Curse of the Fae King

by Delia E Castel

  “RELEASE ME!”

  My insides twisted, and I put more effort into pulling Father. I needed to get him out of her clutches, even if it meant throwing him unconscious into the rift.

  “Neara?” he whispered.

  “Shhh.” We were feet away from the source of the salty wind. “Don’t let her hear you.”

  Behind Queen Melusina, the skeleton raised her hands, finger bones lengthening into dagger-sharp claws. My breath caught, and I stared at the gancanagh. He stood at the side of the stone coffin, his green eyes fixed on me.

  Hope made my heart leap to the back of my throat, but I snatched my gaze away, hooking my wrists under Father’s armpits. It would be foolish to waste time speculating on whether the gancanagh was really Drayce, using his death magic. For all I knew, Queen Pressyne’s skeleton could be moving on its own.

  The skeleton stepped out of the sarcophagus and slashed at Queen Melusina’s face.

  She shrieked, raising her arms to ward off another attack. “Mother, no!”

  The skeleton slashed again, tearing off a layer of skin to reveal another facade. This one had brown eyes and a darker complexion. I gulped. According to the legend of the nathair, this skin belonged to one of the children she had eaten. My brother or sister.

  Even the mist stilled to watch Queen Melusina defend herself against the attacks of her mother’s skeleton. She slashed her hands through the air, bringing up a wind strong enough to disperse its bones, but the skeleton remained intact and continued striking.

  With several thuds, the generals dropped to the ground. One of them, a violet-haired male, shouted, “Clear the mist!”

  The others raised their hands, some pushing back the mist with air, others with fire, and others by attacking it with water. It receded toward the window, pushed back by the generals’ magic.

  A roar louder than thunder shook the floor, and the mist took on the shape of a fist and punched the violet-haired faery across the room.

  I pulled Father to his feet. A bruise marred the side of his face, probably from where Queen Melusina had released her magic and dropped him. His eyes were unfocused, and he groaned from my rough handling.

  With the mist no longer obscuring the rift, it gaped open by our feet, letting in the corrosive, salty air. Its scent made me cringe, but I ignored the irritation and grabbed Father’s arms. “The skeleton is keeping her busy. This is your chance to leave.”

  “Our chance.” He stumbled toward the rift.

  Church bells rang from below, making every inch of my flesh crawl. Pain and nausea rippled through my insides in a series of increasingly intense spasms. I doubled over and moaned.

  “Neara?”

  I let go of Father and staggered back, breathing hard. “I-I can’t.”

  His eyes widened. “Why?”

  “This place has changed me.” My gaze flicked to the rift. It was now three feet in width. “I can’t touch iron anymore, church bells are agonizing, and salt water stings. But you have a chance to be free.”

  “No!”

  The bells rang again. Even the generals stopped attacking the mist to clutch themselves and moan.

  “Father, I can’t—” A surge of emotion closed my throat. All my life, it had been the two of us. I couldn’t let him stay here. He needed to be free to have a chance of a life without faeries and torment.

  “Neara?” His voice broke, eyes glistened with unshed tears.

  Queen Melusina’s screams drowned out the generals’ moans and the terrible voice demanding his freedom from the mist. I had to make Father leave before the bells stopped, before faerie soldiers finished clearing the throne room, and before Queen Melusina gained the upper hand.

  I clutched my middle, holding down my trembling insides. “Up until that Samhain night, you were training me to take the faerie throne.”

  He glanced away, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.

  A lump formed in my throat. “Well, Drayce completed that training. I’m no longer human, and with his help, I can take the Kingdom.”

  He shook his head. “But you killed him…”

  I nodded in the direction of the gancanagh, who leaned against the stone coffin, turning from the fight to watch us. The pipe hung from his lips. “What do you see?”

  “King Drayce, but—”

  “If that was the gancanagh, you’d see a blank face or an ordinary man. He’s using his death magic to attack Queen Melusina, who was probably in love with him, because she sees his face, too. Go. I’ll be fine.”

  Father’s lips trembled. “But I can’t leave you.”

  “And I can’t let you stay.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he hugged back tight. Inhaling his peppermint and woodsmoke scent, I murmured, “Somehow, I’ll work out a way to survive in the mortal world and find you.”

  He drew back, eyes bright with tears. “I can’t…”

  “Thank you for everything,” I placed my hand on his chest and pushed him through the rift. “I love you.”

  Father fell a few feet and landed in a crouch on the cobbled street. He gazed up at me through the rift, eyes haunted and wet with betrayal.

  The church bells struck ten, each ring stomach-wrenching, and sapping me of strength. I shouted, “Go! The ship to Caledonia leaves at noon. Take all the equipment with you. There’s a pound in the money box.”

  When he still didn’t move, I said, “Hurry, she’s getting loose. Drayce needs my help.”

  With a sharp nod, he turned and ran toward the village and out of sight.

  Queen Melusina’s screams turned to snarls. I didn’t dare look in her direction, as I was still nauseous from the church bells, and putrid chunks of flesh flying around the throne room made me gag. The soldiers were still beating back the mist, and I kept to the other side of the throne room, not wanting to attract their attention.

  The vibrations of the bells dimmed, as did their effects. The Generals redoubled their efforts to drive back the mist. One of them shouted, “Hurry! We must save Her Majesty.”

  My breath caught. The loyalty enchantment was still in place! I had to act fast. If they cleared the mist, they would offer me to Queen Melusina to save themselves.

  The golden hilt of the Sword of Tethra had somehow embedded itself into the stone wall. I skittered across the throne room and pulled it out. Blood still stained its blade, but I squeezed a few drops out of my wound, coating its tip.

  “Mother, stop!” screeched Queen Melusina.

  She was a mass of peeled skin, each layer representing a different shade, each layer representing a different child she had consumed to maintain her existence outside the mist.

  Keeping my steps light, I crept to where she struggled with Queen Pressyne’s skeleton. Her back was a mess of torn skin and blood and silk. The gancanagh—I couldn’t yet acknowledge him as Drayce—stepped forward from the white coffin. The unlit pipe still dangled from his lips. He shot me a concerned glance and flicked his wrist, directing the skeleton to attack faster.

  Ignoring my pounding heart, I plunged the Sword of Tethra through Queen Melusina’s back.

  “Neara!”

  Her shriek rang through my eardrums, and she arched back, her now cerulean eyes meeting mine. Scales protruded from beneath the face staring back into my eyes. This was probably her true appearance. Before I could take a closer look at the monster, a white light flashed from the wound.

  I squinted, trying to see if she would disintegrate like the Queen of the Banshees, but the light sucked her tail into another rift.

  “Curse you!” she screeched, clinging onto the skeleton’s wrist.

  Then she vanished, and the rift disappeared with her.

  My frantic heart sent reverberations across every limb. I lowered the Sword of Tethra and stared around the room. The soldiers stood at the window, fighting back the last of the mist, and the male standing by the coffin stepped toward me.

  I held my breath. If this was the gancanagh, he had meant to sacrifice me to Queen
Melusina, but if it was Drayce…

  He spat out the pipe, letting it smash onto the stone floor.

  My breath caught. “Are you?”

  He stopped several feet away, green eyes glistening. “Neara, it’s me.”

  Chapter 24

  My feet turned to stone, melding with the floor of the throne room, a numb shock spreading through my body until it reached my heart. Although a part of me had guessed it had been Drayce using his death magic on Queen Pressyne’s skeleton, I hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it until now. Because I had condemned him to a brutal and excruciating death, and it was time to face the consequences of my cruelty.

  He stared back at me, unmoving, those green eyes as verdant as hills under a moonlit sky. They spoke of pain and longing and something I was yet to recognize. “I never meant to sacrifice you to Queen Melusina. It was a rouse to get her to unearth one of the few things that could kill her.”

  My lips parted, but no words came out.

  Sunlight filtered through the mist, warming his bronze skin and bringing out the indigo highlights of his long, black hair. His eyes shone like the gemstones I’d once gathered in the Emerald Lake, radiating a warmth I didn’t deserve.

  My pulse pounded in my dry throat. “You survived.”

  Drayce stepped forward. His silk shirt slipped over his shoulder, revealing an expanse of tanned, muscled chest. “Melusina cursed me with salamander skin when she suspected I had helped Ailill on Samhain.”

  I gulped. “Father told me.”

  “She said it would only break when an act of hatred followed an act of love. It’s why you had to believe in my betrayal.”

  I blinked. The Keeper’s riddle had mentioned an opportunity arising every seven years. I had thought it was freedom, because of how the mist around Bresail would clear at such intervals, but what if he had been referring to loving Drayce? Seeing him on that Samhain night seven years ago had triggered my ability to see faeries. And seven years later, it had also led me back to the realm of the fae.

  “But how—”

  An ear-splitting roar filled the air, followed by a loud click, and the transparent stones that made up the window knitted themselves together. Outside, the mist formed a giant, one-eyed face contorted with rage.

  It seemed that King Balor of the Fomorians would be trapped forever in that mist.

  “Watch out,” he murmured.

  The soldiers turned from their tasks and advanced across the throne room. I recognized most of them from Queen Melusina’s awful dinner party. These were the males who kept ensorcelled humans as concubines. My hackles rose, and I clenched my teeth. They were no allies of mine, even if they had pushed back the Fomorians.

  One of them, a General who wore his crimson hair in a high topknot, turned to me and sneered. “Drop the Sword of Tethra, girl. You’re coming with me.”

  I pointed the blood-stained tip of my sword in the direction of the generals. “Your queen has been banished.”

  “She will return,” said a soldier with raven-black hair. “And when she does, you will serve as her vessel.”

  The words sent a jolt of fear through my heart, and I resisted the instinct to step back. Queen Melusina had to be still alive if her soldiers were still loyal despite having seen her true form. She could be anywhere, biding her time, gathering allies among the monsters she’d forced Father to pull from the mist until she could take my body or use my blood to free the Fomorians.

  “Don’t bother reasoning with General Gorm and the others.” Drayce’s hand gripped my shoulder. “The best way to break the loyalty curse is with their deaths.”

  Warm gratitude spread through my insides, and I welcomed his steadying touch. For a moment, I could forget that I’d tried to kill him.

  General Gorm’s face twisted with rage. “Strong words from one with clipped powers.”

  A black-haired General advanced. “Attack one of us, Salamander, and the rest will slash you into pieces.”

  Drayce chuckled. “Your powers of observation appear to be waning. My salamander skin and the curse that limits my powers are gone.”

  “Impossible!” snarled the red-haired General.

  Drayce raised my hand. “May I present Queen Neara of the Faeries, granddaughter of Pressyne, breaker of curses, ruler by birthright and conquest.”

  “We will not accept a child as our leader!” shouted General Gorm.

  I lifted my chin. “Are you still loyal to Queen Melusina?”

  The black-haired General advanced, teeth bared. “I will follow her until the day I die.” He thrust his saber at me, and I parried with a swipe of the Sword of Tethra. My blade sliced through his weapon, and he jumped back toward his comrades. His face purpled. “She’s too dangerous to allow to live. Kill her!”

  Drayce stepped between us. “You forget where you came from, Generals.”

  “Out of the way, child.” General Gorm stepped to the left, ignoring Drayce as though he were powerless. “You only live because Her Majesty needs your magic to preserve the Otherworld.”

  Gripping the hilt of the Sword of Tethra with both hands, I widened my stance, ready for his attack. As long as my blood coated its blade, I’d beat any of these fae soldiers in a sword fight.

  The red-haired General advanced on me. “Her Majesty will just have to birth a less disobedient vessel with Ailill, once we’ve recaptured him.”

  My nostrils flared. “I’ll kill you!”

  “No,” said Drayce, his voice hard as iron. “You and all the Otherworld traitors will return to your graves.” He raised both arms, and the shadows around the walls of the throne room stretched across the floor. They wrapped around the bodies of each soldier, contorting them into awkward, twisted shapes.

  General Gorm’s face turned purple. “My king!”

  “The Shadow Court is hereby disbanded.” Drayce’s words were as final as death. “Every one of you who helped Queen Melusina destroy my father will die.”

  A breath caught in my throat. In all my concerns about freeing Father, I’d almost forgotten that those who had brought Queen Melusina to power had done this by usurping King Donn of the Otherworld. Now that many of Drayce’s curses had broken, he had the power to punish anyone he pleased.

  Drayce closed his fists, and black smoke spilled out of each faerie’s mouth. The shadows receded, and the soldiers’ bodies fell to the stone floor. The smoke transformed into wraiths that reflected the shapes of the bodies they inhabited, and they circled the throne room and howled.

  “Return to the Otherworld!” Drayce shouted over the unearthly sounds.

  The wraiths spilled out of the throne room, their sounds becoming fainter but no less chilling.

  I stared at the dead bodies, a shudder skittering through my bones. “Who did those belong to?”

  “Those were the male children Queen Melusina didn’t eat.” Drayce’s voice was soft, as though he was afraid I would splinter into a million pieces. “She overthrew my father by promising the spirits of dead and powerful faeries the chance to dwell like kings among the living.”

  “She was a monster,” I whispered.

  “Is a monster. She’s still alive somewhere.”

  My throat convulsed. “Can you use your shadows to send Queen Melusina to the Otherworld?”

  He shook his head. “Melusina never died, and the lives of the daughters she consumed kept her tethered to this world. Ailill and I worked out that the only way for her to die is at the hands of one who shares her blood.”

  “Me,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Or Queen Pressyne’s skeleton, but she took that with her when she left.”

  All the blood drained from my face as the implications of my actions sank in. “I ruined your plan by stabbing Queen Melusina through the back.”

  “I thought your sword would finish her, but it seems you need to use your bare hands.” He shook his head. “We will get her the next time.”

  I was about to apologize when the doors opened, and a gr
oup of low faeries entered the throne room. Some were the winged servants who had served dinner two days ago, but most, I didn’t recognize. My throat dried. Were these creatures loyal to the queen?

  Drayce beckoned them forward. “She’s gone, for now. Thank you all for your help and information over the years.”

  I exhaled a long, relieved sigh. It looked like these faeries wouldn’t attempt to capture me.

  The cúpla, who had worn Father’s face, reverted to his usual appearance, a bald sylph with skin as dark as a blueberry. He cringed back against the wall, staring out at me through eyes as bright as lamplights. “Princess Neara? According to our lore, no queen can be crowned until she receives the support and power of all the High Courts.”

  “That’s my next task.” I glanced at Drayce, whose features hadn’t changed from their relaxed expression. “Once I break their curses, I intend to receive the blessings of my uncles.”

  A sea of unusual faces all smiled and gave me nods of approval. Low faeries with hair like autumn leaves gave me a smattering of applause.

  Exhaustion and a lifetime of hating faeries kept me from returning their smiles. Although I’d read about many of the species that knelt before me, I hadn’t seen any of them harming humans in the mortal world.

  With a sigh, I scanned the throne room’s doors for signs of soldiers. “Where are the rest of Queen Melusina’s supporters?”

  Drayce motioned for them to approach. A five-foot-tall male with yellow skin and gossamer-thin butterfly wings spoke. “The Sluagh lords don’t arrive until nightfall.”

  “I have dealt with all those who came from the Otherworld,” said Drayce. “The others have no particular allegiance to Melusina.”

  I nodded. “Then we have a few more hours until we deal with the Sluagh, then.”

  Drayce excused us from the throne room, and we stepped into the hallway. As soon as the door clicked shut, my shoulders sagged. I’d just declared myself the Queen of the Faeries. With no plan for breaking the curses and no powers except for the sword and my blood, I didn’t know if I would survive the endeavor.

  He placed his hand on the small of my back. “We have much to discuss.”