Fated Crown by Eva Chase
Chapter Eight
Talia
Iknow my fate matters a lot to the fae and their rulers, but I wasn’t expecting such a huge welcoming party waiting for us on our return. Not just the summer arch-lords and some of their staff but all five of the winter arch-lords are standing around outside the castle of Hearth-by-the-Heart, waiting for August’s carriage to draw to a halt.
I seek out Sylas’s and Corwin’s faces first. Both have schooled their expressions to a lordly calm, but I know Sylas well enough to read the tension in his jaw, and Corwin’s uneasiness travels to me through our bond.
We tried to hold them off until you’d had a chance to catch your breath after your journey, he says. But the others on both sides insisted. I suppose we should be a tiny bit grateful they’ve finally agreed on something so easily?
No humor warms those words. I scramble out of the carriage to find out what’s going on, wobbling when my feet hit the ground.
“Has something happened?” I ask as August joins me. “What’s the matter?”
The arch-lords exchange a glance, and Celia speaks up. “Let us take the discussion to the Bastion. If the Heart objects to our proposal, it can do so there.” The look she aims at Sylas suggests he’s been objecting to whatever this is.
But he doesn’t argue now, just inclines his head. His dark eye holds my gaze, his mouth twitching with just a trace of a grimace.
The whole gathering tramps across the fields and smatterings of forest to the building where the summer arch-lords conduct their business. If there’s been some new catastrophe, I’d like to know now, I say to Corwin silently, my stomach knotting.
Nothing new,he says with a whiff of reassurance tempered by… sadness? Only that our colleagues have come to some new conclusions after determining that your brother isn’t a solution to our problems. They claim to have your best interests at heart, but I can’t help suspecting they’re actually tackling something else they see as a problem.
Which is?
His inner voice takes on a bit of strain. The fact that a human is bound to any of us in the first place, and that we’ve embraced that bond. And a human with unpredictable talents on top of that.
This has something to do with separating me from my lovers? I bristle inwardly, but I try to keep my face as impassive as they have as we reach the tall stone palace with its gleaming veins of gold.
In the huge central room, cadre, coterie, and guards fall back to the rounded walls, leaving only me and the eight arch-lords in the center. Celia’s lips are pursed, Donovan’s forehead knit as if he’s still working out where he stands on this subject. Of the winter arch-lords other than Corwin, only elderly Neve looks at all at ease with her vague smile. Laoni, Terisse, and Uzziah gaze down at me with an aura of authority.
“You’ve returned from visiting your brother,” Laoni says without preamble.
I shift my weight from one foot to the other. “I didn’t exactly visit with him. He still doesn’t know I’m alive. I was just checking on his home, making sure he’s been comfortable there.” Discovering he hasn’t really been. The memory of Jamie’s violent sketches flashes behind my eyes.
Celia picks up the thread. “We understand that you’ve been somewhat torn. You’ve committed yourself to living among us here in the Mists, assuming there was nothing left for you in your own world. But now it turns out that’s not true.”
Are they going to question my loyalty to the fae like Laoni has tried to in the past? I fold my arms over my chest. “You don’t have to worry about me taking off on you. I’m not sure yet how much I need to do for my brother, but I’ll keep helping with the curse in every way I can.”
Terisse dips her head. “But what if we could make it easier for you to accomplish both?”
I wasn’t expecting them to offer to help me. I glance from one face to another warily. Corwin stays silent, only giving off a whiff of impatience that they’re taking so long getting on with their point. He wants me to have room to make my own decision—about what?
“In what way?” I ask.
“Clearly, the Heart has seen fit to give you gifts that benefit us,” Laoni says. “But you were born in the human world and would have remained there if not for your cruel kidnapping at the hands of that summer fae lord. It is your true home. We believe we could allow you to return there and make a life for yourself there while still drawing on your aid.”
Return there… permanently? My gaze darts to my lovers—Sylas and Corwin around me, August and Whitt back by the wall. Corwin can’t hide the pang of pain that shot through him at her suggestion.
It’s your choice, he says, keeping his tone steady. You can make it freely. You know how much you mean to me, my soul, but I wouldn’t keep you from your world and your family if that’s where you feel you should be.
Neither would my Seelie men. They showed that much when we found out I was linked to Corwin, when we thought I might have to move to the winter realm permanently. But now—after all the ways we’ve struggled to find a compromise that lets us all stay together—
But I’ve considered it, haven’t I? Not just about visiting the human world now and then but really going back, at least for a few months or even years, until I’m sure Jamie’s okay. I just hadn’t let myself think about it too deeply because I couldn’t see how I’d be able to balance that with my duties to the fae.
“What about the curse?” I say tentatively. They can’t mean to tackle it on their own again now that they have a cure in me. “How could I still heal people if I’m not here?”
Uzziah motions to the summer arch-lords. “The Seelie only need your blood one night a month. They could send someone to collect it from you—stealthily, so no one in your family would be aware. In the same way, we assume we could bring any new victims of our curse to you for you to offer your tears. The actual process only appears to take a few minutes.”
“It would require a fair bit of effort on our part,” Laoni says, as if they’re making this proposal out of selfless generosity, “but we’re willing to put in that effort to see you restored to your proper place.”
Something in me hardens. That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? My “proper place.” She and her two sycophants have never liked how devoted Corwin has become to me, and no doubt they like the fact that I’m staying so closely tied to three of my Seelie lovers at the same time even less. And I’d bet Celia would be happy to have me and all the complications I’ve brought into her life out of the way, so I only affect her when it’s time to take my blood or tears.
They don’t give a damn what my brother means to me. They’re just seeing yet another opportunity to use him to serve their purposes.
But the worst part is, I’m not totally sure I shouldn’t take them up on this offer anyway. After what I saw in Jamie’s room today, maybe I should go back and reconnect with him for as long as it takes to heal him, regardless of the arch-lords’ intentions.
I swallow thickly. “Thank you for making this offer. I’ll need some time to think about it. I’m not sure yet what would really be best for everyone involved. There isn’t any rush, is there?”
Laoni’s lips flatten, but before she can say anything, Celia speaks up. “Of course not. We simply wanted you to know the opportunity is there so you can take one concern off your plate.”
It hasn’t really worked that way at all. Now I’m even more unsettled about the decision I have to make, knowing the arch-lords have their own agenda. In this moment, the weight of all the factors I need to consider feels almost suffocating.
Sylas steps in, setting his hand on my back with a little more familiarity than he might have before the rest of our audience was aware of our relationship. “Talia has had a long trip today, and she’ll need her rest. You’ve made your proposal—now let’s give her some peace to consider it.”
“We’re trying to do what’s best for all parties involved too,” Terisse says before the winter arch-lords step away, and I think she actually means that. I just don’t agree with her assessment of what’s “best.”
Corwin hangs back as his colleagues leave. “Are you all right?” he asks, and flicks his gaze briefly toward Sylas. “I know it’s your time in the summer realm now—I wish the border castle were already complete—but if you need me to stay to talk things over, or just to be here…”
And give the other arch-lords even more reason to think you’re prioritizing me over your other responsibilities?I say through our bond, and sigh out loud. His affection wraps around me like an embrace, but I don’t want to keep him from his people and his realm. I have three men here who can comfort me, after all. “I think I really do just need some rest. But if I need you after all, I know I can reach you in a moment.”
“And I’ll be with you immediately.” He smiles and leans in to kiss me tenderly. The heat of his mouth, his own pleasure at the kiss, and the sense of my other men watching us with full approval all send a thrill through me despite my worries.
I clutch his shirt for just a second before letting him go. I love you.
And I love you. We’ll see this through like we have so much else.
As he heads toward the border, Sylas guides me to one of the other exits, August and Whitt falling into step on either side of us. “What did you make of your trip, mite?” Whitt asks, his tone gentle. He can’t be happy about the idea of me leaving the fae realm permanently any more than the others are, but he’s kind enough not to push the subject.
I exhale raggedly. “I don’t know. Jamie has obviously settled in with my aunt and uncle pretty well. It looks like they’ve accepted him into the family, and he’s made at least a few friends… But I found some drawings of monsters and other dark things that I think must be from his memories of the attack. He hasn’t totally gotten past it.”
“The effects haven’t completely left you either,” August points out. “It isn’t surprising—something that traumatic has a way of sticking in the brain.”
“I just—I want to help him. But what if revealing myself brings up even more trauma or whatever? It’s impossible to know. And I don’t want to leave all of you.” I rub my forehead. “Right now I think I just want to sleep. Maybe things will seem clearer after that.”
“Let’s get you right to bed then,” August says, managing a teasing tone, and scoops me off my aching feet like he’s probably been wanting to for hours now.
I let out a noise of protest that I don’t mean all that much and then settle against his brawny chest. He carries me the rest of the way to the castle with swifter strides than I could have managed, his brothers matching his pace. But once we’ve stepped into the grand entrance hall and he sets me down, Sylas motions to me.
“If you can spare a few minutes before getting your rest, there’s something I’d like to speak to you about first. It shouldn’t take long.”
I nod. “Of course.”
He must make some gesture to the other men, because they don’t follow us to Sylas’s study. Inside, he motions for me to take what’s become my favorite armchair in there and goes to his desk. But rather than taking a seat behind it, he retrieves something from one of the drawers and then sinks into the chair beside mine, tugging it around so he’s facing me.
“A few days ago I went to see Nuldar again,” he says.
I blink at him. “You didn’t mention it.”
“You were with Corwin then, and I hadn’t decided what I was going to make of what he said yet. I’m still puzzling over it somewhat.” He sighs, some of the tension he must be carrying just as I am leeching into his expression. “The main things he indicated were that the solution to the curse should become apparent to us without us needing to do anything but wait—in fact, attempting to speed it along might impede it instead—but we also must be prepared.”
My mouth twists into a crooked smile, thinking of the first answer we got from Nuldar. “I don’t suppose he bothered to mention how we should prepare?”
Sylas smiles back with a matching wryness. “He didn’t. But I feel that there are some steps we can take that are general preparation against any harm—and that, as tied as you’ve been to the curse so far, it’s particularly important that we equip you properly. Which is why I made this for you.”
He holds out a loop of bronze like a wide, flat bracelet, a decorative pattern of flowers etched in its polished surface. “I tried to form it to interfere with your typical activities as little as possible. You could wear it on your wrist or your ankle. I’d have one on each if I wasn’t concerned that having more than one would draw attention to their importance.”
I take the bracelet from him, running my fingers over the smooth metal. It’s too narrow for me to fit over my hand—but I could widen it with magic and then tell it to contract again once it’s on so it hugs my wrist closely.
Oh. I glance up at him and find him studying me. “It’s a hidden weapon,” I say, checking that I’ve understood properly. “I can use the true name for bronze to change it into a blade or whatever else I might need to defend myself in an emergency.”
“That was my thought. My fellow fae have only seen you make use of the true name for light—they won’t immediately associate the bracelet with your potential powers, especially with it being so odd to think of a human using true names at all.” Sylas runs his hand along his jaw. “I probably should have given you something like this when I first found out about your abilities in that area, but it’s not the sort of strategy we’d generally use ourselves, so it didn’t occur to me right away.”
“Better now than never.” I’ve mostly stopped carrying my pouch of salt—at first because we were worried it’d offend the Unseelie while I was finding my place there and now because I don’t want to distress those who come to me for help—and my dagger could be snatched from me if I’m taken by surprise. But no enemy would think they had to remove a bracelet to fully disarm me.
With the images from Jamie’s drawings lurking in the back of my mind, it’s easy to summon the sense of terror that gives power to the true name. “Fee-doom-ace-own,” I murmur, willing the metal band to expand and then shrink against my skin. When it’s resting around my wrist, it looks like nothing more than a pretty bangle. I doubt most of the fae would give it a second glance.
My sense of Corwin, nearly always with me, doesn’t intrude, but a faint impression of gratitude toward Sylas trickles through our connection to me. I send a tendril of fondness back and gaze up at the man who offered this gift.
After all he’s done for me, it’s hard to doubt the summer arch-lord’s feelings for me. Still, I can’t help being filled with awe that a man with so much power and strength cares so deeply what happens to me. I might not agree with the fae dismissing or mistreating humans, but I know there are many ways I can’t really match him.
But none of that matters to him. He loves me for what I can offer, and to him it’s enough that he sees me as a better mate than any of the fine fae ladies who’ve vied for his attention. He’s sheltered and protected me but also trusted and believed in me enough to let me stand up for myself when I’ve been able to. This bracelet is the perfect symbol of that love.
I slip off my chair. Sylas leans into my hug, pulling me right onto his lap and nestling my head against the crook of his neck. His earthy, smoky smell has never felt so welcoming.
“I love you,” I say. “I really don’t want to leave you. Any of you. If it wasn’t for Jamie, I’d never even consider it. You know that, right?”
Sylas tightens his embrace, nuzzling my hair. His deep baritone comes out husky. “I do. And I hope you know how much I love you, Talia. You’ve healed so much more than just our curse. But part of loving you is letting you go if you believe you have to. Make your decision based on what feels right to you, not how the rest of us will feel about it.”
Tears prick at the backs of my eyes. “There’s just so much… So many things to consider that clash with each other. So many people counting on me, so many people I want to be there for.”
“I know. I don’t have to make the exact same choice you do, but I’ve had plenty of hard ones in my time as a lord. Balancing my loyalties to my pack, my brothers, the rest of the realm, and my mate—both past and current.” He presses a kiss to my forehead. “I don’t envy you your position.”
“Does it get easier?” I have to ask. “Figuring out what to do when you’re pulled in different directions?”
He considers his answer for a long moment. “Maybe a little. You learn through trial and error which factors will matter most in which situations, which sacrifices will tear at you the least. And perhaps you get better at finding a way to compromise so that you don’t end up torn at all. I think you’ve already proven quite adept at that.”
“I’ve been trying to think of an option that means losing nothing,” I mutter. “No luck so far. If you think of anything, let me know.”
Sylas chuckles and ducks his head to seek out my lips. As our mouths meld together, the pressure on me doesn’t exactly lighten, but it is a little easier to set it aside just for now, in the hopes that a better answer will come to me in the meantime.
If I don’t find one soon enough, will the other arch-lords force the issue of me leaving? No bracelet will defend me against all of them if they set their minds to seeing me gone.
