by Karen Lynch
Aedhna touched the stone. “This is more than a source of energy for Faerie. It is an object of worship that helps the people of this world feel connected to each other and to me. It does not matter if they are from Seelie or Unseelie. The ke’tain tells them they are a part of something greater than all of them.”
“We have religious symbols in my world, too,” I said. For the first time, I understood the true power of the ke’tain. Unlike the human world, Faerie had one religion and only one sacred symbol of their faith.
I pointed at the altar. “Unseelie and Seelie created the strongest ward they could around the altar, and someone used a drakkan hide to get past it. Can’t you create one that no one can get through?”
“I cannot.” She smiled at me. “But you can.”
“Me?” I gaped at her. “How could I possibly create a ward like that? My goddess stone helps me create glamours, but it’s the ke’tain that has the real power. It’s only when they’re together that… Oh.”
I pulled the stone from my hair and cupped it in my hand. It had come to me when I needed it, it saved my life during the conversion, and it had done its part to save Faerie. The thought of parting with it saddened me, but I didn’t need it anymore.
I held my hand over the altar and looked at Aedhna for guidance. She nodded in approval, and I placed the stone on the altar beside the ke’tain. Immediately, the stone changed from the color of my hair to iridescent blue to match the ke’tain. Then it slowly sank into the surface of the altar and disappeared.
The air above the altar shimmered, and a dazzling column of light appeared above the ke’tain. The column expanded until it encompassed the altar and rose all the way to the ceiling. When the light faded, the altar was enclosed inside what looked like a clear glass case with tiny blue currents running through it.
I reached out to touch it without stopping to wonder if it was safe. I no longer had my goddess stone to protect me from the ke’tain’s power. It felt like warm glass, but there was an almost undiscernible vibration that made my palm itch. I looked at Korrigan. He was in for quite a surprise when he woke up.
“The ke’tain is safe now?” I asked.
“Yes.” Aedhna laid a hand on my shoulder. “Not many would give up such a gift. Your courage is exceeded only by your goodness.”
I flushed and looked at the ke’tain. “What happens now?”
She looped her arm through mine. “Now you go home and live a good life.”
“Will I ever see you again?” I asked as we walked to the stairs.
“Someday.”
We emerged from the building, and Gus lifted his head to watch us. I turned to Aedhna and hugged her impulsively. She hugged me back and kissed my forehead. Then she was gone.
I ran to the drakkan. Sensing my excitement, he stood and stretched his wings eagerly.
“We did it, Gus!” I said as he picked me up. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter 23
Gus liked to make an entrance. It was late when we reached the court, but there were more people than usual wandering the grounds at that hour. Since I could no longer hide us with a glamour, he decided to make the most of it. He blew out puffs of smoke and small flames as he circled the grounds, drawing the attention of everyone there.
“Showoff,” I called, and he snorted in reply.
He landed at the top of the grounds and set me down near the door. It wasn’t until I stood in front of him that I realized this might be the last time I saw him. Our job was done, and I no longer had my goddess stone to call him.
“Don’t be a stranger, okay?” I said hoarsely.
He extended his head and nudged me playfully, knocking me over. Laughing, I patted his snout. “I’ll see you around.”
I backed up to give him room for takeoff. I was about to call a warning to the people gathering a little too close to us, but Gus took care of it. He swished his long tail, sending the onlookers scrambling to get out of the way. He leaped into the air and bathed the crowd in a cloud of smelly black smoke before he flew away.
Grinning, I turned to the door. I couldn’t wait another minute to see Lukas. I nearly ran into the two serious-faced guards standing there.
“Jesse James, you are to come with us,” one of them said.
I pulled back when he reached for me. “Where?”
“To the holding cells,” the other guard said. “You will be detained until Korrigan can see you.”
This was not the homecoming I’d spent the last few hours imagining. I crossed my arms. “Forget it. I’ve had enough of being a prisoner to last me a lifetime. If Korrigan wants to talk to me, he knows where to find me.”
“You do not have a choice,” the first one said as they advanced on me.
“I will take her from here,” said a voice behind them. I had never been so relieved to see Faolin. If he was here, then Lukas had to be close by.
“How did you know I was back?” I asked him when the two guards left.
Faolin opened the door for me. “You and your drakkan were impossible to miss. Going by your appearance and the manner of your arrival, I am guessing you have a story to tell us about your absence.”
“You have no idea.” I grimaced at how I must look and smell. I hadn’t showered or changed clothes in a week. “Is Lukas here?”
“He’s in the human world looking for you. I have already sent for him,” Faolin said as we stepped onto the lift.
My stomach fell. “He believes I escaped the cells and went home? Does he think I tried to steal the ke’tain, too?”
“He knows you would never do that. We thought someone threatened you, and you used your goddess stone to escape. We’ve all been looking for you. I’m only here now because my father summoned me.”
I nodded. “Because of what happened at the temple?”
His eyebrows shot up. “You were there?”
“After the fact.” The lift stopped on the top floor, and we got off. “Are we going to see your father?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d rather wait to tell the story so I don’t have to repeat it a bunch of times. It’s not one I’m going to enjoy talking about.”
We walked down the hallway that led away from Lukas’s quarters and stopped at a door. Faolin opened it and ushered me inside. When I saw the occupants, I came up short, and he ran into me.
We were in a large living area even bigger than Lukas’s and richly furnished. But it wasn’t the room that had taken me off guard. King Oseron and Maurelle were there, along with Korrigan, and two of the king’s advisors. They all wore grim expressions and stopped talking when we entered the room.
“Jesse!” Lukas’s mother stood, her hand to her throat. “Should I send for a healer?”
I found my voice. “No, thank you. It’s nothing a shower and sleep won’t fix.” And Lukas.
“Please, sit. You look very tired.” She pointed at one of the chairs.
I looked at the pretty upholstery and shook my head. “I’d rather stand. I don’t want to soil the furniture.”
“It is only a chair.” She looked at Faolin, who took my arm and made me sit. It did feel good to rest, and I let out a quiet sigh.
I looked up to find everyone watching me expectantly. I was trying to figure out what to say when the king spoke.
“We would very much like to know why you ran away and where you have been. Your disappearance caused quite the upheaval here,” he said in an admonishing tone. “First, I must ask if you have knowledge of the terrible incident that happened at the temple today.”
“I do.”
Korrigan leaned forward in his chair. “Were you involved in the murders of those guards?”
I flinched at his sharp tone and shook my head. “It was two of Queen Anwyn’s personal guards.”
King Oseron shot to his feet. “That is a serious accusation. What proof do you have to support it?”
“I don’t have any physical proof, but I’ll tell you what I know.” I clasped my hands in
my lap. “First, I should tell you that Queen Anwyn is dead.”
“Dead?” Korrigan and King Oseron said together, and everyone began talking all at once.
“You killed the Seelie queen?” asked one of the horrified advisors.
I pressed my dry lips together. “Technically, the ke’tain killed her. It’s a long story.” I looked at Faolin. “Can I have some water?”
He left the room and came back with a glass of water. I was so thirsty I drained the glass, and he went to refill it.
“Does this have anything to do with that goddess stone Vaerik told me about?” the king asked as he sat.
The two advisors stared at the king in shock. Clearly, he hadn’t shared that information with them.
I nodded. “It has everything to do with it.”
The goddess stone was gone and with it, the magic that prevented me from talking about Aedhna and the ke’tain. So, I told them about meeting Aedhna and the job she had given me. I didn’t mention the other ke’tains or their locations, only that she had charged me with taking the one in the temple to various places to restore its power.
I had an enrapt audience as I described how I’d used the goddess stone to create glamours powerful enough to walk through the temple wards. And how Gus had flown me wherever I needed to go.
“Incredible,” murmured one of the advisors.
“This is why the storms suddenly stopped,” said the other.
I nodded and looked at Korrigan. “The day you caught me in the temple, I’d just returned the ke’tain after the final task. I was still bound by Aedhna’s magic, so I couldn’t tell you why I was there.”
He pressed his lips together thoughtfully. “Is that why you escaped the cells and ran away to the human world? You thought no one would believe you?”
“I didn’t run away. Queen Anwyn’s guards came into my cell and took me to Seelie.”
“Impossible.” Korrigan scowled. “That area is warded, and only authorized people can enter. No one from Seelie could have gotten in without permission.”
“Not unless they had inside help,” I said.
He crossed his arms. “They would have required the help of a guard. None of the guards here would go against my orders.”
“At least one of them did. I’d start with the one who let Rashari in to see me.”
“Rashari?” Maurelle echoed.
“She visited me in the cells before I was taken, and Queen Anwyn said she was the one who gave me up.”
The king shook his head. “I refuse to believe Rashari would betray us to Seelie. Why would she do that?”
I stared at him. Was he serious? Hadn’t Dariyah shown him the lengths some people would go to become the next consort?
My head began to ache, and I wrapped my arms around my middle. Where was Lukas?
Maurelle laid her hand over the king’s. “Korrigan will get to the truth of this. Let Jesse tell us everything first.”
“You are right.” King Oseron tipped his head at me. “Please, continue.”
I held nothing back. I described my imprisonment, torture, and beatings, my conversations with the queen and her reasons for stealing the ke’tain the first time. Korrigan and the king tried to interrupt with questions, but I refused to stop until I got it all out. I told them about Rhys and who he really was, and I made it clear he had no clue what the queen had done.
“Her guards used a fresh drakkan hide to get past the wards at the temple,” I told Korrigan. “It couldn’t make them invisible, so they killed all the temple guards, even the two from Seelie. She told people there that I did it. Her plan was to kill me by making me touch the ke’tain in front of them.”
“But the goddess stone saved you,” Maurelle said.
“Yes.” I inhaled deeply and told them what happened after I touched the ke’tain. “I didn’t want to kill anyone, but I’m not sorry she and Bauchan are dead. They tried to kill me first.”
Korrigan turned to the king. “This explains why Seelie has not responded to our message about what happened at the temple.”
King Oseron nodded grimly and looked at one of the advisors. “Summon the council.”
The advisor stood and hurried from the room. The other one leaned forward eagerly. “May we see the goddess stone?”
“I don’t have it anymore.” I told them how I’d used the goddess stone to create a new ward so no one else could ever steal the ke’tain.
Korrigan was dumbstruck. “I could not understand how the ke’tain suddenly appeared on the altar with a new ward. You are telling me Aedhna was there in the temple with us?”
“Yes.”
“Jesse must speak to the council,” the advisor said to the king.
“Can we continue this tomorrow?” I asked wearily. “It’s been a very long day.”
“Of course,” Maurelle said before anyone else could speak. “You need to rest and recover from your ordeal. Take as long as you need.”
“I would like to speak to Jesse alone,” King Oseron said when I started to stand. He looked at me. “I will not keep you long.”
I nodded and sank back to the chair as the others left the room. Maurelle was the last to go, and she gave the king a look that said be nice before she walked out. I shifted uncomfortably. The last time the king had asked to talk to me, I’d ended up a wreck. I didn’t have the physical or emotional strength to go through that again.
King Oseron was quiet for a moment. “You will hear this many times when your deeds are known to everyone, but I want to be the first to thank you for what you did for Faerie.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You would have done the same.”
He nodded. “I would have. I would do anything for my people. But you were the one Aedhna asked to shoulder the burden of saving our world. You are young and new to Faerie, yet you took on this enormous responsibility alone.”
I smiled weakly. “Aedhna can be very persuasive.”
“The goddess is also wise. She saw the strength in you that I did not, and for that, I apologize. I am sorry I said you were weak because you are not Fae-born or royal. You are one of the strongest people I have ever met, Jesse, and I cannot imagine a better match for my son.”
I swallowed around the rock lodged in my throat. I’d wanted so much to hear those words from him, but they couldn’t be real. It was his gratitude talking, and he’d change his mind when things calmed down.
“The goddess stone made me strong,” I said, my voice cracking. “There is nothing special about me anymore.”
The king stood and came over to me. He shocked me when he went down to one knee and took my cold hands in his. “It is because you are special that Aedhna blessed you, and in doing so, she blessed us all.”
I blinked, and the tears I’d held at bay filled my eyes and ran down my face. I was too tired to care if the sight of them showed him I wasn’t strong after all.
The door burst open. I barely registered the sound before the king stood and Lukas was in his place.
“Jesse,” he said roughly. His hands framed my face, and his dark eyes were stormy with emotion. Then his strong arms were around me, and I felt a shudder go through him. “I thought I’d lost you.”
During this hellish week, I’d thought of all the things I would say to Lukas if I could have one more minute with him. Suddenly, I was drowning in a tsunami of emotions, and all I could do was bury my face against his chest and cling to him as loud, gulping sobs racked my body.
I heard voices, but they sounded far off. The king and Maurelle were there and another female voice I didn’t recognize. They were talking about me, but my mind couldn’t process the words. It wanted to shut down so I couldn’t feel anything at all.
Lukas picked me up and cradled me in his arms. I curled into him as he carried me. I didn’t care where we went as long as he didn’t let me go. He was the only thing keeping me from splintering into a million pieces.
He laid me on his bed and positioned us so we were on our sides. His
arms stayed around me as I tucked my head beneath his chin and cried myself out. At some point, I became aware of Kaia’s warm body pressed to my back, and I began to feel safe for the first time in many days.
I didn’t know how many hours we laid there like that. Eventually, I stirred, and the first thing that hit me was the stench coming off me. It was so bad I had no idea how Lukas could stand it. I rolled away from him as far as Kaia would let me, and he rose up on his arm to look at me. My eyes were so swollen and scratchy I could hardly make out his features in the dim room.
He stroked my cheek. “How are you feeling?”
“Filthy,” I rasped. “I need a shower.”
“I think we can arrange that,” he said, and I heard the smile in his voice.
He scooped me up and carried me to his bathroom. My emotional breakdown had left me so drained I didn’t have the strength to stand on my own for longer than a minute. He took care of that by stripping us both and getting into the shower with me. After he helped me wash and dry myself, he dressed me in some of my sleep clothes I’d left there and took me back to bed. Curled up with him under the covers, I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
It was daylight when I woke. Food had arrived, and Lukas made me eat and drink a little before exhaustion claimed me. A few hours later, he did it again. It went on like that for the whole day, or maybe two. I lost track of time. He never asked about what had happened to me in Seelie, and the only words we exchanged were his questions about how I was feeling.
Each time I woke, I felt a little stronger and more like myself until finally, I was able to talk. We lay facing each other in the dark, and he listened as my story poured out of me. He had already heard a lot of it from his father and Faolin while I’d slept, but he knew I needed to tell him everything in my own words. I didn’t hold anything back, and I cried as I described my darkest moment when I’d believed I would never see him again. These were healing tears, though, and I felt better afterward.
“I should have told you about Rhys,” I said later when he held me. “I’m sorry.”