An army of workers had cleaned the throne room while they’d been gone. Dria studied the floor as they crossed it, but she couldn’t find the slightest scorch mark or fleck of dried blood. Now, only her group’s footsteps marred the uneasy silence of their former battle arena.
Vek guided her and Fen through a door in the right corner, much like the one to her own father’s study, but instead of a room, a corridor led to a flight of stairs and then another door. Only after several more hallways and turns did they end up in Ara’s private office. But then, the Unseelie never had been as welcoming to their people as the Moranaian royals were to their own.
The new Unseelie queen didn’t await them behind her desk, however. Instead, she stood beside one of the few windows lining the right wall. Dria blinked at the unexpected sight. The palace had been built into the side of the cavern, much as Vek’s home had, so windows were few. She hadn’t realized they’d curved around to an outer wall.
“You have much to explain,” Vek said, not bothering with a greeting.
Ara smiled. “No deference for your ruler, brother dear?”
Dria studied her bonded’s tense shoulders and angry scowl. Did he regret ceding his place as king? His words gave no indication of such. “You know as well as I do that I’m not the type to yield. You’ll have to earn my respect the way our father did. Before.”
“Before he lost his mind, you mean?” Ara’s smile slipped. “Yes, Vek, I do know you won’t yield. Why do you think I kidnapped your mate? Too bad the plan went awry. You were supposed to be king, and I was supposed to be free.”
“No one made you intercede,” Vek said.
“It had to be done.” Ara stepped closer, her attention shifting to Fen. “I’m not what you think. I never have been.”
Fen’s hands clenched. “A cold bitch who left her kid to hunt for blood like an animal amidst the humans?” he snarled.
Both Vek and Ara appeared startled at that, and Dria recalled her bonded’s face when his nephew had claimed not to know his full name. “You were alone?” Dria asked when the others seemed unable to speak.
That goaded Ara into speech. “Of course I didn’t leave my child alone,” she snapped. “He was to stay with his father until I could determine the reason for the king’s unusual behavior. But Fen disappeared, only to be found causing trouble a few years ago.”
Vek’s guilt slammed into Dria through their bond, but there was no sign of it on his face as he glared at Ara. “Disappeared, Ara? We’re Felshreh. If you can’t track your own son through the blood, then you are either inept or a fool.”
“I couldn’t track him without causing suspicion, and I didn’t want Fen to draw our father’s attention.” She averted her gaze. “And I…I thought you were watching out for him, Vek.”
“I was.” Vek’s shoulders hunched. “But there was a solid decade where Father kept me busy, and I—”
“Enough,” Fen shouted, anger flushing his skin. “Could you stop arguing about why you failed to take care of me? If you’d like to know the actual truth, my father died when I was four or five. I barely knew what I was and how to hide it, but I managed to get the blood I needed as I was tossed around foster homes. Eventually, I ended up scavenging for energy on the streets until Kien found me. So yeah, you screwed up, and I don’t give a fuck why. Did you think calling me your heir would make up for that, Mother?”
Dria winced at his vehemence. She’d taken Fen for the light-hearted, joking type, but that was far from evident now. Even Vek’s face registered surprise. But Ara…for a moment, naked grief gleamed from her eyes before she managed to shutter them.
“I named you my heir because that is what you are,” Ara answered, her voice strained and taut. “You do not have to like or accept me, but you are my only child. However, you are welcome to repudiate the role. Divine knows I don’t want to be queen.”
Fen’s lips thinned. “You could have rejected it the way Vek did.”
“And cast the Unseelie court into a chaotic power grab?” She shook her head. “No. Meren schemes against us, much as he pretended to work with me, and there are still those who might wish to follow Meren’s plan to overtake Earth. I do wish Vek would consider co-rule. If not, perhaps he might take your place as presumptive heir?”
Dria stiffened, her attention on Vek as his uncertainty hit her. Perhaps he had given up the crown for her. Would he decide to reach for it now, regardless of their bond? Tentatively, she connected with him. “Don’t let me hold you back.”
He sent her an irritated scowl before returning his attention to his sister. “I don’t accept,” Vek said aloud. “Nor will I work for you as I did our father. My mate has an outpost to run, and I tire of the endless bloodshed. I do not wish to rescind my place as a Felshreh prince, but I refuse to be owned by it, either.”
Ara’s shoulders slumped. “You have earned that much. Will you still train Fen?”
“Based on his anger, he may no longer wish for me to,” Vek said tightly.
“Oh, hell,” Fen grumbled, running his hands through his hair. “You think I want to have to get used to some other asshole? No thanks. Besides, you weren’t my actual parent.”
Dria stared at her bonded, her thoughts on his earlier words. My mate has an outpost to run. He’d answered matter-of-factly, no hesitation to his refusal. So why had she sensed his uncertainty? He couldn’t truly be content living in a cave and training Fen while she set up an entire colony.
Could he?
“Then that is settled,” Ara said. “Though it would be best to have my named heir present at court, you are young enough for your absence to go unremarked. There will be ample turmoil when I begin to purge our remaining traitors. Anything else?”
Vek frowned. “What did you mean about our father acting unusual when Fen was born? He claimed his illness was recent, caused by the destruction of the barrier. In any case, he was never an easy man. What was new about that?”
“You were rarely here.” Ara’s nostrils flared. “But I saw the increasingly odd decisions he made at court. Nothing around you, of course, since you rarely sat in for such things. He would take sides against tradition or end court abruptly to storm out of the room. He claimed to be unaffected by the energy poisoning, but I do not believe it.”
Dria peered at Fen. How old was he? Early twenties, she would wager, though the tired, worried look in his eyes made him appear older. “It couldn’t have been energy poisoning,” Dria said. “That only started a few years ago. Didn’t Fen help spread it?”
Her bond-nephew flinched. “Yes and no,” he said. “Kien had obviously been experimenting with it for years. I…I set up the crystals that connected the spell to Earth.”
“Father told me he held a pillar of the barrier,” Vek said. “Perhaps the crack that caused the wall to fail was older than anyone realized, begun by Kien’s experiments. Something for us to investigate.”
Dria’s stomach tightened at the reminder of her brother’s perfidy. How many lives had he ruined with his sick selfishness? The list seemed endless.
“I don’t know if there is anything to find at this point.” Ara sighed. “I’d hoped he would improve once the energy poisoning was resolved, but it didn’t happen. Not too long before that, he’d begun sending messages to Meren through Quaea. He had no idea that Quaea and I colluded, nor that I started delivering messages for Quaea until Meren believed I was part of the plot. The foolish Seelie told me more than he should have, though the deception became more difficult to hide when Kethen got involved.”
Millennia would pass, Dria suspected, before Vek would share the hurt she sensed from him. “You should have come to me,” he said in an even tone.
“You may act in your own interests and in your own ways, but in the end, you are always loyal when you give your word. I could not risk my deception getting back to Father.” Ara glanced down. “And you’ve long made it clear you dislike me. My mother replaced yours, at least for a time, and you have never forgotten it.”
Vek’s eyebrows lifted. “You think I care about that? It might have bothered me as a boy, but that was centuries ago. And her dismissal from court turned out well. I’m glad my mother remarried, though I’ve worried for her, too. You were cold to me when we were younger. You still are.”
“I only returned what I was given. You were hardly—” Ara’s words cut off, and she squared her shoulders. “Forget it. We can discuss this later. Right now, we need to track Meren. He told me that he intended to kill his half-brothers and then strike at the Moranaians. He will not be pleased that the invasion of your mate’s colony failed. And if he hasn’t heard of our father’s death, he will soon. He’ll likely guess I deceived him.”
The outpost. Dria wrapped her hand around Vek’s wrist. “We need to go.”
It didn’t matter that her body ached and her energy stores were nearly depleted. If there was risk to her people, she would confront it. Preferably now.
Concern and anger swept Vek through the portal he’d formed to the cave in record time. They emerged so quickly that the energy let out a pop as it dispelled. He should have been relieved at how easily his sister had accepted his refusal to work for her, but he couldn’t find that emotion in himself at the moment. Too much had happened that day for such a mundane feeling.
As soon as she got her bearings, Dria headed toward the door. “I need to find Fedah and Kera, then contact Lyr.”
Vek nodded, though his earlier irritation at his mate lingered. “I’ll join you in a moment.”
Dria cast him an odd look, no doubt sensing his mood, but she bid him a speedy farewell. Don’t let me hold you back, she’d said. As though any crown was worth more than her. Clearly, he would have to spend a great deal of time proving otherwise.
The door clicked shut, leaving him alone with Fen. Vek took a deep breath and faced his nephew—along with his own failings. “Why did you agree to work with me when all you should feel is hatred?”
Fen’s eyes widened. “I never said I hated you.”
“You should.” Vek’s teeth ground together. “Your abandonment was unintentional, but it happened. Had I a clue that I was the only one keeping track of you… Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? You have a right to be angry. So why?”
“Because you’re the closest thing to a father I can remember having,” Fen blurted, a look of horror crossing his face at the declaration. “Shit, I didn’t mean to say that. But it’s true. Those times you checked on me when I was a teenager… I pretended not to care, but they meant everything to me. It’s probably what kept me from copying Kien completely. Hell, maybe part of the reason I joined him was to get your attention. Out of all the people in my family, you’re the only one who ever seemed to care.”
Vek stared at his nephew, the odd urge to laugh almost overcoming him. Not out of humor, for there was nothing amusing about the fucked-up relationships in their family. “You had to scrounge for blood in the human world when you were barely old enough read. Ten years. How can you consider me anything like a father when I left you to that?”
And Divine, how the thought of it scraped at Vek’s insides like glass.
“I never blamed you,” Fen insisted. “Though hearing you and my mother discussing it brought back a lot of old feelings.”
Old feelings. Vek had experienced the same, though the emotions were no doubt different. Guilt, shame, hope, love. In that moment, he confessed to himself what he’d always carefully hidden—he’d thought of Fen like a son, as well, one he’d been denied. It made no sense. But then again, few things in life did.
“I’ve been angry at Ara for two decades,” Vek said softly. “I should have offered to raise you when you were born, but she’d already decided to leave you with your father. I suppose I’ve felt somewhat paternal toward you regardless.”
Fen shook his head, a reluctant smile playing across his lips. “Then why have you always given me such a hard time?”
“Because I care.” Vek lifted a brow. “Unless you would let a loved one ruin their life without a single comment?”
Fen laughed, and a new understanding seemed to pass between them without the need for words. “I don’t think either of us can resist a chance to make our opinion known. Must run in the family.”
“No doubt about that.” Some of Vek’s tension eased, and he allowed himself a small smile chuckle. “Let’s go see how things have fared in our absence.”
Dria encountered Fedah first, the mage no doubt drawn by the surge of Vek’s magic. A look of pure relief washed over the other woman’s face, and had they been on better terms, the mage might have hugged her. She settled on giving Dria’s arm an encouraging squeeze.
Unfortunately, it was the arm most injured.
Pain seared through Dria, and she cried out, jerking away from the other woman’s hold. Fedah paled. “I’m sorry if the familiarity—”
“It’s fine,” Dria insisted through clenched teeth. “I have a burn I need tended.”
“Oh. Oh, I see.” Wincing, Fedah lowered her hand. “I suppose it is fortunate that the healer returned not long ago. I believe he’s in the dining room speaking to Kera.”
Dria smiled. “The other person I need to see. Come. Along the way, you can tell me what you have done to secure the cavern in my absence.”
“Your bonded directed us to tend to the battlefield, and although he has no authority here, it seemed the most reasonable course to take,” Fedah said almost apologetically. “I hope we did not decide poorly in that matter. There was…only ash remaining, so there was little to do besides shield the tunnel to their outpost and set up traps along the return path.”
“Ash?” Bile rose up Dria’s throat. “But Gessen—”
“Wasn’t there,” Fedah said quickly. “Your bonded carried his body through. The healer was escorting Gessen’s remains to Braelyn, but then Lial returned rather abruptly. He was about to share why when I detected your arrival.”
Dria sighed, too tired to contemplate a climb up the stairs. She shuffled over to the lift and waited for Fedah to follow her onto the platform. Gods, she wanted to groan at the thought of using one more spell. But as she reached for her magic anyway, Fedah lifted a hand.
“Allow me.” With a flex of her magic, the other mage activated the platform. “This was an excellent design. It was clever to use a spell that non-mages could trigger.”
Dria’s skin warmed in a pleased blush. “Thank you.”
Perhaps her relationship with her former captain wasn’t ruined after all.
Time would tell.
The platform slid to a smooth stop, ending the moment. It was a short walk to the dining room, which was empty except for Lial and Kera, who sat beside the healer while he ate a bowl of soup. Dria’s own hunger stirred, but the sudden memory of battle stifled that at once. Unfortunately. Regardless of how she felt, she would have to force down food. She needed to regain her energy sooner rather than later.
Lial glanced up, and his spoon paused just above the bowl. “You’re injured.”
Dria jerked to a stop a few paces from the table. “How could you know that?”
“Do you know how many people have tried to hide pain from me?” A scowl darkened his face. “Don’t bother denying it.”
“A few burns and scratches, that’s all.” Dria shrugged. “We have much more to worry about.”
Lial lowered his spoon and pushed aside his bowl. “No, we don’t. If your mind is clouded by pain, you will be useless. Show me the worst of it.”
There was no point in arguing with a healer, particularly not her cousin. Resigned, Dria tugged up the loose sleeve of her robe and held it out of the way as Lial approached. He took her arm in gentle hands and then hissed out a breath. After giving her a reproachful look, he closed his eyes, and his healing energy filled her. She relaxed as her pain faded away.
In a surprisingly short time, Lial pulled back. “Far from the worst burns I’ve seen.”
“Thank you,” Dria said, studying her cousin’s wan face. “Especially considering how tired you obviously are. What are you doing here?”
Lial returned to his seat, but he didn’t pick up his spoon. “Kai’s father was injured gravely by Lord Meren of the Seelie.”
“Kai’s father, Allafon?” Dria sat beside him. “I thought the man was dead? I heard that Allafon was a traitor who had been killed a few months ago attempting to assassinate Lord Lyr. Did the man come back to life to insult the Seelie?”
“No, Allafon is dead.” Lial glanced between them, a warning in his eyes. “I trust you will not carry rumors of this, for I do not know how widely Kai wants this known.”
All three gave their assent.
“Allafon wasn’t Kai’s father,” Lial said. “Kai’s mother was a guide who helped people cross the Veil, and in the process, she met Lord Naomh. They were soulbonded, or at least they planned to complete the bond, but Elerie had a life on Moranaia. She was married to Allafon, after all, and had a grown son with him. She returned to dissolve her unhappy marriage and rejoin Naomh, but Allafon wouldn’t let her go. He murdered her a few days after Kai’s birth and raised him as his own. Naomh didn’t know what had happened to her until he met Kai a few months ago.”
Only Kera didn’t seem surprised. But then, she’d been the Myern’s guard. She no doubt knew a great many secrets.
“So how does this relate to Meren?” Dria asked.
“Naomh was known to have two brothers. Meren, who shared the same parents, and Caolte, who was born of an affair between their father and an Unseelie woman.” Lial leaned his palms against the table. “But it seems Naomh’s mother managed a spectacular deception. She was already pregnant when she married his father but found a way to hide it. Apparently, Meren tired of the lie. He told Naomh the truth just before he stabbed him. Caolte saved Naomh, but Meren disappeared.”
“Gods, I thought our family drama was bad,” Dria muttered. “Ara told us to beware of Meren because he would seek to attack us once he’d killed his half-brothers. I suppose he has attempted the first part of that plan.”
Lial scowled. “Ara? Did you not kill her in order to escape?”
Dria grabbed a roll from the center of the table and tore off a bite. But she couldn’t quite force herself to eat it. “She planned to lure Vek by abducting me. Then Vek would challenge the king for holding me. It was… Suffice it to say that the king is dead, and Ara, the new queen, is on our side.”
Lial caught her gaze. “You might wish to tell me the whole of it later, and not just as your cousin. My talent for mind-healing is minor, but I can help a little.”
“I think I can handle it,” Dria answered. “Though I thank you. I will remember that.”
Then they began to plan.