Steal the Sun (33 page)

Declan nodded shortly as though he’d had some truth confirmed. “If Daniel wanted a child and that is the wish he put into the magic, then Zoey, you have to know that child was truly yours. He would not want anyone else’s child. That piece of magic was your and Daniel’s baby. It is why the
bean si
prophecy is clearly about this child. Devinshea is safe. I suppose it is only natural you would not have considered this child to be yours. I would have been confused as well. We do not normally form humans from the magic. That can be unpredictable.”

The faeries had explained all of that to me. They normally molded the magic into something easily controllable, like a tree or a cat. We had seriously screwed up their plans by making a baby. I thought about her. She’d been so sweet but nothing like what I would have expected from a human baby. She hadn’t cried or given me a moment’s trouble. She’d saved me and healed me. If Daniel had believed for one second that child was truly ours, he would never have allowed her to pass through the veil, magical being or not.

It seemed I had lost two children in one day.

“I am going to find them,” Declan announced suddenly. “I promise I will bring your husbands back to you. I have already sent a riding party to the farthest field to look for them. I will search the others. I cannot fly so it might take me a while, but I swear I will not stop until I find them.”

I nodded.

“I apologize for insisting you come here. I should have left Devinshea to his new home. My only excuse is a need to see my kingdom safe…and I wanted my family back. I…well, I am sorry,” Declan said with more sincerity than I had ever heard from him before. He was quiet for a moment before deciding what to say next. “The healer says this will not affect your ability to carry a child in the future. He says you are already healing because of the vampire blood. He doubts a poison alone would have hurt the child. It was the curse the vampire blood in your system could not handle.”

“So it was someone who knew about vampires,” I said quietly.

Declan frowned. “That could be anyone. The newspaper ran a story on Dev’s new goddess and his partner. The taking of vampire blood was a salacious story point. I know who did this, Zoey. It was the Unseelie. The black magic proves it.”

“Because no Seelie ever used black magic,” I heard myself saying, surprised at Declan’s naiveté.

“I am not going to argue with you,” he replied with a sad frown as he took my hand. I didn’t care enough to jerk it back. He squeezed it between his hands. “You and Devinshea will have other babies. You will see. I am so jealous, Zoey. Sometimes, I cannot stand it.”

“I never meant to take your brother from you.” I wished he would go and leave me alone with my thoughts. I wanted to think about Summer, to try to remember everything about the only child Daniel and I would ever have.

Declan got down on his knees so he was staring up at me. “I am jealous of my brother, Zoey. I want what he has. He is so in love. He is happy with you. I was in love once.” Declan shook his head. “She was unsuitable. My people would never have accepted her as their queen. She would never have accepted life as a mistress. I left without a backward glance.”

“Then you didn’t love her.” I hated the coldness in my voice but I couldn’t seem to muster sympathy for him.

“I did not look back.” He got up and straightened his clothes. “But I think of her often. It was the biggest mistake I have ever made and, Zoey, that is saying something.”

When he reached the door, he turned back. He was Declan again, his face a mask of royal will. “Know this, sister, I will see my nephew avenged. Padric is questioning the witnesses, but I know the Unseelie are behind it. There is no question. They have pushed me too far, and I will see them wiped from this plane. I will find my brother and we will prepare for war.”

Declan turned and left.

“We’ll be long gone by then,” Neil murmured, moving his head toward mine. “When Daniel comes back, he’ll pack us all up and we can leave this place. Let them kill each other.”

I said nothing, simply let myself fall deeper into the softness of the bed because no war, no amount of killing or revenge, was ever bringing back my son or my baby girl.

The
bean si
had been wrong. I didn’t care enough to stop a war.

Chapter Nineteen

Grief, at least for me, has always been a private thing. In the days following my miscarriage, the biggest nuisance in my life was the string of people wanting to comfort me. I heard platitudes and metaphors all ending in some hopeful piece of crap about how I would get through this.

I suffered through Neil and Sarah telling me how I would still be able to have babies and Dev and I would make more. Miria came through with tears in her eyes and told me how hard it had been for her and that I would be all right. I was still young and had all those years of fertility ahead of me. Even Bibi patted my hand and told me the pain would get better.

Someone was always sitting in the chair by my bed or, in Neil’s case, resting beside me. They took turns on Zoey watch and I knew someone had made a schedule.

It was easier when Lee was the one watching me. He didn’t feel the need to talk or maybe it was that he didn’t have any idea what to say to me. He just sat and watched over me while I slept, and I slept a lot. I kept my eyes closed even when I was awake because Lee might not talk much, but I couldn’t stand the look of pity in his chocolate brown eyes.

I resented all of them.

After a day or two, I didn’t even want to see Dev and Danny. I just wanted to be alone and sleep. My world narrowed to the confines of my bed, and the rest of life seemed a hazy mess I didn’t want to deal with.

When my husbands showed up on the fourth day after the incident, I barely sat up in bed to greet them.

“Sweetheart, are you all right?” Dev knelt at my bedside. He took my hand in his, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

“I’m fine,” I said dully.

Daniel stood behind him looking down on me with a worried expression.

“I’m so sorry this happened,” Dev said, and I could tell he’d been crying. “I would do anything if you didn’t have to go through this.”

“It was my fault.” I just spoke, saying the things I thought I should say, running on a zombie-like autopilot. I didn’t see either one of them. For the last several days, most of my time had been occupied with wondering how life would be if I had made a single different choice. What would things be like if I hadn’t taken that sip of tea? It seemed an insignificant thing, but that one tiny move had changed so many lives.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Z,” Danny said harshly. “You can’t possibly blame yourself.”

But he was wrong. I could definitely blame myself. I’d had a person try to assassinate me in the courtyard of that same tavern. What the hell had I been thinking drinking something I hadn’t even ordered? I shouldn’t have touched anything not made by Albert’s own two hands. I should have been more careful because I was risking so much more than my own life.

“Zoey, it isn’t your fault,” Dev said, kissing my hands fervently. “It’s likely there was a spell on the tea that made it attractive to you. If it hadn’t been the tea, then they would have found another way. It is the Unseelie agent’s fault, and I promise you I’ll do everything I can to see that justice is done.”

Daniel’s face caught my attention. He grimaced when Dev said that. It was obvious they had been briefed on something I hadn’t. I questioned him with a single look.

“Declan and Padric are quite certain that the Unseelie are behind the plot,” Daniel explained, but his face told me he didn’t believe it. Declan would believe the Unseelie were behind an earthquake if they had one here.

“Why?” I finally mustered the will to sit up. If there was actual evidence against the dark court then I wanted to hear it.

Dev looked like he wanted to ignore the question and he gave it a go. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, my wife. We’ll take care of everything. Albert says you have not eaten in several days. You have to eat, Zoey. I know it is painful, but you must keep your strength up. We need you.”

I looked past Dev. I didn’t want to talk about my lack of appetite. “Why are they so certain it’s the Unseelie?” I asked Daniel, who seemed more willing to treat me like something other than a china doll who could break at any moment.

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and looked serious. “The man Zack caught trying to clear away the table claimed to be an agent of the Unseelie.”

“He has confessed,” Dev stated firmly, and it was easy to see he and Daniel had been arguing about this before. He looked at Danny with a stubborn set to his face. “He knew about the hex bags, too. What more do you want, Daniel?”

“How did he get the hex bag in her clothes, Dev? He worked in the tavern. He’d never been inside the palace, according to the guards. Sarah thinks he was under a spell,” Daniel explained. “We won’t ever know though because he was executed before we had a chance to question him.”

“Not big on fair trials here in Faeryland, huh?” I said bitterly. It was nice that my pain had been an excuse to commit atrocities.

“It was a mob, sweetheart.” Dev spoke softly as if the tone of his voice could make it less horrific. “There were too many of them. The guard had to give him up or they would have overrun the palace. The entire tribe is incensed at what was done to you.”

I rolled my eyes. “They couldn’t care less about me, Dev. They finally have a reason to fight and they’re going to take it. They don’t give a damn about me and they didn’t care about my son.”

“You don’t understand them,” Dev said sadly. “They’re frightened and angry. They thought our baby was a sign that things would get better.”

“Did they string up Herne while they were at it?” I had kind of wondered what had happened to the Unseelie ambassador. I hadn’t seen or heard a word about him since we had gotten back from our adventure with the ogre.

Dev’s face got hard and his eyes were cold as he thought of his former friend. “The Hunter escaped. He fled the palace after you lost the baby. Several of his guards were not so lucky.”

There was something small inside me that was happy he’d escaped. Despite his deeply stupid plan to use me as bait, I didn’t believe he would hurt my child. I wondered if they had killed the goblins I’d shared lunch with. “What other proof do they have beyond a spell-struck faery’s confession?”

Dev sighed. “Zoey, you don’t understand this world. Please, just leave this to me and you concentrate on getting well again.”

“I want to go home, Devinshea.” I stated my desire as plainly as I could. I wanted to leave this place and never come back. If I was ever lucky enough to get pregnant again, I would never let these people near me. I was tired of being a pawn in their war against each other.

“We talked about that.” Dev nodded, seemingly happy he could give me something I wanted. “Albert is organizing the packing already. Neil and Sarah are getting everything ready so you’ll be comfortable.”

I smiled the tiniest bit for the first time in days. The thought of being back in our condo made me slightly energetic. I was a twenty-seven-year-old woman, but I wanted to see my dad. “Really?”

“Of course, sweetheart.” Dev ran his hand through my hair, smoothing it back. “I would never want you caught up in this. I love you. You’ll be home in just a few days.”

There was something about the way he said it that made me suspicious. Daniel was frowning over him as well. He didn’t look like a man who was getting to go home. “What do you mean by ‘I’ll be home’? What about you and Danny?”

Dev looked earnest, like he expected me to understand. “The wolves are going with you, but Daniel and I must remain here. We must avenge our son, sweetheart. They took our child. We can’t allow it to stand.”

Any joy I had felt was snuffed out like a candle. “I don’t have a say in this?”

Dev swallowed nervously, trying to figure out a way to handle me. “Zoey, don’t you want revenge?”

I lay back, tired again. “Revenge won’t bring back my baby. It will just get you killed. Why would I want that? Why can’t we just go home and try to put our lives back together? I just lost a baby, Dev. You’re going to leave my care to my bodyguards?”

I loved Neil and Lee, but they weren’t married to me. They hadn’t made a baby with me. They hadn’t lost what Dev and Danny and I had.

“You can’t expect me to just walk away.”

“But that’s what I’m asking you to do,” I replied simply because if there was ever a time when what I wanted should come first, I thought this was it. “Take me home, Devinshea.”

He stood up. “No, I can’t do that. I’ll make sure you’re safe, but I can’t leave until those who did this have paid for their crime. I owe this to our son. Come on, Daniel. We’re needed in the throne room. We have planning to do. The call has already gone out for the warriors of the
sidhe
to gather. They’ll be here within the week.”

Dev had turned his back and was halfway out of the room when I heard Daniel say “No.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Dev asked, rounding on him.