by Unknown
I stood and was a little surprised when Arach stood with me. We headed toward Breck's body but halfway there, Isleen stopped us and handed me a wreath of flowers.
“I though you might like to give her a crown,” Isleen smiled sadly.
“Thank you,” I gave Isleen a quick hug and then carried the crown of little red flowers over to Breck.
The line of fey parted so Arach and I could move through and I laid the wreath on Breck's head, smoothing her hair down around her. I had a flash of memory, her smiling gleefully as she described how she'd tricked Aalish into eating sulfur, and I swallowed past the lump in my throat. Then I turned around to face the gathered fey and Arach's hand slid into mine. I gave him a little smile before I addressed the group.
“In the God Realm, I am a goddess of lions,” I started, having no idea where I was going with it. Please let me say something beautiful and not screw up this tribute to Breck. “When we lose one of our own, we cut some hair from our heads and leave it in the grave with our dead. I don't have to do that with Breck though, because I know she's already become a part of Faerie again and hopefully she will be reborn into the House of Fire once more, very soon.” A cheer rose from my fey. “I take comfort in knowing that she's not alone, she's returned to the source of our magic, but I admit to you all that it's not enough for me. I grieve for our lost goblin and the knowledge that even though she may return, she won't return as Breck. I will miss her and her friendship. She was loyal and funny and beautiful, and she gave freely of all of those things, defending me when she saw a slight, making me laugh when she saw me frown, and showing me true beauty when I was blind to it. As much as there's no need for me to leave a lock of hair with her, I feel that she deserves something from me, something to show my love of her. So instead of hair, I offer her something that's very precious to us dragons,” I gave Arach a smile as I turned one of my hands into a dragon claw. “I offer her my blood.”
Silence spread until all that could be heard was the soft singing of nurials in the nearby woods. I smiled at that, and then smiled even wider when Dexter lifted up his head and joined in the song. It was a sweet sound, like a mother humming a lullaby to her baby, and it seemed the perfect music to honor Breck with. I lifted my hands and pricked a finger with one of my claws. A drop of red welled up and I could feel the rapt attention of all the fey as I laid my hand over hers and let my blood drip onto her skin.
“I bleed for you,” I whispered and lowered my face to kiss Breck on the cheek.
When I looked up, I found a wall of goblins standing before me. The rest of the fey had faded back to allow them to come forward and the goblins, including the larger red caps, stared at me grimly. Most of them held a blade in their hand. Fearghal stepped forward first.
“We want to offer blood as well, my Queen,” Fearghal said and then he did something that shocked the whole pavilion. He took off his cap.
Fearghal brushed Breck's little fingers with his bloody cap, leaving a dark mark on her hand. Then he replaced his cap and stepped back so that the others could step forward. Arach and I withdrew as the goblins closed in around Breck and each one bled for her in their own way.
“How do you do that?” Arach whispered to me.
“Do what?” I turned away from the goblins to look up at him.
“Say a few words and change everything,” Arach lowered his forehead to mine. “Say a few words and make me love you even more.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“What is that racket?” I growled and turned over in bed.
“Just the baby next door,” Arach patted me and went back to sleep.
“That's not Hunter,” I sat up and listened more closely.
It was an argument, right outside our bedroom door. I rolled out of bed and threw on a robe. Dexter crawled out of his bed and came padding after me. We'd finally got him to sleep in a separate bed by making him a mini version of our bed and setting it next to ours. It was way too big for him, even though he'd grown a couple of inches already, but I was told he'd grow as long as I was tall, so he'd need the room eventually.
I swung open the door and Roarke jumped, then looked at me apologetically. Una just looked down at the ground.
“Sorry, V,” Roarke shrugged. “We kind of forgot who's door we were outside of.”
“What was all that yelling about?” I rubbed at my eyes.
“He expects the women to take care of Hunter all the time,” Una pointed a claw-tipped finger at him. “I don't care if he is King, I'm not his servant.”
“Una, I just asked if you could watch him today while I receive more cat-sidhe,” Roarke sighed.
“You ask me to watch him everyday,” she growled.
“Well you can say no,” he growled back.
“Enough!” I snarled and they both whimpered. “That is your child, Roarke. If you can't find someone to watch him, you take him with you.”
“Thank you, Queen Vervain,” Una said with a snide look at Roarke.
“Oh, I'm not done yet, Una,” I fixed a stare on her. “You are definitely not a slave and you can stand up for yourself but you will not speak to your King like that. If you original fire cats don't respect him, no one else will and I won't stand for that. I'd sooner kick you all out on your little furry asses than let you disrespect my boy here. Got it?”
Dexter squawked angrily, as if to emphasize my point.
“Yes, Queen Vervain,” she said in a more demure tone.
“Excellent,” I sighed, “now if you two don't mind-”
The sounds of another fight carried up to us.
“I'm going to get dressed so I can go mediate another argument,” I growled and slammed the door in their faces.
“What is it?” Arach watched me through slit-pupiled eyes.
“A cat fight,” I threw off my robe and started pulling on one of my fey dresses. They were long, and in the case of my new winter ones, heavy but they were easy to put on at least. I just threw them over my head and they conformed to my body. Fey clothes are awesome.
“Is it over?” Arach looked over my efforts to dress.
“That one is,” I rolled my eyes and tossed his trousers at him. “But I hear another one downstairs. I think it's going to be that kind of day.”
“It's barely begun,” he cast a glance at the new glass window and sighed, realizing that it was so coated with snow and frost, it was impossible to tell what time it was. “Alright, I'm getting up.”
“I think Roarke said there were more cat-sidhe coming today,” I said as he dressed.
“Excellent,” he started to perk up and went into the bathroom.
“Yeah,” I frowned, wondering if it was wise to ask Faerie to change more cat-sidhe right now.
I wouldn't, if I were you.
“Oh?” I decided to tread carefully with her.
It hardly seems appropriate to ask me for a favor when you haven't come through for me yet, she huffed.
“I've been a little busy,” I sighed. “You know, with the whole war thing.”
You think a war is more important than my welfare?
“When that war is on my doorstep?” I pretended to consider it. “Yeah, I do.”
Whatever.
“Don't you have any idea of how I can help you?”
You have all the tools you need at your disposal, just make an effort, she growled.
“Make an effort?” I cursed under my breath. “What the hell do you think I've been doing? Sitting on my thumbs?”
It rather seems like it.
“Who are you talking to?” Arach came out of the bathroom, dressed and tidied.
“Her supreme bitchiness,” I grumbled. “Trying to get me to help her by offering me yet another riddle.”
That wasn't a riddle. That was a vague statement. I'm doing all I can, part of me doesn't even want to help you. I'm straining the reserves of my strength just to be civil to you.
“Yes, I can tell,” I said dryly. “Fine, I'll give it all more thought.�
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Think faster.
“Is she gone?” Arach put his boots on and then threw a cloak over his outfit.
“Yeah,” I stood and let him put a fur-lined cloak over my shoulders too. “Let's go take care of the little things first.”
I picked up Dexter and draped him over my shoulders. His fluffy little face nestled in next to mine and his claws dug into my cloak. We made our way halfway down the spiraling staircase and followed the sounds of a fight off onto another floor and down a hallway. There, a couple of red caps were pushing at each other and shouting in the fey language.
“Cease,” Arach pushed between them. “What's this about?”
“He ran into me,” one of them said.
“I barely touched him and then he punched me,” the other shot back.
Then they started fighting again right over Arach's head. That is until Arach let out a roar and they backed down.
“What are you, children?” Arach looked them both over. “No, you're red cap soldiers and I expect better behavior from you both. Stop it now or I'll let Queen Vervain practice her sword skills on you for disturbing our day.”
They both apologized and we headed back to the main stairs. Before we reached them, sounds of another fight had already begun to drift up to us.
“What the hell is going on?” I looked over at him in disbelief.
“I don't know but it doesn't smell right,” he narrowed his dragon eyes on me.
“My King, my Queen!” Isleen came running up the stairs. “The whole castle has gone crazy and we have a contingent of earth cats mewling at our front door.”
“Roarke is supposed to be handling the cats,” I said as we started down the stairs with her.
“And we'll split up to handle the rest,” Arach finished for me and kissed me on the cheek. “I'll see you later, A Thaisce.”
“If we make it through this day,” I joked and went in the direction Isleen pointed.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I broke up over twenty more fights and greeted the new cat-sidhe before I was able to retire for the night. The cats had decided to defect after being forced to be a part of Liam's horrible scheme and Liam had actually kept his end of the bargain and supported their decision. When he gave his support, even more decided to leave. They corroborated everything that Liam and Aalish had said, that King Liam had acted alone but they'd been powerless to go against him. Trying to poison an entire kingdom had kind of been the last straw and even though Liam was now a changed cat, they didn't want to be a part of Earth anymore.
One of the new cats was Anna. I was thrilled that she had taken the opportunity to be reunited with her child but Mairi and Una weren't so happy. I think they saw clearly that they'd lost both Hunter and Roarke with her arrival. Well, they'd get over it. It was much more important that Hunter have his mother in his life and Roarke have a chance at being with the woman he loved. I say a chance because it was obvious that Anna wasn't going to make it easy for Roarke. I was hopeful that she'd be good for him though, Roarke needed a woman who wouldn't take his crap.
So we had over forty new cats. If I didn't already live with almost eighty werelions, I'd have been a little overwhelmed but as it was, I was just concerned over when we'd be able to actually change them into fire cats. First I had to tackle the problem with Faerie.
I sighed as I laid back in the gigantic silver bed I shared with Arach. Someone had added fluffy comforters to it since winter had come and lying back on it now was like lying on a pillow. Dexter padded across my belly, making me groan.
“Have you put on weight?” I eyed him and he gave me a rumbly purr in response. “Yeah, you've got Caoimhe wrapped around your paw. Sometimes I wonder if you get better cuts of meat than I do.”
Another rumble but this one sounded more like laughter. I swear, sometimes I thought Dexter could understand me.
“There you are,” Arach came into the room and slammed the door shut behind him, locking it for good measure. “I'm done. I don't care if they kill each other, I'm done dealing with it.”
“I totally understand.”
“Well you look comfy,” he pulled off his boots and crawled into bed beside me.
“We are,” I laughed and scooted Dexter over.
Arach leaned in to kiss me but Dexter crawled between us and started purring. I laughed but Arach got irritated and shoved him away.
“Shoo, Dexter,” he growled.
“He's just a baby,” I picked him up and put him in his bed, giving him a couple scratches so he'd stay.
“Just a baby,” Arach huffed and dropped his head back against the pillow.
“What?”
“You gush all over those Hidden Ones babies,” he looked over at me. “You give our nursery to Hunter, and now you bring an animal into our bedroom and call him your baby. All while you deny me a child.”
“Whoa,” I sat down on the edge of the bed. “Why don't you tell me how you really feel?”
“Alright,” he sat up. “I see you giving all your love to other children when you could be holding mine instead, and it upsets me.”
“I was actually being sarcastic,” I mumbled.
“Don't do that,” he growled. “I'm being serious about something that means a lot to me and you're making jokes. What the hell is wrong with you that you have to turn everything into comedy?”
“I don't turn everything-”
“Shut up, Vervain!” He sat forward. “I have done everything I can to accommodate you, to make you comfortable and happy. Yet you deny me the one thing that would truly make me happy.”
“I thought I made you happy,” I whispered, hurt slowly filling my heart.
“Don't do that either,” he made a slashing motion with his hand.
“What? Now what am I doing?” I gaped at him.
“Making it about you,” he huffed. “Turning my pain into yours.”
“I didn't mean to-”
“No, you don't,” he shook his head, “you never do. It's always about how hard it's been for you, the sacrifices you've had to make. What about the sacrifices I make, the things I want?”
“We've talked about this,” I couldn't understand where this was coming from. “You said we had plenty of time.”
“Well, I don't want to wait anymore,” he made a grab for me and I backed away. “Come her, damn you.”
“Fuck you,” I stood and started to back to the door.
“That's exactly what I'm trying to do,” he growled and stood.
“Stay the fuck away from me, Arach,” I hissed and pointed a hand towards him. “You're not acting like yourself right now.”
“You're my wife and if I want you, the least you can do is let me have you,” he strode over, reaching a hand towards me, but suddenly Dexter was there between us. His fur was standing on end, his fangs were bared, and the stinger in his tail was poised to strike. He gave a shrieking roar that made Arach stop in his tracks. “I...” he blinked at me.
“Come on, Dex,” I reached down and Dexter crawled up my arm, shooting nasty looks at Arach the whole time. I turned and went to the door.
“Vervain,” Arach cried.
“I'm going to sleep somewhere else tonight,” I said over my shoulder. “I'll be back in the morning. Hopefully you'll feel better by then.”
I shut the door behind me and then went looking for Isleen so she could help me find an empty room as far away from my husband's as possible. Dexter pressed against the side of my neck in a comforting manner but my mind couldn't be settled. Had I been unfair to Arach? Were my affections toward other children salt in his wound? Surprisingly, with all the anger that I'd seen that day, I couldn't find the strength to get angry myself. I was just sad, very sad.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Early the next morning I woke up to a light knocking on my door. I sighed and nestled in closer to Dexter, who was curled up under the covers with me. He had finally got his steam under control so the bed wasn't wet, which was a good thing but i
t made it harder for me to get out of it. He gave a little squeaking mewl and I nuzzled his head before I gave in and got out of bed.
I was about to call out when I saw the window, or rather what was on the window. In sparkling frost, written upon the pane of glass, was a message. I went over and stood before it, my heart starting to beat faster. I didn't know if it was from Faerie or just some random frost fey but it was clearly a warning.
“Time is running out,” I read as I touched the glass. Then another pounding startled me and I remembered that I had a visitor. “Who is it?”
“Your husband,” came the low reply.
“Oh, you,” I left the chilly message and went to the door. I pulled it open and looked him over.
He looked as if he hadn't slept, clothes rumpled and hair coming out of its leather tie. He had tense shoulders and sad eyes. Dragon eyes should never be sad, it just doesn't look right.
“Come in,” I stood back and closed the door behind him.
“I don't know what happened,” he started. “It was like a black haze dropped over my senses and I couldn't think straight. I'm so sorry, Vervain.”
“What did you say?” I gaped at him.
“I said I'm sorry.”
“No, about the haze,” I frowned, thinking over all the fights there had been the day before. “I think we should mirror the other kingdoms and see if they've had a similar situation to ours.”
“Aren't you even going to accept my apology?”
“Arach,” I hugged him. “I knew it wasn't you. Of course I accept your apology and I hope you don't really feel that way. If you do, I'm sorry as well.”
“I don't,” he pulled away and looked down at me. “I mean yes, I have moments where I'm jealous that the babe your holding isn't mine but its just a moment. I'm okay with waiting for you to be ready. The last thing I want is for you to feel pressured into having children. Babies should be wanted without reservation.”
“Thank you,” I nodded. “Now, did you hear anything else I said or were you just focused on whether I forgave you or not?”
“I... yes, we should mirror the other kingdoms,” his face changed to one of revelation. “I think you're right, there's something afoot.”