“Come here, little girl.” I took Sam away from Arach, over to a corner of the dais the high table perched on, and sat down with her on the floor.
Sam grinned as we got settled. “Are you going to tell me a secret?”
Tears threatened suddenly. Because over that precious little face, I saw my daughter grown, her eyes full of the horrors she had witnessed and her shoulders bent beneath the weight of responsibility. One of those responsibilities had been to marry Prince Baidhen of the Kingdom of Darkness—the only Dragon-Sidhe male she wasn't related to. Arach and King Rowan had arranged the marriage between our children.
I would not have that. Not after she risked so much to come back and save me. She allowed her present to be erased so I could change her future. I would not fail her.
“I love you so much, Samara,” I whispered.
“That's not a secret!” She giggled.
“No, it's not.” And just like that, the threat of tears vanished. Because I knew better now. I knew what the future could hold for her, and I knew how to change it. “But here's a secret that your father will not tell you.”
“What?” She leaned in closer.
“You do not have to have full-blooded Dragon-Sidhe babies.”
“I don't? But wouldn't it be good to have more of us?”
“Yes, it would be lovely. But we are not going extinct. Your father and I are immortal, and so are all the other Dragon-Sidhe in Faerie, you included. There is the chance for more full-blooded Dragon-Sidhe children to be born without you bearing them. So don't ever,not ever, worry about that. Do you understand? That is not upon your shoulders. And Prince Baidhen may be the only male Dragon-Sidhe you are not related to, but that doesn't make him your only option for a husband, or even a lover. You must always follow your heart, Sam. You're not just a faerie. You are a love goddess too, and that makes it very important that you honor love.”
“Like Brevyn?”
“Yes, like Brevyn is a love god. You have that magic inside you and you must respect it. So, no matter what your father or anyone else says, unless you fall in love with Prince Baidhen and he makes you happier than anyone else, do not marry him. Don't marry or have babies with anyone unless you truly want to. It's all right if you never have children. That is your choice. Okay?”
“Okay, Mommy.” She held up her little finger. “Pinky promise.”
“Pinky promise.” I beamed at her and hooked our fingers together. Then I pulled her into a hug. “I love you, my brave, beautiful girl. You are so special. Remember, the only thing you ever need to do is be happy.”
“I'm happy, Mommy. I love you.”
“Oh, I love you too! So much! Now, let's celebrate your first flight.”
Chapter Nineteen
When Azrael and I had first met with the leaders of Earth, there had only been a handful of them. But the world recovered further since then and its governments reformed. They were all on board with the Faerie God's dictatorship (let's call a spade a spade) since it was a step up from what the Faerie God had originally planned (full world domination in a very Dark Star way). Funny how both my husband and I had nearly taken over the world. Well, I guess there was no nearly about Azrael (nor had it been very funny). He had done it. He took over the world and me with it, turning me into the Faerie Goddess. But we got through it and brought him back. Now, Az had his dark star, the Faerie God, under control.
Azrael couldn't just hand the world back to the humans after all that had been done. There had been positive changes made that we wanted to protect—things like an end to the threat of nuclear war. Also, there was still Wild Magic on Earth, contained within the land around the Golden Citadel and beneath it. Lastly, the Fey were out of the magic closet and that brought all sorts of trouble with it.
Most humans didn't know about Azrael's true form. They didn't know he was a god and an Angel. Mainly because they didn't know that gods existed. Not like that. So, Az brought theFaerie God out for short intervals and tried his best to oversee the Earth fairly. As much as this was a type of dictatorship, Azrael didn't want it to be. So he encouraged the governments of the world to reform and handle their own business under his watchful eye. A sort of “do your thing, just don't kill each other” kind of situation. But now that faeries were moving to Earth, Azrael had to help the races learn to live harmoniously together. He sort of owed it to both sides.
Azrael worked with the Royals of Faerie, especially the High King, and the leaders of Earth to develop laws for both races to follow on Earth and establish methods of integration. The human leaders were offering free faerie classes in colleges around the world and had saturated the media with information about faeries. People feared things they didn't know, so we were making faeries known. It was a campaign of awareness. Things like, “Spriggans puff up when startled” and “Imps love to play jokes.” We wanted humans to know what to expect and what to avoid, but to also see the lighter side of faeries.
On the Fey side, the information wasn't just offered, it was mandatory for anyone visiting Earth. We required them to go through orientation classes. Most of the Fey hadn't been to Earth for a very long time. They didn't know about modern ways, and they certainly didn't know the laws of the land, especially since they varied from region to region. So, the orientation classes supplied them with the information they needed to navigate whatever part of the world they were visiting, interact properly with the locals, and stay out of jail. Any faerie found guilty of a crime on Earth got a one-way ticket back to the Faerie Realm.
This made everyone happy. But, as with any newly established system, those in charge wanted to check things outfor themselves. The Fey Royals had approved the curriculum offered in colleges and all information handed out in the media about the Fey. Now, the Earth leaders wanted to take a look at what we were teaching faerie and make sure the laws and customs of their countries were being presented properly. In other words, they wanted an excuse to visit Faerie.
And boy had they taken it.
Every country, from Andorra to Zimbabwe, had sent their leaders on this field trip. You'd think they'd be hesitant to go to another realm, especially a realm that had birthed the fearsome man who nearly destroyed the world (as far as they knew). But nope. In true human fashion, curiosity had won over prudence and every world leader wanted to go. Not a single one chose to send a representative in their stead. And they all came with a translator (if they needed one) and a single guard. We didn't allow them more than that because, with nearly two hundred world leaders, that meant two hundred guards and nearly a hundred translators. Thankfully, most of the heads of state spoke English so there were fewer translators than guards. Still, around five hundred humans were coming to Faerie.
Five hundred.
Tracing that many people would have been torture. Instead, the Faerie God brought them through a rath—a tunnel between realms. There used to be many raths connecting Faerie to Earth, but after the Dragon-Sidhe were hunted to near extinction, the High King summoned all the Fey home and sealed the raths. After I accidentally entered Faerie several years ago, a tracing point was established in the Great Tree, but not a rath. The Faerie God, however, opened a rath beneath the Golden Citadel. It was the only open rath between the realms and it was located in the same meadow as the Elemental Well—the only such well on Earth. Suffice it to say it was vigilantly guarded.
Think of elemental wells like hearts that pumped magic, their veins stretching out through whatever land they're bound to. In Faerie, every kingdom has an elemental well of the corresponding element that can be used by the monarch to touch all of their territory and people at once. Arach and I had given the Fire Fey back their fertility through the Fire Well beneath Castle Aithinne. And that was a well for only one element. The well beneath the Golden Citadel connected to all the elements and pumped Wild Magic (as opposed to the tamer, more normal version of magic that ran through Faerie) through the Wild Land. It had once pumped that magic through the whole Earth, but Azrael drew it back and contained it. Could he spread the magic again? Probably. Azrael and I both had a connection to the Elemental Well. But it was one of those things that was too powerful to mess with. So we weren't sure what we could do with it.
Around the Elemental Well and the only open rath to Faerie was an orchard that produced shiny, red, Snow White apples full of Wild Magic instead of poison. Although Wild Magic could be a type of poison depending on who ingested it. At the start of the war with Heaven, Jerry had orchestrated an orchard theft. Okay, he didn't steal the orchard, I just liked the way that sounded. He did send an Angel to steal a bunch of apples, though. And those apples gave his army incredible powers. How you like dem apples? So, yeah, there was a lot to protect beneath the Golden Citadel.
