Kellee
Eledan had once told me we were on the same side. He’d told me many things, all of it twisted and manipulative. I’d prefer to kill him than talk with him, but it had never once occurred to me that he might actually be helping me. Helping us. And I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. But Kesh was sure, and I trusted her judgment. She knew him better than any of us. If he could do the impossible, then I’d listen. I owed Kesh and my people that.
The ship’s growing corridors led me right to him in a room I’d never seen before. Wires and tek climbed the walls, making pathways for whatever information flowed along them. It looked like liquid light, like silver veins, and Eledan sat in the middle of the floor, with one knee drawn up to his chest. He didn’t look up, and even as I approached, he stayed staring at the same spot on the floor. I’d seen the bastard smile, heard him laugh, seen him mad and vicious, but I hadn’t seen him like this. Light rippled over him, catching in his pale skin and highlighting long strands of black hair.
Coming around to stand in front of him, I had to stop myself from dumping his book on the floor near his boots. I could be civilized, mostly, as long as he didn’t rub my fur the wrong way. Crouching to his eye level, I gently set the book down and tapped its thick cover. “Kesh said to wait for her and that you’d know what that meant.”
He shifted his gaze to take a long look at the book. Was this the first time he’d seen it in centuries?
“I skimmed the pages on the way over. It’s empty,” I told him.
“Hmm,” he mused. “It didn’t used to be.”
He lifted his eyes, and their usual hardness had softened, as though he were weary. I’d tried not to look too long at him before, not caring for his typical fae appearance, but now I did look, and I saw more to him. More lines around his mouth, more of a slouch to his shoulders, and more of the warfae marks as they snaked beneath his collar. Maybe I hadn’t cared to notice him until now, and maybe I’d tried to forget he was also a victim, but it was hard to sympathize with a victim who victimized others. For what he’d done to Kesh, I’d never forgive him, even if she had.
“She also said the vakaru are here. Do you know anything about that?”
The tiredness scrubbed out of his eyes, and their lethal sharpness returned. “She did, did she? And what do you want from me?”
He knew, but he would make me beg. Damn him. “You and I will never see things the same. We are not alike, and we are not friends, never will be, but Kesh believes you want change and that you’ve been helping it happen in your own way. Is that true?”
He skipped his gaze away and scanned the pulsing veins crawling up the walls. “Creating life is such a special gift, one often forgotten on Faerie, where life is immortal, but not here and not on Arcon. You know what it means to be immortal and forget how precious life is.”
I was sure his rambling had a purpose, so I humored him. “I do.”
“Your vakaru believed themselves immortal. My brother took that from them, from you.”
I gritted my teeth and rode out his abrasive tone. “Can you bring them back or not?”
He winced, breathed in, and held that breath. Why this should be so hard a decision for him I’d never know, but if he agreed, it wouldn’t matter.
He sighed out that heavy breath. “For you? No. But for the Queen of Hearts?” He bowed his head, and I was reminded of how I’d seen him in my dreams, and how I knew he loved her.
He huffed a soft, dry laugh. “She said she sees me, but with her, I cannot tell the truth from the lies.”
“She sees you. If she didn’t, she would have ripped out your heart a second time on that throne.”
He flinched, reliving the memory of Kesh doing exactly that, and maybe, just maybe, I felt a pang of regret along with him.
“She will never think of me as she thinks of you.”
He was probably right, but never was a word so often thrown around it had lost its weight. “Never is a lie.”
“For immortals, but not for mortals.” He picked up his book, and climbed to his feet, realigning his clothes and running his long fingers through his hair.
His words rang in my ears, reminding me of the ticking clock and how the time Kesh had left was fast running out.
“Come, then, vakaru. Let’s see what Arcon and Calicto can do and if they will grant the return of your people.”