Chapter Nine

 

Neil was quiet as we moved from the banquet hall into the grand ballroom later that night. He’d been contemplative most of the day after the episode with Herne. Zack had managed to blow the whole thing off but Neil had issues. He’d been nearly silent the whole rest of the day, preferring to be my bodyguard rather than the BFF role he usually took. He’d stayed by my side, but I caught him glancing warily Herne’s way from time to time. I knew he was thinking about that time in Vegas when Daniel had been able to force his will on him.

He stood in one of the open doorways, looking out over the water. The grand ballroom was open to the night and overlooked a field with a winding stream that gleamed silver in the moonlight. In Faery, they didn’t worry about mosquitoes or rainstorms. The night was merely another lovely setting and they took advantage. Neil watched the fields in the distance, but it didn’t seem to calm him. The moon was only half full but I wondered if he wanted to run.

“Is he all right?” Sarah asked, her eyes worried.

“I don’t think so,” I replied. “I think Herne is bringing back bad memories. He didn’t have a choice. One minute he was Neil and the next minute he was a wolf with a new master.”

“It’s creepy.” She looked back to where Dev and Danny were seated with Herne. The three were talking and laughing and generally getting along. The Hunter had been silent and his host was a jovial man.

“I’m sure it felt that way for Neil.”

“I was talking about the whole ‘sharing your body with a god’ thing. I hadn’t thought about it before. I mean, Bris is so gentle,” Sarah said, watching Herne. “Besides being constantly horny and having no qualms about public sex, he’s helpful, you know. I was having trouble with the basil in my garden and he was so sweet about it. I can’t imagine that hunter guy is helpful. And from what you told me, he’s a Neanderthal. Join the twenty-first century, dude.”

“I don’t think you can think of him as a dude, Sarah. He isn’t a man and he never was. He’s the spirit of the hunt. The way it works, the vessel and the god have to be somewhat well matched or they can’t bond. It’s one of the reasons it took Bris so long to find a proper vessel. Dev and Bris are similar. No matter how nice Herne may seem, he has a lot in common with the Hunter or he wouldn’t be in there.”

“Are you all right with Bris being the father of your baby?” Sarah never shied away from the tough questions.

“Dev and Daniel will be the fathers,” Neil corrected. He’d come up behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder.

“I was talking about the fact that Bris was inhabiting the body when Zoey got pregnant,” Sarah clarified.

Neil shrugged. “So, who gives a crap? There’s a lot more to being a dad than two seconds’ worth of orgasm. The big question is who’s going to take care of the kid once he’s here and the answer is Dev and Daniel. Don’t try to make this into one of those daytime talk shows where they shock the baby daddy with surprise DNA tests.”

“Neil, it’s nothing that hasn’t crossed my mind.” I understood why he was so touchy. His own father had been horrible. He’d kicked Neil to the curb and then sent the pack to torment him because he’d been different. Neil wasn’t too big on biological fathers.

He smiled as his brain took him in strange directions. “Though it would be a funny episode. Once they told Dev he wasn’t the biological father, do you think he would beat the crap out of himself? How would the bouncers handle that?”

“Let’s not find out,” I murmured, wincing because the Duke of Ain was approaching.

“Your Grace.” The duke bowed obsequiously. Apparently the more they scraped the floor, the more respect they were showing. “I was thrilled to hear the news of your delicate condition. It is such a boon to Faery that the prince will have a child to pass on his magnificent magic to.”

I didn’t like Gilliana’s father. He was lean with blond hair and cold blue eyes. When he looked at me, I felt like he was sizing me up. I’d been told by Bibi that Braden was a cousin of the queen and considered important throughout the realm. He held vast lands to the north that were crucial both agriculturally and in trade. He’d also wanted to get rid of the queen’s son when he was proven mortal. I was having a hard time smiling and placating the man. The only reason he tolerated my husband was that “magnificent magic” of his.

“Thank you.” I gave him my fakest smile, hoping to get this encounter over with in a hurry. Perhaps I could use this whole “baby mama” thing to my advantage. I could talk about how tired I was and go cuddle up with one of the books I’d brought. “It’s early, though. I hardly feel pregnant at all except for the exhaustion.”

Sarah and Neil looked at me with suspicious eyes. I’d been energetic all day.

“I am sure you will feel the pressure soon enough, Your Grace,” Braden said snidely, to my mind.

“Pressure?” It was an odd choice of words.

He nodded. “Well, all of Faery will anxiously await the birth of this child. Our fertility is practically nonexistent. It is better on the Seelie side, of course. We are the blessed court. Providence favors us. The Unseelie haven’t seen a new generation for many years. If your child is truly gifted with his father’s fertility magic then we have hope. It must be a great burden to have a whole kingdom’s fate resting in your womb.”

I was still getting used to the idea of having a baby at all. I was getting used to the idea of changing diapers and breast feeding and not sleeping at night. I was wondering how easy it was going to be to raise a kid when we lived over a nightclub. I was picturing Albert settling into his nanny duties. I wasn’t ready to think about the fact that my baby had political implications.

“Don’t scare my sister-in-law,” Declan ordered, coming in from the field where he had been “walking” with a pretty brunette. They split up now, but she glanced back at him with the hint of a smile as she walked off to join her friends. There was still grass in his hair, and I wondered how he could ever smooth talk a woman into lying on the ground for him. I supposed he could always use that whole “I’m going to be your king” thing. He might just order them to. I wouldn’t put it past him.

“I was merely letting Her Grace know how much I admire her for taking on the challenge,” Braden said with the smooth tones of a courtier.

Declan frowned, his mouth turning to a pout. “Well, it is not a grand talent. She spread her legs for my brother, he spent his seed, and nature took its course. She is human. They breed like rabbits. I am much more impressed with her fellatio skills.”

I reached over and punched my brother-in-law on the arm. “You’re such a jerk.”

He shrugged. I was sure he’d been called worse. “Well, I only speak the truth. While I am thrilled with your fully functional sex organs, I am not going to worship you for your womb.”

Braden ignored our immature fight. I was sure having been around Declan all of Dec’s life, he was used to the brat prince. “I was merely explaining that her child could be important to the Seelie.”

Declan’s green eyes narrowed. “Don’t even think it. My brother would never allow that to happen.”

“What’s he talking about?” The subtext eluded me.

“He is pointing out the fact that the Unseelie have no priest,” Declan explained. His words were slightly slurred. “They have no fertility magic. In the past, they had one or two priests, but almost all of them were half Seelie. Over the years, the two courts have grown more insular. We rarely interbreed. The Unseelie lost their last priest over two hundred years ago. They survive because of our priests. My grandfather was a tolerant man.”

“A great man,” Braden corrected.

“Yes, yes, he was a great man but he was friendly with the monsters, too,” Declan continued. “He spent as much time in the Unseelie sithein as he did in his own. He was more than willing to perform the necessary rites. There has been talk among certain factions of withholding our blessings from the Unseelie.”

“This is what Herne was talking about.” I finally understood exactly why the Unseelie were so upset. “You threatened them. You told them Devinshea wouldn’t work with them.”

“You have no idea what they are capable of.” Declan stared down at me, anger plain in his eyes. “You have no idea what it means to be at their mercy when they have none. After what Devinshea went through, I do not see how he can stand to be in the same room with them, much less help them to make more monsters.”

Dev had his grandfather’s tolerance. “He doesn’t judge the whole of the Unseelie for the actions of a few.”

“Do you know why we were there, Zoey?” Declan asked. I’d heard the tale, seen it with my own eyes on a quick trip to the Hell plane. He and Devinshea had lived with the Unseelie for a year when they were seventeen and Dev had been assaulted.

“Dev told me your mother sent you to test your strength.” The exact words Dev had used, however, had been that she sent them there to be tortured.

Braden took up the point now. “It is an old rite of passage. It had to be done. Miria was furious when Devinshea chose to go with his brother, but she could not talk him out of it. If Declan had refused to go, he would never be able to be king.”

“This child you carry, he will be important,” Declan said, his words softer now. “But he will be a priest. He will not be asked to take that rite of passage, nor will any brother of his. My son will. So I say let them fade. Bring on the war that finally separates us once and for all so I never have to stand at the gates and watch my son as Mother had to watch me.”

Declan turned and walked away.

“You will have to forgive His Highness,” Braden requested. “His time with the Unseelie left him…unsettled.”

I watched as Declan walked to the tables and ordered a drink. He grabbed the bottle straight out of the servant’s hands and took a long swig as he watched his brother talking to Daniel and Herne. There was something dark in his eyes that made me worry.

Glancing back at Neil and Sarah, I started to walk toward my brother-in-law. “I’m going to talk to him. The way he looks, he might start a fight and that’s the last thing Dev needs. Stay here.”

“Lee will kill me,” Neil protested.

“I’m not leaving the ballroom.” Lee was attempting to track down the servant who had brought breakfast to the archer this morning. He was tracking his scent through the countryside. “I’ll be fine. I just want to talk to him.”

I crossed the full ballroom, making my way around the edges of the dance floor. Miria was dancing in Padric’s arms, but her eyes constantly strayed to Dev’s table. It was like she worried if she took her eyes off of him he would disappear again. I made it just in time. Declan was watching that table, too. He cursed as he set the bottle down, and I could see he meant to go and have a word or two with someone. I was pretty sure he wasn’t planning on talking about the weather. It wouldn’t go well and a fight would set back any progress Dev had made. I reached out and grabbed Declan’s hand. He whirled on me. “What do you want, Zoey?”

“I want you to not make an ass of yourself.” He didn’t get to be annoyed with me when I was so busy being annoyed with him.

I tried to pull my hand back but he held it firmly. “Fine, then you will have to give me something else to do, Your Grace. Making an ass of myself was the only plan I had for the evening.”

He hauled me onto the dance floor and settled his free hand on my waist. He held me closer than decorum dictated, but I was just happy he could stand. He must have started drinking early in the afternoon to have gotten to this point. I looked around for one of his servants to see if someone could help me get him to his rooms.

“I’m fine, Zoey,” he insisted, reading my mind. “Welcome to the royal court. This is what we do. We have parties and get drunk and plot behind each other’s backs.”

“It sounds like a charming life.”

“It was,” he said quietly. “I was perfectly happy until about eighteen months ago.”

That was when Devinshea had chosen to leave the Faery mound. There was a strange phenomenon that occurred between the Earth plane and the sitheins. Time moved differently in the sithein. Dev had experienced almost seven years of maturing on the Earth plane while his brother was still twenty-two. There was a big difference between twenty-eight, married with a kid on the way, and twenty-two and single, still rolling around with strange women in the grass. Devinshea now had much more in common with Daniel than he had with the brother he’d shared a womb with. It must be difficult for Declan. His brother had returned an entirely different person with different priorities.

“What I cannot understand is why I am being punished.” Declan stared down at me. “I had nothing to do with the plot. I helped Dev leave when I was certain it was what he needed. If I had known what Mother intended, I would have warned him. Why is he so distant to me?”

“He’s a different person, Declan,” I tried to explain.

“But I am not different. I am the same brother he loved before. I am the same brother he used to play with and drink with and whore with. It was a good life.”

Declan maneuvered us around the edges of the dance floor and before I knew it, I found myself hauled into a small room off the ballroom. It was lit only with moonlight and had the same view of the field and stream as the east wall.

“Zoey.” Declan pulled me in with him. I noted the room’s door was a simple curtain that Declan let drop. It was furnished with a large couch that could certainly double as a bed. He pulled me close. “Let me in.”

“Dec, what the hell is this?” I asked, trying to get away from him.

“It’s a room for privacy,” he explained. “You said you wanted to talk.”

“No, I wanted to keep you from starting a fight.” I could guess that most people who wanted privacy weren’t interested in talking.

“Then give me something better to do,” he insisted.

Now I planted my feet, a bit of fear creeping in. I was in a terrible situation. I didn’t want to scream, but I knew I might have to. “Declan, don’t do this.”

He drew me to the couch. “What am I doing?”

“If you try to force me, I swear…”

Even in the moonlight, I could see how his face went pale. He dropped my hands and put some distance between us. “You think I was going to rape you?”

“Well, you dragged me into a convenient little room,” I replied. “What am I supposed to think?”

Declan put his head in his hands, unwillingly sobering up. “I have no idea what happened to me that my pregnant sister-in-law thinks I would drag her into the night and force myself on her. I was going to do something much worse, Zoey. I was going to beg.”

“Beg for what?” I settled down, fairly certain I wasn’t about to be assaulted.

He shrugged, and his wry smile reminded me so much of his brother. “Well, I was going to beg for sex, but I wasn’t going to force you. I would be very gentle given your condition. If you let me in your bed, Devinshea would be all right with it. It would bring us closer. You’ll see it would be the best thing for our whole family. It is what we always planned, Zoey. We planned to find a woman we both liked and settle down.”

“That’s ridiculous, Declan,” I said, disgusted at the thought. “Dev wouldn’t be all right with it and Daniel would kill you.”

“Well,” he admitted, “my plan does require getting rid of the vampire. You have to think clearly now, Zoey. I am sure the vampire has been exciting and he is probably a pleasure in bed, but you are a wife now and you carry a faery child. Your ties to Faery are much more meaningful than anything the vampire can give you. You owe us.”

I stood up, ready to plead exhaustion and be done with all of this for the evening. If Declan wanted to start a fight, then maybe I should let him. “I don’t owe you anything. I married Daniel and I’m happy with him. Dev is happy with him.”

I was almost out the door when I heard his sad response. “Devinshea replaced me.”

I saw Neil open the curtain, but I shook my head to let him know I was fine for the moment. He let the curtain fall back but I knew he would listen in. He would stand beside the entrance and wait for anything strange.

Declan had lain back on the couch, and I could see the pain in his eyes.

“He didn’t replace you.” I said the words, but I wondered if I was lying. Dev and Daniel had become close. Sometimes they worked together so flawlessly, I wondered if they weren’t halves of a whole. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dev was happier sharing me with Daniel than he would have been having me to himself. I doubted, however, that if Daniel were suddenly gone, he would immediately ask his brother to be our third. Whatever the brothers had shared before, Dev had moved on.

“Yes, he did,” Declan stated surely. “I should have gone with him. When he left, I should have followed him. He would have followed me. I have lost him.”

I sat down beside him, and when he moved to put his head in my lap, I let him. He was that pathetic. He didn’t even try anything sexual. He just rested against me. “You could try talking to him. You could try listening to him. I know he loves you.”

“But he doesn’t like me much,” Declan whispered.

I wasn’t sure what to say to that so I let him rest. I placed my hand on his head and wondered what he was going to do when he realized we meant to live on the Earth plane. I got the sneaking suspicion that my pregnancy was going to complicate our living arrangements. So far the boys had been talking like we would go home and raise the baby there, but I had a feeling Miria and Declan thought something different.

The music stopped and suddenly there were lovely female voices. At first I thought it was just one and she seemed far away, but after a moment, I could hear at least three and the sound was stronger. It was haunting and beautiful, filling the space like a wind rushing in and getting caught. It seemed to whirl around me. I felt a great sadness well up inside me as I listened and then Declan sat up suddenly.

“Oh, goddess, no,” he said, his voice a small prayer. “Please, no.”

Neil pulled back the curtain and he and Sarah rushed in the room. I could hear the sound of many footsteps scrambling across the floor outside.

“Something’s happening,” Neil said. “Everyone’s freaking out.”

Declan rushed to the open windows of the room. He stared out and I saw him stiffen. “No.”

I followed him and my eyes could make out three women in the distance. They were the source of the mournful song, for I recognized it as a lament now. They kneeled by the stream and seemed to be washing clothes.

“What are they?” Sarah stood behind me.

“Why is everyone terrified by women washing clothes?” Neil asked.

“Bean si,” Declan whispered as though he didn’t want to say the name too loud.

Neil and Sarah looked at me, confusion plain on their faces. Declan had used the Irish name for the washer women. He could just as easily call them by their Scots name, Bean sith, for it all meant the same thing. These women popped up in all Fae worlds.

I shook, a chill blanketing my body because I knew the name. I looked at my friends and used the term they would understand.

“Banshee.”