mind, but my anger won out when he couldn’t deny that Kinsler would use it for something later as a challenge between the courts. The girl would technically be property of both courts hence she was on neutral ground. Kinsler could twist things that way.
He saw my reasoning and relented, sending her back to the court.
Pike never thought with anything but his pants.
We met Kinsler at our usual, killed some of the wild, yakked about nothing, and went our separate ways.
Almost every day.
I entered the court boundary where I always did on a cool afternoon on the edge of winter. Altheon, the court seer, greeted me at the camp side fire pit blazing and too warm. That never happened before. My mother was there also.
Mother often told me to tend to one of her little tasks and today was no exception. This one involved retrieving one of her many items from the human world. A Fey boy who’d strayed to a lustful human who “couldn’t live without her”. I was to remove the memories myself and bring the boy to her. Why couldn’t our people just forget the humans existed altogether?
“Master Ian, I need to speak with you.” Altheon said after mother excused herself to “freshen up” as she purred like a python waiting to strike. You always kept one eye open when she spoke. “Freshen up” might mean “kill you in your sleep” or “run a hot iron over your eyeballs”.
I ran through a string of worst case scenarios. I’d just left Kinsler and nothing was said that could lead me to any sudden conclusions, but that didn’t mean anything.
“I have a rather urgent errand and then we need to talk,” the old man said to me straight faced without emotion.
I followed him to sit registering in my mind that we had privacy.
“I need you to go with Pike to the winter court boundary, escort the Firebearer Ginera and her companion to our court, seal their identity with a shield from the summer court, and replace them in the human world before dark tonight.”
Not unheard of. “Why?”
The seer sighed, “It cannot be revealed until the deed is completed. If she survives, our world will change as we know it.”
Our world? What kind of talk is that? Prophecy talk is what it is. “And this is detrimental to what cause?”
He offered one small hardly insignificant detail. “Your future.”
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Betrayal Page 31