Fated Crown by Eva Chase
Chapter Twenty-One
August
I’m not sure what agonizes me more: the anguish that’s been etched on Talia’s face since we started this voyage or the guilt she clearly feels over asking me to help her relieve that anguish.
“I’m sorry to be dragging you away from Sylas with everything that’s going on,” she says, her hands twisting together in her lap where she’s sitting on the other side of the small carriage my brother conjured for us.
“I wouldn’t be much use to him or the others right now anyway,” I remind her. “The three of them can pore over plenty of books and records without any help from me. We’ll be back well before tomorrow, when hopefully I won’t need to be of use stopping those mangy raven arch-lords from carrying out their threat.”
She rubs the bronze bangle fitted snugly around her wrist. “I don’t actually feel that anything’s wrong with Jamie.”
“The spell I cast will only kick in if he’s in severe distress,” I say. “There are ways the arch-lords could have interfered with his life that wouldn’t necessarily have caused that yet. After the way they tried to steal him away before, I can’t blame you for being worried.”
“And he might not even be wearing his bracelet, in which case I wouldn’t be alerted even if he was in a horrible situation. I just… I have to know.” She exhales slowly, but her expression stays just as pained.
I’ve been guiding the carriage slowly since we entered the foggy woods at the very edge of the fringelands. When we’ve finally reached the area where the portals are more numerous, I stop the vehicle and help Talia out. I mean to carry her while I check the nearest passages, but she shakes her head and slips from my arms. “I’ll wait here while you check as quickly as you can. I don’t want to slow you down. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
As I glance around the hazy forest, my fangs itch in my gums. We haven’t had the same incursions of fearsome beasts that the winter realm has experienced, probably because our population hasn’t dwindled and our curse actually makes us more fearsome rather than less when it takes hold. But there are plenty that still lurk around the edges of the Mist.
I can’t smell any of them at the moment. I just won’t go too far.
Shifting into wolf form so I can travel even faster, I stretch into the new configuration of my muscles and lope to the nearest portal. All it takes is a sniff to determine whether the human lands on the other side hold the exact combination of unusual scents that marked the place where we found Talia’s brother. I think I’ve narrowed down the patch of forest where we’ll find it even more than last time, although the doorways to the human world do have a habit of drifting around some.
It only takes three tries to identify it. I sprint back to Talia, throwing myself into the shift before I’ve even halted, but when I reach for her she simply takes my hand. “I can walk. I’m not going to be a burden.”
I let her limp along beside me, wincing inwardly at the much more pronounced unevenness to her steps with her recent wound. Those wretched Murk. I wish I’d been there to tear the one who did this to shreds.
“You haven’t been a burden,” I say firmly. “Whatever’s gotten into the Unseelie arch-lords, it’s them being pricks, not anything you’ve done wrong. They should be celebrating how much you’ve helped them like the rest of their people, not getting picky about who lives in what castle.”
“I think it’s a little more complicated than that,” Talia mutters, which might be true, but I can’t think of any way she’s to blame for the current conflict.
At the right portal, I cast the spell to keep us hidden from mortal eyes. Talia finally lets me pick her up for the journey through, which is a bit disorienting even when you’re in the best of health. The colors and shapes around us waver and twist, and all at once we’re standing in the secluded clearing in the park.
The smells of burnt gasoline and sun-baked tar that trickle through the air mark this place as part of the human world even without anything in view other than trees and grass. With a few steps, the buildings of the city beyond show amid the greenery.
Talia starts to squirm in my arms, but I let out a mild growl of refusal. “You said you wanted to move quickly. I can walk faster carrying you than you can with your leg hurting you.”
Talia grimaces, but she relaxes into me. I wish I could feel more triumphant about my victory. I’d rather she wasn’t wounded in the first place.
The Unseelie arch-lords are attacking the first home she’s had in our world that’s been totally hers. It isn’t a stretch to think they might come after her brother and use him as leverage for whatever it is they want to gain. I hate to think what they might do to Talia herself if they can find a way to justify it to themselves.
I want to believe that we could simply refuse their initial demands and it’ll all die down, but few things in the fae world are ever actually simple. Whitt looked worried when we left, even surrounded by all his papers and with several of his associates among our pack-kin at his beck and call. If he thinks there’s a reason for concern, then the situation has to be bad.
As I carry Talia through the park, avoiding a woman pushing a stroller and a man walking three boisterous dogs that bark in my direction even though they can’t see me, I study the angle of the sun. “It’s early morning here. I’d say around breakfast time. Your brother should be at home around then, shouldn’t he?”
“I think so.” Talia peers around us. “I don’t even know if it’s a school day or the weekend. Or what month it is. I’m so out of touch.” She lets out a little laugh, but it doesn’t sound all that amused.
“I can’t tell the exact month since we don’t follow them,” I say, “but it smells and looks like late spring to me. We could check a newspaper for the exact date.”
Talia hesitates and then shakes her head. “No. All that’s important is making sure Jamie’s okay and then getting back to deal with the arch-lords as soon as possible. I shouldn’t be worrying about that stuff anyway.”
But she is. I can’t blame her for that either. This world was meant to be hers before Aerik and his blasted cadre tore her away from it—why shouldn’t she wonder about it? Her life would have been so much different if he’d never rampaged into it.
The pang that runs through my chest at the thought speaks of how much the idea of never having met her pains me. But that alternate path would have led to much less pain for her.
Even if we check on Jamie now, how can we be sure the Unseelie arch-lords won’t target him later? I swallow that question, not wanting to disturb Talia further if she hasn’t already thought of the possibility. The only way we could totally protect him is to, well, bring him under our protection, which would throw off his own life in ways I know she doesn’t want.
I may not love the stink of human machines, but the neighborhood where Talia’s aunt and uncle live isn’t wholly unpleasant. Birds chirp in the many trees that loom from the well-tended lawns. I spot a vegetable garden in one front yard that I might have to examine more closely for curiosity’s sake on a less urgent future visit. The breeze that washes over us is as pleasantly warm as it is in the summer realm near the Heart.
When we reach the house itself, I prowl around the structure, peeking through the windows and holding Talia so she can see in too. At the kitchen, I stop. She lets out a relieved sigh.
Her brother is sitting at the kitchen table with two younger children I assume are her cousins, all of them eating cereal from bowls. Another prickle of curiosity ripples over me to find out what exactly that tastes like. Cereal isn’t really a thing in the fae world, and I’ve only sampled a few.
But we’re not here for that either.
“He’s wearing the bracelet,” Talia murmurs, a smile crossing her face for the first time since we set off. The bronze band gleams at her brother’s wrist.
I tighten my arms around her in a gentle hug. My mind scrambles to think of what else I could offer to reassure her even after we leave here again.
“I could set down a spell around the house to alert us if any fae come near,” I say. “Around his school as well. It wouldn’t prevent them from coming, and I can’t cover everywhere he might go…”
Talia sucks her lower lip under her teeth as she considers. “No. That would take a lot of time that we don’t really have right now, and if they did come to take him, they’d probably be sneaky about it anyway. A false sense of security is worse than not having it at all.”
She rubs her forehead, her smile gone as quickly as it came. “I don’t think there’s any way I’d feel totally sure he’s okay other than monitoring him every second, which obviously I can’t. I’m just glad to know the arch-lords haven’t gone that far yet.”
Another possibility occurs to me. “I can ask Sylas to post a rotation of sentries in the area on the fringes near the portal. It wouldn’t need to require much manpower, and then we’ll have someone keeping an eye on things the one place they’d have to pass through to reach him.”
Talia tucks her head against my neck. “There, that sounds perfect. Who says you can’t be a strategist too? Thank you, August.”
“Anything for you, Sweetness.”
I’m about to say we should head back now when a sudden realization creeps up over me. Talia said it wasn’t possible for her to stay here and watch over her brother… but technically it is. We were willing to let her stay in the human world for as long as she needed to if she’d decided to do just that.
She’d be safer here than in the fae world, where she’s become a target of Seelie, Unseelie, and Murk alike. I tried to convince Sylas to send her here months ago, before we even knew her brother was alive, to protect her from the ongoing conflicts. And maybe if the Unseelie have to go without her healing abilities for a few days, their arch-lords will find reasons to respect her more.
She’d never agree to it, though. She felt guilty enough just asking to make this brief trip.
I adjust her in my arms, my gut knotting. Now that I’ve considered it, I know it would be so easy. Talia wouldn’t be able to make the journey back to the fae realm without a guide. If I left her here, she’d have to go in to her aunt and uncle, reconnect with her brother, and stay here in the best sort of peace I can give her…
Talia stirs, glancing up at me. “Is everything okay?”
I open my mouth and close it again. There’s a moment when I’m almost tempted. But only almost.
Those months ago, I was willing to send her away without consulting her about it. The way she reacted when she discovered I’d gone behind her back is burned into my memory. That hurt her, much more than any suffering she’s shown from her wound.
No matter how much I might want to protect her, I can’t do it by denying her own free will. I wouldn’t be much better than Aerik then.
She decides what risks she can handle, not me.
I close my eyes, wishing for a better solution but knowing there isn’t one. At least I can take a little joy in knowing that her choice keeps her close to me. I’ll protect her from as much as I can with my claws and my fangs. Let’s hope that’s enough.
“Not at all, Sweetness,” I say. “Let’s go home and deal with those feather-brained winter arch-lords.”
