Love Potion: A Valentine's Day Charity Anthology

by Graceley Knox

  “No, no, not even he would be so cruel to do that to you. Lilith, why would he do something like that?”

  “Because the tithe is once again due, and of course he cannot pay it.”

  “The Horde is demanding a tithe be paid with the world dying? I thought it had changed, become more understanding of our people. We cannot pay a tithe, and if they demand it from one court, they’ll demand it from every court.”

  “They have. To clear the tithe of the Night and Shadow Court, I will be given to a monster of the Horde for a year and one day.”

  “We can run, we can hide from them,” Lara offered, and Lilith shook her head as she lifted ice blue eyes to the velvet ones that flooded with unshed tears.

  “You know that if we run, there will be nothing left of the Night Court, and I cannot allow what happened here to repeat itself. I won’t allow them to destroy everything, Lara. You will hold this court, and I will go with him. After one year has passed, I will return and marry Cade if he will keep his deal after this marriage has happened. I promised you we would right this place, that I’d give you a real home. I have not forgotten my promise.”

  “You will have to sleep with him. The son of a monster who killed our mother! I forbid it.”

  “You cannot forbid anything,” Lilith huffed as she stared into the ruined courtyard of the court she’d chosen to live at. Unlike her father’s courtyard, this one was a broken place. It was a hauntingly beautiful ruin of the glorious palace it had been.

  “How can you be so calm?” she demanded as she pushed her dark, midnight curls out of her face.

  “Because it isn’t forever, Lara,” she returned as she dipped her aching feet into one of the remaining ponds. “Because we know better than anyone else what happens when you don’t pay the tithe. I won’t let them take anyone else I love away from me. I don’t have to actually sleep with him, either. If he were drunk, he wouldn’t know if we had or hadn’t done it, right?”

  “Men seem to remember taking a maiden’s virginity, especially on their marriage bed, Lilith. I mean, maybe if we use our combined magic, we could kill him and tell them he disappeared?”

  “That would make us no better than they are. Plus, I’ve heard rumors that they’re unlike the old Horde, that they tend to stick together and are close to one another. It doesn’t mean I have to like him or do what is expected of me. I just have to pretend to be subdued, and then disappear for most of the time.”

  “I think the whole one year and a day is supposed to be spent together to procure an heir, Lilith,” she said as she crossed her arms, staring at her sister as she chewed her lip.

  “I can’t escape this, not without ruining everything we’ve worked to achieve here.”

  “I know,” Lara agreed as she pushed her dark curls away from her face. “Day is coming, we should sleep. There’s nothing we can do to stop this from happening if you won’t run. So let’s eat and then rest, shall we?” she asked, holding her arm out to indicate they should move inside.

  “I feel like I’m drowning, and there’s nothing I can do to keep my head above water.” Lilith exhaled, following her sister into the ruined castle. “If I run, I doom my bloodline to repeat the same path this one has ended up in. If I run, they would hunt me down and anyone who assisted me. I cannot win, can I?”

  “I don’t know what bothers me the most. That your father would hand you off to the same monsters that killed our mother, or that you’ll have to sleep with it to secure a child.”

  “I realize how babies are created, Lara. But thanks for pointing that out again,” she grumbled as her sister used magic to heat the tea, never fully touching the teapot as it tipped to fill both teacups. Lilith reached for the delicate cup, holding her nose above it as she inhaled the rich spices of the tea.

  “Maybe I will get lucky, and he won’t need to feed for sex, or he’ll take other lovers to his bed.”

  “The Horde is notorious for their feeding habits. There are also rumors that they prefer to be exclusive to the one they wed. This new Horde is dangerous in the way that it is nothing as we’ve known before. I heard rumors that dragons have married into their folds—dragons!” she exclaimed as she blew on her tea. “Can you imagine them?”

  Lilith continued watching her sister. Lara was the one being who she trusted in this world. She was gentle, loving, and mature for her age, considering she was only a mere fifteen years older than Lilith. But Lara had been hidden within the Court of Shadows from her father, from the world really. It was only by the Goddess that Lara had survived the attack on the court. She’d found her here, crying for their mother in the dark of the night. That had been years after the initial attack, and in that time, Lara had been alone.

  Liliana had given birth to her a few years before she’d been betrothed to the King of the Night Court. She’d left Lara here, in the protection of her grandfather and King to the Shadow Court, the first target for Alazander when the tithes couldn’t be paid in full. Or had there been more than she’d believed? Her father thought there had been.

  She’d come here as soon as she was old enough to learn about her mother and what had happened. It was here she’d found the sister she’d never known existed crying, balled up into the fetal position as she pined for anyone to remember she existed. And Lilith hadn’t left her since, not even when her father demanded she do so to return to court for good.

  “I still think we should run. I know you’re afraid of leaving this place, but it’s just a place. I’d go with you, and you wouldn’t have to marry this…this monster they’re sending to murder you.”

  “Lara, I love you to pieces, but this isn’t helping. I doubt the Horde is sending a monster to murder me. My guess is that they’re trying to gain control of the lesser courts; marrying the queen of two courts would just be a starting point, don’t you think? And while I don’t doubt it will be a monster they send, since they only breed them, it won’t be one who wants to kill me, because that would be a bad move on his part. I have trained to fight since the moment I could walk; I’m not easy to kill. I came here as a child to escape court politics, to be reminded every day of what they took from me. I rule a dead court, one that was once the largest, scariest court of the lesser Fae. Now nothing more than a court of ruins and rubble, but yet mine to rule all the same.”

  “With a son from the monsters who laid siege to us,” she whispered on a choked sob.

  “Stop crying, it doesn’t help anything. This is my legacy, my world, and he will be only a moment in time; nothing but a smear in my life that I will erase once I take Cade as my king. A child can be taught to be good, and my child will be part of me too.”

  “You know I only want what is best for you, and for this court.”

  “You’re my favorite sister,” Lilith laughed through the tears in her throat. She pushed away the tears, choking on them as she stared at her sister absently.

  “I’m the only sister you actually speak to. Besides, mother died to protect me, and you.”

  “I wonder what my father would think if he knew about you. He is so full of himself most days, and grandfather and mother hid you so well. I wish I had known her.”

  “She was like you, fierce and loyal, and brave. She hated the Night Court, and yet she sacrificed her own desires to do her duty. I remember when she brought you home, how jealous I had been that you had her attention, her hair. I look at you, and I see her smiling back at me through you. You are brave for doing this, but that court hasn’t even questioned your absence once. You are his heir, and the Queen of Shadows, two titles to two thrones. They should wish for you to grace them with your presence.”

  “I don’t care about being paraded before the court like some symbolic gesture. I know who I am, and I know what I will become. I have you to thank for that since my father refused to train me for war.”

  “Grandfather believed women to be equal in battle against men. I taught you only what he taught me, and I can only pray to the Goddess that it is enough
.”

  “We should sleep; soon the heathens will be starting their journey to the Night Court, and I will be summoned back to handfast the monster. We must prepare this place for their arrival, because we don’t want them to be comfortable here, or want to stay a moment longer than it takes to secure a child.”

  “You’re either brave or insane. I have yet to decide which one you actually are.” Lara watched her, smirking as Lilith let the dark curtain of her hair fall into her face to shield her own matching smirk.

  “If I were insane, I’d run and think that the Horde couldn’t find me.”

  Chapter 4

  Asrian paced outside the king of the Night Court’s chambers, listening as the king grumbled about errant children and the early arrival of heathens. What the hell had he expected? For them to actually walk here? It was common knowledge that all High Fae could sift, and Faery made it painfully easier on them if they’d been to the location before, which Ryder had strategically picked each place and who would go based on it.

  “Is she missing?” Cailean chuckled, his turquoise eyes sparkling with amusement as his platinum hair caught the light and shimmered vibrantly. “You go and scare the little damsel?”

  “How the fuck could I have done that, asshole? I was with you. Maybe she saw your pretty face and didn’t want to marry a pansy?” he growled as he pushed his fingers through his auburn hair and swore for the millionth time.

  “She’d fall in love if she’d seen me first. I figured I’d stay out of sight and let her hopes not dwindle that it wasn’t me she was getting,” he said with an exaggerated shrug.

  “The King has sent for his daughter, but you weren’t expected until tomorrow,” the steward said yet again.

  The poor man looked like he was ready to piss his pants as he stared up at Asrian’s 6’8” frame with open fear. Sinjinn flicked the dagger again, sending it twirling in the air before he caught it, making the man tremble even worse than he’d been.

  “Where is she?” he asked as he dismissed his brother, staring at the short little dwarf who couldn’t be any taller than four or five feet at most. He watched the worry spread over the little dwarf’s face and stifled a laugh of frustration when all he continued to do was peer in awe at Asrian. “Where is the princess?” he asked again.

  “At the Court of Shadows, probably hiding from you and your kind,” he muttered and then as Asrian watched, he turned an ugly shade of paleness. “I meant…we fear your kind,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll be honest, your kind only comes to take from us, and the last time they came, they killed our beloved queen. A gentle soul whose only crime was being married to a king who enjoyed lavish things,” he explained softly as the color began to return, only in anger as the memories played across his pinched features.

  “Our father was a monster, one who not even we care to remember. We are not him, no more than you are responsible for your father, dwarf. The crimes of the past do follow us, but they don’t forge the future. We do. My father would never have agreed to a marriage in place of a tithe. Now, would he?”

  “No, never. He demanded blood when it could not be paid.”

  “He did, and we cannot undo that. Yet here we are, willing to take a bride in place of the tithe. That should show you something, should it not?”

  “He killed our queen, the princess’s mother. I fear she may not see this as a suitable match and rightly so. She prefers the ruins of the Shadow Court to being here, and so is usually there, hiding from everyone she thinks failed her. We should have tried to help them. If you listen at night, you can still hear the screams of the Shadow Court carried on the winds. A reminder to the rest of us what happens when you stand up against those stronger than you.”

  “As I said, our father was a heartless prick, but that doesn’t mean we are created of the same cloth. We’ve done our best to right his wrongs, but we don’t pretend to be anything less than we are. Now, where can I find the Court of Shadows?”

  Less than an hour later, the men stood on the edge of the ruins of what was left of the Shadow Court. His father had been a heartless prick to do this, to murder an entire caste of lesser Fae in one tantrum because of something someone else had said they’d done. Asrian remembered this place, remembered the horrors of what had unfolded as he and his brothers had tried to save those they could.

  Only a few had made it out alive, and those that had were now hidden and protected by the Horde. This was one of the last places his father had destroyed before his own death. Wiping out entire caste of Fae was unheard of; it unsettled the fragile balance, and there had been no sign of the end to his madness until Ryder, the firstborn son of the Horde King, had challenged him. Not because he’d been ready, but because their father had intended on killing his own sons to ensure the others remained in line.

  “Gods, what a fucking mess,” Cailean muttered as he wiped his hand over his mouth, letting his eyes settle on the debris that covered the empty courtyard.

  “This place used to be beautiful, one of the rare beauties of the lower courts. Great waterfalls once crashed over the edge of that mountain, feeding the moat and lake that surrounded this palace. Father destroyed it, right before he sent the giants to crush the palace. The palace itself was the largest in this realm, towering peaks that touched the clouds. It was one of my favorite places to visit, and then he destroyed it. In one single day, he’d killed the entire court, sparing no one.”

  Asrian listened as Sinjinn spoke, his words growing thicker as he was lost in another time, another place. He droned on, reminding them all of the past, a time when fear ruled and you either followed what the king said, or you died. These people, this caste had been destroyed for seeking a way to end his reign. They’d been a dark, deadly caste of lesser Fae, one that might have stood a chance if they hadn’t been sold out by the Summer Court, who had feared them but also wanted them dead.

  A rumble started inside the ruins, and Asrian paused before shifting into his hound form. He started towards the rocks and debris that blocked the main entrance of the ruined palace, sniffing the air as the rich, enticing scent of night blooms lingered, growing stronger as he reached the palace. He’d missed the smell of the night blooms. Once they’d been a sight to behold that glowed iridescently in the night, releasing the seductive scent far into the breeze. Now, they were hard to find and far and in between worlds, misplaced like the people who’d once flourished beside them.

  He pawed the ground as his brothers in hound form also paused, scenting her the same moment he had. He lunged as a volley of arrows started towards them, twisting midair as he took his Fae form, taking her to the ground with him as Sinjinn took the other female down as well.

  Asrian stared down into eyes the color the brightest full moon, framed by thick, black lashes. The angel who’d tried to kill him and his brothers had the most perfect, full lips and a heart-shaped face. Her eyes filled with murder as they watched his slow perusal of her features. Midnight curls pooled around her body, appearing of the softest silk that his fingers itched to trail through. He swallowed hard, audibly as he lifted some of his weight from her, moving his green gaze to where the bow sat, discarded.

  “I’m here for Lilith,” he uttered thickly, not immune to the beauty who glared up at him.

  “And you would be, heathen?” she hissed.

  “Asrian, son of Alazander,” he replied softly before he bent his nose down against the soft, creamy perfection of her neck and inhaled deeply of the night bloom that seemed to cling to her flesh. “Her betrothed.”

  “Do you mind getting off of me?” she hissed again thickly as she pushed against him. He slowly lifted, pushing the bow away from her as she rose to her dainty feet. Asrian rose with her, staring down at her where she barely reached his chest. She was childlike, but her curves left no doubt that she was all woman.

  She was tiny, dainty, and yet he could see the fire burning in her eyes along with the pain he sensed she held in check, barely. It called to the demon inside of him
, the one that craved pain and the need to feed from it.

  “You can stop staring at me, asshole,” she chided as she turned those icy blue eyes away from him to stare at Sinjinn, who was just now helping the other female up from where he’d taken her to the ground. “Is this how heathens retrieve their brides?” she snapped crossly, her arms tight against her sides as she peered around, as if searching for her bow.

  “No, normally we show up, throw them over our shoulders and spank that ass,” Cailean offered amusedly as he stared at her. “If you want, sugar, I can oblige and show you how we heathens like to get down.”

  “You think that’s cute? How about I cut those lips off and use them to kiss your own arse with?”

  “Hey,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “You want to kiss my ass, I’ll let you. But trust me, these lips are way more useful where they are.”

  “Enough,” Asrian snapped as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I came for Lilith. I don’t have time to sit and split hairs with you. Which one is the woman I am to handfast with?” he asked, and hell if he wasn’t praying it was the blue-eyed one with fire burning in her veins. He wasn’t even sure if they were actually blue, or just tinted such, but then he didn’t care either way. It was the fire burning in her that lured him to her, the pain she hid that he wanted.

  “I am Lilith, you oaf,” she admitted as she turned those eyes in his direction, and the shadows seemed to creep towards them, eerily. “I was told you wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow.”

  “Well I’m here now, so let’s go. I have no intention of being here any longer than I have to be.”

  “Don’t like what you did to the place?” she asked pointedly, her eyes daring him to say no.

  “I liked it before my prick of a father destroyed it, lady,” he admitted and watched as her fight deflated, as if she’d expected him to say something else. “We didn’t want to destroy it, but then when the Horde King says or else, you do what he says.”