Page 77 of Dark Fae's Destiny

A light sand-colored men’s three-piece suit in the style of the Summer Fae, with russet men’s shoes, I slip it on. All my most elegant yet tasteful men’s jewelry from the palace is here, too, wrist-bands of gold and a torque of gold with aquamarine and sapphire in it, perfect for a casual night out.

I don everything, take a moment to style my hair in the rearview mirror, and I’m ready to go. Hopping in the driver’s side, I fire it up.

Then pull out—roaring over the grass of the glade to a place where I catch a crushed stone road.

Heading into the city.

28

KNIGHT

Isign my name in magical ink upon the final document the adjudicator has presented to me, and my family’s ancient home is mine. Gazing around at the lofted, dragonfly-wing turrets and opal moon-domes of the ancient Altvie manor on the southwest side of the city near the palace, I take a deep breath. The luxurious granite and marble home has stood empty since my family died here. But every marble vault, butterfly-wing causeway, and waterfall grotto on the sprawling grounds has been thoroughly cleansed by Quinn’s, Lucca’s, and my magic over the past three days.

As I prepared to take it back—and make it ours.

“It’s all yours.” The elderly Summer Fae adjudicator from the Palace’s Annals smiles at me kindly, her sapphire eyes twinkling. “I can almost hear the laughter of children again in this house, as there were in centuries of old.”

“Children? We haven’t really thought about children…” I stammer now as I rise from the ancient white ash table, thoroughly carved with scenes of Summer Fae out hunting.

“You should, a lovely Royal faeadonna such as yourself. Not to mention those two hot princes you’ve acquired.” The elderly Fae adjudicator stands now as I steady her, wizened as she is. She winks at me deviously, and I can’t help but laugh. She laughs, too, as she reaches out with one gnarled hand and pats my cheek.

Then she’s gone, ambled out the front doors with her leather folio beneath her arm.

I heave a sigh now as I gaze around my ancient home in the oncoming night. The Altvie manor is two thousand years old if it’s a day; filled with the most beautiful antiques from many centuries of the Fae and even from the human world, I smile to know Quinn’s going to love it.

My original parents were just as much collectors of ancient wonders and oddities as Quinn is; but though the manor towers like a castle of elegance, sprawling over the sculpted grounds, it still somehow feels homey.

With over thirty rooms, it sprawls across a gorgeous ten-acre plot of land right beside the Arno River, on the south bank. I move to a towering cathedral stained glass window of roses and brambles now, throwing it wide. I can hear the burble of the river, and see it flow beyond a copse of willows at the far edge of the property.

Just as I hear a whinny of horses out by the new barn.

My father comes in then, wiping his hands off on his riding breeches as he wipes sweat from his brow with one arm. His white Fae men’s shirt is filthy; at work all day moving the horses and hounds here from the human world and getting them settled in their new barn, my father and mother have been busy while I was taking a final tour of the house and land with the adjudicator, and going through all the inheritance paperwork.

As my father enters through the towering white ash main doors of the estate, my mother strides in from a long causeway nearby that leads to her fields. My mother and father magically moved not just the entire Summers manor onto my new property, but also my mother’s extensive herb fields and concocting operations, along with my father’s barns.

It’s a monumental feat of magic, and I don’t even have the slightest clue how they did it, though they recruited twenty of their closest comrades from the Darkwatch and the Brightwatch to help them, good friends from back in the day. My entire body and aura spiked with their incredible feats of magic as they moved everything between Realms.

And settled it all in our new home.

“Well, it’s done,” my mother, Illyria, wipes off her hands on her filthy formulating apron, nearly as dirty as my father’s shirt. She wears a bright red cotton sundress today beneath her apron, with her favorite herb-gathering boots for her fields. “Every leaf, flower, and root have been moved to the Altvie fields. Though I’m going to have to do a helluva lot of magical conditioning to the ground here for a while, to get it to grow more potent things than all the prissy flowers the Altvies had planted here.”

My mother has eradicated most of the overgrown grounds here to bring her herb fields with her. That, plus moving their entire manor-house and the barns, has devoured over two-thirds of the property. I insisted on keeping the manicured grounds and grottos, sprawling stone verandas, and a topiary maze close by the house. But everything else is theirs to enjoy and make their home alongside mine.

When they aren’t at the Palace attending to Summer Fae politics.

“All the animals settled?” I ask my father now as we come together in the towering main entry hall of the Altvie estate. The beautiful butterfly-wing buttresses have been lofted high above to let in the evening breeze, their stems intertwined into a luminous crystal dome, lusciously carved with roses and brambles.

Real roses of every variety climb up every surface inside the hall, water fountains spilling from every alcove as the luminous white-grey marble features carved birds, forest animals, and more roses everywhere I look. The white and grey marble floor is run through with ancient curls of gold, like a stylized rose-bramble patch. Faeanic sigils of power shimmer beneath my feet.

Telling the ancient story of this manor—which is now mine.

“Everything’s settled.” My father smiles, gripping my shoulder rather than draw me into a hug, he’s so filthy. “The animals will need a few days to get accustomed to their new stomping grounds, but thanks to us moving the old barn and hound-house here, they’ll adjust quickly. We’ll set up paddocks and lunging areas in the next few days. Until then, your mother and I will check over the house to make sure none of the foundations cracked, or the stones shifted as we moved it. Everything should be more or less in order within the next week, I’d guess.”

“All my rosemary bushes started to die when I got them in the ground here,” my mother grumps now, though her dark eyes twinkle as she waves a hand in an Italianate gesture. “Something about this land was magically conditioned to make roses bloom in a riot, but kill off rosemary. No worry. I’ve got them all in big pots now until I can figure out what in blazes is going on. Altvies and their roses. Ugh.”

My mother grins now, however, and as I clasp her filthy hands, I share it. Because we both love the roses that bloom in a riot all over this property, even in the gutters, if they’re left to their own devices for a few days.

“I’ll have to hire a wealth of Summer Fae gardeners to tend this place.” I chuckle now as I squeeze my mother’s hands.

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