Fated Crown by Eva Chase
Chapter Twelve
Talia
“There,” Harper says, looking down at me with her hands on her hips. “You’re not to move from that spot for at least an hour.” She sets her slim frame down next to me on the grass with typical fae grace.
She led me out to this knoll overlooking the Shimmering Falls in Donovan’s domain insisting that we needed a chance to talk after I’ve spent so much time running back and forth between the realms. I’m starting to think the walk was less a friendly excursion and more an intervention. Both my friends and my lovers seem to be dragging me away to some restful spot pretty often these days… I’m obviously not hiding the tension coiled inside me as well as I’d like to.
I lean back on my hands, letting myself take a moment to enjoy the soft grass beneath my palms and the faint, warm spray of the waterfall that reaches us even here. The rhythmic warble of the falling water soothes my nerves. And it occurs to me that I haven’t just hung out and chatted with my closest fae friend since I found out about Jamie.
I make an apologetic face at Harper. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately. There’ve just been so many things going on…”
She waves off my apology. “I know. I’m not going to complain when you’re running around taking care of so much and all I’ve got to do is keep making my dresses.” She pauses and shoots a grin at me. “I got some ideas from the winter fae dresses you’ve brought back. I think I can combine elements of both styles to make some really striking designs.”
Her enthusiasm is so infectious that it’s easy to smile back. “I can’t wait to see them.”
“Oh, you’ll probably be my first model for them after myself.” She tucks her sleek blond hair behind her ears and peers out over the landscape ahead of us. Her next words come out more hesitant. “Is it true that you’re thinking of going back to the human world? Like, to live there instead of here?”
I bite my lip, not sure what to say. Harper is my closest friend here, and I’m also hers. She’s the only person who was born into Sylas’s pack after they were banished a century ago. All her pack-kin are decades if not centuries older than her. I might be only twenty-one, but comparatively, from what I’ve gathered, that puts us at about the same point in our life-spans. And like her, I’ve spent most of my time in the fae world isolated and unsure of my place.
But now that the pack has risen to the most prominent position possible, I’m sure she’ll make more friends among the other packs. Friends who’ll have more in common with her than I do. Friends who won’t age so much faster than she will. She’ll be fine no matter what I choose.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” I say. “My brother’s still having a bit of a hard time of it. It’s just tricky to know whether me turning up out of the blue will really make things better for him or just confuse him. I have no idea how I’d even explain where I’ve been all this time.” I rub my forehead.
Harper nods. “I understand why you’d want to help him. You basically always want to help everyone, and he’s family on top of that. I wish our worlds weren’t so far apart. It’s not like with the winter realm where you can step across the border and be home in just a few minutes.”
“Soon I’m going to have a home that’s right there on the border.” Sylas’s pack and Corwin’s flock were just putting the final touches on the joint castle this morning.
Will my lovers continue their alliance even if I’m gone for… however long I’d feel I need to be gone for? Corwin would wait for me—I know that for sure. He isn’t going to find another soul-twined mate, as unfair as that might be to him. Sylas, August, and Whitt would wait for me too if I asked them. Somehow that knowledge reassures me and gnaws at me at the same time.
No matter what I do, it’s definitely going to be unfair to someone. Maybe including me.
But the point of this excursion is to relax, not worry about all that. I slip off my boots and wiggle my toes in the grass. “Have you gotten any new customers for your dresses? I thought I saw one of Donovan’s cadre-chosen wearing something in your style when some of them joined Whitt’s last revel.”
Harper giggles, a blush I don’t totally understand coloring her cheeks. Does she think I’ll be offended that she’s making clothes for people other than me? “Yes, I got a few requests from the other arch-lords’ packs. My goal is to see a ball where more than half of the ladies are wearing dresses I designed. I hope there’s another one soon! Perhaps Arch-Lord Sylas will host one to celebrate the border castle.”
“I think that would be a great idea. I’ll mention it to him, since he’s probably more focused on logistics and making sure the summer and winter fae don’t go for each other’s throats.”
Harper giggles again, more openly this time, but there’s still an odd gleam in her eyes as she glances at me. “He’s really going to make you officially his mate, isn’t he? And Whitt and August too. Four mates! I can’t even imagine.”
I laugh, my own cheeks heating. “I hardly can either most of the time. I definitely didn’t plan for it to happen that way. And it’s been complicated with the soul-twined bond and everything. I just hope the other arch-lords come around to accepting it.” It isn’t as if I’ll be in their lives all that long by fae standards anyway, even if I stay here.
“They’ll just have to,” Harper says matter-of-factly. “It’s what the Heart and your hearts want.” Then she pauses with an air as if she’s deciding whether to say something else. She looks down at her hands, which are fidgeting with a flower she’s plucked. “When you felt the soul-twined bond with Corwin… They always say you know right away, the first time you see each other. Was it like that for you even though you’re not—I mean, even though you’re human?”
The moment when the bond seared through me is burned into my memory. “Yeah. The winter arch-lords had come to see Sylas as the new summer arch-lord during his coronation celebration. I’d never seen them before then. The first moment my gaze locked with Corwin’s, I felt it. You definitely couldn’t miss it.”
I glance at her, a suspicion tickling at the edges of my mind. Why would she be wondering about that? “Is there someone you’d want to spark a soul-twined bond with?”
The bashful way Harper ducks her head confirms my guess before she even speaks. “I know it’s silly. You’re obviously a special case. No fae who isn’t true-blooded ever had a soul-twined mate that we know of. But I just—it’s a nice hope, right? It’s possible even if not very likely. Of course, if the whole eyes meeting thing has already happened and nothing was there, I guess there isn’t any possibility at all.” She tosses the flower away.
If she’s that concerned about it, I have to think the man she’s interested in is true-blooded, or it wouldn’t make any sense to be worrying about being his soul-twined mate. They could just become regular mates.
The trouble for her would be that, from what I understand, every true-blooded fae ends up forming a soul-twined bond eventually. They might strike up other relationships in the meantime—or sometimes even at the same time—but that one deep connection is always going to come first. And not being true-blooded herself, Harper couldn’t be that one.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask tentatively.
My friend shakes her head quickly. “No. It’s silly, honestly. I shouldn’t even be thinking about it.”
“I’m sure you’ll have lots of chances to meet other potential mates as Sylas gets more settled in as arch-lord and starts hosting more events,” I say, even though I know that comment wouldn’t comfort me in the same position. There are millions of unattached human men back in the world that used to be my home, but that fact won’t stop me from missing my fae lovers terribly if I have to leave them.
Before that melancholy thought can take hold any further, Corwin’s voice carries abruptly through our bond. I’m sorry to interrupt you when you’re taking some time for yourself, beloved, but one of the flocks has brought a new cursed victim to Heart’s Cadence for you to “bless,” as they put it now. You don’t need to come over immediately, but as soon as you’ve finished your visit with your friend…
No, I’ll come right away, I reply, despite—or maybe because of—the heaviness that wraps around my heart. I won’t be able to enjoy just sitting here chatting if I know someone’s suffering while they wait for me.
I pull my boots on and stand up. “I’m sorry. It hasn’t been even an hour yet, but Corwin’s just told me there’s another winter fae hit by the curse. They’re waiting in his domain for me to heal them.”
“Of course.” Harper scrambles up. “We’ll have lots more time to talk later.”
Will we? I don’t voice that question out loud.
We hurry back across the forested terrain as quickly as my warped foot will allow. By the time we’ve passed Donovan’s castle and the Bastion has come into sight, my foot is throbbing, and I’m wishing we brought a carriage or a horse.
That thought must travel to Corwin, because a second later he’s telling me, Stay where you are and give your foot a chance to recover. I’ll come the rest of the way to you.
It’s all right, I try to say, but I can tell he isn’t going to listen. He’s already grabbing one of the carriages he keeps waiting in case someone needs one quickly.
Harper waits with me until he arrives. It’s a bizarre sight, watching the pale, narrow vehicle with its crystalline features gliding through the vibrant summer landscape. Several Seelie outside of Donovan’s castle stop to stare.
I scramble in with Corwin’s helping hand and turn back to Harper. “Will you tell Sylas or one of his cadre-chosen where I’ve gone?”
She bobs her head, but Corwin interjects. “I’ve already talked to Whitt myself. We just finished the last essential pieces of the border castle.” A soft smile touches his lips. “It’s ready to be inhabited now. Not quite so much rushing back and forth from here on, I hope.”
Knowing that buoys my spirits until we come up on the haze of the border. “I’m glad that they brought the latest victim to us instead of us having to travel across the realm,” Corwin says. “But… it’s a little more than I expected.”
I tear my eyes away from the spectacle of the wooden end of the joint castle protruding from the fog and look at him. “More how?”
He hesitates, with an impression of awkwardness he can’t hide from me. “You’ll see. It isn’t anything bad, just… You know how it’s been the last couple of times.”
I do, but somehow I’m still not prepared for us to emerge from the haze to find not just the curse victim and a few helpers but maybe three dozen figures gathered by the glow of the Heart. Maybe they think my power will work even better if I’m closer to it? But all these people…
How far did they come? I ask Corwin as we clamber out of the carriage and go to meet them.
A few hours’ journey,Corwin says in a bemused tone. That’s at least a third of the flock, including a couple of their lord’s coterie members. They weren’t able to make it to our confirmation ceremony. They say they wanted to support their flock-fellow, but it’s clear they’re just as eager to see you work your cure with their own eyes.
My “blessing,” as they’re calling it now. An uneasy itch travels over my skin.
I have to remember that it’s a good thing the winter fae are so impressed with me now. Ever since August and I left Lady Gullven’s domain, I’ve been wondering what I can do for the other humans on both sides of the border—and also those associated with them through birth, like Kesral, if that’s possible. If they care so much about what I can do for them, will they care at least a little about what I have to say as well?
As Corwin ushers me over to where a fae man hunches right in front of the Heart’s pulsing glow, I see other figures drifting toward us from Laoni’s and Uzziah’s castles. Noticing the commotion and coming to discover what it’s about, presumably. It’d be hard to miss this gathering.
Excited murmurs carry through the crowd. “There she is!”
“Lady Talia is with us!”
“She came so swiftly.”
I drag in a breath and give them all the best smile I can summon. The awed faces gaze back at me, some beaming in return, others more cautious. A woman I’m guessing is the cursed man’s mate squeezes his shoulder, watching me too.
“It only struck him this morning,” she says. “Whatever you can do for him, my lady…”
The man coughs out a croaked voice. “I’m honored to accept your blessing, Lady Talia.”
Seeing them together, a lump is already rising in my throat. Turning away, I think of both them and me—of that woman losing her mate to the curse when she should have had so many more years with him, of me possibly leaving behind the men I’ve come to love so much.
As tears prick at the backs of my eyes, I sense Corwin’s urge to reach out to me, but he knows I have to draw on whatever sadness I can to perform the cure.
When I picture the woman clinging to the man’s frozen form if the curse completely takes hold, the tears begin to trickle out. I wipe them away and turn to face him. The motions come to me more confidently now that I’ve seen them work several times.
I can do this. The Heart has given me this power. It wants me to push back the curse. And maybe to accomplish other things too, that I don’t fully understand yet.
As I stroke my fingers across the man’s cheek, the fae gathered around us lean closer. There’s a sense of a collective breath held. Then, as he shudders and starts to shake off the chill, that breath bursts into pleased gasps and sighs of relief.
“The blessed one!” someone calls out. “Thank the Heart for Lady Talia!”
At the voices echoing the same sentiment, I gather myself, gazing out over the small crowd. I can tell Corwin has picked up on my intention, but he doesn’t dissuade me, offering a nudge of encouragement instead. His motion of support gives me the courage to speak up.
“I’m so glad that I can help all of the fae with the powers the Heart has given me, even though I’m a human,” I say. “I hope that it helps you all see that the Heart can shine on humans just as well as the fae. It would make my own heart rest easier if I knew that you'll go back to your lives thinking better of the humans who’ve ended up in the fae realm—treating them with the same kindness and respect you’d offer me.”
I get several nods from the gathered fae and some more called words of praise, but I have no idea how much they’re just giving the appearance of being agreeable versus actually listening. It isn’t as if I could change the entire culture around the fae treatment of humans in one day. Those words are a start though, even if it’s a small one.
The fae from the curse victim’s flock linger a while longer, many of them coming up to me to ask for a brief touch as its own sort of blessing, others just seeming to want a closer look. The cursed man bows in gratitude, and his mate bows even lower. “Thank you so much,” she says, sounding a little choked up, which is startling from an Unseelie.
As they drift back toward the carriages they arrived on, Laoni and a couple of members of her coterie weave through the crowd to reach us. The dark expression on the arch-lord’s face puts me immediately on guard, and Corwin tenses too.
“Meet us in the Hall of the Heart in one hour,” she demands. “Both of you. It’s time decisions were made.”
Why is she upset?I ask Corwin as she strides off without waiting for an answer.
I’m not sure, he replies, but the realization is already rising up in me.
This is the first time any of the other arch-lords has seen how their people are responding to me now—how they’re acting like I’m some kind of holy savior. And I don’t think Laoni is happy about that development at all.
