Of Werewolves and Curses by Emma Hamm
Chapter 13
It didn’t take long for Eldridge and Arrow to find them. Freya figured they’d only have a few moments alone, and she used those moments wisely. She spun a web of a story that would ensnare even the hardest of hearts. So by the time Eldridge walked into the room, she had already prepared the young woman to know who the Goblin King was.
Apparently, she didn’t need to waste her time.
Eldridge walked through the door and his eyes grew wide. “Cora?” he asked. “What in the world are you doing here?”
To the other woman’s credit, she didn’t react at all to Eldridge’s presence. “I should ask the same of you. You brought a mortal here and fell in love with her? That’s not the Goblin King I remember.”
He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “I was a boy the last time we saw each other.”
“Yes, you were. And you didn’t yet know what it meant to be a king.” The woman sighed and smiled at Freya, though the expression was sad. “I’m sorry I didn’t speak. I thought you were lying. It’s an incredible story you told and very few would believe the words true.”
Freya shouldn’t be so uncomfortable meeting someone Eldridge used to know. She’d met countless others in the faerie realm, and yet this one unsettled her. Perhaps because the faerie woman was far more beautiful than the others.
Was this what jealousy felt like? Freya had tasted the emotion before, but only in small doses that hadn’t felt like this. She could hardly think through the panic in her chest that warned she shouldn’t let Cora and Eldridge anywhere near each other.
But that was silly. They were childhood friends, nothing more, nothing less.
“I wish you’d told me before my throat went raw,” Freya replied with a small laugh. “But I’d like to know what you’re doing here. Alone. Eldridge said this place was abandoned a long time ago.”
“It was.” Cora stood up and dusted off her sheer cream skirts. “Until the forest named me the sea. And after that, I was sent to live here by the Summer Lord. Far away from anyone else’s gaze.”
“The sea?” Those were strange words to use. The forest naming a person after the other element that made up summer? It sounded like what Cora had told them was important. But she couldn’t make hide nor hair what it meant.
But even Eldridge appeared confused. His brows furrowed in concentration and he shook his head. “I think my mind’s still foggy. I didn’t remember what happened here until I stepped foot on the isles. I assume that’s someone else’s doing in wanting to hide whatever knowledge is kept here.”
“The forest and the sea cannot live without each other,” Cora said. She tucked her hands together in the picture of poise and delicacy. “The Summer Lord is no one without his lady, you see. So I’ve been here. Waiting for him to come to me so we can finally put the court back together. It’s been a long time of being alone, but I know it’s a matter of when he’ll show up. Leo was always so late to everything that was important.”
Freya’s heart broke for this poor woman who was still holding out hope that Leo cared at all. In Freya’s limited experience with the man, she wasn’t so sure he was ready for a serious relationship. He seemed to hate himself a little too much to bring another person into his life.
She glanced over at Eldridge to see him staring at her with a thoughtful expression. “What?” Freya asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Eldridge shook himself out of whatever thoughts had taken over. “Nothing. Cora, how long have you been here?”
“I don’t know.” She walked toward the small pool in the center of the room and sat down on the edge, swirling her legs in the water. “A while, I suppose? The last Summer Lord was the one who said I should stay here. And Leo was supposed to come get me when he took the mantle from the other. I didn’t expect it to take this long, but I’m not surprised. The Lord was always a healthy man.”
Oh, but it had been much longer than that. Did this poor woman not know how many years had passed since Leo became the Summer Lord?
“I—” Freya didn’t know if she should be the one to tell this poor woman that she’d been here for a very long time. She wanted to go get the Summer Lord, drag him back to this isle, and force him to talk to Cora. Obviously, there were a lot of words left unsaid between the two of them.
If the Summer Lord was supposed to marry this woman, or unite with her, then this was the secret that Leo had been keeping. He wanted nothing to do with this picture of perfection, and Freya couldn’t understand that. What man wouldn’t want to be married to a woman like this?
She took a step toward the pool and crouched down once again beside Cora. “I think you’ve got the story mixed up, Cora.”
The elf furrowed her brows and smiled at Freya with confusion in her eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how you’d know that? You’re a mortal. The Summer Court’s history has been hidden from your eyes.”
“It’s just that... Well. Leo has already taken the throne.” She looked over her shoulder at Eldridge for some help. “It’s been... How many years since he’s been the Summer Lord?”
Eldridge’s gaze darkened with anger and rage. “Nearly two hundred.”
Cora’s eyes widened with every word. Her feet stopped swirling in the pool and an unsettling quiet fell over the small garden hidden within the cliff.
What was going through this woman’s head? Freya would have throttled Eldridge if she were in Cora’s place. She would have put her hands around his neck and demanded to know why he had put not only their own relationship in peril but also the lives of so many others. The Summer Lord had a duty to take care of his court, and that duty was sitting right here.
Instead of doing any of that, Cora merely put a hand to her cheek and caught a single glistening tear that had slid from her dark eyes. “Oh.” She looked down at the glittering droplet of saltwater and then smoothed it into her skin. “I suppose that means he doesn’t want me.”
“No!” Eldridge rushed forward and sat down on her other side. He reached for Cora’s hands and gripped them in his own. “I remember you very well when we were children. Leo always tugged on your braids and chased you through the sands. He was very much interested in you, and I cannot imagine why he hasn’t rushed to your side, even now.”
“Because he doesn’t want me.” The smile on Cora’s face was horribly sad. “It’s all right, Eldridge. The forest picked us to be together, and I understand that’s not always what the other person wants. I should be happy that I have lived my life out here, and not in the Summer Court while it collapsed without both of our attentions.”
The two of them began speaking of their time as children. Eldridge reminded her of the small set of caves they had found that were filled with flowers no one had seen before. Cora giggled a memory of a grotto where mermaids lived, if only they waited long enough.
And suddenly, Freya felt as though she were intruding on private time between two friends. She stood up and made her way back to Arrow, who had laid down in a bright spot of sun.
She sat down next to him, beyond caring that the ground was wet. She had already soaked her bottom when she first came into the room.
“So they know each other, then,” she murmured, pitching her voice low so she wouldn’t interrupt the faeries at the pool.
Arrow snuffled and lifted his head from the soft moss. “Oh, yes. They were the best of friends back when the faerie courts liked each other. They spent every hour they could with each other until their parents wouldn’t let them anymore. Sad stuff, that. Most people thought they would end up together.”
Jealousy burned again. And she knew it was ridiculous to feel like that. People changed as their story changed, and the two faeries sitting next to each other were no longer the same children they had once been.
Still, it made her sick to her stomach to think she could lose him. “Is that so?” she gritted between her teeth.
“No.” Arrow chuckled, sitting up so he could look at her better. “I wasn’t even alive when they knew each other, Freya. You know when I was born. I imagine they were just good friends. Listen to the way she talks about Leo. Cora would do anything to have him in her life. She’s in love with the fool.”
It was hard to listen to the tones of love when she was so worried the other woman would take one look at the Goblin King and realize she’d picked the wrong friend. And maybe that was a ridiculous worry. She wasn’t so caught up in her jealousy that she couldn’t see that. But what if?
Again, Arrow made a snuffling sound and nudged her with his paw. “Freya. This look doesn’t suit you. Jealousy is a poison as bad as what the forest is spreading through the Summer Court.”
She sighed. He was right. Of course he was right when she was sitting here, green in the face, just because she didn’t have the undivided attention of the Goblin King. Freya was acting like a child, and unlike herself when all she had ever wanted was to be an independent woman who took care of herself.
Shaking off the emotions with a quick jerk of her neck, she put her attention to fixing the problem laid out before them. The forest wanted the Summer Lord to do what needed to be done. And clearly, that was this woman in front of them.
Cora was the personification of the sea. And the Summer Lord represented the forest itself.
Frowning, Freya stood back up and interrupted the two of them as they continued talking about their childhood. “Cora? Might I ask a question?”
The beautiful woman looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Of course.”
“The forest is punishing Leo for not joining with you, or whatever it was you said needed to happen. What happens to you if you don’t become the Summer Lady?” Freya feared the answer would be just as bad as Leo’s fate.
“Then the sea will take me back,” Cora replied. “That’s the way of the Summer Court.”
The sharp edge of Eldridge’s gaze bored into Freya’s own. They couldn’t let that happen. Neither she nor he were the kind of people who would let an innocent woman die without trying to save her. That was part of what made Freya fall in love with him so thoroughly. So dangerously.
Even with jealousy still bitter on her tongue, Freya hated to imagine Cora as the cold, still body she had seen so many times since coming to the faerie realm. This vibrant woman deserved to live, not die as the Summer Lord had resigned the both of them to.
“We won’t let that happen,” she replied. “Right, Eldridge?”
“We’ll try to stop it,” he corrected. “Leo is the only one who can save the both of you, and he isn’t as you remember, Cora. Time has taken its toll on the Summer Lord.”
Freya wanted to laugh, but she smothered the noise before it could burst free from her throat. Cora needed to remember Leo with all the possibilities of their future that she had been nursing for all these years. If this elf still thought there was a chance for her love to grow even stronger, then that made their task even easier.
“We’ll need time to plan,” she said. “I don’t think we can go back to the Summer Court and demand that he come back here and take his bride home. Leo barely even speaks with us.”
Eldridge stood and held out his hand for Freya to take. “We’ll stay here for a few nights. I’m sure Arrow would appreciate the respite from all those horrible waves.”
The goblin dog groaned from his corner and pressed a paw to his mouth. Apparently, the mere idea of waves made his stomach roll yet again.
Freya nodded. “All right. We’ll stay for a little while and figure all this out.”
