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Chapter Twelve

The bride took counsel from the trees and learned much of the dark woods around her. The Fae were masters of deception, and it was best to beware of what gifts they offered her. For all Fae possess a trickster’s heart.

—Anon., Tales from the Twilight Court

E udora sat on the floor upon a mountain of silver and gold cushions, the human child named Caden beside her.

Spread before them were plates of food and goblets of periwinkle punch.

The blooming flowers in dozens of vases throughout the room filled the air with a thousand wondrous scents.

The lamps and chandeliers glowed from the light of a dozen will-o’-the-wisps.

Rath leaned against the wall in the corner of the room, his hand resting on his sword hilt as he guarded them.

The little boy listened with rapt attention as Eudora told him tales of the Flower Fairy.

“And you went to live with her?” Caden asked.

“Yes, I lived with the Flower Fairy for ten short years. There I learned more about my powers and my fairy graces. Before I returned home, she gave me the gift of my wild Fae form.”

It was a tradition for Fae princes and princesses to study magic under the Flower Fairy, whose home was on an island just off the coast, between the Seelie and Unseelie lands. The young Fae royal would receive a gift from her when they departed.

“What about your family? Did you miss them?”

Eudora exchanged a glance with Rath, who moved to a chair and continued watching them.

He crossed his arms over his chest, a bemused smile contrasting the intensity of his focus.

He did not understand her fascination with human children, but he said nothing as she doted on the little boy.

It had been far too long since she’d been around a child.

Long ago, they used to dance with children in fairy circles beneath the full moon. She missed those days. Eudora turned her focus back to the child’s question.

“There were many days where I missed my family desperately and my gardens and my home. There is quite a bit of power in a place where one puts one’s head to sleep, where one finds comfort and rest. But what makes a home a home is one’s family and friends.

I had no one but the Flower Fairy for counsel when I lived with her. She is a solitary fairy, you see.”

“What’s a solitary fairy?” Caden asked as he scooted closer to Eudora.

“A fairy who lives alone. I am a trooping fairy—I love being around others. Their energy gives me strength. Solitary fairies find both power and solace in being alone; their minds are allowed to contemplate life’s deeper mysteries.

The Flower Fairy knows so much about our world because she spends so much time alone thinking about it. It is what makes her wise.”

Eudora drew in a breath as she realized what it was about this child and Kate that tore at her heart.

They were in a world that was not their own, a place that was not home, and they’d been separated.

It was cruel of Roan to do such a thing, but her brother often did things that puzzled or frustrated her.

“Does she get lonely?” the boy asked. “The Flower Fairy?”

“I believe that is why she brings the young Shining Ones to her home to give them gifts. It banishes her occasional melancholy away. And she was certainly there to aid me in the same way. She could often chase my sorrows away whenever I missed my brother and mother.”

“ And me,” Rath added with a wicked wink. Eudora’s heart skipped a painful beat as she saw the heat in his eyes conveying a promise that both excited and frightened her.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Rath, surely you have something else to occupy you.” She was not in the mood to be teased.

Fear of an approaching war with the Seelie had most of the Twilight Court on edge.

As a Fae who took in the energy of those around her, she was weakened by their fears and anxieties.

It didn’t help that those who would seek to take Roan’s place were now vying for loyalty amongst the courtiers.

The presence of the human child was a welcome distraction from her worries.

His bright-eyed hope and keen interest in her world refreshed her.

When the palace brownie Babbitt had brought the boy to her, she had been annoyed at first, and then she’d felt the boy’s energy and it soothed her.

Human children carried a type of magic that did not exist in the Fae realm.

“Now, let me tell you about the Holly King?—”

Eudora halted her tale as a will-o’-the-wisp flitted into the room, glowing brightly.

Rath eyed the wisp warily. Roan and Eudora both held the loyalty of the wisps, which provided light to the residents of the palace, but Rath didn’t trust the watchful little creatures as much as she did.

Eudora held out a hand to the wisp, which drifted down to land in her palm.

“What have you seen, little wisp?” she asked.

Within its glow, she saw a vision of the mortal Roan had taken as his pet. According to the palace pixies, she was wandering the labyrinth, where Roan visited her, but the vision this wisp presented showed the woman in the palace. The dungeons, to be precise. How on earth had she gotten there?

Rath crouched beside Eudora and gazed into the light over her shoulder. “I wager that Roan has no idea his little pet is in the palace,” he said so only Eudora could hear him.

“Is that Kate?” Caden asked, also staring at the vision within the wisp’s glow.

“Yes. It would seem your sister has returned to the palace.”

The child got to his feet, grinning. “I knew she’d solve the labyrinth. I knew it.”

“So it would seem,” Eudora said reluctantly.

“Though I would imagine that if she had, Roan would be with her, because he would have to bring her here from the center of the labyrinth. But he is not with her. Instead, I see her in the dungeons alone. Weeping.” Why was the human woman weeping?

She was not trapped in one of the cells.

“She’s crying?” Caden’s voice pitched in alarm. “Is she hurt? Did Roan hurt her?”

“What? No. Roan would never hurt your sister. But I can’t understand why she’s in the dungeons.”

At this, the boy’s eyes widened. “Because I was there. I was in a cell when he sent Kate away to the labyrinth. She doesn’t know that he brought me to you after she left.”

Eudora tapped her chin, thinking. “So she hasn’t spoken to Roan. Somehow, she got back into the palace and found her way to the dungeons without passing Roan’s challenge directly.” Eudora was quite impressed. “Clever creature. Would you like to see her?”

Caden nodded eagerly.

“Then we shall devise a way for you to see her without my brother finding out,” she told the boy.

Caden beamed at her and Rath. “Really?”

“Really?” Rath said in a very different tone, one full of skepticism.

“Yes, really,” said Eudora.

“Princess, now isn’t the time to anger your brother,” Rath said, his tone filled with warning.

“I shall not anger him because he shall not find out. Instead, I will please him by distracting his anxious royal court with a ball. We haven’t had a true one of those in years.”

Rath rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, that will be just what Roan wants when we are on the eve of war. Why on earth do you think this is a good idea?”

Eudora lifted her golden skirts and stood. “Don’t you see? A ball will keep Roan away from the palace. He does so despise such things.”

Rath raised an eyebrow but conceded her point.

Eudora continued. “His absence will give us a chance to let Caden see his sister, and the ball shall be a cover for us to reunite these two. It shall also have the benefit of distracting the rest of the court.” She bit her lip.

“You will help me, won’t you?” she asked Rath as she placed a hand upon his arm and smiled at him.

The First Lance’s eyes focused on her mouth. “You know full well I’ll do anything that you wish.” When she moved away to take the child’s hand, Rath captured her other wrist, gently bringing her back to him. “And you will gift me a kiss, Eudora. A true one. No more sisterly pecks upon the cheek.”

Eudora’s body heated, but she couldn’t look away from Rath.

They had danced around each other for centuries, never daring to address their mutual attraction directly.

Eudora feared to do so, because she would be irrevocably changed if she admitted how much she loved Rath, and Fae were afraid of change, even while being fascinated by change in others.

But change meant that you were not the same as you once were, and Fae by their very natures feared that fate greatly for themselves.

Rath’s fingers rubbed Eudora’s skin gently, forging a sweet fire beneath it.

The impending war and the sense of urgency it brought with it only heightened her reaction.

But there was also something else stirring inside her, something that felt very human, and she believed that her proximity to Kate was to blame.

The young woman’s emotions were so strong they reached Eudora even here.

Humans felt everything intensely, and she’d always been drawn to humans and their wild range of emotions.

“A kiss, then,” she agreed, suddenly breathless.

But a kiss between Fae could also be a promise, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to make a promise to Rath.

But her pull toward him had been undeniable her entire long, enchanted life, and the threat of an impending war pushed her to agree because it was quite possible that neither of them would get the chance again.

“Then tell me what you wish me to do,” Rath whispered. “And I shall see it done.”

“Prepare the palace for a ball. The brownies will know what to do. I also need you to watch the child while I find Roan’s wayward mortal.”

Eudora closed her eyes, delving deep as her wild form came forth.

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