Portal (Nina Decker) (10 page)

Oh and for a long moment, so did I.

Chapter 11

I had to get up and get away from these people. Standing, I clutched my stomach. I thought I’d fake being sick. I moaned loudly and fake stumbled away from the king’s table but I didn’t watch where I was going and I ran right into the muscular form of Dashrael.

“Are you ill?” asked the chancellor.

Before I could answer, Dani leapt to my side and said, “No she’s fine. She just has to use the royal facilities.”

She steered me away from Dashrael and back towards my chambers. She leaned in close and whispered, “Pretend you have to go to the bathroom.”

“What?” I asked.

“You don’t want to be sick, there’s a court magician right there,” she explained. “There’s no illness he can’t cure with a spell.”

I straightened up. “Nature calls.” So much for my elegant entrance.

Dani and I started back towards the cross hall. Simeon the wizard called out. “Perhaps I could- “

“What?” I asked.

Simeon said, “There’s no real need to disturb yourself. A simple teleportation spell and-“

I tried not to gag at the thought of it.

“The princess would prefer a little privacy in this matter,” Dani answered.

We quickly left the great hall and entered my wing of the palace.

“What are you doing?” I demanded. I kept my voice low because there were guards everywhere.

“Helping you,” she said in an equally low tone. “You want to slip out unnoticed right? And perhaps get inside a certain stone tower where they keep prisoners.”

“Why should you care?”

“I like you. I’m a romantic at heart. I think the whole war between fae and werewolves is silly. If you want a real good reason, I have an opportunity to pitch a rom com to an a-lister coming up in a week or so and I’m out of ideas. I’m hoping your antics will inspire me.”

We entered my room at the end of the hall. Dani shut the door then checked the windows. “Sometimes there’s a patrol near the grounds. Just wait a few and make sure it’s clear.”

I began to calm down some. I thought about the banquet.  All those people and powerful forces, and my birth sent them all into a panic.

“I guess I’m a little infamous,” I said to Dani.  “Me and my mother.”

Dani nodded, “A bit but the real figure of mystery is your father.”

“My father?” I asked.

Dani answered, “You now know what was at stake. The whole kingdom had been asking, why did Princess A’Lona break off her engagement to Tristan Coldiron and run off with a human? What power did he have over her?”

I laughed bitterly.  What was she telling me? That my father had planned to lose his mind just so he could bed a faerie princess?

“Power over her? My father’s been fae struck his entire life. She’s the one who ensnared him,” I said.

“Why would she do that?”

“For her own selfish reasons,” I fumed. That was what I had told myself every night since my mother abandoned us; A’Lona Wolfstriker never loved my father, she never loved us. She tricked my father and ensnared him. It was because she was a fae and they loved playing with human hearts and human minds. That was how I’d always thought of her.

Dani calmly said, “Honey, I don’t want to argue but just take a look around. You saw all the fae lords of the kingdom in all their power. And Princess A’Lona defied the lot of them. Why? Out of a whim? There has to be more to it than that. Does your version of events really add up?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I balled up my fists. I didn’t want to admit it but Dani had a point. All my life I’d only ever been with my dad. I’d seen the terrible cost to him. For the past ten years I’d watched him slip slowly away. The brilliant, funny, strong man who had raised me had become frail, helpless with a child’s mind. And that was my mother’s fault.

I still believed that. I had to. But standing there in Nightfall it was impossible to ignore the other side of the story. I’d just seen with my own eyes what my mother had given up. In my mind I couldn’t deny it. But my heart wasn’t ready. There was still a lifetime of anger and resentment inside me and I felt it all well up.  If I didn’t get away soon I’d start throwing things.

She shrugged. “Maybe not.”
             

“Is it clear?” I asked.

Dani popped the window open and looked around. “You’re golden.”

She helped lower me down to the ground on the other side. I’d calmed down a little bit. “Dani, I’m sorry I snapped at you-“

“No worries. I understand you’ve had it rough.”

The tower was easy to spot. There were no guards about. But then again there was still the wall crowned with silver and iron. Even if I had free run of the palace I was still largely a prisoner here.

“Do you know how you’re getting past the guard at the tower?” Dani asked.

I had to admit that I didn’t.  Even if there were no guards on patrol there had to be one watching over Severin.

“Do you have any advice?”

“Just the LA standard, fake it until you make it.”

I hiked up my flowing skirts and headed towards the tower. Every step my heart beat faster. What would I say to Severin? What would he say to me?

I saw many brownie servants running this way and that across the palace. None of them stopped me or even questioned me as I reached the tower. That’s when I met one lone guard at the tower door. He was in half armor. He had a breast and back plate on and leg guards but her wore no helmet or arm defences.

“I demand to see the prisoner,” I said trying to sound as regal as possible.

The guard sputtered for a little. Dani’s advice was working. This fellow was used to being the authority figure. I turned it up a notch.

“Don’t make me fetch my grandfather, open the door,” I said between clenched teeth.

That jolted him into action.

Inside a spiral staircase wound up the center of the tower. I followed the guard up several floors until he brought me to the cells. Severin was the only prisoner. He sat chained to the stone wall with silver. He was naked.

I briefly thought about releasing him. I had the guard shaking. He might open the cell.  But then I remembered the wall of iron and silver that ringed the palace and the town. I might have bluffed this one, but there were hundreds more who weren’t as gullible. If I let Severin out he’d have nowhere to run. He’d be trapped in here with a bunch of people who had reason to hate him. And I’d be trapped right along with him.

“Leave us,” I told the guard. My voice was quaking. My resolve slackened. I really didn’t want to hear anymore. But I had to.

The guard left us alone despite my wavering confidence.  After the door shut behind me I approached the cell.

Severin glanced up.

“Look at you, a faery princess,” he said while standing up. My eyes drank in his form. I wanted him next to me more than ever.

“I see they’ve been treating you well,” Severin said. His smile was wide. Ordinarily that smile lit up my soul. But now it just made my heart ache.

“Is it true? About your mate?” I asked him.

The smile dropped. His face became very serious.

“Shana,” he said softly. “So they told you.”

“I heard their story. Now I want to hear your side,” I said.

“What do you want to hear? I loved her and she died. That’s all the story I care about,” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

He didn’t answer at once. “You wouldn’t have let me get so close to you had you known,” he said. “You wouldn’t have let me come along. I needed you to trust me.”

“Why are you saying this to me?” I demanded.

“Nina you can’t be this naïve. Our kind has been at war with each other for centuries and I just happen to fall in love with Wolfstriker’s granddaughter? I only got close to you so I could get revenge on the man who killed my mate.”

Tears welled in my eyes. I tried to stop them but there was no point. I had suspected this betrayal but it still cut deep.

“I don’t want to believe it.”

“Well, do. I’m Severin the betrayer, Severin the scoundrel, Severin the villain. I did it all just to get back at the man who killed my mate!”

“You’re lying.”

“Look in my eyes and tell me if you see any lie.”

I didn’t look. Instead I ran out of there. I flew past the guard and fled back to my chambers as fast as I could like a coward. I tried to pull myself together as I walked back towards my room but it was no use. I was falling to pieces. I reached the open window. A hand reached down for me and I took it. I wiped the tears from my face as I climbed back into my chambers. But the person who pulled me back into my room wasn’t Dani.

It was my mother.

Chapter 12

I pulled away from her grasp. “What are you doing here?”

“I had to see you,” she said.

“Where’s Dani?”

“She outside distracting the guards,” my mother answered.

I heard voices out in the hall. There was a lot of laughing.

“Is she in danger?”

“Only her reputation and modesty. And that girl doesn’t place much value on either.”

Just a few days ago I would have stormed out of the room. Or I would have grabbed the nearest knife and held it to my mother’s throat. I would have been in a rage about Dani leaving me here with her. But my encounter with Severin had left me emotionally drained. I was utterly spent. I sat down on the four poster bed while my mother paced around.

“You wanted to talk to me, so talk already,” I said.

“You should have stayed away. Why did you come here?” she asked me.

“To get my father back,” I said. “And where is he by the way?”

“Jason is safe.”

I laughed  bitterly. “With you? Here?”

“Yes, he is safe with me.”

“He’s dying because of you!” I yelled.

My mother fixed me with a firm gaze. “They would have killed him if he’d stayed on Earth.”

I remembered how all this had started. I had come home from work to find my father unconscious after being attacked by a vicious pixie.  A few days later something had come through the pond in our garden, the one I had made by accident when I buried one of my mother’s gifts in the garden. That pond had been a portal to Nightfall. I hadn’t realized how dangerous that was until a pair of hands reached out of the water, grabbed me by the neck and tried to drown me.

“Who sent the pixie?” I asked.

“Someone in the palace. I haven’t found out who yet,” she answered.

“Where is da?”

“He’s in a brownie village far from here. They’ll never find him.”

“I want to see him.”

She laughed. “That’s problematic seeing as you are stuck here in the palace. You want me to take you to him. I’ll just have my father arrange a nice little outing. What do you think he’ll do to Jason?”

“Why couldn’t you leave us alone?” I demanded. “We were fine without you.”

That hurt her. I saw her face break. It was the first time I’d ever seen her upset.

“I know. That’s why I left, they said they’d leave you alone. They said all would be forgiven.”

She was talking about the treaty she had broken. What Dani said about my father started to nag at me.

“They said they would leave you and Jason alone if I went back to Nightfall and fulfilled my duties as princess. So I went. And it was the hardest thing I ever did. I never told you the truth and I made Jason promise to never tell you either. Because we both knew you would never be safe if you found out about Nightfall.  And now you’re here and in the middle of this cesspool.”

She made it sound so noble, what she did all those years ago. I wanted to throw it back in her face. But I held back. I was still tired and my mother was more worked up than I had ever seen her before. She was so desperate and troubled. After so many years as a nurse, my instincts went against my nature to harm someone who was clearly suffering. Then I thought about what Dani had told me. I was still angry but I had more questions.

“Why did you do it?” I asked. I couldn’t think of any other way to put the question.

My mother understood and she composed herself. “I’ll tell you. I’ve always wanted to tell you.”

She smoothed out her dress and sat next to me. She tried to hold my hand but I pulled it away.

“N’Lina you may think you know what it is to grow up in a house without love, but you really don’t,” she said. “You know how my father came to the throne?”

“He overthrew the king. Though according to Dani no one objected that much,” I answered.

“Oh there were people who objected quite vigorously. They were the former king’s immediate family including his only daughter, Princess A’Rissa. My father felt he needed to cement his position so he forced Princess A’Rissa to marry him.”

“Lady Wolfstriker? Your mother?” I asked. I had felt more malice coming from the queen than from anyone else at court. Maybe it wasn’t just directed at me.