Betrayal (17 page)

We arrived at the same time as every event in this world I live in, before the sun was up and good awake.  Yes, I’ve needed less sleep, but no, I still had not become accustomed to early morning smiley happy people unless it was lying beside Ian and tasting his kiss. 

“What element of surprise do we still hold in walking in?”

“None,” I said sharply though I knew very well the question wasn’t directed at me. They both stopped to stare expecting me to expound on the wisdom I was only guessing at. 

“He doesn’t necessarily know what we’re there for Grace except to lead you on with more riddles,” Pike reared back into his “treat Grace like a moron” phase.  How easily he slipped into this.

“”Oh-yes-he-does,” I said in my singsong way.  “He means to lure me there and now he has.  I guarantee you he has a backup plan.  I just want to be clear we all agree that he will stoop to any level.”

They knew I was right.

I fell in step with my traveling companions.  Pike seemed a little less broody as if his shoulders were at ease, though he was on his full guard.  I forced an extra step to allow a smile to reach his face, but when he looked at me, he only held fear in his eyes.

“Why are you afraid?” I whispered.

He stiffened with contempt.  I guessed that was the wrong thing to say to a man since his sudden death glare gave off the “she doubts me” face and then changed quickly to the “ape man challenge” of proving he was up to the said challenge.

“Sorry, I only meant you’re still undeniably uptight when I know this will all work out like everything else does.”

“Grace, shut up,” Pike said very clearly.

Well I never—

Ian laughed under his breath.

“You close your trap too, mister.  I was only trying to tone down his testosterone-al urge to attack everything in sight.”

“Grace, that urge is instilled in us, no matter what world you live in,” Pike seethed with a whisper of something else I couldn’t read mixed with it.  Seems I never can with men.

“Fine, but I stand quoted today as saying that the world ruled by women would be a lot less uptight,” I turned my head into the air, folded my arms, and waited for the coming wrath.

“And a world ruled solely by women would be the downfall of men for which you, the female population, would diminish and we would all be in a plight.”  Ian was wordy all of the sudden. 
Figures!

I sulked.  He took my arm to calm my nerves no doubt to see me comforted before we arrived.  “Your monologues leave me angry,” I huffed.

“And yours leave me wishing we were already married and I could take you over my knee an—“

“Ian!”

Pike tried to stifle a laugh, but failed.   “For once, I agree with Ian one hundred percent.”

Dog! 
“So now that we’re great friends and all, PIKE,” I accentuated his name slowly, “and we can joke about male and female bantering so easy and all,” I poked his arm this time, “then you won’t mind me persuading you with my feminine queenly ability to force you to eat dirt.”  I was not this hard core fearless chic they painted me to be.  Anything but. But it was working to draw my nerve to see the Unseelie King.

“Is that a challenge?” Pike got in my face trying to look angry, but his smarmy smile was far from anger driven.

I growled and stomped away three steps to Danella knowing they were laughing at me internally, but they were at least quiet for now.

All fun and games ended when Kin and his father, the two pillars of pure power, were standing in the clearing with very few guards.  I greeted both of them in the courtly way they expected and watched as the rest of my court followed suit.

I wanted desperately to just blurt out my questions about why he sent the goblins, for who,else would have.  I worried after my blocking was in full swing if he even told Kin or if he knew Kin was there too.  Did Kin tell him something different?  Was he was there to aid the goblins or something and not there to rescue me?  I hate that I doubt him, honor or not, but he wasn’t exactly a Johnny do-gooder.  And to think of the way he was all of my human years.  Honor for my safety he held, but nothing past that I feared.

I did find out from Pike that Ian panicked when he couldn’t find me and went straight to Kin to accuse him.  When they didn’t find me with him, Kin joined the rescue posse.

I saw King Sane look exclusively at the one slivered slash that remained on my face.  It was almost gone and he couldn’t know what it was from.  He smiled evilly though making me wonder.

“My little slave girl dost thou grow into a queen rather fast I see.  Did you at least enjoy the night alone with my son?”  King Sane said snidely looking me over too suggestively causing enough stomach churning that I wanted to throw up.  All the tiny hairs on my neck and arms rose at once.  His face and the way he held his body suggested power, but a direct lack of moral fiber exemplifying one hundred percent winter king material.  I had to hope that Kin was mostly beyond that.  Oh, I knew well Kin was anything but
moral
, but he wasn’t his father completely.  Like father, like son.  Mostly.

His slave girl comment was only proof.

I felt Ian inch forward a touch stopping him with my one finger in the air.  He didn’t like the demanding nature, but he would have to suffice his manly dignity later. I could use some major “Queenly” abilities at the moment, but my failing miserably at it was staring me blatantly in the face and trying to convince me I was less than worthy.  However, I recognized I was far from perfect and knew with time I could put this man down. My lack of knowledge helped when the enemy didn’t know I’d gained it.

The king laughed annoyingly only to set Ian off more.

Pig! 
“Your son has the most kindly of manners and I welcome his company at any time.”

That threw his royal insaneness off.  He frowned at me, and then his son.  “Does he now?”  As if he were discovered as being a leper who committed the worst crime, I cringed at making Kin look as what he could call being a gentleman
bad
even to his nasty excuse of a father.  I hoped the look on my face was apology enough for giving him away.  That sucked.

To somewhat rectify it I added, “At least when one is being kidnapped, some attempt to remain gentlemanly and not treat the captive like an insect.”   Because being a kidnapper was good in the first place!  Too late to retrieve my comment, I shrugged a shoulder and glared.

“Seems the adolescent young lady I’ve watched over for years put aside her recently acquired plucky attitude and now represents the questionably repressed.  How pathetically heroic.”

I ignored his dig on his own son and decided to move on before my “plucky” self stabbed the slimeball with the first blunt object I could obtain that would possibly hurt the most.  I also ignored the fact that he just admitted he’d been way to close to me for years. 
Coach.

I faked a sweet mental smile, “Anyway, King Sane, we are not here to discuss the comings and goings of your son and my own court.  I believe you have something you wish to discuss with me.”  His salt-and-pepper hair was actually thinning with wrinkles covering his eyes on the side.  He was an older version of Kin with the added years of being a nasty, horrific tyrant.  And he didn’t fidget like whatever he was about to offer was hard to tell me either.
              “There is no discussion needed.  I only wanted to tell you of a detail in your life that has been withheld for various reasons and will now find it’s way to surface.  I want to tell you about your father.”

Here we are. 

“Your mother is of the summer court.  Your father was of my winter court.”

If that was the most horrible news, they were mistaken.  “My father was a Fey?”

“No, he isn’t.”

I don’t understand.  My faced begged the same thought.

“He was a human who lived in our court as a slave and chose to leave our court unannounced.”

What do I ask first?  Why was he telling me this?  I looked to Kin who was little help.

King Sane continued looking to his son, “I tell you this because you have a right to know and because I wouldn’t want the information construed otherwise.”

Something unwelcoming prickled at my skin.  Offhand comments aside, he wanted something out of this.  “And your word would have me satisfied as the truth as well as what the possible motives remain hidden for why you are telling me this?”

His deviant smile reached my guarded one.  “I only share what happened so you can know what history you have with my court and be thankful for what I have done to ensure you grew up with a father.”

He gives himself credit for something I didn’t know and certainly question the validity of.  “And you take credit for his being there because why?” Kin didn’t budge when I looked to him for help.  His severe silence had me more on edge than the king’s deceptive hidden motives.  Kin knew something more. 

“Because, when your mother convinced him to leave my court I should have had him killed, but I chose to let him live, leave, and be whisked away into their fantasy love nest in the human world.”

While I expected rebuttal noises from anyone around me, I found only my own breath speaking back.  I was getting a bad feeling and it didn’t taste like chicken. 

“And once again you credit yourself for him being alive I’m guessing?” 
Betraying, evil, lying, slimy cockroach.
We were talking in circles but I wanted him to mess up, tell something more.

“Yes, Grace.  I am the reason he is alive.  He forfeited his life when he left my court without permission to mine or the enemy court.  I allowed him to hide away in the human world.  He did well to stay alive. ”

Ahh! Will the real villain please step up
?  “Yet you brought me here to tell me you’re the savior of the hour because you didn’t kill my father nineteen years ago and I am to be thankful?”

“No, I’m telling you because I want you to know that you originate from both courts and hold oath to both of them in the like. You belong to my court.”

Now hold on one freaking minute.  “You are sadly mistaken if you think for one minute I will just drop everything and beg your evilness for allowing my presence in your court.  If you held one ounce of nicety that your son does, though both of you are lacking tactfulness, I would consider your offer.  However, since your son is not who I will have dealings with in the future, I think you better find better ways to convince the poor little queen to convert to your Unseelie ways.  Now if that is all you had to tell me, then I bid you goodbye.”

I waited for him to say otherwise.  He nodded to the boy next to him who I assumed was yet another servant.  “Ready my way home.”  His eyes didn’t leave me, “I will see you in my court one way or another, Grace.”  And he left with a blue cape swooping over the wind just like the varied villains in my storybooks.  Fairy tales weren’t all knights and shining armor on a white horse.  Some were dark and appeared at times when a happy ending was inevitably ready to be brought back into reality.

Sane was gone.  No one said a word seeing him off.  But he left behind even
more
unanswered questions.  Details that didn't add up. 

That went well.

“Miss Grace, I need your decision on the book list.  When will you have it ready?” the records keeper secretary was asking me with a slightly demanding voice.  She was a sweet girl, woman.  Not sure which.

“Yes, Lanie,” I flicked a glance at Sarah to playfully roll my eyes.  Sarah giggled.

Gemma was reading something in the corner.  One day I would give her a chance at knowing her. 
After the whole wedding and he’s all mine part.

“Can I help with the list?”

“Yes, but I have two others joining me to help.”  After a few minutes passed, my guests arrived.  When Bane walked in Sarah’s eyes bulged to saucer size.  He watched her every second of the arrival and every second waiting for what to do next.

“I know what you’re thinking, but you might be shocked at his knowledge of the classics,” I laughed and motioned for Bane to get seated.  When his built like a brick house body much like Kin’s, spread out into the large Victorian style chair, I laughed out loud at his discomfort.  He suddenly rose again and forced me to jar backwards smacking Sarah on the arm. 

“Sorry.”  She righted herself and I stepped back in rapid succession as I realized Bane had invaded my personal space intending only to check on Sarah in his panic.  I moved far enough away to give them a private moment, but noted that Bane asked if she was okay and she actually spoke to him to say she was fine.  He didn’t sit down and Sarah just stood there with both staring in silence not knowing he was waiting for her to sit first.  I ventured over and pulled her to a chair, in turn seeing out of my peripheral that Bane sat also.  Sigh!  Match making is harder than I thought.

Ian popped his head in at that opportune moment, probably to check on me, but ended up giving an unusually quick kiss to the forehead and started to retreat.  My puzzled face gave him enough to note and say, “I just wanted to see you.”

Ahhh!  He was just here to see me.  My heart leapt ten ways of Sunday. 

Sarah mouthed across to me, “pinned would be nice here.”  I glared at her to stop her thoughts of what I privately shared, but Ian shot a look to me, and then her.  She’d successfully not hidden her knowledge that I knew I’d regret ever telling her.

Ian blushed a bit and squirmed in his step, then backed out of the room with a nod to me and then Bane.  I would not tell Sarah another thing.

I got the party started with a little William Shakespeare and Poe death and glory talk.  Before Sarah realized it, she was in a heated discussion about the mannerisms of a lady in various Shakespearian plays with Bane and didn’t even notice when I joined Lanie at the desk for tea.  They were at it for thirty minutes before they ran out of conversation and noticed me gone.  Wow!

I was enthralled with watching what took place between them.  I understood the dazzling affect of others watching Ian and me.  Pure unfiltered love and attraction was a glorious thing to see.

We added twenty seven new books to the library. I couldn’t be more pleased. 

Sarah let her long hair speak volumes to a very attentive Bane who watched and never blinked once for fear of missing a single second of her flirtatious side.  It was rare and he resembled a lovesick pup dying of thirst.  I enjoyed every part of the show before me. 

Smart girl.

Bane was officially, without a doubt
hooked
.                                                       

I retreated to clean up and leave Bane and Sarah alone for a few more minutes before our official meeting to talk about me and my issues of the past regarding the king of insane, the winter court, and
MY
father.

As we assembled, I had a long hardly missed panic attack at the amount of people who would be in the room where I discussed my unfiltered ancestry that they probably already were privy to anyway.  Ian smiled, the kind that calmed me without a single touch.  His mouth came near my ear, “It will be just fine.  Everyone here is your friend, not your enemy.”

Small comfort. 

Bane arrived two minutes late to the meeting. Uh-huh!

Ian brought the massive group to attention by clearing his throat.  All excess talking ceased as it always did when he spoke.  “We need to share with Grace what knowledge we know about her father now that it has been revealed.  I explained to her that the information was only withheld for her own protection as well as her parents.  She knows from King Sane that her father worked in the kitchen at the winter court disguised from the rest and that he followed her mother into the human world.  The winter court king made her to think that it was he who saved him from death and allowed him to freely love her mom.  We need to set the record straight and I would rather it come from someone other than me.”

This was easy to see.  He wanted to make sure he didn’t sugarcoat or discard any details from the original tale.

Pike’s throat seemed hoarse as he said, “Sane took your father, but your mother begged for his life with bargaining the Firebearer’s interference in our world by removing herself.  She vowed to stay in the human world and never return to our own as well as agreeing to have your father’s memory erased.”

Erased? “Did he even know my mother afterward?”  I should be paying full attention. 

“Yes,” Ian intervened and continued, “He grew to know her, but your mother spent every waking hour to win him over again.  Her biggest obstacle was you.”

One hundred percent of my attention left my body.  “Me?” I was caught up in it all.  It almost felt like I was listening to someone else’s tale.

Pike went on, “You were already formed in her womb.  This is the part of the story that King Sane never knew.  He has always wondered how the prophecy came to us and not his own seer, but your mother was a Seelie Fey.  When he agreed to let your father live, Queen Lazyra cast shields and protections over the three of you.  She personally sent me to teach your mother strategies for keeping the enemy out.”

“Why would she need to keep the enemy out if the enemy let them go?”  I tried to focus the attention that was sitting about fifty percent now.

Pike picked back up, “The enemy made mistake number two.  He let the summer Firebearer leave in the summer court’s part of the year.  When the time came to light the torch, there was no one to pass the season.  He couldn't deny her passage.”

“You mean to tell me that the seasons are based on whether I light a dang match?”  I was far from believing all this and started to fidget with a string on the hem of my sleeve not wanting to look them in the eyes.  I thought it was just a symbol or picturesque ritual.  Magic in the royals.  To think the Fey actually controlled what the humans called
Mother Nature.
Or she controlled us.

“Your mother knew this too.”

No one answered my obviously easy answered question so I chose to keep my mouth shut hoping they would just finish it already.  I closed my eyes and bent over the long round table.

“Without your mom the season wouldn’t pass.  When the winter court realized this two weeks into the solstice, he requested our queen to meet.  He demanded your mother be returned to change the seasons.”

I watched Pike now as he relayed this with a too steady gaze.  When he finished, I saw that the room had all heads looking down at the table and not at us.  Would they all hate me now?  “My mother returned.  I know she did.  She told me.  And I knew that she was pregnant with me when she entered the human world.  What I don’t know is why Mr.
In
Sane the king wanted to meet with me and tell me his little story.”

Ian and Pike exchanged looks of hidden meaning and Ian nodded to Pike.  Pike popped his eyes around the table releasing some kind of mind spell because the turned down faces hurriedly popped back to me.  Then all at once, back down.  Pike had a power I didn't know about.

“He wanted to gain your favor.  He hoped to make you think that your father was spared by him and shunned by us.  There are many things about your father still hidden.  We have kept the secrets and them protected ever since. Your parents are safe, I promise.”  His eyes were true.  I’d come to rely on him more than he realized.  Or maybe he knew.

“So why the drama moment of meeting with me?  He could have told me before when he was here at my court.”

Pike and Ian exchanged another look putting aside for once their competitive alpha-mindedness.

“
Now
boys.  Tell me
now
.”

This instinctual male ability to always want to fix their female’s woes was grating on my last nerve.  Right now two alphas were attempting to control the information highway from me.  It’s a dang good thing that me and the alphas can see eye to eye, cuz’ neither of them will win this showdown.  Just tell me things already!

Ian’s gaze didn’t waver, but Pike’s finally gave. 

With a sigh he looked around once more at each and every face in the room.  Ian nodded with what I assumed would be to release them.  All heads lifted. Grabbing my hands, I thought it might be the truth about what Kin was.  What his connection to me was with the Unseelie court.  I’d figured it out long ago, but never spoke of it to anyone for fear of it affecting, or swaying, the future.  “There is a motive to telling you his little tale of being a forgiving king who spares those he considers an enemy.  He wants you to not see him for what he really is.  I recently found a cave underground disguised by the winter court and in it were over a dozen human and Seelie court slaves working the kitchens and laundry for the Unseelie.”

I interrupted, “Oh my, we have to rescue them.”  Then it dawned on me.  “That’s where you’ve been going.  You were trying to rescue them.  I told you you’re a hero.  Pike I can’t believe you’ve hid this from me.” I jumped to my feet.  Another realization paralyzed my step.  I reached out and took Pike’s hand and squeezed it to the point where the absence of blood was turning his hand ice cold.  “Your mother!” I gasped.

The whole room joined in my reaction.  Little did they know.

“You found your mother in that cave.”  My hand stayed to my mouth like a true drama queen finding out her best friend kissed the quarterback under the bleachers.  This was actually life happening and not at all like the meaningless antics of high school.  Real life sucked sometimes.

Pike’s face fell a little more now. “There’s more.”

What more could there be in this nightmare?
              “She doesn’t know who she is, nor that she was once the queen of the Seelie court.”

Wow!  That bites.  “So we rescue her.  Simple!”  What else could I say?

“Not that easy, Grace,” Ian finally spoke again. 

Not to mention the fact that he neglected to mention why momma was alive if there was another queen, but I was sure that since Lazyra and I were both alive, then there stands to reason that something else could have gone awry in the Fey logic of prophecies and their ritualistic traditions.  When they know she didn’t die, everyone will know something was out of order.

“Possible, but we have to try.  Kin will help.”  I don’t have any earthly idea why those words left my mouth.  And Pike actually laughed amongst all the sourness of the hour. 

“Just let me try okay.  Worst case scenario, we get no help from Kin, save your mom, make the little king man mad, wage a war, lose, and start all over the next day.”

He grimaced and shoved off the table. Guess he didn’t like my plan.

As indifferent as I played myself to be at solving this disturbing puzzle piece mystery, I was rattled to the bone.  I propositioned Ian for a better night sleep if he’d let me stay with him.  Yes, I meant that he needed it, but he knew it was for me.  He gave so easily.

Lying in bed I asked, “Will we save her?”

He didn’t say at first but when he did I detected the whisper of regret in his tone, “I don’t know, Grace.”

Neither did I.