Betrayal (29 page)

Altheon was reclaiming his spot with the bonfire being remade into a more suitable sitting area. He had several of the younger guards busy at work sawing and making log chairs that strangely resembled Adirondack chairs from my parent’s backyard.

“Can I bother you for a moment?”

“Oh, my dear green-eyed queen.  I told you long ago that my time is your time.  What is it you need for me to say?”

As if he knew or just might say whatever to make me happy.  He told me once that he was at times, just guessing but I was never sure.  “I don’t want you to say anything that I shouldn’t need to hear.”

“Agreement made.”

He talked so oddly.  “I want to know what you know about Kin and I and the Firebearer history.”

“How are the two of you intertwined?” he offered his hand out for me to sit on the still damp, just cut timber.  I followed suit only to get the answers I needed.  I did squirm a bit at him using the word
intertwined
with Kin and I in the same sentence.

“You are both Firebearers of both courts who rule their own courts.  The prophecy foretold that both of you would duel rule and balance the courts by doing so. Kinsler is the lost Firebearer that really his father kept hidden all for this moment.  Kinsler can sense when you are near and now you know more to his secrets.  You sense each other.  Always have.  An old prophecy had the Firebearers of the past interconnected to alert each other of their presence, but it hasn’t reoccurred for hundreds of years because we do not have two at one time.  For it to happen, it had a purpose just like Sane ordering Kinsler to hide it and your mother's exile at the time of your birth.  Now, Kinsler uses it to make it look like it should lead to believe that the prophecy indicates you as his soul mate.”

The burn was back in my hands, but I haven't told anyone.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?  It would have saved a lot of heartache.”  Shouldn’t I be able to return the feelings of one who could be my soul mate?  Ian is that.  He has my soul wound up in him so much it hurts to be away from him.  Like a branch separated from the tree.

“You weren’t ready my dear one.”

You weren’t ready my dear one.
I mocked him in my head.  He peered down at me over his glasses. He’d heard.  Oops!  Blocking.  Never let your guard down. 

“It was never meant for you to be in the winter court.”

It wasn’t?  Heck, if he’d only told us. 

“Ian was and is the better balance for the Seelie court to sit beside his queen as Pike is the perfect neutral ground who can travel between and keep the peace.  Kinsler is the only one who can rule the winter court, for no other can balance ruthless chaos.”  He chuckled at his own words.

I rolled my eyes.  “So you’re saying that after all this time, you knew the outcomes and how this would play out with all three of them?”

“With wisdom comes the price of knowledge.”

Isn’t that like not saying anything at all?  And I’m guessing Ian, Pike, Kin, everyone—knew all this was in Altheon’s head all along.  “Okay, let’s say I accept this and move on.  You know even more but will not tell me till,” I air quoted my next words, “the time is right.”

He nodded with a knowing smile.

“And I can go forth with marrying Ian now?” I raised an eyebrow for effect.

“I would recommend it sooner than later for all our benefit.”

What the heck?
  “Who will benefit from it other than Ian and me?” I blushed at saying what I was thinking before I heard it in my mind first. 

“Ian needs the seat again beside you.”

I was baffled.  Ian never lost it.  Altheon didn’t expand either.  “And you’ll keep your little riddles I see.”

“Ian made me promise that some things are for him to tell only.”  That was an admission.  Ian held another secret despite how free I’d felt lately from the fog of deceit.  I found the bile rising in my throat. 

“No, no my queen.  Do not anger at him.  This is a well guarded secret that could take your life if it came about to others.  Please hold your tongue and for now, let the events play out as they may.  Your wedding and marriage night is of the upmost importance right now.”

He seemed to have something else to say so I waited.  “And Kinsler’s gifts to you are more appropriate than ever, in fact it is overdue this time.”

Whatever that meant?  He didn’t tell me anything else, but I would listen and do as he said.  I certainly didn’t want anyone else to die due to my negligence because a man they call the “seer” knew much and told little. I still think it’s scandalizing that he was simply just GUESSING our fates that happened to land just right.

“How did you know Kin wouldn’t hurt me?  What debt did he owe?” I asked Ian with my arms wrapped tightly around his middle and squeezing too hard.  I wouldn’t tell anyone, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t ask the man I love about things surrounding it.

He sighed like it was something he was finally releasing, “I vowed to take out his father in exchange for your safety.”

Forget that he agreed to a murder and went through with it.  I was past that.  I didn’t see how that was such a trade, but whatever.  “How is that a fair trade?”

Standing in the middle of his room, I hugged him closer to undo his pain.

“There is more to it than you want to know, but if you keep insisting I will tell you.” 

That was a warning.  “Then tell me.” I could live with the knowledge.  I was strong.

“Killing the king of the other court and being of royal blood bounds me to their court. I have lost my seat in the summer court,” he cleared his throat and looked nervously at me.

If there was ever a moment where someone told me something so horrible I thought I might have a lung crush my insides by loss of physical breath, it was this moment.  That was the ultimate of all secrets.  If anyone were to know, they could easily kill me and the courts would belong to Kin.

And Lazyra would not have killed my father for that reason alone.

My knees hit the floor and he with me.  “Ian, you should never have done it.  I am not worth it.  I never was.”

His hands took my face, “Grace, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life than you.  You are worth more than my own life if I can’t have you.  I’ve told you time and time again that I can’t see straight when you are too far.  I am a broken man without you.   I will not let anything come to harm you again.  The court is safe in your hands.”  His not so gentle hands gripped me tighter, pushing my cheeks in uncomfortably.

“Ian, what does this mean?” my body felt crushed, not my face.  I had a deathly feeling that I was losing him.  “Did I lose you?” the tears flowed and I carelessly let them fall.  “Are you not mine anymore?”

That’s when his top lip quivered.  I saw and he saw me watch it.  “Only if you don’t want me anymore.”

I tossed a curious glance back up to his eyes swallowing the softball forming in my throat.  Something dawned on me. “You two, you and Kin, knew that would happen.  You knew that you’d be in his debt and he in yours.  You both knew it all along.”

He nodded to signify I was correct, eyes down. 

“You did this to spare my innocence in the process of sparing Kin his freedom only to give him both courts for the taking?”  Kin could take it all.  And he didn't.

He nodded again.  I didn’t hold back.  I smothered him with kisses and salty tears.  He showered me with kisses all over my neck, ears, shoulders. 

I did
eventually
stop him.  “Can this be reversed at all?”  He nodded a no into my shoulders.  “Then can I save you?”  I couldn’t help but wonder.  All those years, him saving me. 

He shifted back to see me. His face showed all kinds of knowing what I meant, a choke sound in his throat.  “You are sure that I am the one you want?” 

Worst day ever!  Best day ever!

I laughed out loud.  It was the wrong time for laughter, but it was just such a ridiculous statement.  “Ian, you really think after all this time, years of pining after you, watching you ignore me and tear my heart apart, feeling my heart jump out of my body every time you come near me, melting into your kiss every time you let me taste you, and heaven knows what else I’m dying to have right now.”  I was rambling.  “Ian, you are the most stubborn, hard-headed man I know, but I absolutely cannot live without you.”

He let his lip lift a touch.  “That hot huh?”

He always brought humor into the conversation when the veil of doubt was lifted.  I slapped his warm chest and laid my head against my hand. I moved my other hand up to be closer still. 

“You never asked or even got upset with me about telling Sarah about us,” I pressed for an answer concerning silly stuff, but it lightened the air.

“You were just sharing with a friend.  I understood after I cooled off from seeing someone else seeing me with you.  I want you to have friends, I just don’t want them to know everything about us.”

He was all about the not sharing me with others bit.  Stubborn, possessive man.  “She and I vowed to not share our details with each other again with the fact that you and Bane would probably like to be spared of that.”

“Good thinking, my love.”

He squeezed me tighter in a gesture that meant he appreciated that I thought of him and cared enough to give up my “girl talk” with others.

I wanted something off my chest.  “I know about the rings.”

His puzzled face let me go on, “The poker and all.”  I put my finger to his lips to stop his protest.  “Don’t get angry.  I just wanted to say thank you and sorry for being a brat about it.”

The storm clouds were brewing in his brain for how I knew.  I’d never tell.  I’d told enough.

“Is there anything I need to do for...the day?”  He knew I meant our wedding.  I blushed every single time I thought or mentioned it.  Danella wasn’t here, but Tren and Sarah had everything ready from what they said. 

As if still collecting silent warfare for my finding out about the rings, he shook his head a little and said with a true meant for me only smile, “Just be the one smiling only at me.”

I think he would always remind me in some way that no matter what, I was his.  I couldn’t say I hated it.

  I had one more item to share.

“I invited Kin to the wedding,” I said into his chest.

“As I.”

I was certainly surprised, but not unhappy about it. 

***

It all boils down to Kin and me.  Yes, together we would make the kingdom more powerfully united with our combining of Firebearers.  But what if....

What if a king of one court and the queen of the other combine to make a partnership unstoppable by remaining true allies?  Kin’s evil tendencies would always taint his court.  His other agendas would always steer his paths. 

And being marked by someone led to ultimate claim.  If I put aside the thoughts behind the how of it, I could see the why’s in Kin’s eyes.  I just wasn’t sure what was emotional and what was strategy to him.  He was so emphatically hard to read, yet at most I knew he was devoted to me no matter what.

Being marked was definitely extravagantly chivalrous and romantic, but help me now if everyone of these Fey man would treat me different after the deed. 

Maple leaves were weaved throughout my hair and painted intricately on my neck with a kind of golden paint that painfully still felt more like a tattoo than body paint.  The pattern wound around my arms and ended at my palms in delicate little petal-like leaves like it had before.  I felt like a painting on the Sistine chapel.   After hours of painful pampering, I was ready and worn out from being still.  Tren was smug with pride admiring her second masterpiece called “me”.  The first one was the day of my eighteenth birthday.  A tear escaped for Danella.  She would be getting onto me right now for thinking something I shouldn’t.  I wiped it away. 

Wiggling to get up, I thought of Ian and what he might be doing to get ready.  Well, I was not too worn out for the after wedding plans.  Somehow, that spiked my energy.  And Danella would want that.

The wedding day.

I awoke hours before dawn
in my own room
, for the last time. My mother was here beside me letting the cadence of her forgotten footsteps be a refreshing joy in my heart.  My father would be in the wedding too.  I didn’t know how he was able to, but hushed lips told me to just appreciate it and stay quiet.  Enough Fey had already questioned the man they recognized, but couldn’t place as who or where he came from.  They would know the second his name was called.  My father would walk me down the last part of the aisle and see nothing of the Fey realm except a beautiful paradise of flowers and “people” all around.  He’d have the memory, but an altered one.  It was one of the many promises Ian gave me as a wedding gift.  To me, it was finer than gold and silver combined.

I was lost without Danella.  My heart sighed heavily.

My mother greeted my early awake-ness with orange juice and a bath.  I was pampered in the bath till my skin pruned, perfumed till I sneezed, and decorated all over my arms, neck, shoulders, and face with more body art.  Was I a tattooed biker chic or a half Fey bride to be, take a pick?  The gown was chosen for me, but I knew my friend Sarah, Lazyra, and my mother fought heavily over the final drawings of it.  In the end it was white with silver mesh undertones weaved throughout the entire bodice and down the back into a trail that went ten feet back.  That last feature would not have been
my
choice.  I found out it was Lazyra’s requirement.  She said it had to trail, a tradition.

It was completely strapless with matching fingerless gloves that went to the top of my arms, covering half the art they marked me with.  Sarah’s choices.  Her official comments of the subject of the dress included something about paybacks and making him drool, but in a very classy way.  When she added the word “yummylicious” I knew I’d changed the tides of Fey history alone by my Caylie styled influential speech choices. 

The dress.  It was completely backless with the two items sewn into and strapped across the curve of my back.  My mother’s amulet and Ian’s balanced between the two.  My mother’s choice.  Since they were both the smaller of the amulet choices, I’d been satisfied.  They were both forest green in color, one being a heart and the other an oval.

My choices were irrelevant it seemed, but I was happy.  I felt loved.

My hair was up.  Just that!  Up!  It was coiled and neatly tangled on my head with ringlets hanging only in certain areas for the “accents to the crown” they said.  The make-up made me look like a runway model with pouty lips and sexy eyes.  At first I worried it was too much, but with the crown on top and the dress on, it was just perfect.  I felt like a queen.  Oh wait,
I was
.

A veil was placed around me so sheer that I didn’t see it in front of me, only felt it like a cloak I couldn’t breathe under.  I could hardly walk in the heels Sarah had chosen from our one and only excursion to the human shopping mall escorted by Bane and Ian at very close quarters.  It was fun, but very scrutinizing when your man constantly says things like, “You can’t go in public wearing that” and “over my dead body”.

The heels reminded me of Caylie.  She once said that shoes weren’t meant for walking in.  I always thought she was ridiculous with her shoes the height of giraffe disguised as a minx. 

“You’re up,” my mother said proudly.  “I want you to know how proud I am of you.  Not many mothers can see their daughter leave home one day and be queen the next.  You’ve embraced this life and I admire you for living it to the fullest.”

“Profound, mom, but I know what you did for me and my father.  You are more of a hero than I could ever be.”  She smiled, tears rolling down her cheeks.  “Oh mom, you’ll ruin your mascara.” My mother shoved me on and sent me to the very spot I stood in for the first time nearly a year and a half ago.

The classic wedding march started by my request and honored by Ian.  The Fey people were reluctant, but we assured them it was just music and not anything that would taint our day.  I breathed slowly taking another step.  Sarah walked ahead of me and entered wearing her beautiful floor length green gown much like the one I wore the ceremony night I found out my Ian was the prince of the Fey Seelie summer court and I was betrothed to that very man.  Here I stand watching her walk ahead down the same bed of green rose petals where I walked before.  I knew that Bane must be watching her and admiring her poise and beauty as she cascaded down the aisle.  The music picked up giving me my cue.  I let the breath out and took the step I’d been waiting for.  I wasn’t as nervous about going as I was about having it done.  I just wanted to be able to call him mine.

I walked with a little more vigor than I should have eager to be side by side with the man who could call me his.  I saw him on the third step in.  He was gorgeous. 

Ian had on his green “tuxedo” as I call it though it was way more on the sexy woodsman side with the tie not left lose at the neck like he usually did.  His sword was on his side held by his belt, but he was still my Ian.  Trailing the length of him, I stopped at the uncoordinated undeniably combat boots that he had always said were his favorite add-on from the human world.  He knew I loved them?

I didn’t hold back the sparkle that even my eyes gave away under this veil.  It did reach him, but then quickly turned into awe, I think.  Yeah!  He seemed to just take all of me in at the same time.  It was almost like the same look I gave myself in the mirror seeing this otherworldly creature staring at me.  Like a plastic Barbie doll come to life with a crown on her head.  I understood his awe, but it was more than that. It was love, and admiration.  He was in love with me.

I watched Ian.  He watched me.  I forgot to remember everyone else was waiting.  When I stopped moving the crowd must have felt the need to get my attention, but I only saw Ian.  Ian must have been drawn out of the same tunnel because he put up one finger in the air and offered the come hither look in front of the whole crowd of hundreds. 

The color in my cheeks was hidden by the veil, but Ian knew.

I made it to the place where he stood now and faced him with my father’s help in the last ten steps or so.  He released me and gave my covered hand to Ian’s very cold one.  If my Ian tunnel vision was on a few moments ago like I thought it was, it most agreeably was turned on now.

Altheon called the room to attention. “We are in attendance today to witness the union of our queen to the son of Lazyra, son of Ikan.  We will hear the vows made as with our Fey custom and end with a human custom requested by Ian and his bride to be.”

The crowd murmured a second and then hushed again.

“Do you Ian, son of the late King Ikan and Lady Lazyra of the Seelie court hereby vow to honor this queen in anything she deems worthy as well as pass forth to your offspring the honor of serving her well till death?”

“I will,” he slid the silver leafed band onto my ring finger as I discarded the glove.   A certain zap vibrated in my head telling me he was tapping into my mind.  I can’t believe I ever hated it.

I will do anything for you, Grace.

He turned to me though I wasn’t facing him.  My breath and its erratic patterns alerted him to my silent, but not really, reaction to his mind invasion.

“Do you Grace, daughter of Ginera of the Seelie court and Lord Evan of the Unseelie court….” 

The crowd’s reaction was louder than even I anticipated at realizing who the nicely dressed prior Fey Unseelie winter court king now humanized man beside Lazyra was.

“...hereby vow to honor my king in anything he deems worthy as well as serve as a vessel to your offspring in honor of serving him well till death?”

“I will,” I slipped the matching wider ring onto his same finger.

Now, the binding.

Ian and I walked to the very same bowl as we did over a year ago and completed the same ceremonial task but without the wounding of my now husband. 
Husband
.

At the joining of our wrists the binding was complete.  Energy surged though my arm and down my body, reversing and backing its way to my wrist again.  I felt the searing pain like that of a burn from an ember jumping the flames of a fire and hitting my tender skin.  When our arms separated, we each had the same matching maple leaf patterns edged into our skin beside the other.  With the marriage and each child born, I would be decorated with a leafy vinethat would slowly creep up my arm.  Major binding securities with other walks of life could cause our kind to bind also.  To keep the peace within this court, I would add a hundred.

The light in Ian’s eyes were pure pride.  This was the moment he had lived for and I was happier than any other moment to be right beside him in it making this one of those top ten moments list items of all history. 

The ceremony ended and the dancing began.

Kin looked me over in admiration.  I loved the attention, but it being Kin, it made me nervous.   I glanced at my feet realizing only now that he did in fact come to the wedding. 
              “What are you looking at?” he asked gently as I watched over his shoulder at Ian man-hugging several of the guards who were congratulating him.

“Watching for the ice to form?”  I popped my eyes up and back down to my feet to be sure his lukewarm expression was what I wanted.  “I just want to be sure my feet are planted solid on the ground when it shakes from the quakes of hell freezing over.”

I waited for the grunt or growl of contempt.  He didn’t let me down. 
              “Grace, you’re a force to be reckoned with.  Hell froze the day you arrived in our world.”

“And thawed out on several occasions when you thought you might have me to yourself and chose to let fate work itself out.”

“That wasn’t thawing, that was boiling hot.  My love for you was all I had.”

He used the word
love.

“Okay, change of subject.  This is my wedding party after all.  Thank you for what you did, at your court.  I know that was hard for you.  And thank you for my father.  I can’t tell you how much that meant to me.”

He smiled shyly.  Well color me surprised.  “I hope you are happy,” he asked.

“I am Kin.  I am.”

He kissed my cheek and turned sideways revealing Ian behind him.  He’d said it for his benefit.  Ian had heard.

I smiled up at Ian’s to die for smile and braided his hand in mine, letting go my other hand from Kin.  He disappeared into the crowd as I followed Ian to the middle of the big group. 

Standing now, back in the very place where I danced for the first time with Ian a year ago, I took his hand as he placed his on the small of my bare back.  I breathed in and arched at his touch.  He smiled at the desired effect and dug his hand in deeper as if he needed to hold on.

I rested my head on his chest and let him move me to the sound of the soft music playing.  I was in peaceful bliss and nothing or no one could diminish my high as we started to sway.  The scent that had always made me fight to focus was surrounding me as I breathed in deeply. I felt him shiver and press his lips into my neck. 

“May I break in?”

I looked up reluctantly at Ian for an answer.  I wanted to close some doors, but I didn’t want to leave Ian.  I stood back for a brief second taking in the sight of my husband and receiving a mischievous arched brow in return.             

He bowed and handed me off to Pike.  I watched him take his mother’s hand and pull her out to dance.  She was happy and carefree at the moment and that seemed to make Ian happy.  I watched them dance.

“I wanted one last moment before I lost you completely.”

I blushed at the reference to my wedding night ahead. 

“I would have done anything to have that blush meant for me.”

“Pike,” I whispered pleading for him not to do this.

“No, I want to do this and then I will move on with my life.  I needed to see you happy.  I couldn’t accept anything else and there were times that Ian did not make you as happy as you should have been.”
              I started to reprimand his own behavior, but he cut me off.

“Now I know you’re thinking I was such a heathen myself, but I only acted that way to preserve my own dignity.  If I couldn’t convince you I was loyal way back when, then I could not live with myself.  Know that you will always be my first love.”

What?  Did he just say
love
?

“Yes, Grace.  I love you.  I will always love you.”

Why, oh why did Fey men like professing their love for me?  At
my
wedding.

“Pike,” I repeated.

“I will not ever leave you.  If you need me for anything, I am there.”

“You need to move on,” I pleaded.

“I will.  I am to return to my domain and remain head of the guard over the summer court and liaison to the winter court by Kinsler’s decree.”

“Oh, wow!  I am so excited for you.  I get to see you again for real.”

He tilted his head down, “You will.”