Page 58 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Reason
The same shadows dispersed around the clearing, and suddenly they had returned to the altar. Irena was gone. Only Titania stood before them.
Kerrigan’s heart pounded as the memory warred through her. “You…you gave her the crown.”
“Yes,” Titania said.
“You are the reason that all this happened,” Fordham accused.
“I smuggled the crown out of Domara long ago to spite him. I never planned to use it. I did not warn Irena that it was as likely to lend itself to corruption as I gave it to her because Irena was the purest of us all. She truly wanted the Fae and dragons to work together. To ally. But it went all wrong, and I have been here, alone, since.”
Silence stretched between them as the truth of the Irena Bargain was finally fully laid bare.
Irena had been trying to help the Fae and dragons unite.
With the help of Titania’s interference, He Who Reigns had wrecked the bond.
Out of that had come the Society and all their rules to protect the dragons and grow the world the Fae had stolen from humans and were now inhabiting.
No wonder the Fae hated the humans who were here before them and had easily allied with the dragons and the half-Fae who had come from the union of their people—and the dragons they couldn’t quite tame but only leash. The whole thing was horrific.
“This is my debt,” Titania said.
“And you believe a wedding will make up for that?” Fordham all but snarled.
“Ford.” Kerrigan put a hand to his arm. They needed to remember who they were dealing with. If Fordham wasn’t careful, he was going to explode and Titania was going to flatten them, her champions or no.
“No,” he said. “This is…this is absurd. You tell us that the Irena Bargain and the dragons and the binding, it’s all because of you. And you think disappearing from the world is sufficient penance?”
Titania looked down at him over her nose. “I destroyed my lineage. It is only fair that I suffer solitude.”
Fordham turned away. “These are the gods. I expect them to deal with us like we’re puppets on a string. I didn’t think that you would be the same.”
“Why not?” Titania asked. “Am I much different from a god to your people?”
“Stop,” Kerrigan said. “This changes nothing. It doesn’t matter where we place the blame. All that matters is that we can fix it.” Kerrigan eyed Titania. “Which is the real reason I believe you invited us here.”
“You have the blood of the enemy in your veins,” Titania said.
“I can use the crown?”
“No,” Fordham said. “No, we’re not doing this again.”
“It didn’t work with Irena because she was fully Fae. She was one of my line. You are something else entirely. You descend from him.”
“That’s what I said,” Kerrigan told Fordham. “I can control it.”
“We don’t know where it is, and even if we did, I no longer think we should use it. You said there would be a price, but you didn’t say it would burn out her goodness.” Fordham pointed his finger at Titania. “That was the price, was it not?”
Titania nodded. “One of many prices.”
“It won’t do that to me.”
“It might!” he raged. “We can win this war without it.”
“What of the one after that?” Kerrigan challenged. “And the one after that? Our history is all wars dating back as far as recorded history with the dragons. Let us end this once and for all.”
“Then I’m glad that we do not have the crown, for I could not agree to this.”
“I know you are angry, son of Samil, but what would you have done differently in your ancestor’s place? Irena did the best with her circumstances.” Titania put her hands behind her back. “I believed that she could control the crown, and I was wrong.”
“You could be wrong about Kerrigan as well.”
“She isn’t,” Kerrigan said. She looked back to Titania. “Do you know where it is?”
Titania hesitated a moment before saying, “No.”
“She cannot lie,” Fordham said.
“But you have a guess?”
Titania lifted one perfect shoulder. “As do you.”
“The same one, I’d wager.” Kerrigan turned away from them both.
“This crown has been plaguing us since we discovered it from Ferrinix’s memory.
It has already caused me irreparable damage.
It has already stolen my father from me.
If we must go after it again, then we should remember that it is likely to cause pain.
Even if it does not steal my goodness, it is likely to steal something else. ”
“Well said,” Titania said.
“Then you use it,” Fordham told the mother of the Fae.
“I cannot. We know that a Fae cannot wield it properly.”
“I can do it,” Fordham said, ignoring her. “I will wield it.”
Kerrigan looked back at her love. “I could never risk you.”
“So we can risk you but not me?”
“I have his blood. I have his magic. The crown is most likely to recognize me. That’s the point.
Titania’s isolation was waiting for someone of his line to right the wrongs.
She has done her time. She has paid her debt by her disappearing and then giving us the information we need to fix these things. This is what it has all led up to.”
“But—”
“You said that I had to lead,” she told him with tears in her eyes. “So let me lead.”
He took her hand in his and pressed a kiss to it. “I said I could not survive this without you too.”
“And that we would do it together,” she promised him.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Together.”
“Go with my blessing,” Titania said as she placed her hand on where theirs joined. “May you find the crown. May you wield it and win this war.”
Kerrigan nodded at her. “And then your isolation is over.”
Titania nodded once. She clapped her hands, and the magic dissolved all around them. Suddenly they were standing back on the outside of Titania’s magic in their snow gear.
Fordham cursed as they both adjusted to the freezing temperatures again. “Promise me something, Kerrigan. If we do not find the crown this time, we will leave this foolish burden behind.”
“Yes,” she agreed easily.
Because she knew where it was.