The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) (41 page)

“Here comes Merelith, so let the tricks begin,” Rio whispered, and then she began her own impersonation, the one where she pretended to actually feel like the heiress to two separate thrones.

The Fae led at least two dozen of her guardsmen, and they marched toward Rio in icy and terrible beauty. She could imagine herself after a decade with the Winter’s Edge Fae; she’d be as icily perfect as an orchid trapped in an icicle, and just as useless, with only the potential of danger or ruin in her future.

No, she didn’t see herself living in Winter’s Edge.

“We will be delighted to take you home with us when this ceremony is over,” Merelith pronounced as she came gliding over the cobblestones of the square.

“Why, hello to you, too, Auntie Merelith,” Rio purred. “How nice of you to wish me a happy birthday.”

Merelith’s eyes flared to molten silver. “Do not mistake my kindness for apathy, El’andille. It’s a flaw your mother shared.”

Rio touched Luke’s arm when he raised flame-cloaked hands, as if to blast her aunt. “No, it’s not time.”

A ripple ran across the assembled Fae when the sound of stomping feet—many stomping feet marching in cadence—began on the other side of the square and then headed toward Rio. It was Chance, of course, leading a contingent of his war guards.

“Happy birthday. I see the ugly side of your family is already here, sister,” he called out, and his demons pounded their chests and laughed with voices like thunder.

Rio smiled at him and waited for him to come closer.

“You told me no gifts,” he said, showing her his empty hands. “I hear and obey.”

Rio could imagine herself after a decade in Demon Rift; she’d be as logical-minded and vicious as her brother, afraid to trust or love or even show compassion, with only the potential for brutality or battle in her future.

No, she didn’t see herself living in Demon Rift.

A solitary figure walked out of the fountain, untouched by the water, and crossed the square toward Rio. When the man arrived in front of her, he did what none of the others had.

He bowed.

“Princess, it is time,” Maestro said, rising.

The Fae and the demons all fell back a step or two, but it didn’t last long.

“The League of the Black Swan has no business here,” Merelith cried out.

“Demon Rift agrees with the Fae,” Chance yelled.

“You’re not even official yet, and already you’re making history,” Luke said loudly enough for everyone to hear him. “You’ve got Demon Rift and Winter’s Edge agreeing on something.”

“I’m scared,” Rio admitted to Luke, her lips not moving at all, in a whisper barely loud enough for him to hear. Nobody else could know. She had to present a courageous front. Hence, The Dress.

She took a deep breath and began. “Listen to my words, all of you. I want to learn about both sides of my family, but I won’t be used as a tool in your politics, and I especially won’t be used to incite war. For the length of one year, I’ll be working for the League of the Black Swan.”

Merelith and Chance both started to protest, but Rio cut them off.

“I’ll visit you, and I’ll study my heritage, as long as you treat me with respect and promise not to try to lock me in any dungeons or anywhere else, for ‘my own good’ or for any other reason,” she continued.

“If we can’t agree to this, then we’ll all take the time to see what powers, exactly, I inherit in a few minutes.”

Merelith started forward, but Luke raised his hands, and everyone in the square could see the blue flames as they rose at least ten feet into the air.

“I don’t think so,” he told the Fae, and then he bowed to Rio. “Happy birthday, Princess.”

Clarice and Miro stepped out from behind the fountain, startling the demons nearest them. “Happy birthday, Princess.”

An entire Oblong of goblins swarmed up from behind Luke’s Jeep and settled themselves on the ground around Rio. “Happy birthday, Princess,” their leader said.

A mountain troll carrying an enormous club sauntered into the square and took up a position near the Fae guards. “Happy birthday, Princess,” Abernathy said.

The overall effect was exactly as she and Luke had planned it, and Rio had never felt so very much the center of attention in her life. She was going to look like a complete fool if something didn’t happen, and happen fast.

“No worries,” Luke said, and he took her hand and then pointed to the sky with his other hand. “Something is definitely about to happen.”

The starry night above them was changing; fixed points of light in the sky suddenly danced and circled each other, combining and retreating in graceful movements until the entire night sky was filled with their waltz.

A starlight waltz.

A giant band of pure silver light formed in the sky and then hurtled down toward Earth—toward the square—toward
Rio
. She had only an instant to tell herself not to panic, and then the band of light struck the ground, enclosing Rio but pushing Luke out of the circle with a loud
clap
.

When Rio could hear and see again, she was no longer alone. A woman who seemed to be made of pure starlight stood next to her, gazing wonderingly at her, and somehow Rio knew, with no room for doubt, that this was her mother.

“You are my El’andille,” the woman—Berylan—said, and Rio wanted to cry or laugh or shout with joy.

“Mother? Is it really you?” Rio whispered the words. “Are you—are you really here?”

Rio’s mother smiled at her, but the smile held a universe of sadness. “I can only be here as you see me, and only on the anniversary of your birth each year now that you have finally reached age twenty-five, but I have a gift for you, my beautiful, darling daughter.”

Rio let her tears fall without even trying to stop them. “I don’t want any gifts, Mother. I only want to spend time with you.”

“And you will, my lovely, brave girl, but first I must tell you something that I’ve waited for twenty-five years to say.”

Berylan’s sadness was so obvious that Rio’s chest ached for her mother, for herself—for both of them.

“Don’t tell me if it makes you this sad,” Rio said. She’d had enough bad news to last a lifetime.

Her mother embraced Rio with arms made of starlight, and she whispered into her ear. “I am so sorry for leaving you. I was so very ill, but I tried to fight. I tried so hard to fight so I could stay with you, my beautiful girl. Please forgive me for leaving you alone. My body wasn’t strong enough to keep the promise I made to you that I would get better. Please, can you ever forgive me?”

Rio wept in her mother’s arms. She wept for Berylan’s pain, and for the years they’d lost and would never be able to recover. “Mother, I’ll forgive you if you ask it, but there’s nothing to forgive. You didn’t want to leave me. I know that now.”

“Never,” Berylan declared, her sparkling silver eyes flashing.

“Can you stay and talk to me? I have so many questions,” Rio said, not too proud to plead if it would have any effect on how long her mother could remain.

“Sadly, not this time, but I have a gift for you that will allow me to visit you for longer and longer periods each time, if you are willing and able to accept it.”

“Anything,” Rio said instantly.

Berylan pulled her daughter close and shared a secret, and then she called to the starlight that had infused her entire being, and it answered her call.

“Now it is time for you to conquer starlight,” she said, and it was the last thing Rio heard before the river of silver fire poured into her, obliterating thought and reason.

Her consciousness expanded, and suddenly she could see the plots and plans of the two branches of her family, almost as if she were plucking them directly out of Merelith’s and Chance’s minds. Such amazing, twisty plans they had for her, and they didn’t even know her. It made her laugh, and it made her angry, and then she felt the starlight take her, and she realized both Chance and Merelith were awestruck at the sight.

“Starlight is very powerful, and nobody now living in either family can wield it,” her mother told her. “With this magic, you will be safer from their plots and hatreds.”

“I want to go with you, back to the stars,” she told her mother, who laughed and beckoned.

Rio danced forward, ready to take the leap into the skies, only dimly aware of Luke hurling himself against the starlit prism, but then suddenly Kit was in the circle, too, and the fox kept blocking Rio’s path to her mother.

“I want to go with my mother. Don’t you understand, Kit? I never again want to be that little three-year-old, cold and alone and sobbing for her mommy,” Rio cried out, shoving at the fox, who was suddenly the size of a small pony.

But you are not alone. Have you not seen?

Kit’s voice in Rio’s mind brought a clarifying calm, and Rio could see and think again. She realized Luke had battered himself bloody from trying to break through the starlight circle to get to her, and looking beyond him, she saw and remembered that all of Fountain Square was filled with her friends.

“I’m not alone,” Rio said, and her mother nodded.

“You are not alone, and I am so proud of you. It is not your time, my beautiful daughter. Come back next year, and we will share so much,” Berylan said, but then she began to float up into the sky, returning to the stars that sheltered her. “Remember me.”

Rio fell to the ground, sobbing, as her mother disappeared into the sky. “How could I ever forget you?”

The circle of light vanished, and Luke ran in and scooped her into his arms, holding her so tightly she couldn’t breathe.

“Lungs,” she croaked out, and he loosened his hold just enough for her to catch her breath.

“They kept you from me, and now I’m going to kill them all,” he snarled, and then he lowered her gently until she was standing on her feet, pushed her behind him, and started to call fire to his command.

This time, though, the flames weren’t blue. The fire circling his hands and arms burned a hot orange-red, and Luke’s eyes burned with the same fire. Rio flinched back, but then she remembered that this was
Luke
. He would never, ever hurt her.

“Mine,” he snarled.

The curse. It had to be the curse.

“He’s gone over,” somebody yelled.

It must have been Maestro, because suddenly he was there between them, slashing at Luke with a silver blade. When the blade connected with Luke’s skin, he howled, and the air filled with the sizzle of burning flesh. Luke swung out with one foot and kicked Maestro in the head, sending the man flying across the square.

“Kill him,” Maestro yelled, tossing the silver blade to Chance.

Rio’s brother looked down at the blade in his hand and then at his sister.

“Don’t even think about it, or I will end you,” Rio said, letting her body fill with starlight again.

Chance dropped the blade and deliberately stepped on it with his heavy boot, snapping blade from hilt. “I’m on your side, Rio. Remember that in the future.”

With that, Rio’s brother the demon prince waved a hand, and he and his entire contingent of war guards turned and marched away.

Rio turned to Merelith, who shrugged. “I see my sister is as flighty as ever.”

Rio was still wondering if the Fae had intended the pun when Merelith and her guards vanished.

Luke, deprived of his targets, whirled around and saw the goblins, who’d huddled together, probably to get out of the line of fire.

“No,” Rio shouted. “They’re my friends.”

Rio
wanted to slap some sense into him, but
El’andille
remembered that the only way to conquer a curse was with its opposite. In this case, darkness could only be defeated by love.

Rio grabbed Luke’s head and pulled it down to hers, and then she kissed him with every ounce of love and caring and hope she’d ever felt for him and for their future together.

“I believe in you,” she said, over and over between kisses, until finally, when she looked into his eyes again for the twentieth time or so, they glowed a beautiful deep blue instead of flame red, and Luke looked utterly bewildered.

“I believe in you, too, but why are we making out in the middle of Fountain Square?”