The mood in the room instantly sobers, not that it was all that cheerful to begin with.
“How did you end up in her court?” Callum asks.
“I was always fascinated by the idea of other realms,” Elijah says. “From the moment I heard about the Veil and the pathways it offered to new worlds, I was insatiable. I needed to see them for myself.”
His words hit a little too close to home.
Isn’t that the same urge I was consumed with when I learned about the Veil? And Goddess knows I haven’t been able to stop myself from indulging the temptation of stepping through.
“How’d you get past the coven’s wards?”
He smiles wryly. “The Crescent Coven doesn’t hold a monopoly on Veil gates. There are others not so fiercely guarded.”
“So, you what? Found one of those gates and went poking around on the other side of the Veil?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“And then you traipsed on into Faerie and hopped into bed with the fae queen? Thought it would turn out all right for you?”
Beside me, Callum clears his throat. A reminder I’m being a bit of a jerk right now.
And fine. Maybe I am. But I find it pretty damn hard to believe anyone would be that stupid. Or be stupider still to leave a faerie queen and think she wouldn’t try to come after him, eventually.
“She wasn’t always like that, you know,” he murmurs, eyes going distant in memory. “She was… kind, when I first met her. Tempestuous and changeable, yes, but it was all just part of her nature. Shewasnature. A force to be reckoned with.”
“What happened?” Callum asks softly, and Elijah snaps back to the here and now, a flash of pain breaking across his face.
“What always happens in Faerie. The monarchs get bored with their too-long lives. They meddle with each other's courts, start wars, enact some bit of cruelty just because they can. Because it’sentertainingfor them. It breaks up their monotony and gives them some way to feel as if their lives have drama and purpose. What fun would it be for them to simply relax and enjoy the beauty of their realm, revel in their magick, and renounce the violence they love so much?”
He laughs bitterly, pausing for a few moments and gathering his composure before he continues.
“I’d had enough. Enough of Faerie. Enough of the sick games the fae play.”
Elijah meets my eye, then Callum’s, like he’s waiting for us to question his word.
What’s there to question?
We’ve seen the fae queen and her terrible court. I believe every word out of Elijah’s mouth.
“How did you manage to leave?” I ask.
Elijah shrugs, though the movement seems forced. “There were enough fae in her court who hated her and knew it would weaken her to lose her consort. All I had to do was bargain with one of them to get me back to the Veil, and I was free.”
I try not to shudder thinking about what kind of bargain he may have had to strike to entice one of those awful courtiers to help him defy their queen’s orders.
“She never tried to come after you?” Callum asks.
“She can’t come here. I don’t know how familiar you are with Faerie and its monarchs, but they’re so closely tied to their realm’s magick that it’s almost impossible for them to leave.”
I think of the faerie queen and her vines, the way she seemed to grow up out of the court itself. Another shiver runs down my spine.
“And her courtiers?” Callum asks. “None of them were sent, either?”
“She may have tried to send them, but they don’t fare much better in this realm. Their magick doesn’t work the same as it does in Faerie. It’s why they’re all so obsessed with luring humans there.”
“Like you?”
Callum nudges me with his elbow, another silent reminder to play nice.
