“I'm good too.” I nodded and waved him off, knowing he was anxious to get to his girl. “Go on. Don't let me hold you back.”
Lugh reached into the carriage again and this time, Isleen took his hand and allowed him to help her out. She gave him a secret smile before going into his arms and then into a passionate kiss. I turned around and headed up the steps with Arach, leaving the couple to canoodle privately. Although, maybe I shouldn't have. According to Faerie and my husband, the Fire Fey enjoyed an audience.
We waited for Lugh and Isleen in the entry hall. I tried to admire the exotic paintings hanging there but ended up focusing on fighting off my husband's wandering hands.
“What is with you?” I hissed at him.
“No one is here,” he growled. “The High Prince and Isleen are kissing on the castle steps but you won't kiss me in an empty entry hall?”
“Will you keep it to kissing?”
Arach grinned and pulled me against his hard chest. I slid my hands up his cheeks and into his hair to pull him down into a kiss. He growled into my mouth, his tongue lashing at mine, and suddenly lifted me off my feet, swung me around, and pushed me up against a wall. He was pulling up my skirt, his erection grinding against my thigh, when someone cleared their throat. Arach snarled over his shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw it was Lugh.
“My King, we are waiting to escort you to the meeting,” Isleen said tonelessly as she stepped up beside her boyfriend.
Arach laid his face in the curve of my neck and took a few deep breaths. I stroked his hair soothingly and gently nudged his fist so that he'd let go of my dress. He kissed my throat tenderly, then eased back and offered me his arm.
“After you, Prince Lugh.” Arach waved his hand forward.
Lugh gave me a what-the-hell look as he passed by, and I shrugged. It's not as if I could say anything, I'd gotten carried away that time too. Isleen, however, didn't look the least disturbed or even surprised at finding her monarchs making out in the castle entry hall. But then again, Isleen is good at hiding her reactions.
I expected Lugh to lead us to the throne room and, if I'm being perfectly honest, I was hoping to see that wondrous hall—open all the way up to the topmost branches of the tree. The High Thrones were formed of living trees, their branches interwoven masterfully, and since it was Summer, the High Queen's throne would be in bloom. I would have liked to have seen that. But that's not where Lugh took us. Instead, we passed the throne room's double doors and continued down the polished wood corridor to another, much smaller room with only one door for entry.
Nothing in the central tree could be called a disappointment so even though I'd been hoping to see the throne room, I was pleased with our destination. Technically, it was a meeting room—as evidenced by the long table placed strategically in its center—but it was also an aviary. No, that's not exactly right either. The room was simple in design: walls, ceiling, and floor all made of polished wood with the table growing up out of the floor. Only the chairs were separate pieces for necessity's sake. No artwork adorned the walls and a trio of pendant lanterns hung from the ceiling.
At night, those lights would come in handy but at the moment, they were superfluous. Because the wall opposite the door was actually a window and beyond the glass was a small atrium, similar to the throne room in that it opened to the sky. It differed from the throne room in that it was full of plants, most of them fruit-bearing trees, and the fruit attracted faerie birds. Vibrant plumage fluffed and fluttered as the exotic birds of Faerie dined on their treats in their little sanctuary. The view, though lovely, seemed counterproductive for a meeting room. How would you get anything done with that kind of distraction nearby?
Distracted like Faerie. I frowned as I considered her again and then I considered my make-out session with Arach in the entry hall. Very strange indeed. But then my stare caught on the baby with wings.
“You brought her!” I declared joyfully as I rushed over to coo at the little princess with huge green eyes and monarch butterfly wings.
The pale-skinned infant seemed to glow against Queen Breana's ebony complexion but despite this stark difference in their skin tone, Princess Eveline looked a lot like her mother—sharing the Queen's raven hair and brilliant green eyes. Breana held the baby out to me immediately, even though the High Queen and the Queens of Water, Earth, and Darkness were gathered around her, anxiously waiting for their chance to hold Eveline. I guess helping save the child's life had won me some special treatment—treatment I wasn't about to refuse. Not when it came to holding a faerie butterfly baby.
“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!” I squealed as I lifted her to my face. “You are so darn cute, little girl!”
Eveline's gauzy pink dress had flowers embroidered over it so realistically that it seemed as if they'd been picked that morning and glued on the dress. She gurgled happily and reached out to tap my cheek as her wings fluttered behind her. I had yet to have a baby with wings—wings that were a part of their normal form—and I knew from my jaunt into the future that I would someday so this was good practice for me.
“How do I hold her?” I asked.
“Place your palm between her wing joints to support her back,” the High Queen advised, using it as an excuse to slide closer. She smiled at the baby, flashing her Leanan-Sidhe fangs. “Oh, I want one.”
“Me too,” Queen Bronagh of Earth declared. That's Earth, the faerie kingdom, not the planet. “We've been trying, even more so lately.” She paused to grin at her husband. “But haven't succeeded yet.”
Queen Bronagh was one of the most human-looking faeries I've ever met. She had brown hair, golden-brown skin, and the usual Sidhe slim figure. Her only noteworthy feature was the color of her eyes—a glittering emerald—and they became even more beautiful when she looked at her husband. King Ruari of Earth was much brighter in appearance than his wife. He had pale skin and yellow eyes like Arach, though his eyes were more of a buttercup shade than Arach's deep citrine. But it was Ruari's hair that truly made him stand out—white at the roots, then darkening into violet. Unlike Arach, Ruari didn't have the fierce features to keep himself from looking too pretty. He was a step away from androgynous—a little girl's idea of a fairy king—but his wife seemed to dig it.
“We're trying as well,” Nora said. “I thought, what with my race, that we wouldn't be able to conceive, but Faerie says otherwise.”
Queen Nora of Water had once been the captain of the Fire Kingdom's cavalry—a Phooka with fiery eyes and a temperament to match. But she'd gone and fallen for another friend of mine, King Guirmean of Water. Guirmean is a Water-Sidhe and his coloring practically screamed ocean—indigo skin, pale green hair, and turquoise eyes. I'm sure it worked well in the water but on land, he stood out like a sore thumb. A handsome thumb, but sore nonetheless. Guirmean and Nora had a tumultuous affair that nearly ended in disaster. Guirmean would have given up his crown to be with Nora, but Nora wouldn't hear of it. Finally, Faerie stepped in and transmutated Nora—through me—into the first Water Phooka.
Nora's fiery eyes were now distinctly fishy—rounded and without the white sclera—but were also a stunning shade of purple, lightening to lavender in their centers, and they matched the set of delicate, frond-like antennae at her temples. Nora's hands were now webbed and her Phooka claws had turned translucent opal. In short, she made a lovely dog-fish-faerie.
“I'm sure you both will conceive soon,” I reassured them as I nuzzled the Princess' soft face, then handed her over to the High Queen.
Queen Meara snatched the baby eagerly and twirled away as if she'd won a prize, her blood-red hair swirling behind her like a cape. “You're mine now, little one,” she cooed at the Princess. “Yes, you are. I'm going to lock you up and keep you all for myself.”
“And that's how nasty fairy tales start,” I muttered.
“Sweetheart,” King Cian called to his wife, “we need to start the meeting.”
