Page 15 of Till Kingdom Come (The Ice King Chronicles #4)

Killian

“What do you mean, you’re leaving me to go back to your father’s palace? I need you here with me.”

Or at least there were words to that effect—it was the general gist of my conversation with my husband earlier that morning as he ate a huge meal and got ready to leave to go back home

“Your coronation isn’t happening for another month,” Bracca said, leaning back in his chair. “I can’t be gone from my kingdom for so long, and besides, we have your coronation to get ready for. I have to train my men to fight with these blunted instruments the mortal knights use.

As for you, your ministers will no doubt keep you busy learning the procedures of the ceremony—as I recall, you’ll have to read some of your address to the people—but you said you don’t read very well, so that means you have to memorize it. Along with answers to the ministers’ questions—and go through all the motions of the coronation. Meanwhile, I’ve left my duties for far too long, and I need to get back to them. We can’t have any meetings of your so-called Regent’s council either, without my father, so I’ll go get all of that settled and come back with him. He’ll no doubt want to take part in the Tournament as well.”

“I realize this council was my idea to begin with, but you’re the one who chose your father and started all this talk of Tournaments to celebrate. Besides, I’m just wondering how exactly your father will have time to run his own kingdom and advise me on mine at the same time?”

“We shouldn’t have to meet too often once everything is set up and in place. These things all take time to work out, a chuisle .”

I folded my arms over my chest. I wasn’t happy about any of this. His news that he was heading back to the Fairy Realm hadn’t been anything I wanted to hear.

“Well, perhaps I can go with you then?”

“I believe I just explained why that would be impossible. Besides, you’ll be too busy to even notice I’m gone.”

“No, I won’t.”

Bracca smiled and leaned over to brush my lips with a kiss. “The time will pass before you know it. I’ll only be gone for a week or two.”

“What time are you thinking of leaving?”

“We may as well go this morning while the weather isn’t too bad.”

“It’s always bad.”

He rolled his eyes a bit. “It’s not snowing, at least. We’ll be fine, and we’ll be back at our home in the morning. Besides, you’ll be busy.”

Famous last words, because that had all taken place earlier that morning and he’d left hours ago. And I very much knew he was gone, and I wasn’t “busy” in the least. I’d been miserable all day since he left, in fact. I missed him, plain and simple. I missed arguing with him and flirting with him and talking things over with him, and I just missed his handsome, grumpy face. My mind kept drifting back to the way he’d made love to me after the ceremony introducing me, and how close I’d felt to him—and how relieved I’d been. I’d thought for a moment that he wouldn’t come to me on that dais when I held out my hand to him. I’d never felt this much for anyone before, and it worried me.

One shouldn’t feel so much for another person. It was dangerous to feel like you’d die if they ever left you—I’d found that out the hard way with my mother. And as I’d gotten older, I’d sworn to myself I’d never let myself feel so much again. And yet here I was, desperately invested in this Dark Fairy and everything he was. He was a man I barely knew—a man who had already told me that he didn’t love me back . Could there be anything worse than that?

I knew he felt possessive, and I knew he was jealous. I’d have to be content with that and try not to read into it. The sad part of it all was that no matter what, I knew I’d keep hanging on and taking what I could get for as long as I could stand it. It wasn’t a conscious decision I’d made. It was simply the way it was.

That morning, when he’d left, I stood at the window and watched him move down the passage that led to the city gate, and I told myself he’d be back soon. I wasn’t totally successful in making myself believe it, though. Since we’d been in Daeneid, I’d become dependent on him, needing him like I needed to breathe. That simply wasn’t going to work—he’d warned me against it, in fact.

Hendris sent me a note in the late afternoon, asking me to come and dine with him. He’d invited both me and Bracca, because he didn’t know Bracca had already left to go back home.

I thought maybe it might make me feel better to socialize, so I dressed and went to his private dining room—a servant escorted me there—and found him alone and waiting at an ornate, though small table. Thankfully, he’d had the servants lay our places close together, so it wouldn’t seem awkward.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” I said, by way of greeting.

“Not at all.” He glanced around behind me. “Will Prince Bracca be joining us?”

“No. He left to go back to his kingdom earlier today. He had duties to attend to there.”

“I see. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to him. Do you know when he’s returning?”

“No, not exactly, but it won’t be too long.”

“Well, I hope you’re a little hungry. I have a very good cook.”

I smiled, mostly to be nice, and opened my napkin. I wasn’t hungry at all, but soon the servants brought in some simple but delicious dishes for us to sample, and I wound up eating much more than I’d planned. Afterward, we had some red wine and sat back in our chairs to socialize a bit. I was feeling uncomfortable without Bracca there to act as a buffer. I was still intimidated by consorting with all these kings. But I had to learn how to talk to people and this was a perfect opportunity. I drank my wine and tried to relax.

Hendris took a sip from his glass as well. “Has Prince Bracca decided who the last member of our Regent’s Council will be yet? Has he perhaps gone to arrange that?”

“I’d rather not discuss it,” I said softly, turning my gaze to the fire. “Not because it’s a secret—it’s just that I don’t know very much, and I might get it wrong. I don’t think Bracca would like it if I speculated.”

He gave me a little smile. “And you always do whatever Prince Bracca likes?”

I didn’t answer, concentrating on my wine instead. I thought it was a rude question. Or maybe I disliked it because it was true.

We were both silent for a minute. The clock on the wall was ticking loudly. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, Killian, but I was wondering how long it has been since you last saw your mother?”

I glanced up at him in surprise. “My mother? I haven’t seen her since I was five when she left me with my stepfather. I thought you knew that.”

“Not for sure. I knew only that Brendan’s son was missing and had been for years. I thought you might have been living with her before you came here.”

“No. It’s been about sixteen years, give or take a few months, since she abandoned me.”

“Abandoned you? You sound bitter.”

I shrugged. “I suppose I am.”

“Did you ever hear from her in all that time? Did she try to contact you?”

“No, I’ve never heard a word from her. Why do you ask?”

“Curiosity. Forgive me. I knew her a little. And Brendan was my uncle. I knew a little of their story.”

“You knew my mother?”

“Only a bit. I was young myself when she arrived, but she fascinated me. She was incredibly beautiful, you know. Even among the other Fae.”

“She was Fae?”

“Oh yes. She was a witch, born into a royal family.”

“A witch?”

“Her father is the witch king.”

“But I never heard of any kind of witch king or any kingdom either. Witches aren’t Fae.”

“Some are, of course. Not the mortal witches—the Wise Women, and not the Wiccans, who celebrate holidays and do rituals. They’re all mortal too. No, I meant the Fae witches. They’re magical beings, from a small Fae tribe to the west, in the Ensorcelled Mountains. Their magic is powerful and can be either dark or light.”

I was surprised and he smiled at me. He got up and went over to a large, ornate cabinet in the room. We were dining in his private quarters, and so he had some of his personal items in the room. He opened the doors and shuffled some papers inside it, and then brought out a map that he laid out on the table beside me. “This is a map of the Liminal. Here is where we are,” he said, pointing to a country near the top of the map. His long, elegant fingers traced south, and he said, “Here is the Fairy Kingdom. And over here,” he said, tapping a small group of mountains far to the west. “These are the Ensorcelled Mountains, where your mother lived. She could be living there now, in fact.”

He went back to his chair and sat down.

“Theirs was a tragic story,” he said, and I knew he was talking about my parents again.

“Really? I heard that my father was cruel to my mother and kept her mostly out of sight and captive in her rooms.”

“It was a complicated situation,” he said, a little hesitant. He looked as if he wanted to say more.

“I suppose it is when one person is holding the other one captive.” My tone was bitter, to say the least as I glared at him. “Are the rumors I heard true? Tell me.” I said, gripping the side of the table. “You said you knew my father. Was he abusive to my mother?”

“From what I understand, Brendan kept Ashlin in a room fortified with iron to weaken her. She couldn’t use her powers to get free. He was insanely jealous and possessive. She only managed to escape after you were born and when some of her women helped remove the iron from the doors. Brendan was enraged and thought she’d left him to be with another man.”

“Wait a minute. Why wasn’t he affected by the iron in her room?”

“Elves, though related to Fairies, aren’t affected by it. We mine iron ore deposits.”

“I’ve worn armor and fought with swords all my life.”

He shrugged and nodded. “Then you must have inherited your resistance to it from your father.”

I was silent for a moment, a bit lost in all the thoughts swirling around in my head. I didn’t necessarily believe him, and I was done listening to him trying to defend the man. My poor mother had been ripped away from her home and taken to this frozen wasteland, where she was locked away and then violently abused and assaulted—was it any wonder she left me as soon as she could get away? She must have hated the very sight of me, just like she hated my father. Complicated, my ass.

I’m not sure if I said any of that out loud or if Hendris just saw the stricken look on my face, because he leaned forward and spoke to me.

“Killian, your mother loved you. She refused to be parted from you. It’s a part of why she took you with her when she left here.”

“I don’t see how she could have loved me. Besides, she did leave me. Not that I blame her—who could?”

“Everyone who ever saw you with her could see how much she loved you. She was quite protective of you.”

I couldn’t help the little sneer in my voice when I answered him. “She left me with a mortal stepfather who never cared about me. Who sold me to the Fairies the first damn chance he got. She must have gotten over ‘how much’ she loved me pretty fast.”

“I don’t pretend to know anything about your life after you left here. I don’t know what kind of man your stepfather was or why she married him. But she must have had her reasons. She felt she couldn’t take you back to her home.”

“Why not?”

“Because her family had vowed to kill you on sight.”

I fell back in shock and simply stared at him. Was that why she’d had the glamour put on me? To hide me from her own family?

“Wait. Did my mother put the glamour on me to hide me?”

“She must have. Yes.”

Hendris swirled the red wine in his crystal glass as he waited for me to absorb what he’d said. He seemed to be carefully choosing his words. “How much do you know about the Blood Throne?”

“Not much, it seems.”

“You and I have never had much chance to talk without Bracca being present—not from the first time you strolled into my throne room with your Fairy Prince and proceeded to take over.”

I blushed a little at that, but he quickly spoke up. “That came out wrong. I apologize.”

I set my glass down hard on the table and stared at him. “None of this was my idea. I hope you know that. I was simply living my life in the mortal world when the Fairies took me. I’m as much of a victim as you in a way. But I won’t hear anything against ‘my Fairy Prince,’ as you call him either. That’s my husband.”

“I know that, and I meant no disrespect.” He quirked up a corner of his mouth. “Well, perhaps I did a little. Fairies and Elves are traditional enemies, Killian. But you mustn’t think I have any accusations or even complaints about you saving the Blood Throne. It means a lot to our people. And I don’t consider myself a victim. I love Daeneid and it was definitely dying, along with the Elven people. You saved us, you and your prince. And I’m grateful to you.”

I inclined my head the slightest bit. I wasn’t sure where he was going with all this, but I felt like he was trying to warn me about something. “What are you trying to say, Hendris? Just say it.”

He shook his head. “I just wondered if you knew about the curse on the throne before you came here. If they told you what you were getting yourself into?”

“Getting myself into? That sounds ominous.”

He looked up at me, seeming a bit surprised. “I don’t mean it to, but you should know. It was the throne itself—the stone inside it—that made Brendan so obsessive and jealous.”

“Then you better tell me about it.”

“Once the Blood Stone was just a pretty rock that was symbolic and nothing more. But the witch king of the Ensorcelled Mountains—your grandfather—laid a curse on Daeneid and on our king. He meant to destroy our kingdom and everyone in it if he could because of what Brandon had done.”

“My God, what did he do?”

He sighed and drained his glass, setting it carefully back on the table. “Nothing more than meeting your mother and falling desperately in love with her. He was handsome and brave and a good king—all the things that a young girl like Ashlin would fall in love with too. And that’s exactly what happened. They met and it was love at first sight.”

I had to admit to feeling shocked. “They did? But I thought…I had the impression that he was cruel to her. That she hated him. My God, he forced himself on her.”

“That was the rumor, but I never believed it. He did become obsessed. But that was later on, once the curse had begun to badly affect him. There’s so much more to the story.”

“How much more can there be?” I said, jumping to my feet. “What else is there to know?”

Hendris got to his feet too and faced me. “I told you that you’re wrong, Killian. Your mother loved Brendan. She loved you both more than her own happiness and she sacrificed everything to save you both. And to save herself.”

I made a rude sound and turned away. I didn’t want to listen to him try and defend the terrible man who was my father. It was an awful story, and he had to be an awful person for doing what he’d done.

“I don’t believe you. How could she love a man who’d done that to her?”

“I told you. The curse led to Brendan being obsessed with Ashlin. This obsession was overwhelming, and it drove him to extreme lengths. He disregarded all the boundaries and even her well-being. But she loved him just as much. Her own obsession for him meant that he probably never had to force her at all. The love between them grew twisted and dark. They fought all the time. The line between his genuine love for her and his overpowering obsession with her became blurred or even non-existent. It was tragic. Ashlin’s father was the witch king and like I said, filled with dark magic. He used it against both your father and your mother.”

“But she was his own daughter.”

“She disobeyed him and ran away with Brendan. The witch king isn’t mortal, Killian, and you have to stop thinking of him that way. He forbade the marriage and banished Brendan from his kingdom forever. But Brendan came back for her, and she literally leaped from her window down to him in the dead of night, and he caught her in his arms and rode away with her.”

“Sounds romantic…”

“It was. He brought her to Daeneid, and they were married right away. But your grandfather wanted to punish them both for their defiance by putting a curse on their love for each other. He used the stone to accomplish it”

“I don’t understand. If she wanted to be with him, and they were so much in love, then what happened?”

The king’s curse followed them home.”

“What is the curse? You still haven’t said.”

He looked uneasy. “You’re sure Bracca never mentioned any of this to you?”

“No, never.”

“It’s partly a love curse, with the generational part thrown in for good measure. It’s a bit hard to explain. The true love curse made the feelings that Brendan and Ashlin had for each other turn into an all-consuming and obsessive love. It defied logic or reason, but she was almost as bad as he was. Those under the curse can’t escape it. The only thing they can do to stop it is to separate forever, which brings about eternal longing for each other and the unfulfilled desire to be together again. Because Ashlin was such a powerful witch, she recognized the fact she was under a spell. A curse. Somehow, she had the courage to leave your father and break the cycle. But I imagine she suffered greatly. The separation can be agonizing, as the cursed lovers are denied the opportunity to unite with their one true love forever. And that can lead to heartbreak and even worse…” He broke off suddenly, as if he’d said too much.

“What? What could be worse?”

He sighed. “The death of one of them. Most often by suicide. In this case, the curse is designed to either kill the Dokkalfar king or make him take his own life. Whoever he might be as long as he’s in the direct line.”

“What are you saying? My father was killed in a battle. He didn’t kill himself.”

“According to the men with him at the time, he had no regard for his life. He charged into the danger knowingly. He may very well have invited his own death.”

“Then this curse will kill me one day too?”

“Eventually, yes. You dropped your blood on the throne and brought it back to life, and when you did, you brought that curse down on yourself.”

“Oh my God.”

Hendris looked away and absently twirled his glass again. I watched the blood red wine inside the crystal stain the sides and slide back down into the swirling liquid.

He seemed to be choosing his words. “I’m really sorry, Killian. Someone should have warned you.”