Royal Pawn (Jacky Leon Book 6)

by K. N. Banet

  When Rian and Fiona finally left their room, stepping behind Heath and me, the sidhe started down the hall.

  “We’re about to have dinner with a prince of the fae,” Heath said, keeping his eyes forward.

  “We are. Let’s hope I haven’t forgotten all those manners Hasan tried to teach me.”

  Heath was still chuckling when we stopped in front of an ornate set of double doors made of wood and silver.

  21

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When the doors opened, we were led into a beautiful dining room, dripping in wealth. Sorcha and Cassius were already seated, waiting on us at the small dining room table that would only fit six, perfect for our group. A footman showed us to our seats, placing me on Cassius’ right side, where he sat at the head of the table, with Rian across from me, Heath on my right, Sorcha opposite Cassius, and Fiona taking the last place between her son and the lady of the land.

  Cassius seemed bored as servers began placing plates of fruit and cheese in front of us.

  “When we have guests, I give the chef here free rein to prepare whatever meal he feels is appropriate,” Cassius said softly, sighing as he looked at what was in front of us. “It seems he’s going to give us a multiple-course meal. Before we start, none of the food has had magic done to it, nor will it have any latent magical effects. Also, don’t feel the need to keep any of the more archaic table manners. I don’t care. Sorcha doesn’t care. If we stop eating, you are not required to.”

  “We find those things very boring. We’re lucky to have friends who just don’t care, but you’re new to our table, and we want you to feel comfortable,” Sorcha added with a dazzling smile.

  “Thank you,” I said at the exact same time Fiona did. She blushed, but I wasn’t fazed.

  “We haven’t met. I’m Heath Everson,” Heath said, looking at Cassius then Sorcha.

  “I’m sorry we haven’t spoken yet,” Cassius said, reaching across me to shake Heath’s hand. “I would have invited you to lunch with Jacqueline if I had known the situation.”

  “No harm, no foul,” Heath said with a smile. “She caught me up on what was discussed. Have you given it any thought?”

  “I can’t make a portal directly to Jacqueline’s territory, but Rian seems to have the ability, and I can walk him through it,” Cassius said, nodding to his half-brother. “He and I have already discussed it.”

  “He’s offered to help me find the limits with my abilities,” Rian added, keeping his head down.

  “I also said you were allowed to drop your glamour here, but it seems you haven’t yet.” Cassius leaned back in his seat. “Unless you didn’t set it. Our father did it, didn’t he?”

  “He did,” Fiona said, nodding quickly. “He did all our boys when they were babies, and none of them have ever faded.”

  “I see…You should have said something earlier. I can remove it if you want and show you how to manage your own.” Cassius drummed his fingers on the table.

  “I—”

  “We’ll be fine,” Fiona said tightly.

  Rian cast an annoyed glance at his mother, then a pleading look at his half-brother. I tried to keep my face blank, but the tension was different than when we arrived. Fiona had jumped to tell Cassius everything, but Rian stopped her. Now, Rian was hopeful, and Fiona was closed off. I didn’t know what Cassius had spoken about with them, but obviously, it had changed impressions.

  “I don’t know about fine. The more human your sons look, the more problems they’ll have. If other fae think they have no power, they’ll be targets. It’s better if he and his older brothers learn to create their own glamours when it’s necessary and be able to remove them when it’s not,” Cassius countered. “I’m not in my glamour. We’re in the fae realms, and there’s no need for it. It’s relaxing, not to be always wrapped in the cloak of secrecy. Here, I can be everything I am, and no one can tell me otherwise.”

  “Will you teach me after dinner?” Rian asked, not letting his mother speak for him.

  “I can,” Cassius confirmed with a small smile. “You should have learned ages ago. I can’t believe our father—”

  “His father raised him as best as he could,” Fiona snapped.

  Cassius narrowed his eyes, and Sorcha cleared her throat. I grabbed a grape, then moved on to a slice of apple and a bit of cheese. Heath was eating during the entire exchange, his plate already empty. I tried not to smile as he grabbed a strawberry off mine, and I had to steal it back.

  “You might love my father, but I’ve known him for a very long time.” Cassius’ voice was low and threatening as he brought his elbows onto the table and braided his fingers, then leaned on his hands. “The first ability every fae child should learn is their own glamour. He didn’t teach them. He made a mistake, and I’m well within my rights to point that out. Pointing out my father’s mistakes is something I’m supremely good at.”

  “And you’re the last person with the privilege,” Sorcha mumbled, picking up and sipping a glass of wine to hide whatever expression she was trying to smooth.

  “He’s a good man,” Fiona hissed. “I expected you as his son would remember that.”

  “My father is many things, but a blanket statement that he is a good man is patently false, as I told you earlier. He has done many good things and many equally terrible things. Don’t think the good ones outweigh the awful. He’s morally grey, at best. Don’t ever assume otherwise.”

  “You’re just mad he left for a better life.”

  Sorcha stood as power cracked through the room, and magic filled my nose, strong with fury and pain.

  “Better life?” Cassius whispered as his wife walked around the table and wrapped her arms around him from behind, holding him as if he was about to launch himself across the table at the human woman his father had married. It was odd because she was the one who couldn’t control her temper. Cassius seemed benignly insulted but not furious. “Fiona, I have no quarrel with you. Please don’t make one with me. You fell in love with a face my father put on, but how does a good man blackmail two people who are in love? Is that something a good man does?”

  “Let’s…” I didn’t want to be dragged into this, so I spoke up before Fiona could. “Not go there, please.”

  He shifted his glowing blue gaze to me. “Hmmm, fine. Rian, I’ll begin training you after dinner. Let’s just leave it at that and have a nice meal.”

  “We should really talk about tomorrow,” Heath pointed out. “Why don’t we keep that the conversation for the evening?”

  “Yes,” Sorcha said, smiling as she went back to her seat. “Perfect idea, Mr. Everson.”

  “Alpha,” he said with a dazzling smile back at her. “Alpha Everson, though I don’t have a pack right now.”

  “He does, his son,” I teased.

  “Wait…you’re the Alpha that Jacqueline was in trouble for helping.” Cassius looked at us with renewed interest. “Why didn’t I realize that before?”

  “You didn’t work that case, love,” Sorcha pointed out. “I missed it as well.”

  “No Investigator did. It seemed fairly cut and dry,” Cassius retorted. “Werecat involved herself in werewolf politics and helped an Alpha keep his pack. Illegal. Callahan wanted her head, and everyone believed he would get it.”

  “It was cut and dry in a different way,” Heath said, pushing his empty plate away. “She’s a daughter of Hasan, and no one wanted to call his bluff about exposing everyone to protect her. She walked as she deserved to. Cut and dry.”

  I tried my damnedest not to cringe at the memory.

  “Yes, I remember the aftermath and his return to the Tribunal. You…” Cassius pointed at me. “You seem to bring change with you. Your father, mine, the relationship between werewolves and werecats, and another species of supernatural exposed to humanity.”

  Bowls of soup were put in front of us next, providing the distraction I needed. I didn’t want to think about what Cassius said. I just lived my life in a way that
didn’t compromise every one of my morals. Not that it was perfect. I was lying to my family about who I loved and this fae situation, but it allowed me to do what I thought was more important, which was to keep the people I loved safe. I was fine making those difficult decisions.

  “You know, I’m glad we have met yet another interesting group of people,” Sorcha said, looking at her husband across the table. “Though I don’t think this cast of interesting people would like our other group of friends, maybe our friends in Phoenix could be helpful.”

  “Kaliya would find this exciting, but she wouldn’t want anything to do with it,” he replied softly. “I, for one, am glad she has settled down. She’s a wife and mother now. She’s retired from her Executioner job and has a people to rule. We’re not dragging her into this.”

  “She’s a terrible mother, but certainly, she is a mother,” Sorcha said, and it was clearly an insult, but the look on the fae’s face was one of love and endearment. “No, we won’t ruin that for her and call her to help with this. You’re right. Brion wouldn’t know what hit him, and Oisin already hates her. It would be a disaster. Raphael would have a fit. He’s finally got the cambions settled. His wife running off to fight in a fae war…”

  “He would do his best to kill us painfully,” Cassius agreed, chuckling. “I should call them and check in. It’s been a few months.”

  “They know why we disappeared, and they know how to reach us.”

  “So, you’ve been in hiding,” I said without thinking. “I got that impression earlier, but I didn’t want to ask too much.”

  “We have,” Cassius confirmed. “When the rumors about my father started, we had some unwelcome people sniffing around. Alvina approached us, wondering if we would throw our weight in with hers to find him. We wanted no part in it, so we came here, my stronghold. I brought my entire staff, fae or not, for safekeeping as well. My chef is actually a werewolf. His name is Terry. Heath, if you would like to meet him, I can give you an introduction.”

  “No, thank you. Normally, when a werewolf does his best to leave pack life, it’s for a good reason. I won’t bother him. As an Alpha, I could accidentally set him off. Usually, it’s our fault when someone decides to go lone wolf. If he’s found gainful employment and protection, he’s done better than most. I can’t disrupt that.”

  “That’s insightful.” Cassius nodded respectfully, then looked at me again. “It’s safer this way for Sorcha and me. She and I have history with the fae, which has given us powerful reputations, but we haven’t used those reputations to get ahead. Instead, we fell in love and decided to use them to keep ourselves out of the disastrous politics of our people. When thrones are involved, people die.”

  I glanced at Sorcha, then back at Cassius. His reputation was easy to guess—fae prince, abdicated the throne when his father left it for him, and Tribunal Investigator. His job for the Tribunal put him against the brightest and most evil minds of the supernatural world. He had to be fearsome and intelligent to do the job without getting killed. He was essentially the over-powered police of the governing body we all followed.

  Sorcha was a complete enigma. Beautiful, powerful, but I had no idea who she was in the scheme of things, other than Cassius’ wife.

  “You know, my sister would want me to ask this since I’m here, but why didn’t you take the throne after Brion disappeared?” I knew it was bold and maybe even rude, but if I didn’t have an answer for Zuri at the end of this, she was scarier than Cassius.

  “Which sister?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “Zuri.”

  “The Politician.” Cassius smirked, clearly amused. “Of course, she would be the one interested. People have always wondered why she never took Subira’s position on the Tribunal. Because you have been a polite guest, I’ll give you the answers to send back to her. She might understand them better than anyone else.” He lifted a hand and held up a finger.

  “One, I never wanted it. Power of that nature was never something I felt I could do any good with.” He lifted a second finger. “Two, I was furious with how my father dropped it on my head without a single explanation. He left the throne in a letter saying we would never be able to find him. He left it sitting on his throne for us when we answered his summons to his court. And yes, he has a court…or had. It’s not as special as it sounds. I read the letter and proceeded to walk out of the throne room and never went back. Oisin took the position since he was next in line. Looking back, Oisin wasn’t fit for it, but my father had decided to abandon me, so I decided to abandon my father’s legacy. If he wanted everything he built to be protected, he should have worked a little harder to protect it.”

  “So, you were a petulant child,” Fiona muttered.

  “You know, when I initially discovered you were my stepmother, I tried to welcome you with open arms. Just because I won’t bow to your whims because you married my father doesn’t mean you have the right to be a bitch in my household,” Cassius snapped, turning to glare at her.

  “You failed your father—”

  “My father failed his people and me,” Cassius growled, just as inhumanly as something Heath and I could do. His teeth were bared and were like nothing I had ever seen. He had rows of teeth like a shark. This was the inhumanness of the sidhe.

  “When I walked away from my pack, I picked a successor, taught him everything I knew, tried to set him up as best as I could. That way, my people knew I cared for them, but I needed to leave. It wasn’t that I lost respect for my werewolves, but I had something more pressing I needed to focus on. My daughter is human, so I understand Brion running away to be with you,” Heath said kindly, then his face turned hard. “But I would never abandon my son without giving him the best chance I could to succeed. I would never disappear from his life for decades, even if he is strong enough to survive on his own. I took him with me.”

  “When he walked away from the Tribunal, Hasan was still available to his children,” I added softly. “He stayed in contact with all of them, and when he Changed me, he made sure I knew how to contact him after I left. He called me to check up on how things were going, even though other werecats would say he had been missing for a century, and they wanted him back. Even when our relationship was tenuous at best, he made himself completely available to me if I needed his help.”

  Cassius looked at both of us and smiled bitterly, but the predatory thing in his expression left, and his teeth were once again human-looking. Fiona, thoroughly chastised, sank a little farther in her seat.

  “We’ll get nowhere arguing in circles,” Sorcha said mildly. “The decisions were made decades ago, and there’s nothing any of us can do to change them now.” She picked up her spoon, making it clear what she wanted. “Why don’t we get through the meal and talk more once we’re all full and a bit more relaxed?”

  “Wonderful idea,” I agreed.

  22

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We made it to dessert without any more clashes between Fiona and Cassius, but it was only replaced with a thick, awkward silence none of us could break. Sorcha tried small talk at one point.

  “Tell me, Jacqueline…what do you do for a living?” she asked as the main course was set down.

  “I own a bar,” I answered, feeling a little proud. “Well, it’s more of a twenty-one and older bar and grill now. It used to be just a bar. I kept the age restriction because I’m stubborn.”

  “Jacky used to be just a bartender,” Heath teased softly, and I threw a smile at him.

  “Are you planning to open any other locations or branching out?”

  “No, not right now,” I answered, shrugging. “I don’t have many humans on the payroll, so my circle is pretty tight-knit. None of us have the time to start looking at a second location.”

  “Ah…” Sorcha nodded slowly. “What else? Um…”

  “Do you do any work for your father?” Cassius asked, then he looked across the table at his wife. “Hasan’s children manage the werecats around th
e world for him the way nobles manage people and places for our king.”

  Sorcha nodded, then looked at me expectantly.

  “Well, I look after the werecats in the Americas.” I clicked my tongue. “Not that it requires much. And I have meetings with a human government about werecats. That’s still…touch and go. They only know about me, so it’s not like they can bother someone else. I keep them at arm’s length as best as I can.”

  No one really knew what to say to that, or maybe they chose to keep their opinions to themselves.

  That was the end of the small talk.

  Then dessert came.

  “Ah, Terry loves me,” Cassius said as a delicious-looking cake was put in front of us. “I should have never taught him this recipe. He knows how to butter me up for something with it.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Orange and chocolate,” he answered and pointed with his fork at the different layers. Browns and oranges interplayed between the layers of cake and icing, and the top was decorated in shavings of both. “With hints of vanilla. A recipe my mother enjoyed, and I never found a chef who could master her recipe until Terry.” He frowned. “I need to rephrase. I am glad he knows the recipe, but I should have never told him the origin of it.”

  “You should stop drinking tequila, then,” Sorcha teased with a smile. “Tequila gets you in more trouble than anything else.”

  “I wish Kaliya never told you about that weakness,” he said, giving his wife a lovingly annoyed look.

  “At least you don’t drink it around her anymore,” Sorcha countered, wiggling her eyebrows. “Though, the offer to them stands if…”

  “We are never doing that,” Cassius said as he fought a smile.

  “Are there any recipes our dad liked?” Rian asked. My heart ached for the young man. I knew the expression on his face and understood it better than anything else happening at the table. He saw a man who knew everything he wanted to know, and he wanted a connection to another brother. Cassius, in a strange way, was kind of cool and had a lot of history. Rian wanted something only Cassius could give to him.