“No shit?” Killian snorted a laugh. “Damn, that little girl is gonna kick ass. She's got your sense of humor too.”
“Yes, but she's too young to understand what she's doing.” Sever swiveled the scry phone so that Raza could see all of us before he aimed the phone at me. “I agreed to the suppression as long as I could direct it. It gave me control over the magic so I can release it when I deem appropriate.”
“Good.” My father nodded. “If anyone should be in charge of her magic, it should be one of her parents.”
“What happened with the blight?” Raza demanded.
“We found the Garden of Regret, which was really beautiful, by the way.” I turned Kill's scry phone in toward the table so Tiernan could be a part of things too. “It had Danu's dark emotions in it as well.”
“Danu's?” my father asked.
“Yes, it was her pain—heartache over her brother leaving her—that birthed the Garden,” Tiernan said. “Danu wanted tocreate the races of Fairy, but she was held back by her sorrow. So, she removed it and put it in the earth. It bloomed into the Garden of Regret. The ancient queens and kings of Seelie found the Garden and added to it with their dark emotions. After centuries of pruning adding to the Garden, it became sentient and produced a king.”
“The King made the blight,” I stepped in. “But it was all a ruse to get me to the Garden and trick me into destroying it. Once I destroyed the Garden, it freed the sentience, turning it into a silver mist. Half of the mist condensed to become the King in flesh, but the other half belonged to the Goddess. It was her pain. It swirled around the King and then rushed away.”
“So Danu has her pain again,” my father murmured.
“Yes, but I think that's a good thing. I think it will strengthen her.” I tapped the table. “We'll get back to her in a minute. First, let's finish with the King. He took the form of a Seelie Sidhe—the first king to prune himself. But that didn't last. He transformed into Tiernan.”
“Dear Goddess,” Raza whispered.
“His plan was to mimic me and take over the planet with Seren,” Tiernan said. “Through our battles, he learned to protect himself from Seren's Light. She hit him with it, and it did nothing. I tried to stop him, but he knocked me aside with barely any effort. Then he took Seren's emotions and put her under his thrall.”
“So how did you destroy him?” Killian asked.
I motioned at the scry phone. “Tiernan called upon the Shining Ones.”
“You called the Shining Ones?” Raza's dark face grew larger in the slice of crystal as he leaned closer. “How was it? It must have been magnificent?”
“It was,” Tiernan said softly. “I saw my father.”
“And your mother,” I said to Keir. “She was there with Marcan and Shane.”
My dad's eyes went wide. “My mother was there?” He blinked, his expression going soft. “I'm glad. I hope her soul is at peace.”
“She seemed peaceful. But it wasn't her or even Diocail who destroyed the King.”
“It was the old rulers of Seelie,” Tiernan took over. “They reclaimed their emotions, helped Seren and me reclaim ours, and the King ceased to exist.”
“Holy shit!” Killian slapped the table. “Well done, Seelie!”
“Well done, Tiernan,” I said. “He saved me.”
“They saved you.”
I turned the phone so I could see him. “You called upon them. I never would have thought of it.”
Tiernan smirked. “It was obvious. He was King of the Somber Ones. That was clearly a play on the title of the Shining Ones.”
I smirked back. “Obvious, eh? But not until you were watching me get drained.”
“There is that.” Tiernan went grim. “Turn me so I can tell them what my father said.”
“I think I'd better tell them what the King said first.” I turned the phone around again. “As he died, the King said, 'Danu is lost, and Fairy awakens. Without me, you won't survive.”
“Sounds like a bunch of bullshit spouted by a dying man trying to get one over on his enemies,” Killian said.
“Yes, except that my father confirmed it,” Tiernan said. “He warned me that Fairy is reacting to Danu's absence. The primal magic of this world has been unleashed. It flowed into Seelie first. As much as the King wanted us to believe the Garden of Regret attacked us because we ignored it, it was the primal magic of Fairy that actually woke the Garden. Destroying the Garden hasn't stopped the primal magic, only diverted it. Now, it will head for Twilight and Unseelie.”
