Page 41 of The Light Falls
Meri: Lord Camon thinks he’s hiding something. Asked about a man named Fisk. Talked about his form. Wrote it all down. Will text it to you.
After sending the conversation to him, I wait for his reply.
Cormal: I’m going to check this out. If you need anything, you can trust Kaius, Solandis, or Rivan. No one else. I’ll text you in a couple of days.
Meri: Be careful.
Cormal trusts very few people, but he trusts this Fae. It makes me wonder who Kaius is to Cormal. One of his men? Then I remember he’s not the only one who knows him.
Tapping on my phone, I scroll through the messages from Arden. There. She asked if I’d met Kaius. I bite my lip and consider texting her to find out who he is, but if Cormal is investigating, I don’t want to jeopardize anything.
A gold box with a pretty bow sits on the table in my sitting area. Picking it up, I lift the lid and find a note written with strong masculine strokes. Under the note is a beautiful chocolate with a pink marble glaze and a pair of sunglasses.
Meri –
Sorry I missed you. I was hoping I’d see the look on your face when you tasted this truffle. If you’re free, I’d love to see you tomorrow night. There’s an event at the botanical gardens with a display of plants known for their affinity to the dark. Let me know.
Lorn
P.S. The sunglasses are from Allandra, the little thief, along with her apology for accidentally taking them. Can you forgive her?
I tap the sunglasses with my nail. Odd, I didn’t notice them on her when she left. With a shrug, I send Lorn a quick message.
Meri: I’ll savor the chocolate. And yes, I’d love to go to the gardens. Let me know the time, and I’ll meet you there. I’ll be the woman with four men in tow. Tell your sister not to worry about it. Night.
With a smile on my face, I tuck the note in my nightstand and get ready for bed. What a horrendously awful, yet weirdly wonderful day.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
CORMAL
Whispers in the wind tell of the destruction that happened here long ago. Secrets, broken pacts, life, and death. Singed stones weep with white and black blood. The innocent and the guilty. A dark massacre with few survivors. Where a keep once stood, only rubble remains. Opening my eyes, I slice my palm and spill my blood on the highest mound. A willing exchange of power for the knowledge given.
Lord Lorn did an admirable job of covering up the past. Long lives get boring and the Fae love to gossip, but few know anything about Lord Lorn and Lady Allandra beyond the most superficial of facts such as their wealth, cultural habits, and how well they fit into society. What I found more interesting was what they didn’t say.
I’m an extremely private man, but if you ask a hundred people what they know about me, you’ll get at least fifty different answers. There will be a few common answers such as king of supernatural criminals, lives in the Underworld, and maybe a basic physical description such as dark hair and blue eyes. Business associates would describe me in colder terms—ruthless, demanding, driven. Those closest to me would be able to offer up the more intimate details of my life and personality. I’m sure Meri’s description would be long and colorful… and full of my character flaws. I chuckle at the thought.
Every Fae I spoke to about Lorn or Allandra had the exact same information, as if they were nuggets meticulously shared to make them comfortable and accepting of the relatively unknown pair. Everyone except Solandis. Surprisingly, she didn’t know them, but did know their parents—Lord Basilus and Lady Kyra of the Autumn Court. They visited Solandis’ parents at the palace quite often when she was younger. Basilus was her father’s cousin, and the two couples got along well. She last saw them when they attended Nyssa’s coronation.
With that additional information, I questioned others much older than Solandis, yet none could recall Basilus and Kyra. On a race that prides itself on longevity, the past is rarely forgotten. How can two people have disappeared so thoroughly from history?
Autumn Court lies in dark Fae territory. Taking a chance, I decided to visit and ask my sources if they knew anything about Basilus and Kyra. One remembered the couple and pointed me to their former residence. According to the same source, twenty-eight hundred years ago, they left the Autumn Court to live on new land Queen Nyssa had granted to them after the Fire Fae Rebellion.
Their Autumn Court home was a substantial, but beautiful, limestone house in the city. The exterior told the story of its abandonment, but even with the missing roof tiles, broken windows, and overgrown vegetation, you could see it had been a grand home.
Impulsively, I slipped into the house and found something interesting. The entire lower level had been modernized to some degree. Furnishings were dusty, but fashionably current. Walls and windows were intact. Bedrooms were completely livable. Someone recently occupied the house.
Upstairs was an entirely different story. Decay had set in. Crumbling wood and plaster were everywhere. This part of the home hadn’t seen visitors in a very long time.
Squatters, maybe. Finding nothing to indicate who had lived there more recently, I followed the trail to the land Basilus and Kyra inherited from Nyssa.
In order to find Rivan’s family, I’ve been researching the Fire Fae Rebellion. When the Fire Fae surrendered, they were forced to give up their land. Denir, King of the Dark Fae, and Nyssa, Queen of the Light Fae, split it in half. Nyssa gave her half to two of her most trusted lords. Denir decided to mine the volcanic land on his half for diamonds and the precious obsidian favored by the dark Fae.
The book never mentions the name of the two light Fae lords who inherited the land. When I arrived, I discovered one half was given to Lord Carlen and Lady Aoine. He died in a skirmish with the dark Fae a thousand years ago. His daughter, Lady Estrella, now runs the estate.
Not one of the light Fae I spoke to had ever heard of Lord Basilus or his family, but there are two sides to every war. Betting on the enemy, I followed a group of fire drakes last night. After several rounds in the ring with their leader, they told me about the abandoned keep destroyed almost twenty-six hundred years ago and gave me directions to its location. When I pressed them for more information, they disappeared into the sky.
Home to Lord Basilus, Lady Kyra, their daughter, Lady Allandra, and eventually, a son, Lord Lorn. I sweep the rubble under my feet while I sift through the information given to me by the aether.
