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Her expression changed then, her face getting more closed and yet more fragile at once. When she spoke, though, her voice was gentle and the touch on Kel's shoulder was firm. In that moment, Uthe saw the ruler in her that Keldwyn saw. "I will not necessarily give you my blessing, but I do offer a hope for your happiness. My father would be pleased you have found someone to love."
Keldwyn lifted his head, gripped her wrist. "I know he loved you, Rhoswen. Deeply. Had he had the freedom to show his love for Lyssa's mother, I expect he would have had far more opportunities to prove his feelings for you. Perhaps with these changes we can prevent something like what happened to him and his family from happening to someone else."
"Perhaps. Let us just not call it progress. I cannot abide that word, for all the evils it represents." Rhoswen sniffed. "Now, as to your ward..."
Keldwyn stiffened, but she stepped around him and moved to the center of the chamber. "Come stand before me, child."
Uthe glanced toward Kel as the Fae Lord rose and turned. Though the male's expression was tense, he nodded slightly. Uthe squeezed Catriona, a reassurance. The young woman moved toward the Queen with only a brief hesitation. Uthe saw her courage when she did her best to hold fast and not shrink before Rhoswen.
"You will be forgiven your transgression because of your pure intent." When Rhoswen reached out and touched the girl's face, Catriona jumped, an involuntary response, but she settled as Rhoswen made a quiet noise. "You will come to no harm from me today, Catriona. A ruler has to make difficult decisions. Regret is often part of those decisions, but it does not change why they must be done. You understand?"
Catriona, held under that piercing blue stare, pressed her lips together. When she shook her head, Rhoswen smiled without humor. "A sweet, honest child. No, of course you don't. That's the point, you see. Your world has yourself at the center, whereas for a ruler, her people always have to be at the center, even if she forgets that from time to time. I make right decisions and wrong decisions, and sometimes I don't know which is which until much further down the road. I don't think allowing you to stay captured in the human world for twenty years was the wrong decision, because it did dissuade other young Fae from making the same mistake you did. However, if I'd had another way to teach the lesson, I would have done so. A Queen doesn't have the luxury of indulging her more tender feelings."
Rhoswen stepped back, her familiar expression replaced by her usual imperious mask. "I overlook your tremendous disrespect today in exchange for your involuntary service to that lesson. Understood?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." Catriona curtsied on shaking knees. Keldwyn had approached and drew her to his side, grasping her elbow to steady her.
"Now be gone," Rhoswen said. "It would be best if I didn't see you for quite some time, because you are not on the best side of my temper right now."
Catriona looked toward Keldwyn, a quick flash of happiness for him crossing her face. She indulged a quick hug of his neck before she fled the room, likely as swiftly as she'd entered it. As she fluttered over him, one of the guards groaned, beginning to push himself up off the floor.
"Did you have to hit him like a battering ram?" Rhoswen said crossly. The Fae Lord glanced at the stirring guard.
"That one wasn't mine. Mine is the one that is still unconscious."
Rhoswen's gaze snapped to Uthe. Uthe cleared his throat, aware of Lyssa's amused look. "I did have the advantage of surprise, my lady. Else I'm sure he would have made a better accounting of himself."
"It will go all the worse for him when Cayden learns he let a vampire dispatch him." Rhoswen shook her head, waved a hand. The two men dissipated into the floor like melting ice, an alarming effect until she explained. "I've put them back in their bunks in the barracks. When they wake up, they can explain to Cayden why they are not at their posts. It's ridiculous to think I need constant protection anyway, particularly when I am meeting with the strongest allies I have."
She swept her gaze over Tabor and Lyssa. A pleased smile on his face, Tabor gave her a half bow. Lyssa blinked at her like a green-eyed cat, and Rhoswen's lips twisted at the expression. She threw a look at Keldwyn. "Since you have resolved the most important issue before us today, we can work out the details of our Yule celebration on our own. You and your vampire may go."
"As you wish, my lady," Keldwyn bowed. She'd confirmed what Uthe suspected, that they'd had weightier business on the table when Catriona had interrupted them. Despite her summary judgment upon Keldwyn, Rhoswen had intended to discuss the matter with the other two leaders for their consideration. It reassured Uthe and improved his opinion of her. However, in his short exposure to Keldwyn's mind, he'd already learned the Fae Queen was not too much different from the vampire one. They might not always be predictable and they were always dangerous. But in the end, they had many qualities that commanded an advisor's loyalty.
Lyssa nodded to Uthe. "I'll look forward to seeing you in Savannah, my lord. If your business elsewhere has been concluded."
There were a wealth of ifs involved with him coming back to Council headquarters, but it wasn't the appropriate time to discuss that. When her features softened slightly behind that regal look, he remembered her words before he'd left.
I would care for you.
Perhaps the decision they'd just argued and made could be applied to his personal situation. Sometimes it was best to put what safeguards in place one could and see how things unfolded. As he shifted his gaze toward Keldwyn and back to Lyssa, he found himself agreeing with Rhoswen.
No matter what happened, his greatest allies were with him.
Chapter Eighteen
It was fortunate Rhoswen had been in a more rational mood than she'd been when Kel had shown up in her throne room earlier, bloody and dusty and filled with urgency to return to Uthe's side. But as he revisited that fateful meeting when she'd decided not to lock him out of the Fae world, Keldwyn wondered what kind of soul searching she'd done between the two meetings. Perhaps she'd sought counsel with Cayden in a more intimate setting to purge the emotions that were getting in the way of what she'd told Catriona a ruler had to do--keeping the world in the center of things, rather than her personal feelings about it.
The right person could help a male or female think more clearly about things. Though he could also be the
stubborn obstacle to what the proper course of things should be. In that case, Uthe and Rhoswen had too much in common.
As he approached the west entrance to the Savannah estate, Kel took off the gloves he'd been wearing to ride a dragon to the portal in the Savannah forest. He'd let Sandoval come through for a few minutes, because the forest was private and protected, and he'd promised John, Kane's closest friend, that he'd let him meet a dragon if he was on time. When he came through the portal, he'd wondered if the child had been camped there since school had let out several hours before.
The slim, serious boy had been charmingly goggle-eyed as he touched Sandoval's scales and scratched the offered snout. He liked science, and already dogged Brian and Debra in their lab regularly. As a result, many of his questions for Keldwyn--once he overcame his initial shyness with the Fae Lord and the overwhelming reality of facing a dragon--had to do with the hows and whys. Why did they breathe fire? How did they do it? Could they talk in their heads like vampires? How long did they live? Did they really lay eggs to have offspring?
Keldwyn had indulged a few hundred of such questions before he sent Sand back through the gate and John back to his grandfather. Dusk was coming and he had other business to handle. Despite his tension about that business, the boy's enthusiasm left him with a contented feeling. There was joy in sharing the magic of his world with the world here. And John already understood the quid pro quo of Fae protocol. He'd promised to show Keldwyn how to play Angry Birds.
Now he leaned against the archway of the stone patio and slapped the gloves against his thigh, waiting. I know you're awake.
My door is not locked.
I know your nightly routine. I'm saving myself a walk.
He waited, and eventually heard Uthe emerge from the trap door behind him. Keldwyn looked over his shoulder because, truth, it was a pleasure to gaze upon him every evening. Uthe closed his hand on Keldwyn's arm, a brief affection, before he moved out to the lawn. Kneeling beneath the emerging moon and stars, he bowed his head.
The vampire had started to wear clothes of the Fae world more often, since they went between worlds frequently. Tonight he wore a belted short tunic and dark brown hose that clung to his muscular thighs. Kel suppressed the desire to tug up the back of the tunic and enjoy how the fabric molded his taut buttocks.
