“
Sometimes, we struggle to keep children alive inside of Faery. It has become much worse and far more dire over the last thirty or so years. In short, Faery is dying.” My heart must have stopped at that moment.
“That’s around the time that the Fae made their big announcement that they
were in charge of the Otherworld creatures and that the humans were no longer alone,” I said, remembering back to what we had been taught.
“
Otherworld is just another name for Faery,” he mused with a small smile. “It was easier to encourage the humans to believe that there was a world other than Faery that Shifters, and other creatures, were coming from, rather than one world. Feeling that you are under attack from one front is less intimidating than feeling like you are being overwhelmed from multiple fronts. We knew there would be fear; however, we wanted to avoid the whole Inquisition or Salem Witch Trials type of backlash if we could.”
“But Ryder told me that the ruling castes were against interfering with humans
—it’s like one of the number one rules.”
“That was my doing. I forced the other castes hands in this matter
, as we no longer had any choice but to become more active in human affairs. Synthia, Faery is at least triple the size of this world. Many of Faery’s denizens are very hazardous to this world. If Faery dies, where do you think all of the inhabitants of that world are going to go?”
“So that is what Ryder is doing, he’s here trying to stop this?”
“Yes, but until we can figure out all of those parties threatening our world, we cannot stop them. Healing the land is important, since it is rejecting the infants when they are presented to the Goddess Danu. If Faery does not accept an infant, then the child’s lifespan is limited, as any ailment can kill them. Not only has Faery stopped accepting them, the world itself is dying. Huge tracts of land that are ruled by the Dark, Horde, and Blood are withering and showing signs of death.”
“
And you think it has something to do with the Mages, or the Changelings who you all thought weren’t a threat before,” I supplied, wondering if this was why Ryder would be sticking his nose into it.
“
We suspect that they are at the root of it, but I didn't come here just to discuss the problems of Faery, Synthia. I came here to discuss you.”
“
What about me?” I asked, feeling my walls close around me as my defenses went up.
“
Please, hear me out before you say anything. When one Fae is bonded to another, as you are with Adam, we betroth them or handfast them to one another. Adam was betrothed to the Light Princess by proxy when Ryder agreed to marry Arianna. I don’t want to go into all of the details, but it was my hope that it would draw Adam, or the people I thought might be holding him, out of hiding. At this time, he is to marry the Light Princess, Caitlín, to unite the kingdoms.”
“
It would make sense since an alliance is usually made through marriage to broker peace, or, for gain.” I replied, finding the logic in it…
“
Exactly,” he said watching me carefully.
“
So—wait, what?” I asked as my head started spinning with what he had just said.
“
Adam will marry the Light Princess, Caitlín, which is the true name of the Light Princess that Arianna was impersonating. If you are the missing princess…that would be you.”
I
choked and then laughed until I snorted in a very unladylike matter. I alone was laughing. “Oh holy mother of fuck buckets, you're serious!”
“
Syn,” Zahruk warned in a stern tone.
“
He's like a brother to me. This is crazy! You understand that, right? Adam?” I looked at him for help and found nothing but acceptance. He just sat there and watched me. “We’ve been friends forever, and I think of you as my brother, dammit.”
Marry Adam? The one who I counted on because we worked together? We were as close as any siblings, and now I was supposed to marry him? No flipping way.
“
Would marriage to me be so bad? We know each other inside and out. You grew up with Adrian, and, yet, you developed feelings for him. What happened between you two could happen with us. We would be a strong, steady couple.”
“
Adam, I love you, you know that. But
marriage
? We don’t even know for sure if I’m the Light Heir; it is all just speculation right now. It could be possible, yes, but we don’t know for sure.”
“
I get it, Syn. I do. But if marrying you will bring peace to an entire kingdom, and save them in the process, I could marry you easily,” Adam said, staring me down in challenge.
“
And if we got married and I wasn’t the Light Princess? What then?”
“
Dammit, Syn, I don't know. I just know you ripped me from a life I should have had, and I have a family that I don't even know. You owe me. We could help Faery. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
“You've been with them this week, with your family.”
“
Yes,” he replied, tightening his grip on my hand.
“
I'm glad—or happy for you. Still, I can't marry you because I don’t love you in that way. I'm not sure what you guys came here for today. But if this was it, I'm sorry that you wasted your time.”
“
Synthia, there is more to it than just uniting two kingdoms,” the Dark King began. “You were raised in the human world, so this will be difficult for you to understand. At least this is what Adam has told me. Sometimes we have to rely on the most improbable course when looking for answers to our problems. Some call this faith. We are all children of Danu, and she does not want Faery to die any more than we do. Being a Goddess, it is not like she can just tell us outright what we need to do, as the journey is just as important as the answer is, and sometimes you have to have faith that she knows what she is doing. She has given us several prophesiers and seers who have had visions to help guide us to heal Faery. There is one prophesy about a child born of the Dark and Light Heirs who will complete the healing of the world that the returned relics began.”
“
No pressure, right?” Adam said, with the first genuine smile I'd seen on him today.
“
This isn't fair. This freaking sucks! We just barely found out we were Fae and now we get this tossed into our laps?”
The Dark King continued.
“The only other option for your heritage is that you are a second heir—which has happened before, but it’s extremely rare. We have no way of knowing, since the Light Fae, like any Fae, only allow us to know what they want us to, and of course what information they allow can always be misinformation. A good example of this is the situation with Arianna. The Light Fae offered the Light Princess, Caitlín, to us because they knew that we had been looking for her as part of the prophecy. They said that they couldn’t completely vouch for her because she was illegitimate and, therefore, the paternal bond between Fae father and child couldn’t be used to verify her identity. Of course we thought this was a bit off, with the huge uproar and accusations that were flying around after she went missing; that miraculously, after all these years later, she would suddenly turn up and they immediately offered her to us. When you combine this situation with all of the rumors of the Light King sending assassins out for her, you can understand why we were quite suspicious of her. Now, we did accept her as it suited our needs at the time, and our plans did work by the way, but you can see how the chain of misinformation can be problematic.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. “You can't be part of the Horde, because you show no signs of their brands. Blood Fae yes, you carry their brands, but, at the same time, yours are unique. Almost too unique. No, once you add up everything, it makes the most sense that you are Caitlín. We have many royal Fae, Synthia, every caste does. We don't die easily once Transition is complete so you can understand why we'd have so many. However, heirs are a very small percentage of royal Fae as the Goddess herself chooses them.”
“
Maybe they should find some Fae birth control,” I mumbled under my breath.
“
Nature takes control of that my dear. Our females can only breed within the first year immediately after our Transition, and every ten to fifteen years after it. Time is of the essence, which is why you would only have a short time to consider Adam's offer.”
“
Adam's offer?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Adam hadn’t made an offer, and I was afraid of him making any offers now.
“
Syn, we've been friends since the day I came to be with you maybe even before that and I'd like a chance to court you; see where this could go. If you are the Light Heir, you and I can help save Faery. If Faery dies, they will come here. We need to consider the consequences, and we need to make the right choices to protect both worlds. We are part of something that could save thousands of innocent children.”
“
So, you want to make a baby?” I replied bluntly. Brilliant! “Can’t we just do like some Fae ritual, put a funky headdress on, and call this Goddess down for a chat or something? Anyone?” I looked around at the faces in the club. Yup, no one was going to say yes to that! Damn.
“
No, I want to save the world, and maybe save Faery while we are at it. And I don’t think you can just call a Goddess down to have a chat,” The Dark King replied sternly, even though his eyes flashed with a hint of suppressed laughter.
“
Okay, this is too much. One, I don't want a baby with anyone. I'm not mother material, period. I'm screwed up, and everything I love ends up killed, or tortured. Adam, you already know that, so why the hell would you want me?” I asked, confused and a little panicked that this wasn't an offer but a demand. Sure they could say it was an offer, or call it anything they wanted to, but this was still a demand.
“
You're not cursed, Syn. Bad stuff happens in life. You taught us all that. You know what the Fae coming into the human world could do to it, probably better than anyone. Is that something you could allow to happen because you think you're cursed, or is it because you’re scared?”
Damn right, I was scared!
I wanted to scream that this wasn't fair. As if finding out I wasn't a Witch—that I was one of the creatures I hated most—wasn’t bad enough, but now this? “Adam, in the last month alone I have found out that I was adopted, and I got the two humans I loved and cherished the most killed, and my ex-boyfriend came back from the dead. I had to work beside the enemy to bring down a serial killer, which resulted in getting my best friend killed. My other best friend and I turned out to be the same race as the enemy, and we both went through Transition. My house got blown up. I'm jobless, homeless, and I have lost everything. You can't just walk in here and drop this on my head, and expect me to say okay.”
“
You left out the part where you were tortured,” Adam said, pulling me closer to him. “Syn, I can give you things I couldn’t before. We can be together, and this need I feel for you might finally go away.”
“
You feel it because you're bonded to her, Adam, not because you love her in that sense,” Adrian said from across the table, finally speaking.
“
It could be, but what if I actually love her? If we can save the world, then isn't it worth a try?” Adam growled.
“
You just said children were dying, right?” I asked as I turned to the Dark King.
“
Yes, and you can call me Kier.”
“
Okay, Kier, so say we have a baby and it dies because the land rejects it…What then?”
“
I don’t think that will be the case, but if that happened you would need to try again until one lived,” he said with a sadness set deep inside his vivid sky and sapphire blue eyes.
“
So we just keep trying, going until we have one that lives. I can't lose anyone else. I'm sorry, I really am, but I couldn't do it.”
“
Fertility is not as big of a problem as getting them to Transition alive is. We have every available resource being put into a cure. Even the reclusive Blood King has begun to send healers and scholars to help in the fight for the cure while still battling the Horde.”
“
Why is the Horde battling the Blood Fae? I mean, if their king
is
missing, who is leading them?” I asked.
“
The Horde King has many sons to lead his army. The Horde does not produce females often, and they are overrun by strong son’s, which allows the King to be gone for extended periods. It seems that the two castes had a nasty falling out, and the back and forth between the two of them had gone on for a very long time. I understand that they had finally reached an agreement, and the Blood King reneged on his promise, so they are back at it again. As the Dark Fae are allies of the Horde, it puts us in an uncomfortable position of choosing sides.”
“
Do you know where he is?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“
No, I don't have any idea where he is,” he replied, looking at me directly in the eye. Well shoot, I was hoping he would know, seeing that he and the Horde King were friendly.