by Unknown
“For her sneaking into your dreams and bewitching you?” I huffed. “No. We couldn't have prepared for that. It doesn't matter. Your home and your completely you.”
“Completely yours,” he leaned his forehead to mine.
“Kirill?” I stopped him before we got too far into the reunion. “You'd tell me if you felt like you were second best, right?”
“Vervain,” he smiled gently and sighed. “Ve are lions. Ve know zere is an order to zings. Zere is alpha and zere are betas. It matters not to me vhat rank I am, only zat I rank. Ven ve are together and it's only you and I, zere is no second best.”
The human in me wanted to dispute this, to tell him he was as important to me as Trevor, but the lioness in me knew he was right. It wasn't about who was more important. It was about maintaining order. Thinking that everyone can be equal when it comes to love is an immature ideal. They weren't equals but they weren't in different leagues entirely either. Just different levels of wonderful.
“I love you,” I whispered as I blinked away the tears, and the truly amazing thing was, it was enough for Kirill.
Chapter Fifty-One
“Are you going back to Faerie soon?” Kirill's voice was warm on my ear, sexy and low. He was lying on a chaise on our balcony and I was lying on him. I was being a little clingy with him but give me a break, I'd just got him back the day before.
“I don't know,” I frowned at the beautiful safari sunset. “I think I should take some time to think about how to approach the problems we're having over there.”
“Sounds smart,” he agreed. “Vhy zink over zere ven you can zink here and not vaste any time at all?”
“Exactly.”
“So tell me problems,” he offered. “I vill help you zink.”
“Someone is attacking the Kingdom of Water,” I reached back and pulled a hank of his long hair across me. He had worn it loose and I loved to rub it against my cheek, like a child with their favorite blanket.
“How are zey attacking Vater?” He lowered his face to mine, so he was speaking against my forehead, his words tickling my skin.
“They're creating whirlpools in the ocean that have the potential to damage the inhabitants of the kingdom. I think it could be the Earth Queen, Aalish, still trying to get revenge on me.”
“Vhy vould she hurt Vater if she vants to hurt you?”
“Because Vater, um,” I cleared my throat and Kirill chuckled. “I mean, Water is ruled by King Guirmean, who's been a loyal friend to me.”
“Maybe it's not always about you, Tima,” he teased.
“I know, you jackass,” I nudged my elbow back into his stomach. “We just can't think of another reason someone would want to attack Water.”
“So zink harder,” was his brilliant advice.
“Thanks,” I huffed. “I'll be sure to do that.”
“Vervain,” Kirill sighed. “Most times ven someone vants to hurt you, zey vill try to hurt you personally or someone you love. Do you really zink King Guirmean is perceived to be someone you love?”
“No but I do love Guirmean, he's a good friend, and in Faerie the only obvious choice would be Arach. Well Arach is too powerful for Aalish to attack. Which is why we think she choose Guirmean.”
“Is zere no one else who ze fey know you love more zan Guirmean?”
“Roarke, I guess,” I frowned in thought. “Isleen, maybe. It's not about more or less, I love all of my friends.”
“Yes, Vervain, you love all of your people fiercely,” Kirill said. “Vouldn't it make more sense for Aalish to hurt one of your fire fey? It vould be easier and much more effective.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” He expelled a disbelieving huff through his nose. “Didn't you tell me you practically vent insane ven zey killed Breck? And vasn't Aalish zere to vitness zat?”
“Yes,” I whispered, the old ache of losing Breck making a sharp comeback. I swallowed hard and blinked rapidly. Kirill kissed my temple, his strong arms closing in around me more tightly.
“I'm just saying you should focus on vhy someone vould vant to hurt Vater Kingdom before you focus on Aalish,” he shrugged, shifting me a little. “You should eliminate ze most probable before moving on to ze improbable.”
“Who are you, Sherlock Holmes?” I angled my head up and narrowed my eyes on him.
“No, zat quote is different. Ven you've excluded ze impossible, vhatever remains, however improbable, is ze truth.” He corrected. “It's good advice too. So vat is impossible?”
“Impossible?” I frowned and snuggled back into him. “What's impossible? Um. Well, it's impossible that... No... Oh, I know, it's impossible that one of the dark fey did it, they've all been holed up in their kingdom, preparing for the new baby.”
“New baby?”
“Yeah, one of the dark fey is pregnant.”
“So it's impossible for one of zem to sneak avay and cause zis mischief?”
“Oh,” my face fell. “I guess not but if you're going to think like that then, well, nothing is impossible.”
“Now you see vhy I didn't use zat quote,” he chuckled.
“Really?” I turned to glare at him. “You had to take me through all that? You couldn't have just said, nothing is impossible when you have magic involved, Tima?”
“I vanted you to zink for yourself,” he shrugged. “I gave my advice, I zink you should rule out the most obvious explanations first. You don't hear hoof-beats and instantly zink zebras.”
“Fine then, let me think,” I settled back down. “Guirmean is a new king. Perhaps there are fey in his own kingdom who don't like him ruling. It would make more sense since Aalish causing whirlpools seems improbable if not impossible.”
“Hmm, good vord,” he sounded teasingly smug, “improbable.”
“Oh, shut up and kiss me again, Sherlock.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
“What's improbable?” I murmured after I reappeared in Faerie, just moments after I'd left there the last time.
“You not coming back to bed immediately,” Arach growled.
I looked up and inhaled sharply. I'd forgotten entirely that I'd left Arach moments after we'd had some amazing sex. He was still naked in bed but that wouldn't last for long. He was already on his way out of it.
“Easy, dragon,” I held up a hand. “Give me a second here. I just got back and it's been a rough ride in the God Realm.”
“What a coincidence,” he grinned wickedly, “I have a rough ride planned for you here as well.”
“Arach,” I laughed. “I'm serious. It was pretty bad over there.”
“What happened?” He frowned and settled back into the bed.
I sighed and went over to sit beside him. It took awhile but I told him everything. Zeus, Kirill, all of it. By the end, his eyes were wide and he was shaking his head.
“Nothing is ever easy with you, is it?”
“Not by choice,” I protested.
“Vervain,” he sighed. “Do you really think that's true?”
“Do you really think I've chosen to have gods try to kill me, Kirill try to leave me, and all the other stuff that goes on in my life?”
“Yes, in a way,” he nodded. “You are thrust into difficult situations, that's undeniable, but how you handle those situations is what makes the difference.”
“So you're saying my choices to defend myself or my friends is what gets me into trouble,” I narrowed my eyes on him.
“No,” he made a frustrated growl. “I'm saying that you had a part in bringing yourself to where you are now. You are not a pawn in your life, you are the queen. The choices a queen is given can sometimes send her down a difficult road but she faces them and takes responsibility for them. You often choose the difficult path.”
“I don't choose to make my life hard.”
“Oh, Vervain,” he shook his head. “Yes, you do. That doesn't mean that your choices aren't the best ones or the best you can do at the time. It just means that they are your choices and
you need to claim them. Look at this issue with Alfheim. You could have just done what your mother wished and claimed the world.”
“But that would have meant a whole new mess of complications that I just couldn't handle.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “So you decided to give up your bond and that resulted in you losing your Nahual.”
“So losing my Nahual is my fault?” I gaped at him.
“It's not about fault,” he sighed. “It's about choice. It was your choice.”
“But I didn't know I was going to lose her when I made the decision to give up my bond to Alfheim.”
“No, and that's how life is. We make choices using the information available to us. But let me ask you this, would you have made a different decision if you'd known you'd lose your Nahual?”
“I...” I fumbled. “I don't know.”
“Are you happy with the results?”
“Happy? No, I don't think so,” I chewed at my lip. “But I'm okay with it. It's a better outcome than some of the others I was faced with.”
“And so you are in control,” he nodded.
“It really doesn't feel that way sometimes,” I mused.
“A man is walking down a road when he sees two men fighting,” Arach eyed me. “One is about to kill the other. The traveler steps in and smashes the attacker in the back of the skull, killing him and saving the other man's life. Then he discovers that the man he saved was trying to rob the first man. The robber had threatened the now-dead man's life and he was simply defending himself. Is the traveler responsible for his choice to step in?”
“Yes,” I tried to work it out. It felt like a riddle to me, like there was no correct answer.
“Why?”
“He should have stayed out of it or at least waited for more information.”
“Waited while one man killed the other?” Arach lifted a brow. “Or perhaps he should have tapped one on the shoulder and said, Pardon me, but why are you trying to kill this fellow?”
“Really?” I rolled my eyes. “With the British accent and all? You've been watching too many BBC movies.”
“Television series, actually,” he sniffed, “but that's not the point. The man saw a situation, processed the information he had, and made a decision. He is responsible for the decision he made, as we are all responsible for the choices we make, whether we created the situation we're in or not.”
“I said he was responsible,” I huffed.
“Yes but you also implied that you're not,” he settled his dragon eyes on me sternly.
“Fine,” I threw my hands up and whined childishly, “I'm responsible.”
“Good,” he smirked. “Now why don't you take some responsibility for making the decision to leave me here when we were in the middle of making love?”
“We weren't in the middle of it,” I pushed his wandering hands away but they just slid back somewhere else. “We'd finished.”
“I was just getting warmed up,” he grinned at the double meaning.
Then he really got hot. Or should I say, I made the choice to get hot with him?
Chapter Fifty-Three
“We need to talk to Guirmean again,” I said much, much later as I climbed out of bed.
“Why?” He climbed out of bed too, much to my relief. As much as I'd enjoy it, staying in bed for days on end would not help Guirmean.
“Kirill made a good point. He said we should investigate the most likely suspects first before we look into Aalish.”
“How is Aalish an unlikely suspect?”
“She doesn't have water magic,” I slid into a long, green, velvet dress. It would have gone nicely with my emerald but I'd taken that off for Arach and was only wearing my wedding rings.
“We know it's not impossible for her to learn it.”
“Not impossible but unlikely,” I shrugged, feeling like I was repeating a conversation from the other end. “We should look first at those who do have water magic. Those maelstroms are pretty powerful. I doubt it would be hard to whittle down a suspect list with Guirmean.”
“Okay,” Arach pulled on some pants and went straight to the mirror but with the most remarkable timing, a chime rang and the mirror misted before he could say anything. When it cleared, the High King was looking at us with a very anxious expression.
“King Cian,” I hurried to the glass. “What is it?”
“We have an unusual,” he cleared his throat, “well maybe not so unusual when it comes to things concerning you, Queen Vervain. We have a complication here that needs your attention.”
“My attention?” I felt my stomach drop. What fresh hell was this?
“You recall that Nuada and Beira are visiting?”
“Yes,” I shared a nervous look with Arach.
“Well, it seems that they brought some unknown guests through the wards with them,” Cian glanced to the side.
“How is that possible?” I frowned. “No non-fey passes into Faerie without the invitation of a fey. I thought you made it even more difficult after the whole Andrasta incident.”
“I did,” he sighed. “However, the two goddesses who came through on the heels of Beira, share her magic. My wards viewed them all as the same person and allowed them passage.”
“The same magic?” My blood went cold. “Brighid's dead. I watched her die. I thought we went over this?”
“Yes, Brighid is dead,” Cian confirmed and I started to breathe a sigh of relief. “But her two sisters are very much alive.”
I started choking on that relieved breath.
“What did you say?” Arach asked while I gasped.
“Brighid was what's known as a triple goddess,” Cian said grimly. “Most triple goddesses are of three different ages. The Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, that sort of thing. Brighid was unique. She had two sisters, each of them representing different aspects of the whole. Brid is a goddess of knowledge and Brigit is a goddess of metal-work. They're a bit upset over the death of their sister and have been stalking Beira, waiting for her to lead them to you. They're presently in my throne room waiting for your arrival. They claim they will not leave until they can confront both you and Beira at the same time.”
“I didn't even kill Brighid,” I sounded whiny even to myself so I cleared my throat and tried again. “She was attacking me and Thor killed her. It was a justified killing.”
“I don't believe they see it that way,” Cian frowned. “Queen Vervain, I can handle this threat but I'd rather not spill innocent fey blood over this. You're a regent of Faerie and you've once more brought trouble to our land. I think you should take care of this yourself.”
“Yes, you're right of course,” I glanced at Arach and found him glowering at the High King. “How difficult can two goddesses be? We're dragons, right?”
“I will roast them alive,” Arach said with anticipation. Hell, he was probably going through soup recipes in his head.
“Um, yeah,” I chewed at my lip. “Here's the thing, if they're anything like their sister, they'll be immune to fire.”
“What?” Arach growled.
“Brighid was a fire goddess.”
“They're enough like their sister that they got into Faerie,” Cian reminded us. “It's probably safe to assume they have her immunity as well.”
“So that leaves out fire,” Arach pouted. “Fine. Claws and teeth will have to do.”
“Who knows?” I said hopefully. “Maybe they'll be satisfied with what I've got to say.”
Arach rolled his dragon eyes.
Chapter Fifty-Four
We walked into the throne room of the High Court of Faerie, dressed in loose cotton garments. It was the fey equivalent of sweats, clothes you wore when you knew they might be destroyed during a shapeshift. I knew from my run-in with Brighid that my dragon form would be my best bet if I ended up having to get physical with her sisters. I wasn't too worried though. Arach was beside me and a whole contingent of goblins and phookas were at our back. These goddesses weren't very b
right if they'd come to Faerie to kill me.
“At ease, Godhunter,” a woman stood from where she'd been sitting at a table with the High Royals, Nuada, Beira, and one other woman. “We didn't come to fight.” She held up her hands in the universal gesture of slow your role. “My sister and I have come for knowledge only.”
“Yeah,” said the other woman I didn't know. “Then we'll decide if we want to kick your ass.”
I looked them over as I approached the table with Arach, our fire fey standing back near the entrance to the vast room with its lofty ceiling that opened all the way up to the branches of the great tree. The woman standing, the one who'd first addressed me, was very similar in looks to Brighid except she had very pale blonde hair, almost white. Her blue eyes were the same though, as were that of the woman still seated. The seated one had reddish-blonde hair and it appeared she had a temperament to match. It took only those few moments to guess which was which.
“Brid?” I asked the platinum blonde. “Goddess of Knowledge, I presume.”
“Very good, Godhunter,” she grinned like she was indeed pleased with my accuracy. “And yes, this is my sister, Brigit.”
“Nice to meet you,” I held out a hand and she shook it, “I hope.”
“Yes,” she laughed. “We'll see, won't we. But either way, we didn't come to fight in Faerie. We'd never disrespect the Shining Ones in such a manner.”
“That would have been nice to know earlier,” Cian griped.
“I apologize for the deception, High King,” Brid smiled sweetly at him. “But you wouldn't have sent for Queen Vervain had we said as much.”
“Possibly not,” Cian sniffed.
“This is my husband, Arach,” I introduced her, since we were being so polite.
“A pleasure, Fire King,” she shook Arach's hand. “We always liked the fire fey the best,” she glanced at her sister. “But then we are connected to the flame.”
“Oh, for fire's sake,” Brigit groaned. “Will you get on with it, Brid?”