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Callan, standing at the table where we’ve been reading, his hands planted as he leans over to glare at his son, snaps off his response as soon as he sees me emerge from the narrow tunnel that leads into my hearth room.
“Teddy. I thought you’d be resting.”
“I wanted to read what you were reading about the dream bridge,” I say, moving beside Darwin. He reaches for my hand; I grasp his tightly.
Callan’s silver eyes focus on our joined hands and narrow to icy slits.
“Can I show you something?” I ask Callan.
He nods.
I go up on my tiptoes and brush my lips over Darwin’s cheek, so he knows I’m not rejecting him, before I unwind my hand from his. I pad over to the bed, take the note that future-Teddy wrote me out from under the covers, and hand it to Callan.
His shoulders draw up as he reads it, but he hands it back to me wordlessly.
“I never made it my business to learn much about the fae,” I admit as I refold the note and slip it back under the quilt where future-Teddy left it. “But I’ve realized some things, seeing your court, and listening to the two of you. You bring mortals into the fae courts not just because of their connection to our world. You bring them to interbreed. Pure-blooded fae can’t have children anymore, can they?”
“None of the pure-blooded high court,” Darwin says, taking my hand again.
“That’s why you’re pressuring Darwin to have an heir,” I say to Callan. “Is he the only one of your sons who can?”
“I don’t think you appreciate how fragile the hierarchy is, Teddy,” Callan says, sinking down onto the bench and folding his hands over the closed Arcana. “My sons and I are the last of the Dùbhghlas line. Over a hundred years separate Darwin and his next-youngest brother. Although Darwin’s eleventh in line for the throne, in his own generation, there’s only Cathal ahead of him, and it’s becoming clear that Cathal suffers from the pure-blood curse. If Darwin doesn’t have a son before his grandfather and I die, he’ll become the primary target for our enemies. They’ll do anything to keep him from producing another generation of Dùbhghlas princes.” Callan pushes up from the table and moves around it to stand in front of us. He puts a hand on Darwin’s shoulder. “I can’t leave my son to face that alone.”
There are moments when I’m convinced Callan doesn’t care about anything other than his own power. Then he does shite like this.
“What happens when a fae court is unmoored from the mortal world?” I ask. “Will the fae fade without mortals to interbreed with?”
Callan’s mouth works silently for a moment. His eyes dull to pewter. “Teddy.”
I nod. “It took me a little while to work it out, but that’s what your Teddy was working against, wannit? She was trying to keep the doors to the courts open not just because mortals could be trapped there and because wild magic might disappear from the world, but because without a viable population of mortals, an unmoored fae court will die off in two generations. I’m guessing that mortals in the fae courts don’t bear or sire many children, either, do they?”
Darwin shakes his head mutely.
“You need constant new blood,” I observe.
“Yes,” Callan says heavily. “Without mortals to bring new blood to our lines, the courts are doomed.”
“I’m sorry for the courts you’ve lost,” I say truthfully. Listening to Darwin and his father, I’ve learned that four courts have been lost in this Time. I heard genuine pain in Darwin’s voice when he spoke of them, and I hurt for him. “But there’s no point in pressuring Darwin to spend time with Phoebe—if that’s what you were doing—because the doors to the fae courts are going to close and there’s no future for any of you. You’d be sentencing any children Darwin has to watch their race die.”
Callan’s face contorts. “She might have been wrong.”
I wrap my hand gently over his. “She weren’t, though. That’s why I’ve been pulled here over and over. It’s down to me to fix this. I just need to get back to my own Time.”
Darwin makes a low, wounded noise in his throat before he turns and pulls me into his arms. “Teddy.”
“I’m not saying this ‘cause I don’t want you with anyone else,” I whisper against his throat. “Or ‘cause I don’t want to stay here with you.”
He strokes his hand up and down my back. “Of course not, love. I wouldn’t think that.”
“I could see how guilty and unhappy it made you to handfast someone other than your-Teddy. There’s no point in putting yourself through that. D’you understand?”
“Yes, I think we both see that now.” He kisses the side of my head. “There’s a certain freedom in having no future.”
“This cannot go outside this room,” Callan says heavily. “It would cause chaos. I appreciate neither of you care for the fae hierarchy, but I promise you that the noble fae keep the darkest elements of our kind from spreading their terror to the mortal world. If there’s no future—if there are noconsequences—thesióg dorchawill plunge your world into darkness and fear the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Dark Ages.”
I nod and Darwin cups the back of my head, bringing my forehead to his. “When you go back to your own Time, you mustn’t speak of this, Teddy. I hate to burden you with such a terrible secret, but I was greatly at odds with my father when I was at Bevington. I’d have used this knowledge against him.”
I look up into those gleaming eyes. “Darwin, did you have anything to do with summoning Klotho?”
