by Amy Sumida
“King Keir is your real father,” Aideen's voice lowered to a more uncertain timbre.
“No he's not,” I went back to crossing my arms.
“I believe the proof of his parentage lies within your eyes, Seren,” Tiernan whispered. “King Keir has the same star eyes. He's the only fairy... before you, to have them.”
“I am not a fairy!” I shouted and stamped my foot like a five-year-old. A shower of stars burst upwards from the floor like I'd just stepped on a balloon full of them. I gaped at my feet and started to tremble.
“Okay,” Tiernan held up his hands as he and Aideen backed away from me. “Then why did that just happen? Why did your body react to the magic when you crossed into Fairy? Why did magic overtake you right at twilight and then transform you into this?”
“I don't know,” I whispered.
“Those unseelie fey who came after you,” he began again. “My soldiers. We believe the Unseelie King ordered them to kill you. They, as well as the Sluagh, took you high into the air so you couldn't levitate. I'm guessing that your gifts are stronger when you do so. Am I right?”
“I...” I thought about it. “Yes, I guess my psychic abilities seem stronger when I levitate.”
“Because you're touching Fairy when you tread the in-between connecting to the source of your magic,” Tiernan explained. “The path from the Human Realm to Fairy is a very powerful in-between place. Your dormant fey blood was awakened when you passed through it. Then, with the arrival of twilight, you transformed fully.”
“I'm not a fairy,” I whispered as I crumpled to the floor. I sank my fingers into the thick weave of the rug beneath me, crushing the fibers and releasing a fresh, green scent. It seemed to clear my head a little.
“Yes, you are,” Tiernan knelt on the floor before me and pulled me to his chest.
I began to cry. I couldn't help it. My whole life was not my own. My father wasn't my real father and my mother... she had lied to me from the moment of my birth. I couldn't be an Extinguisher if I was a fairy. I shouldn't even be able to hold a sword. The thought perked me up.
“Why can I touch iron, if I'm a fairy?” I asked Tiernan defiantly as I laid my hand on the hilt of my weapon.
“A bonus of being only half fey,” Aideen answered as Tiernan cast the sword a wary look. “You get the best of both worlds. A fairy who is immune to iron. That alone could make you fearsome.”
“No,” I let of of the sword and grabbed Tiernan as if he could change everything.
“I'm so sorry, Seren,” he sighed. “Truly, I understand what it means to be lost and not know who your family is.”
“My father, did he know?” I looked over to Aideen.
“No,” she assured me, “though he does now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in a low voice.
“This has all been your father's plan,” she gave me a guilty smile. “Your real father, King Keir. When your mother was murdered, he started devising a way to bring you to Fairy, so he could protect you.”
“Was my mother murdered because of him?” I started to get angry.
“Yes and no,” she sighed. “Your mother was the only human to know who you really are, the heir to the twilight throne. King Keir has no other children, no wife, and no lovers. He loved your mother dearly and has paid just as dearly for it.”
“I don't understand,” I huffed.
“King Keir's brother is King Uisdean of the Unseelie,” Tiernan took over. “Uisdean hates humans and the thought of one sitting on his brother's throne must be...”
“Irksome,” Aideen finished. “King Keir, our king, believes his brother has sided with his nephew, Bress, son of their sister. Bress would be in line for the twilight throne if you didn't exist.”
“So first he kills my mother and then he decides that's not enough and tries to kill me?” I clarified.
“King Uisdean seems to have believed that killing your mother would have been enough to prevent you from learning of your heritage but when he discovered your father's plans to bring you to Fairy, he must have decided to eliminate your threat entirely,” Tiernan said gently. “At least, that's what we've surmised. We can be sure of nothing yet, but the Unseelie King is one of the few nobles who can command the Sluagh.”
“So it's a safe bet that my uncle wants me dead,” I concluded.
“Yes,” Tiernan nodded.
“How does my father know that I'm not his daughter?” I asked Aideen.
“You mean your human father?” She asked and when I nodded she continued. “Well, you see, this whole biological weapon thing was kind of a ruse.”
“Pardon me?” I glared at her.
“We needed a way to get you into Fairy,” she shrugged. “We knew you were an Extinguisher-”
“I am an Extinguisher,” I interrupted.
“Oh, um, well, I don't see how you'll be able to continue that,” Aideen looked to Tiernan for help but he just shook his head at her and left her to flounder.
“Just go on,” I growled.
“There is no weapon to kill humans,” she admitted. “It was all a diversion so the other courts wouldn't know you were being taken to Fairy. Gentry Technologies is owned by your father, King Keir. If it weren't for the Sluagh attacking, there wouldn't have been any danger at all. I was supposed to get you there and lead you into Fairy, that was it.”
“And my father?” I asked in as calm a tone as I could muster.
“Your human...?” She paled when she saw my glare. “Yes well, Dylan was supposed to be there to explain the proceedings to the Extinguishers.”
“Dylan Thorn, the fairy you supposedly murdered?” I asked.
“Yes,” she gave me a guilty little smile. “We thought his appearance would help to prove the validity of our story. He was meant to ask for their patience and understanding since this was a delicate circumstance in which the life of a fairy princess was in danger. I'm sure someone has already informed Ewan Sloane that he is not your biological father.”
“A fairy princess?” I frowned.
“She means you, Seren,” Tiernan explained.
“I am not a fairy princess!” I shouted and Tiernan cringed a little as a sparkling light illuminated his face. I held up my hand, slowly bringing it towards me, and determined that the light was emanating from my eyes.
“Close your eyes and breathe deeply,” Tiernan's hands went to my face. “It's going to be okay, Seren. It's just going to take a little time for you to adapt.”
“You are the Twilight Princess,” Aideen said happily, with just a hint of awe in her tone.
“I'm the what?” I opened my eyes and was relieved to find that they'd stopped shining like spotlights.
“The Princess of the Twilight Court,” Tiernan clarified.
“The Twilight Princess,” Aideen affirmed again.
“Do not ever call me that,” I ground out.
“What's wrong with being the Twilight Princess?” Aideen frowned.
“Too many damn vampire jokes,” I snarled and Tiernan choked back a laugh.
“Vampires?” Aideen looked baffled.
“Twilight is the title of a human motion picture about vampires,” Tiernan explained. “It's a story, entertainment, like theater.”
“Which makes that title into a joke,” I rolled my eyes. “As if it weren't bad enough to be a fairy princess. I swear, if my skin starts to sparkle, I'm going to scream.”
“Doesn't every little girl want to be a fairy princess?” Aideen asked in a small voice. “And what's wrong with sparkly skin? It sounds lovely. It would be a perfect compliment to your eyes.”
“I don't think Extinguisher girls are raised to want the same things as other girls,” Tiernan was staring at me with an strange look.
“What?” I lifted a brow at him. “Is there something else I should know about?”
“Just that our relationship is no longer a problem,” he grinned wickedly. “It looks like we're better suited than you thought.”
“Oh,” I sta
red into his captivating eyes and realized that he was just as fascinated with my own.
Chapter Nineteen
“Come with me,” Tiernan held a hand out to me.
“Where are we going?” I glanced over to Aideen, where she stood in the kitchen, packing us some food for our trip to the Twilight Court. She just smiled and nodded.
“I have something I want you to see,” he motioned me up. “Come on, I promise you'll enjoy it.”
I took his hand and he led me to the stairs. I had spent the night on the third floor, in one of Aideen's guest bedrooms. She had slept in another guest bedroom on the second floor, while Tiernan had taken her usual bed on the first floor, just in case someone made through the enchanted trunk. It was an odd feeling to have someone protecting me and I bridled a bit to be put in the position of damsel in distress but Tiernan wouldn't budge. My safety had become their priority and my ability to defend myself was only to be used as a last resort. Well, we'd see about that.
I let go of my irritation and focused on the tree house. Aideen's home was amazing though I'd been a little too distracted to appreciate it the night before. Now, with Tiernan leading me up those smooth wood steps, I could enjoy the ingenuity of the circular levels. We climbed up past the two bedrooms, each one spanning the entire width of the tree, with only the hole for the stairs breaking up the expanse of wood floor.
The staircase just kept swirling upwards and we kept following it, room after room falling away beneath us, filled with interesting things I wanted to stop and investigate but Tiernan kept urging me upward. The trunk began to narrow, the rooms getting smaller until they were just storage spaces. Then we came to a trap door in the ceiling set with brass hinges. Tiernan opened it and lowered a final set of steps. We went up them and emerged on the final platform.
I inhaled sharply as I stepped out into open air and found myself standing among the treetops. Branches rustled around us, about waist high on me, granting an unimpeded view of the entire forest. Birds swooped past, calling out to us with cheerful songs before diving through the thick cover of leaves. The treetops looked like fluffy hills from where we stood, like I could climb over them and lay down on those uppermost branches to safely slumber. A new landscape had been revealed to me, another world where wings were needed to truly explore.
“Welcome to Fairy,” Tiernan laid a hand on my back. The heat of his palm seeped through the thin cotton of my black shirt.
“Beautiful,” I turned to him with a soft smile.
“Look,” he slid closer, so that he was pressed into my side as he held his free hand up to point off to our left. “There's the fairy mound we came through.”
I followed his hand to where the trees fell away, outlining a small meadow with a hill in its center. Sunlight flashed off the golden door set into the mound and I took a deep breath, hardly believing that I was there, in Fairy. I had come through that golden door and been changed forever.
“Seren,” Tiernan leaned his face down next to mine. “I brought you up here because I wanted you to see how wonderful this could be. Fairy has so many magical things for you to discover. You're not an outsider anymore, you belong here and her secrets will be revealed to you.” His hand slid down from my back to snake around my waist. Then he pulled me close as he shifted us and pointed in the opposite direction. “That's where we're headed. Do you see the glimmer on the horizon?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“That's the twilight castle,” he smiled, “And all of this is the Twilight Kingdom. This is your home. No cement monstrosities to mar it or machines billowing poison into the air. Fairy bears none of the scars mankind has left upon the Earth. We work with her instead of against her, isn't it beautiful?”
“It is,” I agreed but I couldn't bring myself to smile.
“I know this is a lot for you to accept,” he turned to face me. “But I'll help you. You're not alone.”
“Thank you,” I sighed as his arms came around me and he hugged me gently against his chest. The pound of his heart in my ear calmed my anxiety and I was able to pull back and look again at the Twilight Kingdom.
It didn't look all that unusual from up there. Beautiful yes but unusual? Not really, not beyond that golden door which I could just barely glimpse and the castle which was just a shimmer of light in the distance. The forest was wild and filled with unusual creatures but up there, above the treetops, I couldn't see them and I could pretend I was surveying a normal forest in the Human Realm. The pretense helped relax me even further, even though I knew it was a lie. It didn't matter, I needed to be eased into this, given a little more time to process, so I took the comfort of the illusion and backed away from Tiernan.
“What did you do to the Sluagh, back at Gentry?” I shifted my gaze up to his.
“What do you mean?” He started to push back the hair at my temple but I took his hand and resolutely pulled it down.
“The thing with the light and then the dark,” I clarified. “The way the darkness seemed to attack them. That was you, wasn't it?”
“Yes,” he waved a hand towards the floor and sat, casually leaning against the low wall of trunk that circled the platform. I sat next to him as he continued. “It's a family trait. We're the only seelie who can use their light magic to control the shadows it creates.”
“That's why your name is Shadowcall?” I cocked my head at him.
“Precisely,” he gave me a small smile and reached for me again but I took his hand and just held it, so he'd stop trying to touch me.
Things had become a little awkward between us now that we knew there was nothing forbidding an intimate relationship. He had begun to act like we were already a couple and I had responded with wishy-washy evasiveness that left him looking confused. As he did now. The thing was, I was confused. I didn't know what my life was anymore so how could I start anything romantic?
Then I would look at him and think that he was the only solid thing I had and maybe I should hold onto him. Thus the hot and cold, which he didn't deserve. This little gesture of bringing me up into the trees had me wanting to cling to him again but I'd never been a clingy woman and I didn't want to become one now. I knew I was just feeling vulnerable because of all the sudden changes and I didn't want that to influence our relationship. Tiernan would just have to wait until I figured this all out.
“Something I heard Aideen say to you right before I woke up has had me wondering about your magic but even after you've explained that thing with the shadows, I still don't understand,” I rubbed my thumb across his hand so he'd know I wasn't completely blowing off his advances.
“What's that?” His hand closed, almost completely engulfing mine.
“She said that out of all the seelie, your magic would be the most suited to blending with mine.”
“Ah,” he nodded. “Well, we don't know exactly how your magic will manifest yet. Every fey has their own unique ability in addition to that which they inherit. What we do know is that it will be a twilight magic... one born of Light and Dark.”
“Shadows,” I whispered, “and twilight.”
“Yes, a perfect pairing,” he lowered his voice to a purr, as if just talking about our magic was an intimate thing.
“And this is why you're attracted to me?” I narrowed my eyes on him. The fey may have different ideas of attraction but he was about to find out that human women liked to be wanted for more than their magic.
“It's why I felt drawn to you,” he corrected, “and why I was able to give in to the attraction. Your fairy blood was letting me know it was alright.”
“And why would it not be alright?” I asked in a careful tone.
“It's not what you think,” he sighed. “This isn't about me hating humans. I don't hate them although, as I've told you before, I have little tolerance for them and even less interest on a personal level.”
“Then what is it about?” I felt my face ease into blank confusion.
“It's the magic,” he shrugged. “It guide
s us, like a very strong instinct. Fairy magic can be wild and erratic but there's calculation even in its capriciousness. It wants to flourish, as all things do, and the best way for it to thrive, is to magnify itself by bringing two powerful fairies together.”
“So how did I come to exist?” I lifted a brow and looked over to him. “If its goal is to bring two powerful fairies together, why did it allow my birth?”
We were both sitting with our legs drawn up, our bodies pressed together at shoulder and thigh, our entwined hands in my lap. It felt comfortable but also strange. Like we shouldn't be at this point yet but there we were and I didn't want to move away from him.
“That is a very good question,” Tiernan smiled slowly. “I believe you Extinguishers have been compounding your psychic gifts in a similar manner to the fairy magic. You said you were expected to marry another Extinguisher. I assume this has been the way of things for several generations?”
“Yes, and it's resulted in some very powerful children,” I agreed, realizing he was right.
We'd been doing exactly as the fey had; keeping to ourselves and magnifying our power. So how I could I label him an elitist when I was a product of the same type of exclusion? Actually, I guess I wasn't. I was a product of both elitist groups. I wasn't sure if that made me a double elitist or an egalitarian.
“Your mother was one of those powerful Extinguishers,” Tiernan went on gently. “It seems as if the fey magic took note of her human gifts and when she came into contact with the right fairy; a man who had magic that would complement hers as well as the power to protect the child born of their union, they were drawn together.”
“Are you telling me that my mother's affair was all a manipulation to produce some powerful fusion of psychic gifts and fairy magic?” I gaped at him.
“I believe so,” he nodded. “It's hard to resist the pull of nature. We all have free will of course but nature knows how to twist us until we think we are the ones doing the choosing when in actuality, we're not.”
“So our attraction to each other?” I didn't like where this was going.