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It’s incredible, and nothing like the kind of magic Rain can do with spells, curses, ingredients, and incantations.
“Could I do that?”
He hesitates. “Not everyone is born with the same bonds to nature, but mine is stronger than most. I am lord of the wild. But you’re the blood of the high queen. You’ll do this and more, if you live long enough to learn.”
I take the last words for the warning they are. My survival, my longevity, aren't guaranteed. Far from it.
I was only given one day of safety. Tomorrow, I'm no longer under his protection. Tomorrow I'm no one. Junis's slave. Valdred's conquest.
“Thank you” comes to mind, but I swallow them back. He's made what he’s prepared to offer clear: safety for a night.I can't ask for more.
“I’ll return your kindness one day.”
“You think me kind, Darina?” he asks, thoroughly amused.
Kind isn’t quite the right word. But whatever the reason, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m in a decadently comfortable bed, away from Junis, feeling as safe as possible in this strange world for the moment. He provides what I need.He answers my question. He brings me tea and soap.
“I think you weighed the odds and decided you’re better off helping me than getting in my way,” I admit. “I appreciate that help all the same.”
He considers my words for a long time. Then he decides they warrant no reply.
“Sleep. You’ve met some of the unseelie lords tonight, and you charmed them. It's not nothing. But it was under my roof, with my protection. Tomorrow, you will have to face all the courts, queenling.”
Tired as I am, that last sentence keeps me awake, shivering helplessly for long heartbeats.
And then I'm plunged into a deep, restful, dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
AFTER THE FALL
Ryther
I let the girl sleep. She deserves it after today and needs it for tomorrow.
She also needs training, discipline, and a hundred years of experience, at least, but she's not gonna get that overnight, so sleep will do.
Her arrival might have forever changed the course of history in our world, but Darina doesn’t quite grasp that right now. There’s no point telling her she has a duty, a purpose, and should spend every one of her moments preparing for it. Forging alliances. Reinforcing her walls.
Little Darina is little more than a child, willful, stubborn, and with a strange sense of entitlement that tells her she ought to have anything she desires just for the wishing. Physically, she might be a grown up, but there's a reason why fae are only considered adults at twenty-five; we age slower. The rest of us have years to learn what we are, but she's a changeling, found so very late.
She’ll grow up, or she’ll die. Those are her two options. She needs to fully embrace who she is, what she is, to make the choices that keep her head on her shoulders.
But one night of rest isn’t going to change her fate, and tomorrow’s soon enough to face reality.
Besides, someone ought to use my bed. I certainly won’t tonight.
By the time I get out of my camp, it is surrounded.No, that’s quite the right word. It'sbesieged.
The lords are armed and armored, ready to claim their pound of flesh.
If it were only my courts, it would be one thing, but every single high fae gathered for the conclave has come, ready to fight for their independence, their power, their thrones.Everything the arrival of the girl who could become the next high queen threatens.
I note that the unseelie court stand with their back to my doors, defending its entrance, while the seelie face it, none other than Valdred at the head of the procession.
A slight awareness flicks at the back of my neck. I can’t tell whether I feel like I’ve already seen this scene or only dreamed it all, but it feels inevitable.
Fated.
