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"You're Titania, aren't you?"
As she gently inclined her head, my stomach flipped. The Faerie Queen emeritus, Titania was dangerous and unpredictable. She was far less human than the Sidhe of my own world, even though she'd remained Earthside.
Titania's gaze never left my face. "And now would you tell me," she said, "what you want with my poor, besieged, gone mad as a March hare, Tam Lin?"
* * *
CHAPTER 15
Tam Lin? Tom Lane? It all made sense now. But Tam Lin had been returned to the mortal world eons ago. Tom couldn't be Tam Lin, who lore said had lived out the rest of his life with his wife and children. Or could he?
"How is that possible? Tam Lin's been dead for hundreds of years." I slowly skirted to the left, not trusting Titania to play fair. Rumor had it she'd gone over the edge and had lost all sense of reason.
"Has he now?" Titania spoke to me, but her eyes were on Morio, and I sensed a danger in the making.
Morio must have sensed the same thing because he seemed to grow taller, more imposing. "Let us speak to Tom."
She ducked her head and smiled. Glamour, I thought. She was becoming more seductive by the moment, her face softening, the glow in her eyes growing brighter. Her breasts seemed to swell just enough to make it look as though she'd taken a long breath and held it. "Our Witchling won't tell me her name, but I know who she is. Camille, am I right?"
I blinked. So much for secrecy. "How did you find out?"
Ignoring me, Titania homed in on Morio. "You, however, I don't know. Perhaps you'll be gracious enough to give me your name?"
I glanced at him. Titania sounded three sheets to the wind. Maybe she was drunk, or the magic in the room had clouded her sight. Or maybe the years spent alone cut off from Otherworld had been too much for her to bear. Or perhaps, just perhaps, Titania had tripped off the deep end and gone mad. Whatever the case, I didn't feel safe around her.
Morio seemed to be thinking the same thing I was, because he warily held his ground. "It's a trick. He's probably not Tam Lin."
Titania took his bait. "Are you calling me a liar, mortal?"
"Prove you're not." The gauntlet, thrown down. Morio was a handsome man, and Titania liked handsome young men.
After a moment's hesitation, she narrowed her eyes. "You know there's no way I can prove such a thing, nor do I need to. I'm the Queen of Faerie here, and don't you forget it. When the Elemental Lords divided the realms, I chose to remain with this world and with my roots."
"Tell us about Tom," I said softly. "Please?"
She sighed, then like a drowning woman clutching at a lifesaver, slumped down on one of the limestone benches and began to talk. I had the feeling she had few friends or companions left in whom she could confide.
"I knew after a few years of brats and a nagging wife who grew older day by day, Tam Lin would return to me. And I was right. One day, he was outside the barrow, waiting for me. I took him back and kept him here for hundreds of years, feeding him my Faerie bread and letting him sip from the nectar of life. Over the years, Tam Lin lost his mortality. He now belongs to me, wholly and fully and forever." But there was a catch in her voice.
"Something went wrong, didn't it?" I asked. "What happened?"
She flashed me a cunning look, but then her eyes softened.
"Girl, half-human or not, you have the sight and no small amount of power. Consider this. You were born to your life between worlds, you know how to cope with the passing of years and the growing weight of your thoughts. Tam Lin was born mortal. He couldn't adjust as time went on."
I nodded, understanding. My father had offered Mother the option of drinking the nectar of life to extend her life far beyond her allotted years, but she'd been smart enough to recognize the pitfalls. She'd refused, and when she was thrown from the horse, death claimed her.
"What happened to him?" Morio's voice was gentle. He, too, understood the implications of what Titania had done.
A single tear trickled down her cheek, gleaming like a diamond, faceted with a hundred perfect prisms. "He lost his mind. He ran in the woods for months at a time with the animals. One day the Prince of Oaks found him and brought him back to my barrow. He chastised me—me! Titania, Queen of Faerie. He scolded me like a wayward child." Her voice rose, and her cheeks flushed. She paused a moment, then continued.
"He made me promise to try to help Tam adapt, and he gave him a pendant to protect him. So Tam Lin became Tom Lane, and for a time each century, he resides in the world. I use my contacts to get him the accoutrements he needs for human society. It's harder now that humans require such extensive identification. Then, we find him a simple job that keeps him occupied. Near the end of each cycle, when he begins to tire or when someone gets suspicious, my darling comes home with me, and I wipe his memory of that life. After a time spent in my chambers sleeping, he wakes to yet a new life."
Speechless, I stared at her. How selfish could you get? First, she'd bound Tom to her when she snatched him out of his world and kept him captive. Then after he escaped and returned home, she encouraged him to come back to her. Instead of wiping his memory and sending him back to his family, she'd given him a life span his mind couldn't cope with.
"By all the gods, why don't you just let him sleep? Put him in stasis until the end of time? He'd probably be happier." She could blast me if she wanted, but what she'd done went against every code I'd been raised with. Unfortunately, a lot of my full-blood kin would have a good laugh at the situation.
Titania shot off the bench. A nimbus of anger flared around her, and I automatically shielded myself.
