Pixie-Led (Book 2 in the Twilight Court Series) Read online

“That's not what I've heard,” Shane winked at me.

  “Oh, please don't go all Flowers in the Attic on me,” I whined in distress.

  “Pardon?” He blinked.

  “Tell me you're not trying to flirt with me,” I clarified.

  “Flirt with you?” He looked horrified. “I'm your uncle.”

  “That didn't stop Uisdean,” I grimaced. “And that was before he tried to marry me to Bress.”

  “Ah,” Shane's eyes went wider. “I'd heard you had an unfortunate incident with King Uisdean but I didn't realize he had propositioned you.”

  “Not so much a proposition as a threat of rape,” I said blandly. “Kind of an insulting one too since he insinuated that he wasn't really attracted to me.”

  “Oh my,” Shane huffed. “I knew King Uisdean was a little, well...”

  “Bonkers?” I asked. “Completely out of his gourd? A few chicken nuggets short of a Happy Meal? Yep, he can be. What's really disturbing is when he acts sane. In fact, most of the time he seems very sane, even when he's acting insane. It's terrifying but don't tell anyone I said so.”

  “Your secret is safe with me,” Shane laughed.

  I glanced over Shane's shoulder and saw Tiernan dancing with a gorgeous sidhe woman. Her hair was pale pink and piled atop her head like whipped cream on a sundae. Nut brown skin and cherry red lips completed her delicious look but her blue eyes were set on my man like she wanted to gorge on him. She was runway model thin, as most sidhe women were, and almost as tall as Tiernan but it only made her seem graceful. I gaped at them as she laughed and touched his cheek affectionately, as if she'd been doing so forever. Tiernan gave a little frown and moved her hand back to his shoulder. I instantly relaxed and then chided myself for being worried in the first place.

  “So why did you ask me to dance?” I refocused on Shane.

  “I wanted to warn you,” he immediately went serious.

  “About what?” I narrowed my eyes.

  “My mother,” Shane said simply.

  “So it's all been a ruse?” I ground my teeth. Damn it, I knew it! Stupid anglerfish.

  “No, that's not it,” he shook his head. “She's genuine in her desire to make you a part of our family. It's just that things are never simple in the Seelie Court. You've already heard one of the horror stories concerning my mother.”

  “Yes, I know it well,” I grimaced.

  “There are several such tales and I think the only reason they're so shocking is that people think the beautiful Seelie Queen should be kind and gentle. Wickedness is expected from King Uisdean but from my mother, it becomes something extraordinarily terrible. Like a fluffy kitten who scratches your eyes out and then eats them.”

  “Yes, I've thought that myself,” I agreed. “But she fosters this gentle image, doesn't she? Does she do it to make herself more frightening?”

  “Ah, you're as perceptive as my brother,” Shane nodded. “More so, when it comes to our mother. Keir's more like his father in that respect. King Dhoire believed my mother to be perfect. He was completely blinded by her beauty and I'm afraid he passed that handicap down to his son. But then, King Dhoire was known to be blind to all whom he loved. He was the same way with his son, Uisdean. He never would believe that Uisdean was touched by madness.”

  “You're saying your mother's mad?” I lifted a brow.

  “I'm saying she's a mindful maniac. A lucid lunatic. The worst kind of insanity, I'm afraid,” he sighed. “It is as you suggested, she plays on people's perception of her. She fosters the fear. But it's not entirely an act. My mother has her moments of insanity, just as Uisdean does. She just shifts suddenly, from my sweet, adoring mother into this vengeful, bloodthirsty creature. The Seelie Court has learned to be wary of her and because she treasures that fear, she's never tried to rein in her darker nature.”

  “So you're saying that I should be wary of her too,” I said slowly.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “You may not realize this but you were just in a battle with her and you came out victorious. Unfortunately, it was only a skirmish and winning it may not have been your best move. As much as my mother wants her family around her, she will not forgive your victory. She will be looking for a way to punish you for it and the really twisted thing is, she'll believe wholeheartedly that she's justified in punishing you... and that you will love her all the more for it.”

  “Well, thanks for the head's up,” I sighed.

  “I'm telling you this because I love my brother and he loves you, I can see that clearly,” Shane shifted us off the dance floor and into a private corner. “I don't know you yet but so far, I like what I've seen. I think Count Tiernan is right and you will lead the way to a shift in fey thinking. Whether or not that shift will be a good one, I don't know, but I think it's a necessary one. One that's obviously been blessed by Danu.”

  “I think everyone may be giving me a little too much credit for things I haven't done yet,” I grumbled.

  “We'll see about that,” Shane smiled and tapped the central diamond star on my crown, “Twilight Star.”

  “Oh Goddess, not you too,” I huffed.

  “Titles have power, Seren,” he said soberly. “You can use them to create fear, as my mother has, or to inspire others to greatness, as I've heard you can. A good leader doesn't have to be strong, not physically or even magically, they just have to know how to motivate those who are. That's why it's called leadership. Remember that and be careful with your titles and how you allow them, or don't allow them, to be used.”

  “I'll be more careful in the future,” I promised.

  “Sometimes all you have to protect yourself with is your name,” Shane kissed my cheek and held his arm out to me. “Shall we test the merit of yours against my mother's?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  No pressure.

  Tiernan was once again across the room with his family and an ever growing circle of well-wishing fairies. Thankfully, Miss Sundae was not among the well wishers. Conri was off with his seelie conquest and the rest of my Guard was spread out among the assemblage, keeping a watchful eye on things.

  So when I faced the Seelie Queen, I would be with my father -who's evidently blind to his mother's faults, Aideen -who would never think of defying fairy royalty, and my Uncle Shane -whose loyalty and support were still up for debate but, as we'd just met, I wasn't about to count on him. At least I still had Cat, but she couldn't exactly speak in my defense, which meant that I was pretty much on my own.

  Which wasn't really a bad thing. I'd been a part of a team for most of my life. In childhood, I was trained by my parents to fight beside them. Then I was made an Extinguisher and learned to work with the group as a whole. When I became Princess of Twilight, I trained with my Star's Guard. Then I was given the role of Ambassador between the fairy courts and between the fairies and humans. So I was learning to be diplomatic as well. I was used to working with a team but I'd faced some real bad ass villains all by myself and I could surely handle my grandmother.

  “Seren, come and sit by my side,” Iseabal held out a graceful hand to me.

  I took it because I really had no choice in the matter and my father, who'd been sitting beside his mother, vacated his seat so I could sit there. I gave Keir a nervous smile as I settled into the mini throne. I say mini only because the obvious thrones were the ones the Seelie King and Queen were inhabiting. The lavish chairs beside them were ornate enough to be respectful to a visiting monarch but not brilliant enough to outshine the seelie monarchs. Sigh. I really was beginning to think like a fairy if I was noticing the rank of the furniture.

  Or perhaps I was starting to think like an ambassador. I perked up. Yes, that was it. I was learning, ever learning, and this was just one more experience to add to my knowledge base. I would be respectful now that my big tantrum was over, and try my best to assuage the hurt feelings of my paternal grandmother.

  “Your home is so beautiful,” I said congenially. Isn't that what you're supposed to say to your h
ostess? Cat sidled over and sat by my feet. She set her eyes on Queen Iseabal like she was a coiled cobra.

  “Thank you, my dear,” Iseabal laughed. “I think you're the first to accredit it to me.”

  “Oh, was that the wrong thing to say?” I glanced up at Keir but he just smiled and shook his head.

  “No, it's delightful,” Iseabal reassured me. “I actually do have a lot to do with the décor of our little palace.”

  “Little?” I raised a brow. “It's massive, at least twice as big as any I've seen in the Human Realm.”

  “Well, the humans have to rely upon their physical strength and that of the machines they build. We do not.”

  “I believe that was both a compliment and an insult to humans,” I chuckled. “Well done, Your Majesty.”

  “Yes, my wife is well versed in... what are they called?” King Marcan frowned for a moment and then brightened (literally, he sparked once with a flash of light). “Ah yes; backhanded compliments. My wife is an accomplished flatterer with the back of her hand.”

  “Flattery from a queen should be hard-won,” Iseabal smiled wickedly. “Royalty does not throw out compliments like flower petals before a procession.”

  “No, that's more of a politician's tactic,” I noted.

  “Yes,” Iseabal laughed. “And though royalty can be political in a way, we are not politicians.”

  “Absolutely not,” I shared a look with Shane. “For that you'd have to be elected.”

  Shane's smile froze on his face.

  “Now, I believe that was a backhanded compliment,” Iseabal said shrewdly.

  “Was it?” I asked, all innocence. “Only if you're human,” I looked her over pointedly. “And you're not human.”

  “No, most assuredly not,” the Seelie Queen giggled and it sounded like a breeze flowing through a crystal chandelier. “But I think your human side values a leader who's been chosen as opposed to one who's appointed by birth. So I'm going to share something with you that you obviously don't know. We fairy monarchs must win our thrones. It's a type of election.”

  “How so?” I cocked my head at her.

  “We are the most magically powerful sidhe in our kingdoms,” she smiled serenely. “We must be, in order to rule. If there is ever any doubt of it, we can be challenged for our thrones.”

  “Like a duel?” I blinked in surprise. “But I thought fairies couldn't kill royals. Wouldn't the Sluagh hunt them if they succeeded?”

  “It's considered a battle, so no,” Uncle Shane answered. “Still, it's not often done.”

  “Mainly because those born to a royal house are usually the most powerful, and challenging them would be a fatal mistake,” King Marcan took over.

  Would it? What if you were a daughter avenging your mother's death and you happened to have a brand new, awesome magic? Would it still be a mistake? This could be the chance I'd been looking for; a way to kill Uisdean without earning death by Sluagh. I should have been excited by the prospect but I was oddly ambivalent. I may not have accepted my mother's death or released the pain of her loss, but without the rage that had been driving me before, I didn't have the motivation to kill Uisdean. It was like someone had taken a link out of the chain of my emotions and without that missing link, I couldn't make any kind of connection to compel me into action. I was emotionally hobbled.

  “Damn you, Danu,” I muttered under my breath. Completely forgetting that fairies had excellent hearing.

  “Seren!” Keir gasped.

  “What's wrong with you, child?” Iseabal actually pulled away from me, like she was afraid Danu might shoot laser beams out of the sky and burn me to bits.

  “You would have challenged King Uisdean, wouldn't you?” Shane was the only one who had remained unmoved by my exclamation. “What did Danu do to you that would prevent you from issuing the challenge?”

  “Seren!” Keir declared and stared hard at me.

  “I know,” I growled and glanced back at Shane. “Danu took my anger. I don't have the desire to fight him anymore.”

  They all stared at me in wide-eyed shock. All except Cat, who whined disapprovingly at me. I'd forgotten that she'd been in the Goddess' realm with me. Had she been touched by Danu too? I laid a hand on her soft head and looked in her gentle brown eyes. Something stared back at me that hadn't been there before. A level of intellect and understanding beyond even that of a fey creature. What had Danu done to my puka?

  “The Goddess eased your suffering and you're upset about it?” The Seelie King finally asked, drawing my attention away from my extraordinary companion.

  “Uisdean killed my mother,” I ground out. “He murdered her and then tried to do the same to me... twice. I should kill him for that. At the very least, I should want to.”

  “Spoken like a warrior,” King Marcan mused. “I'd forgotten that you were an Extinguisher, like your mother,” he glanced at Keir and gave him a sad, sympathetic look.

  “Danu did you a great service, Niece,” Shane declared. “You can't challenge King Uisdean, even had you the will. You would need to be a member of his court to do so. So you see, your rage would have been impotent... and that is the worst emotion of all.”

  “What did you say?” I settled an intense stare on him, remembering the conversation I'd had with Uisdean; when he'd said something very similar.

  “That impotent hatred is the most horrible emotion,” Shane frowned lightly in confusion. “It's the truth, don't you think?”

  “You should never hate those you can't destroy,” I finished the quote.

  “Yes, exactly,” Shane still looked a little unsure.

  “It's a human quote. I'm just surprised that you know it,” I explained as I pondered him. Did these fairy monarchs all read the same books? Or was this Danu's way of teaching me some kind of lesson? If it was, she failed because I didn't have a clue what it meant.

  “Oh, yes you're right,” Shane chuckled. “I'd forgotten where I'd read it. I like human literature actually. I think the lack of magic makes them more creative.”

  “Danu also gave you a new magic,” Iseabal had gotten over her shock at my blasphemy and was back to being curious. “Tell me all about it.”

  “I think it's pretty self explanatory,” I shrugged. “I create big thorns and I can set them on fire. I think it's a combination of the thorn magic I must have inherited from my father and the pyrokinesis I received from my mother.”

  “A human influenced magic?” Iseabal huffed. “Impossible!”

  “It's what Danu told me,” I said gently, deciding not to let her stir my anger again. I would use Danu's lesson and let it go, try to remember that Iseabal was also a child of Danu and the Goddess loved her. I laid my hand back on Cat, soothing her as her silky fur helped to soothe me.

  “Danu told you that your magic is a mixture of human and fey?” Iseabal still had a layer of scorn in her voice.

  I began to tell her exactly what Danu had said but something stopped me. A feeling inside the pit of my stomach. A vibration like a bell rung in warning. I couldn't tell the Seelie Queen that Danu herself had said my talents would be more powerful than all of theirs. That would be too much for my egotistical grandmother to bear. So instead, I kept to the facts and tried to keep my voice firm and even.

  “She said that my human gifts had blended with my fey magic in ways that even she had not foreseen,” I said simply. “How else could I have a magic which seems to blend two elements?”

  The courtiers around us gasped and muttered.

  “Sweet Goddess,” Shane murmured. “Magic blending with psychic power.”

  “Show me,” Iseabal demanded. “Show me this blended magic of yours.”

  “Right here?” I blinked. “Okay, um, I'll need an open space to-”

  “No, demonstrate it for us on a fairy,” she looked around and then pointed to a little brownie lady who was refilling a tray of sweets. “On her.”

  “What?!” I asked with horror.

  “My dear,” King Marca
n laid a hand on his wife. “This is not-”

  “Show me!” Iseabal screeched and the whole room went tense and silent.

  Keir flinched back, his eyes going elsewhere; anywhere but on his mother. That's when I knew that Keir was not completely unaffected by the family trait of insanity. He was deliberately denying what was right in front of his face and that had to be a form of madness, didn't it? Could I be mad too? The odds favored it.

  “No, I'm not going to do that,” I said calmly because I wasn't insane and I wouldn't allow myself to become so. Cat was staying calm as well but I had a feeling that would change the moment I lost control and I didn't want her involved in this.

  “Oh yes, you will,” the Seelie Queen stood and pointed at me. “You sit here and invoke the name of our goddess. You tell us she's blessed you with this blended magic but you refuse to prove it. I name you deceiver and blasphemer. Prove it or be gone from my sight!”

  “No problem, I'm outta here,” I stood and so did my puka. “I don't have to hurt someone to prove myself. That's your thing.”

  I waved a hand and directed the anger she was bringing out of me into mid-air. A ball of twirling thorns appeared before us and then burst into flames. The whole court reacted violently, pulling away in fear, until they realized that I, unlike their queen, had no desire to hurt them. Then they slowly drew closer to witness the spectacle I had created.

  The heat of my magic surged inside me and I literally lost my cool. Light was shining on Queen Iseabal's face and I realized it was from the stars within my eyes. The magic was riding me and it didn't want to be kind. It didn't want to just make a calm and elegant exit. It just wanted to pierce and burn. And since Iseabal had been the one to make me angry, it wanted to pierce and burn her. I gave a gasp as it rushed through my veins, realizing that I should have practiced more with it in private before letting it loose in public. I should have acquainted myself with it better. At the very least, I should have studied it and learned how to control it. Because at the moment, it was controlling me.

  Cat immediately began to snarl, teeth snapping as she set her angry eyes on the Queen of the Seelie. She didn't need me to tell her to defend me, she instinctively knew that I was furious and in the mood for a fight. The time for calm reason had passed. Now was the moment to strike and she would strike with me. Probably at the same exact moment.