Destined for the Fae King (Courts of Faery #3)

Chapter 42

W e reappear into chaos. Sound fills the halls. Fae rush this way and that. Lysandir leads up off the intricate patterns on the floor of the central hall—a honing point, the fae call it. The designs channel magic which lets them shift to certain places more quickly and easily. It’s the same place we arrived several days ago. Not too far from our quarters, if I recall correctly.

Lysandir grabs a passing guard and draws her to a halt.

Her eyes widen as she takes him in. “My prince.”

“My mother and the human women?”

“Gathered in the queen’s rooms for safety,” she reports.

“The king?” Lysandir asks quickly.

“Gone to meet the enemy.”

Lysandir curses and releases the guard.

“We are to—” she continues, but Lysandir has already turned away, hurrying toward a nearby hall and taking me with him. I have to jog to keep up his pace.

“I want you to stay with the others,” he says as we rush through the halls. “It’s the safest place for you.”

“And you?” I ask .

But the sinking feel in my chest says I already know. He’ll go to his brother, to face the enemy head-on a fight. An enemy that has somehow managed to rip down the wards. It shouldn’t be possible, yet it’s happened.

“I felt the wards tear and break.” He clutches at his chest. “If they can do that, this is no unorganized and unprepared rabble. I will be needed at the front.”

Tears burn at the corners of my eyes. I’m about to protest when we turn the corner and a familiar figure looms just ahead.

“Thank holy Aine,” Tharin says as he catches sight of us. Gold-plated armor hugs his form. I might not have noticed him if he had been wearing the helm tucked under one arm. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

He and Lysandir meet, clasping shoulders in a friendly embrace.

“I need you to take Mira to the others,” Lysandir says before he releases his friend. “Keep her safe for me and watch after her as you have these weeks.”

Tharin opens his mouth like he might protest but then closes it and nod. “With my life, my prince.”

Don’t leave. Don’t go. The words are right there on the tip of my tongue. But I know no matter what I say, he will. Begging will only make the inevitable harder.

So, when Lysandir turns from Tharin to me, I say, “Stay safe. I love you.”

Lysandir cups my cheek and pulls me close. “I love you too.”

He seals his words with a kiss. Tears leak from my eyes and slide down my cheeks. I taste their salt as he breaks the kiss.

“I’ll come back to you, Mira.” The same promise he made before, and he kept it then .

He drags his gaze up and down my body, in one scalding last look, before he turns and races down the hallway alone.

Tharin dons his helm and then wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get you to the dowager.”

When I arrive, all of the other women have already gathered. Elaine, or someone, must have filled them in on the state of affairs because I’m met with excitement and messages of congratulations. It’s a bit embarrassing really, but their support warms me too. Having them near brings me comfort and strength, more than I anticipated, especially given the horror of war unfolding just outside the walls.

The only one who doesn’t approach me is Katherine. She completely refuses to look at me, instead lingering near the corner with her back turned. It’s fine. I’d rather not deal with her right now anyway.

“Ignore her,” Cora whispers to me. “We’re glad you’re here and safe.”

“We’ll pray for your prince and all of the others,” Gabriella assures me.

I guess that’s what they expect us to do. Pray and remain safe like poor little damsels. Not that I know how to wield a sword. And I certainly don’t have magic or anything else to fight with. I’d be a liability. This is the best place for me. But still, waiting, feeling helpless, is the worst. It’d be safer for us to leave, but we can’t, not bonded to the king. It would hamper him too much if we were to be far away. The bonds would pull at him, being a terrible distraction and possibly impairing his ability to fight. The only place for us to be is here, in this extra-warded area where it’s safest. But if the Unseelie can break through the wards protecting the territory, what’s to stop them from shattering these as well ?

Just the guards, the ones who haven’t gone to join their king. Tharin has taken up residence inside the room, refusing to be anywhere else. Adeline’s guardsman Erymis is here too, and they’ve shared enough longing looks to draw multiple questioning glances from the others. Though I suppose that shouldn’t matter so much anymore if the king gives them leave to follow their hearts as he said.

Unable to sit still, I start to pace. It can’t have been long. Minutes, not hours. But each one drags like a day, and it’s already getting hard to block out the horrible possibilities that keep popping to mind.

I clutch Lysandir’s ring in my palm, savoring its warmth. Alive. Well, if not safe.

Zoe suddenly cries out. I whip around toward her. The guards grab for their swords. Her arm is outstretched before her, and she stares at it like the world’s biggest spider is crawling across her skin.

Something moves. But it’s not a spider.

Thin tendrils of black smoke lift from the bond mark around her wrist.

My own suddenly feels cold, as if someone with hands of ice grabbed me. I glance down in time to see little whisps of smoke rising from mine as well, bits of the bond lifting off my skin and vanishing.

“What’s happening!” Katherine has rushed toward the rest of us, her arm outstretched.

“Your Highness?” Cora says with a desperate glance at the dowager queen.

Elaine cries out, covering her mouth with her hand.

My stomach plummets. Breath comes short and quick.

It’s then I know. The king is hurt. Dying .

When Bailey died, her bond to the king vanished. The same is happening now, just the other way around. The world seems to shift under my feet in a way it has only a few times in my life, the last when my father died. It was unexpected, the unthinkable, something so seismic as to shift the balance of my life for good.

Just like then, my chest is hollowed out, shock stealing my wits.

The king is dying. The Court of Fire is losing.

I grab Lysandir’s ring so tightly the metal digs into my palm. It’s warm, but how long will that last?

Ribbons of smoke continue unfurling from our wrists. They barely leave our skin before vanishing into nothingness.

Tharin takes charge, ordering the other guards in the room. “Get the women to the honing point! Take them to the capital at once!”

Because there’s no reason for us to remain anymore. No bond to hinder the king. No king at all.

Tears slip down my cheeks.

“Time to go.” Tharin latches onto my upper arm and tries to haul me toward the door.

But I dig in my heels and jerk out of his grip.

“No! I won’t leave him.” I can’t bear to leave him to fight and die, to hide away when at any moment the ring he gave me might cool.

“I have to take you to safety.”

Already the guards are ushering the other women up and toward the door.

“There has to be something we can do to help,” I all but shout at him.

“Mira,” Tharin grates, a hard edge to his voice. “I have to—”

A sound like shattered glass rings through the room. We freeze and look toward its source .

Queen Elaine stands with the spear in her hands. Its shaft has been extended. The shattered remnants of its top lie in pieces on the stonework as she rights it and holds it out toward me.

“Take the spear.” It’s the order of a queen. A command. “Help my son.”

Something fierce and hot burns in the center of my chest, racing like tingling likes of flame through my veins.

Tharin sucks in a breath, and I know he wants to demand I do otherwise. But even he won’t go against her wishes.

Her unblinking, powerful gaze calls me, tugging me forward like a rope I’d be helpless to wiggle away from even if I wanted to.

I cross the room to her and take the spear. It’s warm under my palm. Just the feel of it gives me strength—and something else. At the edge of my senses, I hear a song, a whisper urging me to go, to protect.

I straighten my shoulders and meet her resolute stare with one of my own. “I will.”

She gives me one solid nod. “Good.”

“Mira…” Adeline stares at me wide-eyed as I turn back toward the others.

“You can use it?” Cora asks.

I flex my fingers on the staff. “Yes.”

And I know it without a doubt. The magic already calls to me, begging to be unleashed. Elaine is too old and frail for the battlefield, but I’m not. I can do this.

I glance at Erymis, for I know he’ll do exactly what I’m about to ask. “Get them to safety. Now.”

“Right away,” he responses, grabbing Adeline and moving her toward the door. The other women follow, guards ushering them away. A pair help the dowager to her feet, and for once, she doesn’t rebuke their assistance .

“Tharin.” I pull the ring from around my neck and hold it up. “Take me to Lysandir.”

He gathers the ring into my palm and clasps it between our hands. “You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.” I can help. I can do something more than hide. And I will not lose him now.