Fairy-Struck

by Amy Sumida

  “And that's why you're the Twilight King,” I smiled gently. “I thought I'd seen the worst that Fairy had to offer when I was in the Unseelie Court but when I was taken to the dungeons of the Seelie Court, I saw...”

  “I keep telling you, Seren. Dark or Light,” Keir laid a hand on mine, “we are all fey, just as all races of humans are simply human. It's the magic which makes us Light or Dark... or Twilight, just as race makes humans light or dark skinned. Both courts hold evil, horrible evil, but both also hold great good. Honorable men and women like your Count Tiernan.”

  “My Count Tiernan,” I whispered with a smile. “Yeah, he's alright.”

  “The Dark is led by an twisted heart at the moment,” Keir continued, “and they must follow where their king leads. It does not mean that there is no good in the unseelie. Do you understand yet?”

  “Yes, I think I do,” I blinked as a picture came to mind; of a bean-sidhe holding the hand of a little shellycoat. Compassion. Even in her hopelessness, she found the ability to be compassionate. Keir was right, I needed to look beyond the surface and see the true hearts of all the fey. I set my gaze back on my father with a new determination. “If we want true peace between the courts, we must either change Uisdean's heart or stop it.”

  Chapter Fifty

  It turns out that changing or killing King Uisdean was not what Keir had in mind but my surmisal had made him think. He wasn't ready to make any plans yet but we had time, lots of it now that I was fey. We decided to let go of our issues with Uisdean for the moment and simply get to know each other as father and daughter.

  We had a full day to spend together, including a night of camping in the forest, if you could call it camping when you slept in a pavilion big enough for ten. He showed me how to properly call the twilight creatures and how to talk to them. Tiernan's explanation, when he'd told me that fairies could speak to all animals, hadn't been specific enough. We, as in the fey as a whole, could speak to all animals but not as individuals. Each court had their own set of animals whom only they could communicate with. The seelie had the diurnal animals who were active during the day, the unseelie had the nocturnal creatures who roamed at night, and the twilight had the crepuscular ones who were active at dawn and dusk.

  I had already glimpsed the way I could communicate with the fey animals but I hadn't known that there were different ways of greeting each one and different mannerisms to use. Tursas(a type of fairy bear) for instance, preferred you to sit down in front of them, something I would never have thought to have done with a bear, but to them, it's a form of respect. It says; here I am, you have my attention, I want to speak with you but I'm not looking for a fight.

  Keir didn't have time in our short trip to go over all the intricacies of speaking with the animals but it was a good start and when I told him about the moths, he was so proud, I thought he was going to cry. He confirmed what Tiernan said, that the mending moths were fickle and rarely came when called, but he added that this wasn't their fault. It wasn't that they were malicious or ambivalent even, they simply didn't have as great a capacity for reasoning as say a tursa. It took a lot of magic to be able to connect with that erratic, insect mind, and then even more to lure it into doing your bidding. Oh, and it had to be twilight magic of course, because moths are crepuscular.

  My fairy father also pointed out that I'd done well by playing the statue for them with my outstretched arms. Moths like stillness, gentleness, as it was kind of necessary for their wellbeing. A soft voice was helpful too, as it was with most animals, but Keir taught me how to call them in my mind and connect with them on a more psychic level, making speech unnecessary. Having my Extinguisher background and my psychic abilities helped immensely and I was able to pick up the technique fast. Plus, I'd already sensed the connection I had with the twilight animals the evening they crowned me.

  Keir explained the “crowning” as well. It was the process of opening the mental paths between me and the animals. Once opened, the animals collectively placed a link in my mind so powerful, it could be seen in my aura. If they looked for it, fairies or clairvoyant humans could actually see a circular glow around my temples like a crown on my head. It was one of the highest honors Fairy could give a monarch and was what Keir had been referring to when he'd told Uisdean that I wore the crown. Once he looked past his prejudice, Uisdean had been able to see my crown-like aura. An aura that Uisdean did not possess but one which I could clearly see on my father's brow.

  The day I spent with Keir showed me just how much I needed to learn about Fairy and how much he could teach me. I'd thought I was at least informed enough to handle myself in the Fairy Realm but I'd been so wrong. The Human Council had been right to be concerned over their lack of information. They knew even less than I'd thought.

  Even with our massive libraries holding book after book of knowledge on fairies; how to interact with them, how to protect ourselves from their magic, and how to kill them, there was still so much we didn't know. A whole kingdom had been kept secret from us, a kingdom which was large enough to cover a third of the world. If I was to rule this kingdom, I needed to learn all of the things that had been held back from the humans. It was a good thing I was immortal now because one day in the forest with my father was not going to cut it.

  When we arrived at Castle Twilight the next day, it was to find Tiernan waiting for us. He stood on the steps of the main keep, one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other on the top of Cat's head. Before the coach even stopped rolling, Cat was down the steps and barking at my door. I opened it as soon as we stopped and she bounded in.

  “Whoa,” I laughed and hugged her tight. “I missed you too.”

  “I'm glad you have her. It helps ease my mind when you're away from me,” Keir spared a moment to scratch Cat behind the ears before he climbed out of the carriage.

  “I'm glad I have you too,” I whispered to the puka. “Were you good for Tiernan?”

  “No, she's been a royal pain in the ass,” Tiernan said with a smirk as he leaned in the doorway. “Just like her mistress.”

  “You!” I narrowed my eyes on him and his face went slack in shock. “You have some nerve, buddy.” I pushed Cat out, effectively backing Tiernan up, and then climbed out to face him.

  “What did I do?” He gaped at me.

  “You tell me you love me just as I leave Fairy?” I poked him in the chest. The large gathering of twilight fey around us went silent. “You're such a wuss. A lily-livered, fraidy-cat wuss.”

  “I...” he stammered. “How was that being cowardly?”

  “It gave me no chance to respond,” I huffed. “So if I didn't return your feelings, I could just come back and pretend I didn't hear what you had said and you could pretend you never said it. No risk.”

  “Bad move, my friend,” Conri called out from the sidelines.

  “There was risk,” Tiernan growled, ignoring Conri. “Simply loving you is risky.”

  “Yeah?” I snapped. “Well loving you is no cake walk either, Legolas.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you I'm not an...” he stopped and blinked. “Did you just say you love me?”

  “Maybe,” I started to smile. “Irritating isn't it, when you're not given a normal declaration of love?”

  “Well you had better say it again,” he put his hands on his hips. “More clearly this time.”

  “Hmph,” I huffed and began to walk away.

  “Seren,” I heard his aghast tone come from behind me. I could just imagine his arms dropping down in defeat.

  “Oh hey, Tiernan,” I looked at him over my shoulder when I reached the castle stairs.

  “What?” He snapped.

  “I love you,” I gave him a sassy look and ran into the castle, laughing delightedly as Cat ran beside me, barking in delight. Beneath the barking came the sound of heavy footsteps and I glanced behind me to see Tiernan chasing after us.

  “Children,” I heard Keir sigh as I passed him.

  Maybe I was
acting more childish now that I was a fairy. Perhaps it was because compared to most of them, I was still a child. I had a lot to learn about my new life, my new magic, and my new people but I was willing to put in the time. An Extinguisher is never afraid of hard work... or the dark.

  Epilogue

  Things have been quiet in the Twilight Kingdom. No one has heard a peep from Uisdean and his Dark Court, though we now have allies in the Light. Nighean, Aodh, and their mother Neala went home to Seelie but they've kept in touch with us and have begun to gather supporters for peace between the kingdoms. So far, it must be a secret recruitment since the hatred between the Dark and Light Courts still runs rampant, despite the return of the prisoners, but I have hopes that someday the secret will come out.

  As far as my relationship with Keir goes, I now call him Dad more easily and try not to mention my other dad to him, even though that relationship feels strained to the point where I despair that things will ever be right between Ewan and I. Cat remains a constant guardian and an occasional pain in the butt, especially when I'm trying to find some alone time with my other guardian, but Tiernan handles her antics as easily and as gracefully as he does mine.

  Tiernan. I'd never thought to have a friendship with a fairy, much less call one my boyfriend, but there it is. He's my boyfriend and I'm kinda head over heels in love with him. The best part is that he's just as in love with me but when he talks about forever, I know he really means forever and it kind of makes me nervous. I don't know what's going to happen between us or who I'll become when I finally learn all about my own magic, but I'm enjoying what we have right now and who I am in this moment.

  My name is Seren Sloane Bloodthorn and I'm an Extinguisher but I'm also the Twilight Princess, and my work has just begun.

  Keep reading for a sneak peek into the next book in the Twilight Court Series:

  Pixie-Led

  Pixie-led: The process of being led astray by pixies; bewildered.

  Chapter One

  Life as a fairy princess wasn't getting any easier. I'd thought that once I'd made the transition from Extinguisher Seren Sloane to Ambassador Seren Sloane Bloodthorn that things would start getting easier and more comfortable for me. As an Extinguisher, I was a psychically gifted soldier who kept watch over fairies in the Human Realm(and occasionally executed them). Now I'm a half-human fairy princess of the previously unknown Twilight Court, not only an ambassador between fairies and humans but also between the fighting courts of Fairy. I was getting used to the lavish living conditions and being surrounded by the strange blends of seelie and unseelie which were the twilight fairies. I was even comfortable with my new puka pet, Cat, who rarely let me have a moment alone. What wasn't getting easier was the constant revelations about the fey.

  Every day I learned something new, which sounds wonderful. I think I even saw that embroidered on a pillow once... learn something new every day. Except I had thought I'd known all there was to know about the fey. Turns out, I literally hadn't known the half of it. The very court I was now princess of was unknown to me. It was unknown to all humans actually, because its king had wanted it that way. Bringing me to Fairy had meant outing his court to the Human Council and now not only I but all of the Council and the Extinguishers were reeling with the knowledge that there was an entire kingdom of Fairy we hadn't known about.

  As the new half-human princess to the neutral court of Twilight, which lay between the warring courts of Light and Dark, I was in a unique position to expand my peace-keeper status into that of an ambassador. I was all for it but an ambassador needed to know the people she was working with and, as I mentioned before, I didn't know as much as I'd thought. There were all kinds of things that the Fairy Council hadn't seen fit to share with us humans. Not that I blamed them, if the Human Council had known some of the things I was learning about, it might have caused a panic. It definitely would have threatened the truce between fairies and humans, and in the end, the knowledge wouldn't have helped them.

  Then there was the magic I'd unlocked when I'd first stepped into Fairy and released the power of my fey blood. So far I knew of two different magics that I possessed. One was called star-crossing and I could use it to render both humans and fey fairy-struck, a condition which resulted in the victim becoming so passive, they wouldn't even eat without my commanding it. My other magic was dream-dusting. I could blow a sleep inducing dust from my fingertips. Both of them were pretty cool but the soldier in me longed for a more aggressive magic, something like my new fairy father, King Keir had. He could burn the blood within someone's body. Now that was cool... well hot. Whatever, you know what I mean.

  As if all that wasn't hard enough, I also had to deal with a romantic entanglement. Okay, so that part wasn't so bad. Count Tiernan Shadowcall sounds like some stuffy royal fairy who spends his days strolling through extravagant gardens but actually he was kind of bad ass. A Lord of the Wild Hunt(which he loved reminding me of over and over... it's kinda a big deal), he was from a family of seelie sidhe who possessed the only strain of Light magic which could actually command the Dark. Well, not the Dark exactly, the shadows made by his light.

  We'd met on my last Extinguisher mission, which ended up being a complete scam designed by King Keir to bring me home to Fairy. I'd been raised by a human named Ewan Sloane, a man whose wife, my mother, cheated on him with a fairy king and then had the nerve to pretend the child resulting from that union, namely me, was his. She had her reasons, mainly to protect me from all the nasty fairies who didn't want a half-human heir to the twilight throne. Still, my life had been a lie and she had paid for that lie with her life. Unfortunately I was paying for it too.

  The man I'd known as my father for most of my life, Ewan Sloane, wouldn't speak to me anymore. He basically disavowed me as his daughter and told me to go to hell... or Fairy rather. It hurt. A lot. I don't know if it will ever stop hurting so I'm not going to stop trying to get through to him. I know my Dad, my human Dad, he's all bluster and gruff but there's a soft heart beneath it. My mom's betrayal had hurt him. He'd already been driven to the edge by her death and I knew he needed someone to blame, someone to hurt for this additional pain or he would truly go mad. I was a convenient candidate.

  Still, I knew there would come a day when he'd wake up in his empty house and miss me. You can't erase twenty-six years of love overnight, not even with a heavy application of anger. Until then, he was moping on assignment in Hawaii, and I was hopping back and forth between the realms as I tried to make both councils happy.

  The councils had been created after the last great war between the humans and the fey. They made the laws that kept our truce going and to enforce those laws, two military groups were created; the Wild Hunt, which was comprised of fairies and the Extinguishers which were humans.

  Tiernan was on the job when we met and so was I. Technically the Hunt and the Extinguishers fight on the same side, that of peace, but in reality, we didn't work well together. They handled humans who broke our laws(knowingly or unknowingly) and we handled the fey. This made for tension between our groups. Tiernan and I were the exceptions, mainly because of this instant attraction we'd felt for each other. Originally, I had no intention of giving in to that attraction but Tiernan intended to change my mind... and Tiernan can be very convincing when he wants to be.

  After I became the Twilight Princess(don't laugh) and then a fairy-human ambassador, the Fairy Council assigned Tiernan to partner with me. Which means he became my unofficial bodyguard and an official pain in my patootie. He made up for the patootie pain by making other parts of my anatomy feel very nice though. I meant my heart, you perverts.

  “Amazing. How does this just keep getting better?” I curled up into Tiernan's side after he rolled over. Okay so I wasn't just talking about my heart.

  “I've had lots of time to develop my skills,” he grinned down at me, silver eyes shining bright in the shadows of my bed. The ring of black around his irises made them stand out even more but it was the silv
er scar running across his right cheek that truly brought out the beauty of his eyes.

  “How much time exactly?” I asked casually as I traced the curving scar with my fingertip.

  “I'm still not telling,” he smirked. “You can't trick me into it, Seren.”

  “I will find out how old you are,” I narrowed my eyes on him.

  “Not if I don't want you to,” he pushed back some hair from his face, fingers trailing first through the platinum color at his temples, then light gold, blonde, honey, chestnut, chocolate, and finally the jet black ends. No one could do ombré like the fey.

  “If you cut your hair, would the tips start turning black?” I asked as I pulled the black ends of his hair forward.

  “No,” he took my hand and kissed my fingers. “It's the length that changes the color. The longer it grows, the darker.”

  “Interesting,” I mused but my train of thought was cut short by a pitiful howl. “Alright, Cat!” I called and slid from the bed while Tiernan groaned. “I'm coming.”

  “Can't you leave her in there a little while longer?” Tiernan whined.

  “If I do, she's liable to break down the door,” I opened the door to my dressing room(too big to be called a closet) and Cat, my twilight puka who looked like a shaggy, gray dog the size of a pony, came barreling out.

  She pushed me aside as she ran by me and jumped into the bed, making Tiernan groan again. I just laughed and climbed back under the covers as Cat did her usual three circles before settling down on the silk comforter. My bed was huge, we could have probably had two pukas and a cat-sidhe in it and still had room, but Tiernan liked to complain about Cat. I think it was a form of affection for him because he liked to complain about me too.