A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic Book 1)

by Elise Kova

  By the time Harrow knew anything, it was too late.

  “I don’t understand.” Eldas keeps his voice hushed. He moves with almost cat-like grace and quiet. “Harrow should have been able to overpower a few fae. He has as much of a connection with the Veil as Drestin does and, while he might be dense, he’s smart enough not to fall for their half-truths.”

  “Unless it was more than a few fae?” And unless he’d ingested so much glimmer that it put him out of his right mind.

  “With his guard—”

  “Unless he told his guard to wait elsewhere.”

  “Why would he do that?” Eldas stops to face me. My expression must betray something, because his eyes narrow. “What do you know?”

  I’ve said too much, and I know it. “I don’t know anything other than we have to find Harrow.”

  “You’re lying to me,” he hisses. His brow is furrowed with anger, but his eyes are wounded. “I know you well enough that I know how the air shifts around you when you try to deceive.”

  I swallow hard. “There’s no time now—”

  “Tell me the essentials, then.”

  “I’m trying to respect my patient,” I say weakly.

  “This is a command.”

  “But—”

  “Luella!” he presses, worry contrasting with the frustration in his voice.

  “Harrow was using glimmer,” I blurt.

  “What?” The white fights to consume Eldas’s eyes as his lids hold themselves painfully open. “How would you—”

  “He told me,” I say quickly. Then nerves and fear prompt me to speak even faster. I rush to tell Eldas of what I saw in the alleyway—what I suspect was glimmer changing hands to Aria from a fae accomplice. Of what Harrow told me on his bed and his confusion of how he’d become addicted to the substance he’d never meant to take in the first place. My theory of Aria using it to lure Harrow here, alone.

  “They were planning this… Going after you that day was nothing more than an unexpected opportunity. That was why their kidnapping attempt seemed so haphazard. It was a crime of convenience. But the real plot was Harrow all along because the fae instigators knew they had a woman who had his ear,” Eldas seethes. I hope the rage in his eyes is directed at the fae and not at me, but I’m not certain. “You and I will discuss your choices to keep all this from me in more detail when my brother is safe.”

  “Fine.” I want to object that I tried to tell him while respecting my patient’s wishes, but I know this isn’t the time or place. He’s right. Harrow’s safety is priority one right now.

  Hook lets out a low whine and we begin following him again. The wolf leads us to a back, forgotten corner of the town. Refuse piles line the wall and fill the air with their stench. Eldas plugs his nose, rearing away. I’ve smelled worse from some rare plants, but the aroma still staggers me.

  Somehow, Hook manages to keep the trail through it all and he leads us to a series of boards leaning against the wall—out of sight with the trash piled in front of them. Hook scratches and then lets out a low growl. As Eldas and I near, we hear the faint echo of people talking, words indiscernible. Through cracks in the boards, the dark line of a tunnel in the wall is visible.

  “Stay here,” he hisses.

  “But you need—”

  “I do not need you. You are a liability because I can’t allow something to happen to you. And if you had been forthright with me from the beginning, all of this might not have happened,” he snarls at me with rage I didn’t think Eldas could harbor toward me. I stagger back as if he struck me. Yet, even through his anger, his worry and compassion for me shines through. It reminds me that the Eldas I’ve come to know and care for is still the man standing before me. “Stay here, hide, and stay safe with Hook. If something happens to you I’ll be forced to rip apart every fae with my bare hands.”

  Before I can say anything else, Eldas pushes the boards aside, steps off into the darkness, and leaves me alone. I grit my teeth. Hook lets out another low whine and scratches.

  Images of Eldas ambushed, injured and bleeding, fill my mind. Surely Aria knew he’d come after Harrow? Unless they thought they could get Harrow long away before anyone realized? These thoughts swirl around the image of Harrow, drugged to the point of incoherency.

  I meet Hook’s luminescent golden eyes.

  “What would you do?” I whisper. The wolf looks back to the hole in the wall. “If you insist, I can’t argue with that.”

  I fish in my bag for a sprig of briar. I picked the plants I took from the gardens at Westwatch carefully. Every one for a different reason, based on the insights of a past queen. For weeks I’ve been reading and practicing their written methods.

  The memory of my last attack lingers. I wasn’t confident with my magic then. I needed Hook and Eldas to stand a chance. But I’m not the same woman as I was. I know how to use my powers and I trust the land beneath my feet to keep me safe.

  “Let’s go.” I nod toward the opening and Hook strides into the darkness, unafraid. I try to emulate him, following close behind. As we walk, I push magic from my hand into the briar, charging it with energy to use in a large burst.

  The silence is broken in the distance by a sharp cry being cut short with a sickening crunch.

  “Go!” I urge Hook and he bounds ahead. I stumble through the darkness, running my hand along the rough-hewn wall. It bites into the flesh of my palm but I keep pressing firm.

  Soon, a sliver of light guides me. I can make out Hook’s shadow, racing onward. He crosses into the moonlight before me. The noises of fighting rise in my ears. I keep pumping my feet forward.

  I’ve never been in a real fight before. I studied how to heal, not hurt. But I’d never been married before, crossed the Fade, had magic, slept with a man, or loved like this before. I’ve been able to take all those firsts in stride.

  I can do this.

  I emerge into a forest. Instantly, I notice how the fae lands are different from the Elf Kingdom. Motes of magic drift through the air between the trees, casting everything in shades of blue and green. Vining flowers I don’t recognize hang like curtains from the trees’ leafy boughs. Even the earth seems different under my feet; it’s more untamed, magical, and much more like what I think I originally expected of Midscape.

  Hook’s growl followed by a shout brings me back to reality. I sprint forward, dashing around the trees to a low-lying clearing. Two fae lie dead, their throats slit with a violent dark line. Eldas faces off against a beast with paws that match the prints we saw in the road. The animal is the size of a bear, covered in fur around its face and paws, but the rest of its body is coated in wet-looking scales, like a serpent’s.

  Hook’s whimper draws my attention across the clearing to where the wolf has been beaten back by another fae with ram’s horns. The man’s eyes gleam a bright violet and his hands move through the air, vaporous magic tracing his motions. Both beast and man wear necklaces weighted by labradorite around their necks.

  I hold out the briar and sink my feet into the ground.

  An arm closes around me and the blade of a dagger is at my throat.

  “King Eldas!” Aria shouts over my shoulder. My ears ring. I was right; it was her all along. I’ve never been so angry about being correct. “If you won’t parlay with us for your dear brother, then perhaps your queen?”

  Eldas’s bright eyes leave the beast to face us. A rage unlike any I’ve ever seen twists his handsome features into pure malice. Waves of shadow radiate off of him and the presence of the Fade thickens with his magic.

  “Let her go,” he growls.

  “Let us go and agree to give us the land that’s rightfully ours!” She pushes the dagger closer to my throat.

  “Aria, don’t do this,” the man with the ram’s horns says, voice weak with emotion. “You were supposed to get away.” I see something I recognize—an emotion I’ve seen in Eldas numerous times now. Admiration, compassion. I’m beginning to piece together the simple plot this s
eems to have been…Aria fell in love with one of the rebel fae. Love was the one thing that could make someone act against their own best interests.

  “You insult your people’s—your family’s—attempt at diplomacy and hurt your cause with this.” Eldas holds out his arms and an array of silver blades pop into existence. He summons each one with nothing more than a thought—a true name of a weapon he learned and saved in his memory throughout the course of his life. “Kill her and you kill us all.”

  “Our lands are cold and cruel,” Aria shouts. “She only makes the Elf Kingdom viable for food and game.”

  “That’s not—” I can’t get out a word. Aria yanks me tighter and the dagger bites into my throat as I dare to speak. Blood slips down the blade, dropping to the earth.

  “Silence,” she snarls at me. “We have a way that you’re no longer needed. A ritual that will restore this land.”

  Ritumancy… Willow explained it as the act of performing rituals to gain magic. I never expected Aria to be the one to give me the missing piece that finally put together the puzzle of how to end the cycle. But she did.

  I just have to survive long enough to test my theory.

  “Don’t take another step closer,” Aria shouts as Eldas begins to move; his eyes are still stuck on me with panic. “I know you, you won’t dare risk the life of the Human Queen.”

  Droplets have been dripping from the hand I cut on the wall for a good minute now, mingling with my blood streaming off her blade. I smirk; I learned very early on how dangerous my blood can be when mixed with nature.

  “He won’t,” I whisper. “But I will.”

  Magic explodes out from around me with a force I haven’t felt since the afternoon with Harrow in the lunch nook. I release my control and it flows into the earth unfettered.

  I am like a blight on the land. Death spreads out from around me as the power is consumed and leeched from the earth itself. Balance, it all requires balance.

  The briar falls from my fingers and writhes outward. The thorny vines wrap around Aria and she lets out a shout. I can feel their tiny daggers digging into her flesh as if the vines were a part of my own body.

  Yet, none of the thorns face me. Aria is cocooned in a wicked prison—trapped, but not dead—and I am free to step away as the vines wrench her hand holding the dagger away from my throat like violent puppet strings. The earth cracks under my feet as I walk. Thorny, angry briar follows me and races toward the beast as I point in its direction.

  The clawed and scaled creature makes an attempt to get away. But it can’t outpace my magic. The air shifts as Eldas turns his attention onto the remaining fae. The weapons he summoned rain like a hail of steel on the remaining man. Aria lets out a scream of pure anguish—cold and lingering.

  I lower my hand the moment the last fae is wrapped in briar. All at once, energy leaves my body and I sink to my knees. They slam into the rocky ground, now cracked and dry—void of any life but my snaring vines.

  Chapter 34

  Hook races over to me, licking my face as I support myself on all fours. It’s as if I have just sat on the redwood throne. My body trembles and aches. Exhaustion clouds my vision.

  “You killed him!” Aria screams. “My love, my love…” Her words devolve into sobs. I’m not sure if she stops talking, or if my mind stops paying attention to her—focusing instead on keeping me conscious.

  I really was made to bring life, and not death. Even using the latter as a method to achieve equilibrium demands a high toll. Waves of magic roll within me like a choppy sea and I sway slightly. I’m slimy all over, slick with sweat, as if my body is trying to expunge the uncomfortable sensation of making the earth barren.

  “Luella—”

  “I’m fine,” I say as Eldas kneels next to me. I look up at him and then back at Aria. She now stares numbly at the world around her, my vines sinking into her flesh at multiple points. No matter what, I couldn’t kill her. It’s just not in me. So I’ll leave it to Eldas and his justice to decide what happens next. “You deal with her. I’ll take care of Harrow.”

  “I’m taking both of you back to Westwatch,” he declares. “I will return and deal with them when I know you’re safe.”

  “But…”

  “They’re not going anywhere for the next five minutes.” Eldas gives a nod to the thickets surrounding us. “You truly are incredible,” he murmurs as he slips his arm under mine and around my shoulders. With Eldas’s help we stagger over to where Harrow is. He’s in some kind of daze; his eyes are glossed over and half open, unfocused. Eldas’s mouth is set in a grim line.

  “I’ll help him,” I say.

  “I know you will.” Eldas leans forward, resting his palm on Harrow. He adds with a slightly bitter murmur, “Helping him at all costs seems to be one of your strengths.”

  The shadows thicken around us before I can comment on his remark and then are promptly chased away by the lights of Westwatch’s entry. Two guards startle at our sudden appearance. Eldas barks orders and disappears once more, leaving Harrow and me behind. I notice that Hook didn’t join us and selfishly hope he’s looking after Eldas back in the fae lands as Eldas deals with Aria and the aftermath.

  At my request, Harrow is taken to a room not far from the laboratory. Every step is harder than the last, but the clanking of the concoctions in my bag keeps me moving. Harrow needs the medicine I made and so much more.

  Sevenna is nowhere to be found while I’m treating Harrow—a blessing. I can move alone and unhindered for the first hour of his treatment. After that, I’m swarmed by other healers. Harrow is stable enough, and I make my escape before whatever is holding back Sevenna gives way.

  My rooms are cold and vacant when I return to them shortly after dawn. I look over to the bed but the idea of sleeping alone without Hook or Eldas to keep me warm is unappealing. Instead, I bathe, washing away the night’s events, and then curl up on the sofa of our parlor, drifting asleep despite myself.

  Half the day has burned away when I wake. Eldas is the first thing to come into focus. Lilian’s journal is on his knee, split down the middle. Even with his superhuman reading speed, he likely didn’t sleep if he’s that far along.

  “You’re awake,” he says without so much as looking up.

  “So it seems.” I pull myself upright. Every muscle screams in protest. I could sleep two more days easily. “How’s Harrow?”

  “They say he’s stable. The healers cleared up the…what did you refer to it as to them? Fever he got from being out in the rain? Though he has yet to wake.” Eldas’s eyes finally flick up to me.

  “I figured you wouldn’t want everyone to know about the glimmer,” I say gingerly.

  “So many assumptions you make.” He closes the journal slowly. “You assume I wouldn’t want people to know about my brother being involved with glimmer.”

  “Was I wrong?”

  “You assume I shouldn’t know.”

  “I was trying to respect his wishes,” I say calmly.

  “He clearly couldn’t be trusted to have an opinion on what was in his best interest if he was using glimmer!”

  “That’s not my choice to make.”

  “You assumed”—every time he says it the word becomes more of an accusation—“you could navigate a situation you were woefully unequipped for.”

  “Eldas,” I say softly but firmly. His eyes are haunted and tired. Now is not the time to be having this conversation. I take a deep breath and try and start from the beginning. “I didn’t tell you about the glimmer because I didn’t want to betray Harrow’s trust. I doubt he’d told anyone about it—save for maybe Jalic or Sirro, who might be in on Aria’s plot too. I don’t know. If I betrayed the trust he placed in me, he likely would’ve retreated further and kept that secret guarded to his grave.” A grave that could’ve come far too soon if last night had ended differently. “I genuinely feared for him, Eldas. And I was worried that if I gave him reason to push away the one person he’d begun to open up to,
that would be far more detrimental than anything else. I’m sorry I couldn’t imagine any of this happening.”

  The king purses his lips and looks to the window. He rests an elbow on the arm of the wingback chair he’s sitting in and brings a hand to his lips, as if he’s physically trying to force himself not to say something he’ll regret. “The fae were part of a group called the Acolytes of the Wild Wood. One benefit of them not being able to lie is it can make them easy to interrogate after a point.”

  I remember Rinni saying the name once before and ignore his remarks on interrogation. I don’t think I want to know what he means.

  “Aria was helping them infiltrate her uncle’s court. That was how they could sneak in with the dignitaries but without the Fae King being aware. I can’t believe I allowed her into my home.” Eldas directs his frustration inward. He doesn’t even seem to be speaking to me.

  “What did you do with Aria?” I have to ask. I might not entirely want to know, but I need to know.

  “She will be locked up and the key misplaced for a while,” Eldas says, finally. “I might have wanted to kill her then and there. But she’s still the Fae King’s niece; he should be the one to decide her fate. Allowing him to will be a display of good will and will show me if he is serious about our kingdoms’ relationship or not.”

  I grimace at the idea of having to pass judgment on a family member—on someone I love.

  “And the rest of the group?”

  “Those I could hunt down faced my justice.” There’s not a hint of remorse in his voice. Dead, then. I swallow thickly and try not to judge Eldas for what he must do as king. “Hopefully this long-planned plot of theirs being thwarted will push them back for a while. Then, when we end the cycle, that will really put an end to their claims of elf favoritism from the Human Queen and the land dying. What we’re doing will help everyone…even if they don’t know it yet.”