Page 21 of Crowned By the Fae King

Uneven Ground

Danica had described the coronation part as "not bad" and the reception part as "probably tedious." Personally, I thought the designation of the reception as "tedious" was really underselling the mind-numbing boredom of the event. It was like being the high school principal on graduation day, unable to escape the endless repetitive cycle of graduations and cursed with the knowledge that every person in line was eager to get their moment on stage.

The cold wind played across all of us while the heavy clouds overhead blotted out the sun. Misting rain occasionally drifted over the palace, but never enough to do more than leave the ground dark and mist beading on my clothing and hair. Over the valley was another question altogether: the storm lashed everything to the east, caught in the cauldron of the valley and boiling over into the mountains beyond. Sheets of rain punctuated by lighting darkened the sky, easing up as the nobility filtered through and were replaced by a procession of desperately eager merchants and iron-spined military brass.

All of the people invited to do presentations were classically fae. Though I'd never seen fae as unusual as Cass and Vaduin before, I knew they came in a wide variety of body types, mediated by the wild magic that filled Faery. A couple of the earliest acquisitions from the mortal world had even sprouted horns or developed unusual hair and eye colors. When I'd expressed concern that the same might happen to me, I'd been told that there were enough people there now that the wild magic probably wouldn't strongly affect any of us, much to my relief. There were a couple horns and one set of claws on display here, but nothing like Cass' and Vaduin's wings.

The interminable procession lasted until well past noon. It was lucky that I was all tangled up with a healer, because otherwise I would have probably fainted from some combination of hunger, dehydration, and hypothermia. Intermittent mist left my clothing damp and clinging to my body, and the chilly wind wasn't helping. In ordinary circumstances, I would have been shivering long before we ran out of people to see.

I supposed these were my ordinary circumstances, now. That was a weird thought. I'd never expected anything other than the life I'd led in Long Beach. I had my community college degree, family to watch out for, a decent job as a waitress and a better one as a bartender, and a couple friends to go urban exploring with. Throw in the occasional boyfriend, and it was a pretty good life, all things told.

Now I was the Queen of a fae Court, with an intimidatingly sexy winged fae for a soulmate. I was apparently unkillable, and I was bound to the land under my feet in a physical way.

To say my life had taken a sharp left turn would be the understatement of the century.

When the last token of fealty had been presented and the last person had headed down the stairs, Danica groaned and sat down on one of the stacks of gifts. "God, that was worse than I thought. My feet are killing me, and I'm soaked," she said in a world-weary voice. "Thank god the next big event isn't until dinner. I need a hot meal and a shower."

Cass sat very still, his hands gripping the arms of his throne. He didn't look at her. He didn't look at me. He just stared at the stairs, his spine tense and his breathing carefully regulated.

He'd been like that for the past two hours, at least. I'd been doing all the talking for significantly longer, while he slowly turned into a block of unapproachable stress.

"Come on, chevalier," Vad said gently. "Pick up your soulmate, and let's go fly down for some lunch."

With a metallic shink, Cass drew his wings in. Not looking at any of us, he said, "I don't want to touch her."

I closed my eyes, trying to keep a rein on my temper after the exhausting morning stacked on top of four sleepless days.

Vad seemed taken aback. I heard him shuffling his wings, and then, sounding awkward, he said, "We could swap? I don't mind carrying Quyen, if you'll carry Dani. But we should get out of the wet and dry off."

"Quyen can walk." I shoved myself upright, momentary lightheadedness making me sway before my body recalibrated, helped along by the warm attention of the Court. "She walked the whole damn way here. Just send someone to meet me so I can take a fucking nap before dinner. His Splendor kept me up for days, and then I ran through the night to get here once I finally found a road." I wiped the hair out of my face, not looking at any of them.

Cass flinched, a reflexive movement that made me twitch. "I could come with you?" he said hesitantly.

I wanted to snap at him that I was perfectly capable of walking down a bunch of stupid stairs on my own, thank-you-very-much, but that was probably the emotional exhaustion talking. Deep breaths. When I thought I could say it without sounding like I wanted to take his head off, I said, "I wouldn't mind the company."

Cass got up a moment later and walked over to me. His shadow fell across me. I could feel the tension radiating off of him, making my shoulders and jaw tighten. "Shall we?" he asked, still in that nervous, uncomfortable way.

I tilted my head back, almost lost the crown, and sighed. "Yeah, okay," I said, and started for the stairs.

We walked in tense silence, with Cass practically vibrating with worry next to me. When we got down off the bare stone into the grassy part, I glanced up at him. It was a long way up. It made my stomach do little flip-flops that I tried very hard to ignore.

"I have a family," I said.

His wings pulled in. "And you want to go back to them?" Cass said, not quite a statement, but not quite a question, either. The enforced calm in his body transferred to mine, an uneasy stillness that left me restless.

"In the sense that I miss them, of course," I said, too sharply. I stomped down the stairs towards the tree line. "But it's been nine months—"

"There are geas-mages," he said, cutting me off. "They can change people's perception of reality, or command them to accept things. If you want to go back, your way could be smoothed—"

"Don't talk over me," I snapped. Anger seethed under my skin. "Just because you're a fuck-off skyscraper of a King and you've got your magic in my bones doesn't mean what I have to say isn't important. I agreed to be your Queen, and I don't go back on my word. Don't treat me like I'm a liar."

Cass rocked back as if I'd struck him. I ignored his upset and stepped into the darkness of the forest with relief, appreciative of the cessation of the wind. Rain dripped down off the leaves in sparse staccato. Somewhere deep in the shadows, little birds started chirping.

He caught up to me after only a few heartbeats. "I didn't mean to… What is it you want from me? Presuming you want something other than making me feel more guilty than I already do."

The touch of anger in those words soothed mine. His control over the physical expressions of his emotions – and thus over mine – was bothering me more than I wanted to admit. Having my heart rate match my furor helped take the edge off.

"You're rich and powerful," I said, measuring my tone. "You obviously have influence in the mortal world. My family is poor, and my income helped keep a roof over our heads. I need to know that they're cared for if I'm staying here."

---