Fated Crown by Eva Chase
Chapter Four
Talia
The drinking of the blood tonic has never been such a spectacle, at least not at any of the times I was around to watch. Pack-kin from domains all across the Seelie realm have already come by to pick up their vials. Now a bunch of us are gathered in the clearing in front of the Heart to see what will happen with Jamie’s.
Ten fae from the three arch-lords’ packs volunteered to take the untested tonic. The arch-lords wanted enough test subjects to be sure no effects we see are a fluke but few enough that it won’t be too difficult for the rest of their pack-kin to contain them if they succumb to the curse. The ten are standing in the center of our ring, speaking to each other in uneasy conversation as we wait for night to fully descend.
At least a hundred other fae watch and wait around them, including Laoni, Uzziah, and several winter fae folk they’ve brought with them. A couple I recognize from their coteries, but others appear to be simply guards, there to protect them from the “savagery” of the wolf shifters, I guess.
Corwin has come as well, of course. He and Sylas have insisted on staying close to me and keeping me at the back of the ring, near where the Unseelie are standing. Sylas summoned a tree trunk he shaped into a sort of pedestal-slash-stool for me to sit on, both to keep me even farther out of reach from slashing claws and teeth and to give me a clear view over the heads of the much taller fae.
The wooden seat is smooth and warm against my skin, but I’m finding it hard not to squirm. What happens tonight could protect Jamie from the fae or confirm him as a target. But it’s hard not to feel guilty about hoping his blood won’t help when I know how many of the people around me must be wishing for a fuller cure than I’ve been able to offer.
I want that too… just not at the expense of my little brother.
I sink deeper into the seat, which is wide enough for me to sit cross-legged, and lean against the arched back, taking a few deep breaths. If the tonic doesn’t work and the ten fae who volunteered transform into raging wolves, I need to be ready. I’ve conquered a lot of the fears that’ve gripped me ever since that fatal night when Aerik and his cadre attacked my family, but I haven’t had to face a Seelie in the grips of the curse in months. I don’t want to lose myself to the panic even for a minute while Laoni can see my reaction.
I’ll be right here with you no matter what happens, Corwin assures me, picking up on my anxiety. He reaches up to brush his fingers over my arm, which is currently level with his shoulder. Sylas won’t leave your side either. The summer fae know exactly what they’re dealing with, and they have your version of the tonic ready to dose these ten if necessary.
I know, I reply, but that doesn’t stop my nerves from jittering. Even knowing I only lost two members of my family all those years ago, not three, hasn’t dulled the horror of my memories of the attack as much as I’d like. I’m not sure I’ll ever escape the terror they provoke completely.
The sky has deepened from blue to indigo. Stars are starting to twinkle into view. The moment of transformation can’t be more than a few minutes away. I can’t feel it myself, but the Seelie will know as soon as the possibility has passed us by.
My gaze strays to the other Unseelie arch-lords. Laoni is stirring restlessly on her feet. Maybe she shouldn’t have insisted on coming an hour early if she didn’t have the patience for the wait.
One of the Unseelie guards standing by her glances her way. He must have quite a bit of human heritage, because his ears are rounded like August’s and no hint of unusual color shows in his dark brown hair, which is tied back in a short ponytail. The only way I know for sure he’s fae—other than the fact that I can’t imagine Laoni bringing an actual human to protect her—is the dark wings he’s keeping folded close to his back for now.
“Is there anything that would make you more comfortable, my lady?” he asks Laoni, seeming both careful and hopeful with the question.
Laoni’s attention snaps to him, and her chin rises haughtily. Her voice comes out flatly cutting. “Certainly nothing you could provide. Mind your duties.”
His head jerks back toward the clearing, his mouth tightening, and I wince inwardly on his behalf. She’s always been sneering toward me, but I’ve never seen her treat any of her flock-folk with that much hostility.
I haven’t seen her around her flock all that much, though, so maybe her response isn’t that unusual.
How does Laoni keep the respect of her flock if she speaks to them like that?I ask Corwin.
He frowns, following my gaze to the guard with the dark brown ponytail. She isn’t normally so severe with them, from my observations. I believe I’ve seen her speak harshly to that specific one before. Perhaps he’s overstepped sometime in the past, and she feels the need to keep him particularly in his place.
Odd that she’d keep him on her staff at all if that’s the case, but what do I know about how that woman’s mind works?
The other fae around us adjust their weight on their feet, the sense of their restlessness creeping over my skin. Then the full moon gleams a little brighter—and all ten of the Seelie in the center of the ring flinch and shudder.
The full moon transformation is nowhere near as seamless and graceful as the purposeful one I’ve seen many Seelie enact by now. The fae who took Jamie’s tonic lurch onto their hands and knees, their shoulders hunching, their limbs spasming. Fur sprouts from their skin in bursts. My fingers tighten around the edge of my chair, the ridged bark there digging into my palms.
The prepared pack-kin, August among them, rush forward before any have shifted very far—a jaw jutting into a muzzle here, a tail unfurling there. They already have the vials with my tonic in their hands.
The cursed fae snarl and gnash their teeth even in their only partly transformed state, but with two kin to each of them, it isn’t long before the proper tonic has been splashed into their mouths. One manages to wrench away from the helpers and lunges toward the rest of the crowd, but two more fae leap in to restrain him. In less than a minute since the transformation began, they’re all standing on wobbly but fully human-like legs, their faces flushed with a mix of exertion and embarrassment.
I release my grip on the chair, dragging in a breath that’s only a little shaky. The sight of their initial wildness sent a jolt through my pulse, but not much more than that. Part of me is relieved. Jamie’s blood didn’t cure them at all.
But another part dreads whatever’s going to come next, now that the arch-lords who put so much stake in this possibility will be disappointed.
The expression on Laoni’s face looks like total disgust. For all she’s criticized the Seelie for their violent nature, she’s never actually seen a cursed transformation before. Even Corwin feels a little shaken.
I didn’t realize it took them quite so… brutally, he says through our bond. It’s certainly clear the curse is gripping them, bending them to its will, rather than letting loose something they enjoy freeing. Even if my colleagues might want to think otherwise.
Maybe this demonstration will set them a little straight then, and they won’t complain about the Seelie wildness so much, I say, but my stomach stays knotted. What now?
Sylas, Celia, and Donovan have stepped into the ring from their positions among their own packs. “Thank you for your service tonight,” Celia says to the ten volunteers. “Even if the experiment was a failure, it was important that we determine as much. Please, make your way home and get some rest now that you’re well again.”
“And if you experience any ill-effects that you haven’t encountered before, let us know immediately,” Sylas adds, though I don’t think any of us believes there’s much chance that Jamie’s blood will turn out to harm the fae if it doesn’t help them.
“Well,” Laoni says in a disgruntled tone as Corwin helps me off the seat, “we’re back to just the one cure, then.”
Her guard turns away from the scattering crowd of Seelie. “I suppose that does keep things simple, at least.”
Laoni glares at him. “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it. Not that it’s ever likely to come to that.” She swivels away from him with an imperious air and fixes her gaze on Sylas, who’s striding back to rejoin me and Corwin. “You’ll be returning the human woman to her soul-twined mate on our side of the border while that misshapen castle of yours is still under construction?”
Despite the words, she almost sounds as if she wishes he’d say no. She really can’t decide whether to welcome me for what I can offer her people or shun me as the weak but unpredictable mortal I know she still sees me as, can she?
“Talia will return tomorrow,” Sylas says evenly, setting a protective hand on my shoulder. “We’d like to keep her close by for the night in case anything unusual arises from this experiment.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Laoni spins on her heel, the other Unseelie following her as if they can’t get across the border fast enough. Corwin lingers long enough to give us an apologetic grimace and bends to press a quick kiss to my lips. The flare of heat that comes with his touch sears even hotter with Sylas looking on, reminding me of the day not that long ago when my two arch-lords showed me how much pleasure they could bring me together.
A hint of heated amusement passes to me from Corwin even as he draws back. I might have been uncertain of proceeding with that collaboration at first, but I can say I’m now looking forward to bringing you to such heights again.
I can’t hold back a mischievous smile. Well, once the border castle is finished, we’ll definitely need to celebrate.
The look he gives me then is hot enough to make me spontaneously combust, but he pulls himself away with a wordless promise of delights to come.
Whitt and August have joined us during that silent conversation. Whitt watches Corwin slip into the border haze and then raises his eyebrows at me. “Somehow I get the impression you two were having a very interesting conversation, mite.”
My cheeks flush. They can all probably smell my arousal. But it’s already fading, tempered by the uncertainties still twisting through me.
I take in the emptying clearing, feeling weirdly adrift. I spent so much time carving out a real place for myself among the fae, and now everything about my situation has turned precarious all over again.
August nuzzles my hair. I can tell he’s sensed my mood, the gesture more soothing than provocative. “It’s been a long night already. Should we go home?”
I nod. “But first we should talk about what happens next, right?”
“We’ll have time in the morning if you’re tired now,” Sylas begins, but I touch his arm to stop him.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep until I have a better idea where we go from here. But we’d better talk back at Hearth-by-the-Heart.”
“I can help with that,” August announces, and scoops me up against his broad chest as he’s become very fond of doing. I give him a mock-glower, but the truth is, there’s nothing quite like being nestled in his brawny arms.
“Fine.” I lean against him and let him carry me back to Sylas’s main castle. I’ve been on my feet a lot today anyway, and my warped one is starting to ache even with the brace.
My men hold their own councils until we make it to Sylas’s office. As August drops into an armchair with me on his lap, Whitt leans against the edge of Sylas’s desk and studies my face.
“I’d think the immediate matter is pretty much settled,” he says. “Your brother’s blood had no effect on our curse, so he clearly doesn’t hold the same powers you do. We have no cause to interfere any further in his life. But there’s clearly something else on your mind.”
I hesitate. I don’t often wall off my bond with Corwin these days, but if I’m going to talk about this subject with him, I’d rather it’s later, face to face like I am with my Seelie men right now.
I summon an impression of a seal of light over our connection before I speak. Then I look down at my hands, feeling abruptly awkward in August’s arms. “I hope we can leave him alone now. I don’t know if the Unseelie will try to insist on testing specifically their curse, even though it’s so much more complicated. But, even if we can… I can’t forget about Jamie just like that now that I know he’s alive.”
“Of course you can’t, Sweetness,” August says, kissing the back of my head.
I swallow hard. “I just don’t know how to be there for him and not mess up the balance we’ve finally managed to find between here and the winter realm… It was hard enough figuring out a compromise that didn’t mean constantly traveling back and forth, and the human world is a lot farther away.”
The men are silent for a moment. Then Sylas speaks, low and firm. “If you feel you need to reconnect with your brother and be part of his life again, I’ll do whatever I can to ensure you get the opportunity. Even if it means less time by our sides. From what I’ve seen of your soul-twined mate, he’ll understand too. You never should have been stolen from your world to begin with, Talia, and we’d be little better than Aerik if we tried to deny you your family after all this time.”
“I doubt the other arch-lords will feel the same way,” I mutter, remembering Laoni’s comment about only having one cure. “Now it’s even more obvious how dependent both realms are on me to hold back the curse. I don’t think everyone’s happy about that.”
“We shouldn’t be. I’ve always said it shouldn’t be your responsibility.” Sylas frowns. “We still need to determine a larger cure to end it completely.”
“Has there been any news from the Unseelie’s summer settlement?” August asks.
Sylas shakes his head. “No one there has been struck by the curse, but it’s only been a short time. Having that group of them living among us won’t prove whether they can escape their curse that way for several months, perhaps years. I’d like to seek a faster solution if I can.”
“But in the meantime, whatever you need, we’ll figure out a way to make it work,” Whitt says to me. “Strategy is my speciality, after all.”
They’re being so supportive that my stomach clenches up. I swipe my hand over my face and admit the thing that’s been gnawing at me most of all. “I want to see Jamie again, talk to him, make up for all the time I’ve been gone. But I also don’t want to leave all of you for however long that takes. It’s not about responsibilities, just… I hate being apart from you. I’ve been looking forward to the border castle being done so I don’t have to leave any of you behind even a little, and now…”
Is it awful that I feel that way? My brother’s had no one for years, and I’m selfishly worrying about losing a little time with my lovers. But the human world isn’t mine anymore, and I barely know Jamie after missing more than half of his life. It’s all such a muddle.
Whitt pushes off the desk and comes to stand next to August, wrapping his hand around mine. “You’ve had to make so many difficult decisions since we found you, mighty one. If I could take this one on for you I would. But I’m sure there’s no rush on how long we spend coming up with the best course of action. You have time to sort out your feelings—and we can all put our minds to brainstorming solutions.”
I give him and then Sylas a tight but genuine smile. “You’re right. I don’t have to decide anything yet.”
But how long can I really leave Jamie the way I saw him a few days ago, alone and harassed by his classmates, before I’m the villain here?
