I look at Aura, but she’s staring at the messenger, her eyes only flicking away from him to send me a sidelong glance, waiting for my nod before she answers. “The laws of the Unseelie Court are clear. If Prince Soren sends out invitations in good faith to the head of every family who holds a seat, it doesn’t matter if they come or choose to shun his Fates-filled day—he’s fulfilled his duties. This law was put in place generations ago. Should we not all remember the long and arduous battles of King Soral and Queen Merynn, the regent’s great-grandparents, may Elysium hold them safely? They were forced to endure centuries of turmoil before the Unseelie Court found peace once more, time that chipped away at the integrity of our kingdom. Their reign was short and full of heartache because of the court’s indecisions and squabbles.”
Aura steps forward and glares at the messenger, disapproval coloring her tone as she swipes a hand dismissively at him, theatrical in the exact way I need her to be. “I should remind you that the Goblin King holds a seat on the Unseelie Court, whether we welcome him openly or not, and without that amendment to the Unseelie laws, His Majesty, the Regent, would never have been able to take the throne into his care during the wait for Soren’s fate. The Goblin King has not sat in any of these halls for many long centuries, and Prince Soren’s long and arduous toil to reach the Goblin King and negotiate a meeting with him is the act of a good ruler and nothing short of heroic. A sign of the lengths the Celestial Heir will go to for his kingdom.”
No doubt those exact words will ring in the regent’s ears for weeks to come. My aunt wields her power skillfully and, when she's not trying to control every moment of her daughter's waking life, she does so very effectively. Keeping my temper for long enough to subdue her ambition to hold more influence within the court may prove to be a great victory in my campaign.
One of the messenger’s guards inches forward as though asserting himself, and Tauron and Tyton both stalk toward him from the outskirts of the crowd. They halt a few feet from us, Tauron’s arms crossing his chest and death in his eyes as he stares Syrus down, waiting for the moment the messenger is stupid enough to interrupt the silent interaction. Feeling the danger approaching, the guard touches Syrus, and he shuffles back, effectively neutered as he’s outmatched.
From across the room, one of the ladies smiles invitingly at my cousin, no doubt enjoying such a display, but Tauron is filled with rage and retribution, a readiness bubbling up within him to tear every last one of these people apart.
I look back to the messenger. “Return to my uncle and extend to him my reassurance that no harm will come to him or any of his bloodline at Yregar under my rule. We look forward to seeing them all at the winter solstice.”
I have long dreamt of seeing my uncle's face in the crowd as I take my seat on the Celestial throne, taking the power from him and ending this war once and for all.
* * *
Tucked between the looming stone structure of the inner wall and the castle, the old castle garden is the last area of Yregar with any sign of greenery left, but even with the tireless efforts of the gardeners, it’s nothing but a small patch of dead grass and an orchard full of dormant trees. The shrubs, once a lush and carefully cultivated display, are nothing but groups of sticks jutting from the ground. The flower beds are bare, nothing but cracked earth fills the stone planters, and the entire area looks long abandoned.
Roan stands at my side, his sleeping son bundled up in my arms and tucked into the blankets his mother has been dutifully and obsessively sewing for him. His face is plump and healthy-looking, dark eyelashes fanning his warm cheeks as he dozes, the weight of him a shock to me. He feels as though he’s doubled in size since I first held him only a week ago, growing well under the care of his mother, Firna, and the entire castle as we all flock to fulfill their every need.
I send a dry look to his father. “Maybe Aura was right and you truly can't control your wife, if she has convinced you of the merits ofthis.”
The look Roan sends me could kill a man and would subdue most, but not me. “I think we both know I’m the first to tell Airlie when she's wrong. What you and her mother are forgetting is that she's smarter than most of the Southern Lands combined, and there’s no good to come from ignoring such a female.”
I do know this but, as we stare at the spectacle before us, I feel unease churn in my gut until I want to throw up, the potential consequences of taking this risk pressing down on me. There’s a confidence in the witch’s movements, a fluidity that sparks flashes of the goblin soldier’s image in my mind, and the churning only gets worse, doubled by the fury I felt at their instant connection. She’s hiding something beneath the calm mask of the healer and this dutiful caretaker to the land, of that I’m sure.
With Reed standing guard at her side, Airlie stands only a few paces away, ignoring us as she watches the witch and Tyton begin their work together, a book clutched in her hands as she memorizes their every move and murmur.
Tauron refused to join us, furious that we’re going through with the rite in the first place, but when he’d snapped at us all, Tyton had turned to him with haunted eyes. “The trees need it. The trees will not be ignored forever, Brother, and it's not the madness taking me over, but a change of heart.”
Tauron couldn’t argue with that. He didn’t even try, simply walking away to join the watch for the witches somewhere else. The events within the witch’s forest had eased a long-held pain within Tyton, but whenever any of us had questioned him about it, his reply was always the same.
I sleep better now. I know what the trees want, and I made my own sacrifice in the forest, a promise to make things right.
Airlie went to him before approaching me or even letting her husband know of her plans, a calculating and manipulative move as she knew Tyton would agree wholeheartedly. The forest changed something within him a long time ago.
It took Roan and I more convincing, and only after I read the passages of the book she brandished before me did I even consider allowing the rites.
After hearing his wife out, Roan placed the final log on the funeral pyre of my apprehensions, no mercy in his brutal honesty. “You’re beholden to the Goblin King. Until we’re able to restore the kingdom’s prosperity, anything he asks of you must be considered and, ultimately, you have no room to say no. Expanding the borders of his kingdom, giving up another Celestial castle, letting more goblins live within the kingdom, more rights given to him than any other royal family—he could ask for any of it, and while he controls the trading route and our survival with it, you’d be forced to say yes. There are many bad options laid before us, Soren, and you have to choose the ones that lead us out of this devastation with the least amount of sacrifice to our kingdom and your people.”
Before us, the witch murmurs quietly to Tyton as she directs him with seemingly endless patience, her instructions clear on how to reach the magic within him and bring it forth for the rite. She presses a hand over his chest as she speaks, pushing at him, a physical direction to aid him in finding the power locked within him.
My temper at her touching him simmers away within my gut, aneedthat borders on obsessive to put a stop to it almost breaking the steely grips of my control. I fight the urge to walk over and tear them apart, to stop her from ever laying hands on my family and protecting them from her poison as she fools them, one by one, into believing in her innocence. I pointedly refuse to think about the other reasons I want the witch away from my cousin, my possessive nature I cannot abandon and can barely control.
The baby stretches and yawns in my arms, and I send Roan a long look. “Traitor. You gave him to me as a distraction, and I won't forget it.”
He doesn't look away from Airlie’s tense back as he grins. “I handed him to you as a reminder of what we're really fighting for, but keeping your hands full and away from your sword is an added bonus. Tell me, oh mighty Prince Soren, how many times have you envisioned killing the witch since we dragged her here to Yregar?”
Airlie shoots us both a reproving look, making it clear she’s been listening all along, but I answer him regardless. “Countless times. Right now I would very much like to cut off that hand of hers.”
Roan clicks his tongue and arches an eyebrow at me. “That sounds very ‘Unseelie fae mate’ like to me. Maybe Airlie can stop fretting about the sad state of your upcoming union and your heir requirements after all.”
He ignores the ire sent his way, but before I can hand Airlie her son and beat the life out of her husband, there's a small popping sound and a flash of light. Airlie’s gasp rings out in the courtyard as Tyton’s skin begins to glow.
His magic springs forth and floods the area with power, his eyes glowing from the magic within as it rushes to the surface, and the witch quickly grabs his hands and presses them into the earth below. Her mouth moves quickly with more instructions, the sound of her soothing tones like a salve over us all that rankles me, her own magic glowing alongside his as she performs the rite by memory alone.
The feeling around us is like nothing I've ever felt before, the hunger of the land now not just words the witch used to describe it, or even Tyton’s ramblings of their demands, but anachewithin me that expands until I feel as though I might never take a full breath again. All I know now is pain, desperation, and longing, a cavernous void that can never be filled, the damage permanent and devastating.Wedid this. We ruined it all, we took until there was nothing left to give, we forgot it all… The words ring through my mind until they weave their way into my very being.
The earth feeds from Tyton and the witch, guzzling down their magic and power with such a ravenous hunger that terror fills my veins with ice. It's going to take too much. It's going to kill Tyton, it'll kill the witch, I'll never save my kingdom…but the force of their power creates a barrier between us. I can’t get to them even if I try.
