Trials (The Forever Series, Book 6) (31 page)

“So I will be pregnant and she will be born a human Dragon.
I had kind of figured that out already, seeing as Vampires can’t be conceived,”
I say and she looks surprised.

“Oh, you have given this some thought then?” she asks.

“Yes, we aren’t going into this half-arsed,” I say. “What is
the point to this?”

“Well, actually, you have raised a fairly good point. But
what I am trying to say is you are destined to have a daughter but it might not
be your sires. In fact, it doesn’t seem likely.”

“But the future us said it was working,” I say, confused.

“But is future you being faithful?” she asks delicately.

“Erm, well, no,” I admit slowly, thinking of what future
Sebastian said.

“You are having relations with Sebastian?” she looks away as
asks says it.

“Apparently, in the future. Not now. How do you know that?”

“Your mother has conceived many children, after she was
cursed. None of them have been born as you were. Just regular humans who lived
and died being what they were.”

“Okaaaay. I assume that is because I was destined to be
Queen.”

“Perhaps. It is more likely because you were the only child
conceived within a certain relationship that she had.”

“So you
do
know who my father is! I knew you were
hiding something,” I accuse her.

“Your mother fell in love. With a man who was forbidden.
There has never been another relationship between their two species, such is
the lack of tolerance, to put it nicely, but they were in love and they consummated
their love the night you were conceived.”

“Who was he, dammit? Just tell me,” I snap at her, beyond
curious now.

“The Fae King,” she says and I feel the bile rise slowly in
my throat. The Fae King? Sebastian’s father? Oh, the things I have done with
him…oh, I am going to be sick. I put my hand to my mouth and am nanoseconds
away from hurling as I think of us being intimate together when she adds, “The
Dark Fae King, Drake.”

Wait, the Dark Fae King? Sebastian said he was Light Fae. I
have no idea what that means but thank the old gods he at least isn’t my actual
brother.

“Okay, you are going to have to explain further. I don’t
really know much about the Faeries, except Sebastian said he was Light Fae.
That is no relation to Dark Fae?” I ask hopefully.

She smiles at me, “No, no relation. But you see why I am
prone to think that if you have a human-born Dragon, it may not be
Constantine’s, it may be Sebastian’s.”

“But Sebastian is also a Vampire,” I say, shaking my head at
the disturbance of that thought. “And we aren’t engaging in any power-boosting
rituals.”

“He doesn’t need a power boost, Aefre. He has enough of that
all on his own.”

“But he must have had sex with millions of women and never
had a child. Why would you think now that he is capable?”

“Because of you,” she says simply as she pushes the scroll
towards me. “It tracks. Unless you know of any other Faerie you may have
relations with.”

“Erm, no I do not,” I state determinedly. “But I don’t see
why just because I am a human-born Dragon and my daughter will be, why the
father has to be Faerie? If you say the only child conceived by a Dragon and a
Faerie is me, that’s hardly enough evidence for a case study.” I am confident
of my words and I sit back, relaxing slightly.

“Perhaps,” she says again. “I am not here to tell you
otherwise as I do not know. I am just here to give you some facts and to warn
you to be careful. If you have plans that you intend to keep, make sure they
don’t go awry.”

I chew my lip. “But what if you are right?” I say quietly. “What
if the only way I will have a child is with Sebastian?”

She shrugs and says, “The prophecy will come true. How it
will come true we don’t know.”

“So it’s just a wait-and-see kind of deal? Great,” I mutter.
“How come you didn’t want to tell me about my father?”

“It was your mother’s wish that you didn’t find out. She
didn’t want you going off to find him.”

“Because he doesn’t know about me?” I ask.

“No,” she says. “And it should stay that way. The animosity
between the races is fierce. If the Dark Fae found out that the new Queen of
The Underworld was one of theirs, war would break out. It would be a global
catastrophe.”

“Why? And I am not one of theirs. I have no Faerie powers, I
can’t walk in the sunlight without my ring. I can’t juju people like Sebastian
can,” I say.

“The Faeries and the Dragons used to live in harmony eons
ago. You may have come to realize by now that the Dragons were responsible for
the creation of most of the newer Supernatural creatures. Not the Faeries
though. They are as ancient as the Dragons and a completely separate race. War
broke out when the Dragons tried to get the Faerie under their rule but they
were powerful enough to resist and now there is no peace between the two races.
They live in their own Kingdoms on a Realm far beyond anything we can reach. You
may not be true Faerie, but it is in you. Especially now you are able to bear
mystical Power. Try and take your ring off in the sun. I would wager my entire
fortune that you don’t need it.”

“Oh? And how much would that be?” I ask dryly. Interesting
history though. I wonder if Xane will know more? Sebastian seems to be fairly
tight-lipped on the whole thing. Not that I can blame him under his personal
circumstances.

She chuckles, “Just try. And I don’t suppose I have to tell
you that this should remain between us? The last thing we need is a fight to
the death between sire and charge over who gets to try and conceive the future
Empress.”

Future Empress? Yikes! “What?” I squeak. “That would never
happen. Now that I know, I will be staying away from Sebastian. If the prophecy
is going to come true it will come true the way I have planned it.”

“Spoken like a true Queen,” she says and stands. “I am sorry
for the midnight visit, but I just couldn’t sit on this once I knew of your intentions.”

“Of course.”

“Don’t go searching, Aefre,” she says again.

“I won’t,” I say. Like Hell, I add to myself.

She picks up her scroll and Teleports out and I am left
wondering what my father is like. I can’t even really ask Sebastian as he would
get suspicious as to why I suddenly want to know about Dark Fae. One thing is
clear: I am not ever going to have sex with Sebastian. CK can take his plea and
shove it. I will have to work on getting him more attached to bringing Jess
into the fold. I wonder if future me knows this? Surely not, to still be
carrying on with him. Oh crap, but the problem is I have already had sex with
him. I put my hand on my stomach and gulp. All it takes is once and willing
accomplice or not makes not a damn bit of difference. Oh, CK will kill him and
then probably me if Corinne is right. This is bad. Bad, bad, bad. Future me has
the answers. I must go and find her.

“Liv?” Cole asks. “What are you doing up at this hour?”

“Bad dream,” I say suddenly, remembering it. “Not a Thirteen
one though, I don’t think,” I add as he looks worried. “Come back to bed, we
have to leave for Miami in a few hours.”

He agrees and takes my hand. He snuggles into me and falls
back asleep as I lie awake thinking now about the dream. They were talking about
spelling me. Sebastian said he did it yesterday. We were together but I don’t
remember anything untoward. There again I wouldn’t, now would I? What did CK
say? “Your only job is to spell her to make her come to me.” What does that
mean exactly? But I don’t ponder that for very long as I then remember what
Sebastian said: “It is like she is one of my old kind.” Christ, this is all
just falling into one big weird coincidence. I don’t believe the dream. It is a
lie. It has to be. They wouldn’t treat me that way. Would they? I fall asleep
with doubts lurking about the two of them and dream of a future that I would
very much like to avoid if at all possible.

Cole and I wake at the same time as the alarm goes off for 4
AM. Eurgh, too early. I want to curl back under the duvet but he pulls it off
me and says, “Sorry, baby. We have to move.”

“Fine,” I grumble and get out of bed. “Do we have time for
shower sex before we have to leave?” I ask.

“We
always
have time for shower sex,” he says,
pulling me off the bed and into the bathroom.

“I shall have to remember that for future reference,” I say
before he kisses me and walks me back into the shower and turns on the jets. We
are drenched in seconds and I run my hands over his sexy wet chest and into his
sexy wet hair. “I love you,” I say, even though his tongue is still in my
mouth. “I love you back,” he says, pausing only slightly in his kisses which
are fogging up my brain more than the steam from the hot water is. He picks me
up and before he shoves me against the wall he is inside me.

“Oh!” I cry out as he hits the right spot first time. “Oh
yes, baby.” I wrap my legs tighter around him. He grips my thighs as he pounds
into me and we come together quickly and loudly.

“Time to go,” Devon says from the doorway.

“Fuck’s sake!” I say. “What did I say yesterday about
boundaries?”

“Nothing,” he says. “Unless you mentioned it when I wasn’t
there.”

“You weren’t there,” Cole says.

“Oh, sorry Dev,” I say. “But, we need to start respecting
each other’s boundaries. This is just getting far too familiar for my liking,”
I say, getting out of the shower regardless of my words.

He hands me a towel. “But we have always been this way. Why
do I fall into the same category as everyone else now?” he sulks. “I don’t like
it.”

“Sweetie. I have no problem with you walking in on me
whenever but it is kind of awkward when I am fucking my husband. It seems to be
a thing. Not just with you.”

“Maybe that’s because you are always fucking,” he says
sullenly as Cole laughs.

“I wish. Unless you meant that in the singular sense and
then yes, Liv, maybe you are always fucking,” Cole says with a slight smile to
take the sting out of his words.

“Such a funny couple of charges. Now go and chuckle about it
elsewhere,” I say as I leave them snickering in the bathroom.

I spin in a circle and am ready and waiting. Cole rushes to
catch up and soon we are all crammed into two limos on the way to the airport.
Everybody except me is looking rather nervous about getting on this flight and
I don’t blame them after what happened last time we were all assembled here.

“Relax, everybody. I have a fairly good handle on the
jumping. We should be fine,” I say as we all tentatively sit down and stare at
each other.

“Don’t pick a fight with me,” CK says, sitting down opposite
me.

“Don’t test my patience then,” I say, avoiding Sebastian’s
gaze as he sits next to CK. Devon chooses to sit with Jess behind us on the
sofa seats.

“I think I do that unintentionally,” he says dryly. “Christ
knows I don’t do it on purpose.” Everyone chuckles and relaxes a bit. Except
me. I am still reeling over the news from last night’s visit along with the
disturbing dream I had. I peer at CK closely now for any signs of subterfuge
and he looks back at me questioningly. I smile at him as I see nothing but then
I wouldn’t, of course, as he invented the poker face and, flicking my gaze to
Sebastian, he wasn’t far behind in picking it up.

“Paranoid!” my brain suddenly yells at me and I actually
jump a bit to Cole’s surprise.

“You okay?”

“Err, yes, fine,” I mutter. “Tired. Would you mind if I went
to sleep for an hour?”

“No, of course not, my love,” he says and gives me a
gigantic kiss before he lets me go.

“Wake me in a bit?” I say and he nods.

I get up and go to the bedroom vaguely realizing that in
spite of Ramon being at my beck and call, I didn’t call.

“Xane? Can I have you a minute?” I murmur as I walk past
him.

“Yeah, want to suck on my energy?” he says with a cheeky
grin and I laugh.

“If you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind you feeding THE DRAGON WAY!” he says at
the top of his voice and I shake my head at him.

“You are all a bunch of fools,” I say as I see CK’s face
fall.

I close the door behind us and he says, “So when are we
going to make love again? I can’t hold out much longer. I need you.”

I take his hands in mine, “Xane. I love having you around
but we can’t be together like that. I’ve told you.”

“And I have told you I love you. But I like that you love
having me around.”

I close my eyes and pull on his energy. I feel it enter me
and I relax. Things don’t seem so bad now. “Can I ask you something? Something
that you will keep between just us?”

“Of course,” he says stepping closer. “I love having secrets
with you.”

“What can you tell me about the Faerie?”

“Faerie? Why do you want to know? They don’t fall under your
rule,” he says with a slight furrow to his brow.

“I know. That’s why I am curious,” I lie.

“Oh, well I don’t know much,” he says, sitting on the bed
and pulling me down with him. “I know they are split into two ‘groups’ I
suppose is the word. Light and Dark. Each has their own King.”

“What does that mean, Light and Dark? Are they separate species?”

“Yes. Same race, Separate species. All I can tell you is
that they choose to use their powers in different ways, for different gain.
Both equally powerful but as the names suggest…” he holds his hands up.

“Oh. They are not fond of Dragons?”

“No.” He squints at me and asks, “Where is all this coming
from?”

“I am just curious, as I said, as to why they are separated
from the rest of us. It’s no biggie.” I shrug it off.

“They are an elusive bunch. They very rarely come out of
their own Realm. They are powerful magick users and incredibly ancient and
powerful, as much so as the Dragons. Near as I can tell there was an epic
battle many eons ago between the Faerie and the Dragons. It divided The
Underworld and they went off on their own and were powerful enough to prevent a
takeover.”