Fated Crown by Eva Chase
Chapter Two
Talia
The new castle that my summer and winter lovers have collaborated on, which straddles the border between their realms, contains just a few rooms right in the center. On the second floor, there are a string of chambers dedicated to my personal use. Below them lies a large ballroom we might host parties in if the two realms ever become that friendly, and a smaller meeting room beside it. The outer areas of the castle aren’t finished yet, but the middle portion is complete enough for us to make use of it.
Both the table there and the floor, walls, and ceiling show the merging of the two materials that form the castle. Sylas’s polished wood twines with Corwin’s glittering diamond right down the center of the space. The mix of warmth and coolness usually appeals to me, a sense of harmony amplified by the soft pulse of the Heart’s energy that flows through the space, but the company we have in this room today has left me uncomfortably chilled.
All eight of the arch-lords from both sides of the border are sitting around the table, the three from summer on one side and four of those from winter on the other. Assorted members of their cadres and coteries stand along the walls behind them, including my other two lovers: Sylas’s half-brothers, August and Whitt.
Corwin had me sit at the head of the table while he took the foot. I appreciate having him across from me whenever I need the reassurance of catching his eyes, but my position feels like a lot of pressure. But then, we are here to talk about a situation that concerns me more than anyone else.
None of the arch-lords look particularly happy about that—or the building they’re in. The six of them who didn’t have a hand in designing this space are glancing around with expressions that range from wariness to outright revulsion. Laoni, the winter arch-lord who’s been most hostile toward me and Corwin, has even wrinkled her nose.
But even though the outer rooms aren’t finished yet, this central space seemed like the best setting for a joint meeting. To enter the structure immersed in the border so close to the Heart, everyone had to take the vow to do no harm.
I wish I could take a little more comfort from that fact. The real problem is the harm they want to do to someone who isn’t even here, who doesn’t even know they exist yet. And I’m increasingly convinced I’d like it to stay that way.
“The situation with the curse is too urgent for personal feelings to come into it,” Laoni is saying now. “We must bring the boy here and determine whether he has a similar connection to the curse.”
The edge of distaste in her voice suggests that the personal feelings of a human like me matter even less than if I were fae. There’s a new glimmer of hostility in her gaze along with the usual disdain. I’m not sure how much of it’s because I’m now officially Corwin’s mate or because of the minor but unexpected magical power I displayed during our confirmation ceremony.
If I thought wielding a little of the same powers the fae have might bring me more respect, I was wrong. If anything, I’ve gotten the impression the other winter arch-lords object to my presence even more now that I’ve shown I’m less helpless than they’d assumed.
Celia, the strictest of the summer arch-lords, gives her counterpart a narrow glance. But she agrees, if grudgingly. “If the powers Talia possesses come from their family line, it stands to reason that her brother would have them as well.”
“You can’t just tear him away from his life like that,” I protest, my hands clenched in my lap beneath the table where they can’t see them. “The fae have already destroyed his family and left him scarred. He’s had a chance to recover from that, and now you want to rip him away from everything he knows—to use him against his will?”
Terisse, a winter arch-lord who often sides with Laoni, frowns at me. “I thought you were dedicated to healing us of this ailment. Didn’t you give your loyalty to the fae when you swore to stand with Arch-Lord Corwin as his mate?”
“Talia dedicated herself,” Corwin puts in. “That doesn’t mean she’s required to approve of her brother being forced to make a similar sacrifice unknowing.”
Sylas shifts in his seat where he’s poised close by at my right. “I believe Talia’s generosity of herself should earn her some consideration on this matter. She has sacrificed a lot for us. If we’re going to ask more of her and hers, we should allow it to be on her terms.”
“And what terms would those be?” Laoni sneers. “As far as I can tell, she wants us to forget the idea and what we’ve discovered—she’d rather we’d never found out her brother was living at all. Perhaps she’s already imagining leaving us herself to join him in the world she belongs to.”
Her words hit close enough to the truth that my stomach twists. I will my voice to stay steady. “No matter what happens, I swear I’ll continue helping you hold back the curse however I can. But you can’t reasonably ask me not to care about anything else. You all have more than one responsibility you have to balance in your lives. Why can’t I look out for the fae and my family?”
“Corwin and his flock should be your family now,” Uzziah says coldly.
Sylas makes a disbelieving sound. “Come on now. Do you expect us to believe that all of you required your mates never concern themselves with the packs or flocks they came from after they confirmed their bond to you?”
Laoni glowers at him. “If a member of my mate’s former flock turned out to be instrumental in fighting this curse, I’d absolutely expect him to prioritize that over a little discomfort.”
I can’t stop the protest from bursting out of me. “A little discomfort?” But when all the gazes around the table turn toward me, I’m not sure how to follow that up without insulting all the fae here.
August takes a step toward me and then catches himself. The arch-lords are aware of his and Whitt’s relationship with me now, but the news is very fresh in their minds, and I know they all have qualms about that unusual arrangement too. It probably wouldn’t look good for him to offer any gestures of affection in front of them, especially when the winter fae look down on any displays of emotion at all.
To my surprise, it’s Donovan who speaks up next. The youngest arch-lord often lets his colleagues guide his judgment, but he’s the only one other than Sylas and Corwin who’s ever supported my right to make my own decisions.
He keeps his tone mild. “What exactly are your concerns about bringing your brother here, Talia? If we can understand where you see the harm, we may be able to offset it.”
I drag in a breath and resist the urge to drop my gaze.
It’s all right, Corwin says through our bond, his gaze intent on me. He knows what I’ve been through at the hands of the fae better than anyone else, even the three men who rescued me from captivity, because he’s been able to experience the memories directly from my mind. You’re simply stating facts. If they question any, I can vouch for the truth of them, as can Sylas in many cases.
That’s true. I do have people on my side here.
I look around at the other arch-lords’ faces, trying to show confidence on my own. “I’ve made a home for myself here, but I didn’t come because I wanted to. I suffered for nine years at the hands of the Seelie lord who took me and his cadre. And even since Sylas took me in and I’ve been able to help with the curse with much more freedom, I’ve been insulted and treated like a tool rather than a person more times than I can count. I’ve been attacked and had some of the highest fae scheming to take my freedom away.”
“We did settle that matter,” Celia says, her stance tensing.
“One of them,” I say, meeting her gaze straight on. “The fae who killed my parents, stole me from my home, and tormented me for years haven’t been punished at all. A lot of you don’t see doing that to a human as a crime at all. Right here at this table, talking about my own brother, I’m being treated as if I’m less than the rest of you.”
The fae around the table stir uncomfortably, but none of them attempt to deny that accusation before I go on. “Jamie has already suffered so much because of the fae. Why would I want him brought somewhere he’ll have no one he knows except me—if you even let us see each other more than occasionally—and where nearly everyone around him won’t care how he thinks or feels about anything that’s happening to him?”
There’s a momentary silence. Corwin extends a tendril of his love to wrap around me like a gentle embrace.
Terisse speaks first, sounding slightly chagrinned. “You can’t blame us for putting our own needs first when it’s a matter of the survival of all our people. It isn’t simply about fae compared to humans, but thousands of fae lives compared to that of one human.”
“You already have one human,” I retort. “Me. And you’re not listening to me. Have you even thought this through properly? You’re so quick to assume that Jamie could help you, that it’s worth dragging him into the fae world and upending everything he believes in to see how he might benefit you—but obviously he didn’t have any effect on the curse back when I was taken, or Aerik and his cadre would have noticed and brought him too.”
“Of course we’ve taken that into account,” Laoni snaps. “We’ve also taken into account that your ages were rather different, and powers can take time to emerge—often triggered by factors such as puberty. Given what the Seelie have reported of their sage’s words about your family line, it’s a logical assumption that whatever connection to the fae exists in you, it’ll exist in him as well.”
Celia leans forward, her gaze fixed on me. “We could certainly make sure he’s comfortable and treated well. And what if it wouldn’t need to be a permanent relocation? We have two curses or a curse with two aspects… Couldn’t it be that if the two of you offer your unusual healing abilities together, you might eliminate the problem completely?”
Oh. I have to admit that in my worries about what would happen to Jamie and my struggle about what I owe him, that possibility hadn’t occurred to me.
I don’t trust most of the fae around me to know what treating a human “well” actually looks like, but—if that were possible—if it would only be a short while and then Jamie could go home—how selfish would I be to stand in the way of it?
Every part of my body still balks at the idea. I swallow thickly. “Would you let him simply go back to his old life after he’s seen your world?”
“I don’t see why not,” Uzziah says. “We can wipe his memory of the experience with magic so he won’t remember we exist.”
Of course they can. I rub my forehead. It still feels wrong to put my brother through whatever he’d face here even for a short time, even if he won’t remember it. And it’s easy for them to say now that they’d send him back. Somehow I suspect they’ll be more hesitant if it turns out he can cure them like I can. They’ll want to keep him here in case they need him again. No matter what, most of them see him—and me—as only a resource they want to keep control over.
We don’t even know yet if your brother will provide any sort of cure at all,Corwin reminds me. It may be as simple as a few tests and then dismissing him as unnecessary.
Coming here even for a day would still mess with his head, I reply, but then a spark of inspiration lights in my head, bringing so much relief my breath catches.
Sylas has started to speak. “We’ve dealt with our curse for decades now. I’m sure we can wait at least a few more days to give Talia time to—”
“No,” I break in. “I have an idea right now. It’ll be the full moon in less than a week. That’s the perfect test right there—and my brother doesn’t even need to be in the fae realm to carry it out. The day of the full moon, send someone to the human world to collect a little of his blood without him realizing it. I know you have enough magic to manage that. Then test it on a few of the Seelie to see whether it stops them from going wild. If it doesn’t, then we already have our answer.”
If it does cure them… I don’t want to think about that. I’ll have until the full moon to decide what I’d do then.
Donovan skims his hands across the table as if clearing the problem from it. “There you go. A simple, unobtrusive solution, at least to the initial question. I don’t see why we couldn’t begin that way.”
Laoni scowls at him, but she obviously doesn’t have any good argument against my proposal. “The Seelie won’t handle it alone,” she says. “One of us will need to oversee the process as well. This woman has had quite the effect on more than one of you, and I don’t want personal biases skewing the results you report.”
Celia bristles but keeps her voice flat. “Having one of you present to observe would not be a problem, though I assure you we wouldn’t resort to deception, especially on such a vital matter.”
“It’s settled, then,” Corwin says, shooting a quick smile down the table toward me.
I smile back, but my stomach is still churning with uneasiness. Have I just saved Jamie from a bunch of misery—or set him up for even more?
