Lies of Murk by Eva Chase
17
August
As I walk across the polished stone bank to the still, glassy water of the Pool of Shrouded Memories, my heart sinks. I’m not sure if I’m more worried that I’ll spot something I should have noticed earlier, some mistake I made the night Talia vanished, or that it’ll be clear the situation was hopeless from the start.
I kneel down at the edge of the bank. My reflection shines back at me, framed by the stark blue of the sky. I look… tired, my forehead creased, redness creeping into my eyes. I’ve barely slept more than a couple of hours at a time since the Murk stole Talia from us. When that letter arrived with her blood staining the paper, mocking us for losing something so precious to us…
The Murk could have no concept of just how precious she is to me, my brothers, and Corwin. What in the lands do they know about love?
And now we have other challenges too. The full moon is approaching, seemingly faster every day. We’ve started preparing the pack for undergoing the shift and discussing strategies to share with other domains, but the truth is, none of us are really sure what it might look like. How badly it might go.
On top of that, Sylas hasn’t been able to confirm any wrongdoing on Tristan’s part. His pack-kin gave a perfectly reasonable-sounding explanation for their activities near Hearth-by-the-Heart, claiming it was all precautions to help fend off a possible Murk attack on the Heart. We have extra guards keeping an eye on that area, but with it being free land, we can’t force them to leave without a valid excuse.
Which naturally they know.
I catch myself gritting my teeth and force my jaw to relax. Right now I have to stay focused on what’s in front of me—that is, my chance to take a glimpse into the past. I didn’t have Sylas extend the request for the visit to our father only to sit around stewing over things I can’t control.
“Show me the night of my mating ceremony,” I say. “From the moment I left Talia at the platform to go get some refreshments.”
The water shimmers. An image forms of a crowd of dancing fae. There’s so much joy in their faces that my chest clenches up.
I watch myself moving through that crowd toward the refreshment table, my brothers on either side of me, Corwin just behind. Back then, I was only thinking of how happy I was to finally be able to say Talia was my mate in every possible way—and what sort of tart I wanted to eat first. Now, I scan the revelers around us, watching for any sign of ill intent.
Our pack-kin and the few Unseelie celebrating among them look totally innocent in their reveling. I don’t catch a single hostile glance or conspiratorial murmur, not even a flicker of a frown. And I don’t spot any suspicious figures among them who don’t belong to either realm.
I guess we can hope that whatever magic the Murk have found, it hasn’t let them mingle with us that closely undetected. The ones who took Talia did arrange to get her well away from the rest of the crowd before making off with her.
Of course, that means the pool won’t be able to offer any clues at all. It can’t show me what was far beyond my view.
I keep watching anyway.
We stop by the table and quickly pick out a few delicacies, none of us wanting to be away from Talia’s side for very long. As Sylas turns back toward the platform, Whitt moves to the wine table, and I’m momentarily diverted by a couple of the guards I’ve been training with the longest, who clap me on the back and offer more congratulations. Their faces are ruddy with the alcohol they’ve already downed, but I don’t see any malicious magic in them.
Then, as the me of the past moves to weave through the crowd, I spot a face that makes my gut tighten. Not because it’s anything to do with the Murk, but because it’s the cause of my other worries.
Tristan was standing maybe ten feet away from me at that moment, his cadre-chosen Jax beside him. He’s saying something to her that the pool doesn’t convey, but his lips curl with a sneer right before my view of him is blocked by the dancers.
His reaction isn’t exactly a surprise, but it’s a little disheartening to see that he couldn’t summon any positive feelings about the occasion even on a night when so many other fae were full of happiness. But then, he’s never seen Talia as anything other than a means to political power and a cure for the curse.
At least I can rest assured that he’d never have helped the rats take her farther from him and his interests than Sylas already had.
I peer at the pool as the rest of the scene plays out: the discovery of Talia’s disappearance, the frantic initial search, the sight of Donovan’s pack-kin unconscious in the woods. The Murk who carried out the crime must have been long gone by the time we made it there. I don’t see anything I wasn’t already aware of.
I sit back on my haunches, exhaling in a huff of frustration. There’s been no further word from Talia. She hasn’t reached out to Whitt again—the knowledge that he shared his true name with her without mentioning it to me until now sends a jab through my stomach, even if I understand the reasoning. Why didn’t I think to do the same? And her connection with Corwin has stayed silent. He’s sure she’s still alive, but beyond that…
I wish the pool could show me her memories or what she’s going through right now, as horrible as it might be.
My hands ball into fists. At the same moment, footsteps rasp across the rocky terrain behind me.
I stand and turn, my back stiffening when I take in my father approaching. I purposefully avoided flying my small carriage within view of the castle so that I wouldn’t need to speak to Lord Eldris, since Sylas had already cleared my visit with him. Why he’s insisted on seeking me out, I have no idea. I doubt it’s for anything good.
“Did you find everything you were looking for?” he asks, offering one of his thin smiles. No hello, no acknowledgment of our relation to each other. He crosses his arms over his chest and lifts his chin imperiously.
“I’m managing just fine,” I say. “If I’d needed assistance, I’d have reached out to your pack-kin. You needn’t have troubled yourself.”
The words themselves are as polite as I can manage, but a bit of bite might have crept into my tone. My father’s eyes darken. “I don’t need any guests telling me what I can do or where I should go in my own domain.”
I’m not just a guest, I’m your blasted son!I want to snap at him, but I hold my annoyance in check. We have enough problems without my temper getting away from me.
“I would never think of doing so,” I reply evenly. “I only meant that I had no intention of disturbing you.”
He ignores that remark and comes up beside me, stopping a few paces away along the edge of the pool. “You’re looking for answers to do with that human girl of yours.”
“Lady Talia,” I say, with emphasis on her title. “Yes. As you must be able to imagine, we’re very concerned with getting her back quickly and safely.”
My father grunts, gazing across the pool rather than at me. “Such a shame a resource so important to our kind is tied up in a fragile mortal body.”
I can’t help bristling at that remark. “She’s more than just her body and more than just a resource as well.”
He glances sideways at me with a patronizing air that sets my nerves even more on edge. “You always were quick to emotion. It would have been better for you to have tied yourself to a proper mate, but I suppose there’s no helping it now. You’ll have plenty of time to choose more wisely when the dust takes her.”
His tone is so matter-of-fact, as if he’s discussing nothing more disturbing than the sunny weather, that it takes all my self-control not to lunge at him and slam his head into the water until he’s drowned. My muscles flex all through my shoulders. “Would you say the same to your son the arch-lord?” I ask, a growl slipping into my voice.
Lord Eldris doesn’t look remotely concerned by my anger. If anything, his expression only gets more disdainful. “Of course not. An arch-lord is allowed his whims. But I’m allowed my opinions, and there’s no reason I shouldn’t impart them to you. You obviously have too much of your mother in you.”
In that second, I can only see red. He’s lucky I don’t tear his head right off his body. How dare he speak of my mother—the loving, kind woman he had brutally slaughtered in front of me on one of his whims—so callously.
I take a step toward him, and the breeze brushes over me. The wisp of it over my bare forearms brings the ghost of Talia’s touch. I can almost feel her here, grasping my hand, reassuring me that she’s here with me no matter what this bastard says to me. That he can’t poison what we share.
And she would be right, wouldn’t she? The pathetic, bitter man in front of me doesn’t have to matter at all. I’ve left him behind; he has no more control over me. Once we get Talia back and she continues her campaign on behalf of the humans in the fae world, he won’t even be able to control the people like my mother he still rules over either.
I don’t have to worry one bit what he thinks of me. I don’t have to give him a speck of emotional energy. He doesn’t even deserve my rage, because that would mean I care.
My anger simmers down beneath a cool wave of soothing calm. I stare back at my father the way I’ve seen Talia face hostile arch-lords before. “I’m glad for every part of me that came from my mother, because I doubt what I inherited from you is worth anything. You’re no longer my family. As far as I’m concerned, you stopped truly being my father when you ripped the one parent who actually parented me out of my life. So you can keep your advice to yourself. I have no interest in so much as speaking to you again.”
I swivel on my heel and stride off without giving him a chance to answer. Even after I’ve leapt into my carriage, I don’t look back. His pride may be slightly stung, but I doubt he cares much what I think of him either.
As the carriage soars over the land, whisking me far away from him, it’s as if a huge weight has washed off of me with the rushing of the wind. I’ve felt lost without Talia by my side, but she’s still here in a way. All her sweetness and light have touched me and stayed with me.
I just need to keep being the man she fell in love with.
I don’t have any new answers, but when I reach Hearth-by-the-Heart, I summon all the pack-kin who are currently present that I started training in combat back when we were less sure of our footing among the other lords. I’ve slacked off on that practice a little since we founded our alliance with the winter fae, but in this moment, taking it up again feels like the most productive thing I can do.
“We’ll start with the warm-up exercises and move on to defensive forms,” I say, walking around the group assembled by the pack village. “We know we have more enemies than we suspected we’d have to deal with, and that they’re more powerful than we’d have anticipated. I want to be sure that you’re all ready for them.”
I may have let Talia down, but I won’t let the rest of my pack down in my distress over her kidnapping. The best way I can protect them is to make sure they’re prepared to protect themselves—against whatever threats might descend on us next.
