by Ashley Meira
Thick vines rose from the ground, ending in large orbs of light that stood around the large, circular courtyard. The orbs glowed with the same yellow light as the trees in the woods had. The ground was paved with flat, sand-colored stones, and there were gilded railings around to prevent people from falling into the lake below.
A pair of minotaurs holding large halberds stood by the tall wooden doors leading into the tree. Fiona’s hand tightened around mine as their black eyes fixated on her. They’d stiffened the moment we’d come into view, but I thought it was because they’d seen me. I was sure a human would be more of an anomaly than an unclaimed fairy, but it was possible they also mistook her for this Titania person.
Unless she truly was Titania, then things were about to get way more complicated.
Grizelda stopped in the center of the empty courtyard and turned to us expectantly. I gave her a small smile and turned to Fiona, who was still trying not to fidget under the guards’ gazes. She stood a few paces behind Grizelda, and the tensed muscles in her legs told me she really didn’t want to go any farther. I squeezed her hand, waiting for her to sort through her thoughts.
“Should we ask them to bring Roman out?” Fiona finally asked. “If the Court is in session, they probably won’t be too happy about us interrupting.”
“Interrupting?” Grizelda asked. “Dearie, the Court wouldn’t start without you. Though it’s possible Roman is in a separate meeting. Perhaps you should wait for him upstairs?”
“Upstairs?” I asked, looking back up at the tree. How many floors had they carved into this thing?
Grizelda nodded toward the tree. “In her home.”
“Home?” Fiona’s jaw dropped. “I live here?”
“What she means,” I said, trying to salvage the situation, “is that she feels weird returning home when it means walking past where the Court meets.”
There was a momentary pause as Grizelda looked at me, and I used that time to pray that we actually had to pass the meeting rooms to get to Titania’s apartments. She had to know we were full of crap now, didn’t she?
“I never thought I’d see the day,” Grizelda said before breaking out into a toothy grin. Or rather, a toothless grin. “Normally, you would waltz right in. Perhaps you’re finally learning discretion! And they say miracles don’t happen. Guards! Where is Lord Roman? Queen Titania needs a word with him.”
The minotaurs stiffened at Titania’s name and turned to give each other a look before restarting their evaluation of Fiona.
“Please,” Fiona said, taking a few steps toward them. “Tell him it’s of the utmost importance.”
“Are you truly Titania?” the guard on the left asked in a deep voice.
“Tyrtin!” the minotaur on the right said. “That is no way to speak to our queen.”
“If she truly is our queen, Garbor,” Tyrtin replied, his eyes never leaving Fiona. “Queen Titania has been missing for—”
“Missing?” Grizelda said. “She’s right here! Get the Twilight King now, young men. Don’t make me do it myself.”
The minotaurs turned to Grizelda, who had one hand propped against her hip and the other outstretched as she shook her finger at them. While the pose didn’t look particularly menacing, I’d seen it on Fiona enough times to know that someone was going to get their butt kicked if they didn’t comply. If a tiny thing like her could follow through, I didn’t doubt Grizelda could, old age be damned.
“Wait here,” Garbor said with a bow of his head. “We shall inform the Twilight King of your request.”
Why both of them had to go get Roman, I had no idea, but I wouldn’t deny I felt much better without them peering at my sister like she had the plague.
“Silly boys.” Grizelda shook her head. “Stubborn as ever. Now, if you young ladies will excuse an old woman, I have to visit the market to pick up a few things for dinner. Will your guest be dining with us tonight, my queen?”
“Probably not,” Fiona stammered out.
“All right, then.” Grizelda bowed and turned back toward the bridge. “Do let me know if that changes! I’ll whip you up a lovely feast full of Arcadia’s prime delicacies. No human flesh, though, I promise!”
My eyes widened at the last part, and I wasn’t sure how to interpret the laugh she let out. “Should’ve had Adam go through the Council.”
“Never thought I’d hear you say that,” Fiona said, dropping her head against my shoulder. “Never thought any of this would happen, either.”
“Really?” I said with false shock. “You didn’t expect to come here and discover you were queen of the fairies?”
She snorted. “I expected to be seated at a fancy table while they served you as the main course.”
I tugged on her ponytail, dodging the light punch she aimed at me. “Seriously, how are you?”
“Well, let’s see: the first memory I have of my past is those starlight blooms. Then, some old woman calls me Titania, who is apparently a natural blonde and a member of the Fairy Court. Oh, and she lives in the capital of Arcadia and has apparently been missing for some time. Also, she’s a queen.” She took a deep breath, her eyes that particular type of blank she had before a heavy freak out. “So, obviously, everything is perfect. The world makes total sense. I. Am. Just. Freakin’. Dandy.”
“Fiona—”
“Dandy!” she said, her eyes stretching to inhuman proportions. “Absolutely dandy and not at all freaking out or about to set everything on fire! I’m fine.”
She threw her hands up and began pacing in front of the door. “Why shouldn’t I be? I mean, this is great. At the very least, I’ll get some answers about my past, right? That’s freakin’ wonderful. Really, I’m ecstatic,” she ground out.
“On the other hand,” she said, continuing her pacing, “we could get executed for impersonating Titania. Or worse. What’s worse than execution? Why are you asking me? How am I supposed to know? Despite being a damn fairy, I have no idea how anything works! And I apparently have a really shitty memory — on top of the amnesia, that is — because if my name really is Titania, then why the hell did I think it was Fiona?”
She finished her last sentence with an angry growl and continued pacing in silence. I decided to give her a few minutes to seethe. Everything she said was true — though if the Court did want to execute us, I hoped mentioning Trixie would make them reconsider.
“Remember when you told me how good it was I had nightmares about my past?” I said, trying to goad her back into normalcy.
She glared at me. “That’s because I think you’re a horrible person and deserve nightmares.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No, I don’t,” she huffed, finally stopping her hummingbird pacing. “You were right. This stuff sucks. At least when you have a nightmare, you wake up next to the sexy naked guy.”
“You’ve woken up next to way more sexy naked guys, though none as sexy as Adam,” I added with a smug grin.
“Yes, yes, your boyfriend is very hot and rich and sweet. He’s probably a robot, you know.” She crossed her arms. “Nobody is that perfect, and nobody is going to be there when I wake up, because this isn’t a dream!”
“Well, well, well,” a male voice called from behind us. “Look at what we have here. I heard Queen Titania was back, but you don’t look like her to me.”
The speaker turned out to be a fairy with spiky blonde hair and a smug grin. He and his posse of five men were dressed in semi-formal tunics the color of blood, and they were each twirling around a spiked mace. Their magic smelt sweet the way all fae magic did, though it wasn’t as pleasant as Fiona’s cotton candy magic.
“Who are you?” she asked. “What do you want?”
“Us?” The fairy gave us an elaborate bow. “Why, we’re the welcoming committee, your grace.”
“You don’t look very welcoming,” I said, my eyes watching their magic pulse with an excited energy. They were here for a fight, and they were about to pounce. “Are you even allo
wed to start fights here?”
“Do you even know where ‘here’ is?” he asked with a sneer. “You’re a long way from home, human.”
“Apparently,” I said. “The welcoming committees on Earth are a lot less hostile.”
“Hostile?” he asked with fake shock. “This isn’t hostile. This is!”
A blast of red light flew toward us. We split up as it hit, leaving a scorch mark where we’d been standing. I returned his Fairy Blast with a fireball before dodging a spiked mace. Ducking down, I swept my leg out and knocked my attacker off his feet. He shrunk down as I punched him, causing my fist to slam into the stone floor.
With a grunt of pain, I stepped away before he could retaliate. He grew back to full size and swung his mace, alternating blows with his magic. While the fae didn’t have Inquisitors hunting us at all times, they weren’t any friendlier to Fireborns than the rest of the world, so I had to dodge their attacks instead of absorbing — or Breaking — them. I rolled underneath another Fairy Blast before kicking up. The heel of my boot slammed into the blond fairy’s ribs, and he staggered back with an enraged snarl.
Pink magic slammed into his face, knocking him off his feet and into one of his friends. Fiona grew back to full size a moment later, dodging an incoming mace and punching out the fairy wielding it. Only two of the “welcoming committee” were still on their feet. They eyed their friends on the ground, taking in the pained groans and bloody noses, before looking nervously back at us.
“Enough,” a rich, dark voice called from the doorway.
A man with long black hair stepped into the courtyard, his ornate dark purple robes impeccably tailored to his lean form. His skin was the color of moonlight, so pale I was sure I could see through it, and his eyes were a purple that reminded me of starlight blooms. He looked like a galaxy personified, though the effect was slightly marred by the downturned corners of his lips.
“Why are Marjolaine’s squires attacking my guests?” Despite the question, he kept his unreadable gaze on Fiona.
“Lord Roman,” one of standing thugs stammered as he knelt down. “We were under orders—”
“Shut up,” the blond fairy hissed, wiping the blood from his mouth as he stood and turned to Roman. “My lord, if you have any questions, I ask that you take them up with the Briar Queen herself for we are but humble servants unworthy of your attention.”
Roman’s lips remained pursed. “If that is the case, then perhaps you should not allow yourself the liberty of deciding who I deem worthy of such attention.”
The other fairy’s jaw was so tense I thought it might crack. “I—”
“Begone.” Roman waved him away. “You were correct when you said you were unworthy. Waste no more of my time.”
With another set of bows, the five fairies limped past the Twilight King and into the tree.
“Names,” Roman demanded of us. Well, he still hadn’t looked at me, but he said “names,” so I assumed he knew I was there. “Your real ones.”
“Sophia,” I said when Fiona did nothing more than purse her lips the way he had moments ago. “And this is Fiona. We ran into Grizelda in the woods, and she—”
“Is senile,” Roman said, finally turning his violet stare to me. “And very much misses her charge.”
“Charge?” I asked.
“She was Titania’s nursemaid.” He turned back to my sister. “You—”
“Have a very urgent message to deliver to the Court,” Fiona said quickly. “Er, my lord.”
Roman arched a dark brow, sweeping his gaze over both of us. “I see. I imagine it must be very serious for you to skip the questions you undoubtedly have.”
She swallowed thickly before nodding. “Yes, sir.”
“Very well. First our questions, then yours.” He turned around, his dark cloak swishing behind him like a curtain. “Follow me.”
Chapter Nineteen
It may have been a tree on the outside, but the interior was entirely made of gold and jewels. My fingers itched as I passed by wall sconces made of sparkling rubies and walked across an intricate mosaic composed of sapphires and emeralds. I think the design was supposed to be a flower, but I was too busy trying to wrap my head around the fact that their floors were made of gold to notice.
As we stepped through a pair of ornate double doors into the meeting room, I thought of our trip to the nereids and how similar this felt. Except instead of a bronze colosseum in the middle of the Pacific ocean, we were in a plush room that was remarkably similar to Beauty and the Beast’s ballroom.
The sweeping ceilings towered over us as we walked toward the middle of the room, where six tall podiums stood. They reminded me of a judge’s stand in a courtroom, though these were connected to each other to form a crescent that curved around us, and each was designed with different gemstones.
Roman left us to sit at his podium, an imposing seat carved of obsidian and tanzanite. The rest of the Court stared at us, but there was no expectant look in their eyes that implied they wanted us to speak.
Following Roman’s seat on the far right, I raked my eyes over the rest of the Fairy Court. By Roman’s side was an old man with a long white beard and equally white eyes. He wore plain blue robes and had no hair apart from his beard. His podium was made of pearl and sapphires, bringing to mind the sea.
The middle podium beside him was empty, the alexandrite it was comprised of turning a dozen different shades under the lights. It must have been Titania’s, though it looked long untouched. Beside the empty seat was an old woman wrapped in an ash gray shawl. Her dark gray hair was stringy as it peeked out from under her loose wrap. Her eyes were closed, but I felt her gaze on me whenever I shifted.
The final member, on the far left, was a beautiful woman. Her thick blonde hair was tied into an intricate braid, accentuating the sharp plains of her porcelain white face. The red on her lips was vibrant as blood, and she wore a long-sleeved Victorian ballgown in the same color. Her podium was made of red beryl and fire opals.
Aside from a pair of minotaurs guarding the doors, it was just the eight of us in the large room. It must have been magically muted, because there were no hints of the outside world filtering in, making me feel like we were in yet another world.
The blonde woman’s full red lips twitched in what was almost a smile, and when she spoke, her girlish voice was stained with cruelty. “You are not Titania.”
Fiona looked to Roman, who was staring at her with impassive dark eyes. When it became clear he wasn’t going to help, she cleared her throat and said, “No, my name is Fiona.”
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to happen at her admission, but it certainly wasn’t a burst of whispers from around the empty room. The mumblings seemed to come from the walls themselves, and I was certain I saw the tall, blacked-out windows quiver with the vibrations.
Fiona followed my gaze around the room, her love for courtroom dramas missing from her face. I couldn’t read a single emotion as she searched for the source of the whispers. It was like she’d taken one look at Roman and mastered his stone faced demeanor. Of course, she’d always been able to do this. Despite her hot-headed nature, my sister could be incredibly calm.
“I was mistaken for her,” she continued, fixing her gaze on the empty seat in the middle. “And asked to be brought to the Court. We have urgent news for you.”
“Grizelda is getting on in years,” the old woman in gray said, her voice stronger than I imagined. “Though her confusion is well-founded. You bear a striking resemblance to Titania.”
“Who was she?” I found myself asking. Normally, I’d be happy to be ignored by powerful political figures, but they could have answers about my sister’s past.
“Her mother,” the blonde woman said, her voice the same tenor as before. I guess she always sounded like that, a mix of innocence and ice. “Our dear, dear Titania.”
“Not so dear, it would seem,” Roman said, casting her a scornful look. “Your squires were ordered to kill
them on sight.”
The elderly couple turned to the blonde, Marjolaine, as the room erupted into whispers once more. Marjolaine scoffed, the delicate twitch of her nose so remarkably like Fiona’s I could have confused them for sisters.
And I would have if she hadn’t dropped such a bomb on us. On Fiona, really, who looked like someone had shoved a hand through her chest. Unlike the cool, controlled powers of the Fairy Court, her magic was zinging around the room like someone had lit a fuse under it. I supposed they had. I could taste the panicked sparks against my tongue, searing my tastebuds. She was freaking out, and I was worried about what she might do. Sure, she had a cool head, but would this be the final straw?
A moment later, Fiona straightened her spine and clasped her hands behind her back, her eyes never leaving the empty podium. Her mother’s podium. Beyond that, she didn’t react. Her magic was still flying around, however, and it drew my Fire’s attention. It was torn between absorbing it or Breaking it, and I found myself entertaining the notion — just to calm her down. Then, I remembered the look on Diana’s face when I’d broken her magic: pain and outrage. I never wanted to put that look on either of my sisters’ faces again if I could help it.
If only I could calm my own racing heart. This trip had brought another slew of questions our way, and I couldn’t shake them. Fiona was the daughter of Titania, a queen who sat on the Fairy Court. A queen who had been missing for what appeared to be a very long time. What happened to her, and how did Fiona end up with Nicholas?
All these questions and more raced through my mind, the words circling around faster than the muted rumblings around the room.
“Why, Roman,” Marjolaine chimed. “What a callous accusation. Though I suppose you must be feeling terribly ruffled. After all, doesn’t hearsay place you as this poor, unclaimed waif’s father? Such terrible circumstance to be forgotten by two parents.”
“My feelings on the matter are irrelevant,” he said, his face still marble. “Your actions are the issue. Explain yourself.”