Page 45 of Till Kingdom Come

“What?”

“As my old nurse used to say, ‘It seems like too many generals and not enough soldiers.’”

I had no doubt that it will be a disaster of unmitigated proportions. But he’d learn that soon enough. It wasn’t that I wanted him to fail. This had nothing to do with Killian—he was mine and I’d see to his needs. He’d never want for anything, and I’d make sure of that. But the Elves in general and the Dark Elves in particular, were not our allies and never had been. We maintained an uneasy truce with them, though, and over the years we had fought many times. Certainly, there was no love lost between us.

The whole point of going after Killian and bringing him here in the first place was that my father wanted to be the High King of the Northern Realm of the Liminal. That had always been the goal. If this kingdom were my father’s, with him in charge and crowned the king—or the King’s Regent, which was practically the same thing—then he would be well on his way to achieving his goal. It was why we’d searched for the true-blood prince and the only reason I’d married him. I certainly wasn’t in love with him. I barely knew him, after all. My father would have married the boy himself if not for my mother, who had powerful magic and refused to allow him to put her aside.

Now that I had, I didn’t regret it. Not in the least. As soon as Killian got this ludicrous idea of ruling Daeneid out of his head, I’d take him home with me and bring him back occasionally to maintain the throne with a few drops of his blood. I’d be good to him—I had no reason not to be, and I did care about him. He was very good looking, and I enjoyed having sex with him, and he seemed to enjoy it too. But first he had to get rid of these human ideas about love that filled his head. Marriage was more or less a business arrangement between two people. Nothing more and nothing less.

That was the plan, and Killian had somehow come to believe that he could deviate from that plan, but it simply wasn’t possible. For now, I’d make a trip home to speak to my father and inform him about what had transpired. He could decide what we needed to do from here.

Besides all that, I had to tell my father about the Tournament. We had to train our soldiers and make our plans. I’d heard that sometimes a melee at a Tournament actually developed into real battles. And once, a long time ago, joust had blown up into an open fight with a lot of violence. It sounded like a good time to me.

Chapter Fourteen

Killian

“What do you mean, you’re leaving me to go back to your father’s palace? I need you here with me.”

Or at least there were words to that effect—it was the general gist of my conversation with my husband earlier that morning as he ate a huge meal and got ready to leave to go back home

“Your coronation isn’t happening for another month,” Bracca said, leaning back in his chair. “I can’t be gone from my kingdom for so long, and besides, we have your coronation to get ready for. I have to train my men to fight with these blunted instruments the mortal knights use.

As for you, your ministers will no doubt keep you busy learning the procedures of the ceremony—as I recall, you’ll have to read some of your address to the people—but you said you don’t read very well, so that means you have to memorize it. Along with answers to the ministers’ questions—and go through all the motions of the coronation. Meanwhile, I’ve left my duties for far too long, and I need to get back to them. We can’t have any meetings of your so-called Regent’s council either, without my father, so I’ll go get all of that settled and come back with him. He’ll no doubt want to take part in the Tournament as well.”

“I realize this council was my idea to begin with, but you’re the one who chose your father and started all this talk of Tournaments to celebrate. Besides, I’m just wondering how exactly your father will have time to run his own kingdom and advise me on mine at the same time?”

“We shouldn’t have to meet too often once everything is set up and in place. These things all take time to work out,a chuisle.”

I folded my arms over my chest. I wasn’t happy about any of this. His news that he was heading back to the Fairy Realm hadn’t been anything I wanted to hear.

“Well, perhaps I can go with you then?”

“I believe I just explained why that would be impossible. Besides, you’ll be too busy to even notice I’m gone.”

“No, I won’t.”

Bracca smiled and leaned over to brush my lips with a kiss. “The time will pass before you know it. I’ll only be gone for a week or two.”

“What time are you thinking of leaving?”

“We may as well go this morning while the weather isn’t too bad.”

“It’s always bad.”

He rolled his eyes a bit. “It’s not snowing, at least. We’ll be fine, and we’ll be back at our home in the morning. Besides, you’ll be busy.”

Famous last words, because that had all taken place earlier that morning and he’d left hours ago. And I very much knew he was gone, and I wasn’t “busy” in the least. I’d been miserable all day since he left, in fact. I missed him, plain and simple. I missed arguing with him and flirting with him and talking things over with him, and I just missed his handsome, grumpy face. My mind kept drifting back to the way he’d made love to me after the ceremony introducing me, and how close I’d felt to him—and how relieved I’d been. I’d thought for a moment that he wouldn’t come to me on that dais when I held out my hand to him. I’d never felt this much for anyone before, and it worried me.

One shouldn’t feel so much for another person. It was dangerous to feel like you’d die if they ever left you—I’d found that out the hard way with my mother. And as I’d gotten older, I’d sworn to myself I’d never let myself feel so much again. And yet here I was, desperately invested in this Dark Fairy and everything he was. He was a man I barely knew—a man who had already told me that hedidn’t love me back. Could there be anything worse than that?

I knew he felt possessive, and I knew he was jealous. I’d have to be content with that and try not to read into it. The sad part of it all was that no matter what, I knew I’d keep hanging on and taking what I could get for as long as I could stand it. It wasn’t a conscious decision I’d made. It was simply the way it was.

That morning, when he’d left, I stood at the window and watched him move down the passage that led to the city gate, and I told myself he’d be back soon. I wasn’t totally successful in making myself believe it, though. Since we’d been in Daeneid, I’d become dependent on him, needing him like I needed to breathe. That simply wasn’t going to work—he’d warned me against it, in fact.

Hendris sent me a note in the late afternoon, asking me to come and dine with him. He’d invited both me and Bracca, because he didn’t know Bracca had already left to go back home.

I thought maybe it might make me feel better to socialize, so I dressed and went to his private dining room—a servant escorted me there—and found him alone and waiting at an ornate, though small table. Thankfully, he’d had the servants lay our places close together, so it wouldn’t seem awkward.

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