Witchbane (Book 5 in The Twilight Court Series) Read online

  “Welcome, Princess Seren,” High Councilman Greer, of the Fairy High Council, spoke first.

  “Thank you for seeing me,” I nodded to him respectfully.

  “You have news to impart, Extinguisher Seren?” High Councilman Murdock, of the Human High Council, asked impatiently.

  “News and a warning,” I sighed. “Elders,” I nodded to the witches. “Thank you for making the journey.”

  “It's our pleasure,” Gabriel Alegre, Elder of Beckoning, sent me his smoldering Spanish stare.

  I gave him a brittle smile. Beckoners creeped me out a little. They were the descendants of dullahans (the fairy version of the headless horseman). As if carrying their heads beneath their arms wasn't disturbing enough, dullahans were also unfortunate looking. Beady eyes darted about in their removable heads, their skin was the color and consistency of moldy cheese, and they had constantly grinning mouths that would put the Joker to shame. Enough to make your skin crawl. But the Beckoners were even worse. At least with a dullahan, you were warned by their appearance. With a Beckoning witch, you had no idea of the horrible things they could do. Like raise the dead.

  As I'd mused over witches raising zombies, the council members had begun muttering amongst themselves, obviously upset about my mention of a warning. The witches though, didn't seem bothered or even surprised. Interesting. Then Councilman Greer held up a hand and everyone went quiet.

  “Start with the news, if you please?” Greer requested.

  “There is a new Unseelie King,” I announced.

  Muttering began afresh.

  “Please shut up, all of you,” Murdock growled. “Go on, Ambassador.”

  “The previous king, Uisdean Thorn, unearthed the fairy weapon called Dagda's club, and used it to bring his dead wife back to life.”

  They all went silent.

  “In case you are unfamiliar with the weapon, as I was,” I nodded to the human council members and the witches, “I shall explain its abilities. With one strike, the club can kill nine men. If this is done during a battle, the kills are considered honorable, and the gathered energy can be used to bring someone back from the dead with no ill effects. However, if it is used against innocents in a time of peace, it's considered a dishonorable act. If the energy collected is used to bring back the dead, the soul returns tainted by the evil deeds.”

  “What exactly did King Uisdean do?” High Councilman Timberstride asked with horror. “Please be very specific, Princess.”

  “He murdered nine twilight fairies, used their lives to fuel Dagda's club, and brought Queen Rue back to life,” I said with as little emotion as possible. “I personally witnessed the murders and her resurrection. One of her first acts after her rebirth, was to cast me out of a tower window while I was bound with magic-dampening chains.”

  “Queen Rue tried to murder you?” Councilwoman Shinsato's nine, snowy, fox tails twitched around her in a fluffy display of dismay.

  “She did,” I nodded.

  “And the Sluagh?” Greer asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Never stirred.”

  This was a catalyst for an explosion of voices. I sat back and let the shouting happen without interference. I understood that they needed to work through the fact that someone had tried to kill a fairy royal, and had not been killed by the Sluagh. It was astounding to them, earth-shaking, and for good reason. The Sluagh had effectively protected the royals of Fairy for thousands of years. That they would fail, was unthinkable.

  The witch elders, who were all new to this, sat back and watched it all carefully. I nodded to them in commiseration as the arguing continued. Jarne Vinter, Pack Elder, sent me a saucy wink. I looked away hastily. The Norwegian fancied himself a ladies' man. Beside him, Chantelle Robinson, Elder of Tide, rolled her dark eyes, and tossed her long dreads over a shoulder. She was as unaffected by Jarne's charm as I was. Chantelle sent me a grimace of commiseration.

  “She's dead to them,” I finally interrupted the council member's conversation. “The Sluagh aren't able to sense her actions. At least, that's what my father and I have concluded.”

  “So you deposed King Uisdean?” Jared Turner, Elder of Quake, asked.

  “There was a battle for Unseelie, and a new king was crowned,” I nodded. “King Raza Tnyn the Second now rules Unseelie from Craos-Teine. As you fairies probably know, Craos-Teine was the original home of the Unseelie Court, before the regicide of King Raza the First and his heir. The current King Raza has decided to reclaim his birthright and bring the Unseelie Court back to where it belongs.”

  Both Councils went silent, several jaws dropping.

  “Who is this King Raza?” Crispin Arterbury, Elder of Bite, asked.

  “He's a dragon-djinn,” Timberstride said in a low tone. “His family once ruled Unseelie.”

  “Yes, I got that part,” Crispin sighed. “But who is he?”

  “He's a good man,” I stood up angrily and Cat stood with me, “and an even better king. The unseelie are thriving under his rule. For the first time in thousands of years, they feel safe in their own court. The unseelie finally have a king who loves them.”

  “Our apologies, Princess Seren,” Councilman Timberstride held up his hand placatingly. “We didn't know you were so... close... to the new king.”

  “He's a friend of mine,” I clarified. “You recall his aid during the raven-mocker affair?”

  “Of course we do,” Murdock rolled his rheumy, dark eyes. “That's how we know he's a dragon. Hard to forget that spectacle.”

  “Oh, that dragon,” Gabriel's eyes widened.

  “As if there were another?” Jarne chuckled.

  “Who better to rule a fairy kingdom?” I resumed my seat. “Now let's move on. The reason I'm here isn't to inform you of the new Unseelie King, but to warn you of the last one. Uisdean called on the Sluagh to defend him during the battle for Unseelie. Danu appeared on the battlefield and turned the Sluagh away, ending the war while simultaneously giving her blessing to the new King of Unseelie.”

  The fairies gasped.

  “Uisdean and Rue used the distraction of Danu's appearance to escape,” I went on. “They made it through the Alaskan rath.”

  Silence.

  “And Uisdean still has the club,” I added.

  They all gaped at me.

  “Are you telling us that King... excuse me, Lord Uisdean Thorn is somewhere in the Human Realm with his resurrected bride and Dagda's club?” Councilwoman Shinsato asked calmly.

  “His resurrected, insane, and very evil bride,” I added. “Yes, that's right.”

  “Send for the Wild Hunt,” Greer commanded a guard standing to the side of the dais.

  “Alert the Extinguishers,” Teagan nodded to an extinguisher standing guard at the other end of the dais.

  “Which ones?” Both the fairy guard and the extinguisher asked.

  “All of them!” The councilmen answered as one.

  “Do you suppose we should tell them that we know where Uisdean is?” Akhila Trivedi, Elder of Flame, asked Crispin casually.

  Every eye in the room focused on Akhila. Even Cat stared at her in shock.

  “You sneaky bastards!” I declared and then laughed boisterously. “Goddess bless your little, snooping, witchy hearts.”

  Chapter Two

  The witches had been monitoring the Alaskan Rath, just as they monitored all our raths, evidently. Which meant they'd seen Uisdean and Rue emerge. This was particularly suspicious in light of the recent events with the sea dragons. So they sent the local pack witches after Uisdean. That would be Wesley's boys. Don't let the romantic name fool you. Wesley and his Alaskan wolf pack were hardcore. These were werewolves who chose to live in that rough environment.

  The Pack had followed Uisdean up into the Alaskan wilderness. My Uncle hadn't gone very far at all, considering. I thought he would have at least left the state. But it turned out that Uisdean's bride had freezing magic. That's what her mór name, Reòthadh, meant; freezing. So Alaska was perfec
t for her. It wasn't like they had a whole lot of choices either. Uisdean and Rue had left Fairy with nothing but their magics, the clothes on their backs, and Dagda's club. If they were smart, they wouldn't use two out of three of those things. At least not right away. It would attract too much attention.

  Unless they were in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.

  Fairy magic was stronger in Fairy, but it was still damn impressive in the Human Realm. There may not be magic in the land to work with, but that could be seen as a benefit. Humans were very susceptible to fairy magic. They could be manipulated easily by using a simple beag (minor) magic which all fey possessed. The magic of striking. Being fairy-struck rendered a person incapable of doing anything without being bid by the fairy who struck them. My father and I were the only fairies who could use this power on other fey. Our version was called star-crossing. I'd once star-crossed my cousin Bress, and he wouldn't even eat without me telling him to.

  It was one of the reasons humans began to fight back against the Fey. And then conversely, the Fey got really pissed at how humans were treating the Earth. Both sides had their valid arguments. But this brings me back to my point. After the truce, humans created the Extinguishers to monitor fairies on Earth, and punish any fairy who broke the laws. Laws which forbade the Fey from abusing humans through magic.

  As Uisdean and Rue were currently doing.

  Before they'd disappeared up into the wilderness, my Aunt and Uncle had stocked up. Not just on food or camping gear. They got themselves some slaves. Big, burly, human slaves to build them a fortress, and even pay for the building materials. It appeared that Uisdean wasn't that concerned with laying low. With all the ruckus he was making, we would have found him pretty quickly, even without the witches' help.

  Still, it was nice to have some spies already in place.

  The Collective unanimously decided that they'd dispatch units of soldiers to Alaska; a group of witches, extinguishers, and fairy hunters. I wouldn't be needed this time, which I was supremely grateful for. I'd fought Uisdean once already, and I had no desire to repeat the experience. So I had headed home to Twilight, relieved that someone else would take care of things for once.

  “I think you should have insisted that we join them,” Tiernan said after we were in the privacy of our personal coach, on our way home to Castle Twilight.

  “First,” I pointed at him with more than a little annoyance, “if you felt so strongly about it, you should have said something when we were still at the High Fairy Council House.”

  “Technically, we're still-”

  “Second,” I cut him off before he said we were still there, because we weren't. We were on the other side of the rath, back in Fairy, and already in a moving coach. I consider that gone. “I don't want to go along and trudge through snowbanks to fight my evil Uncle and his even more evil wife. I'm tired, Tiernan. I want to go home and just veg for while.”

  “Veg?”

  “Tiernan, you're a LOTWH, you've been to the Human Realm numerous times,” I sighed. “Why don't you know these colloquialisms? That was a really old one.”

  “I know about the Human Realm,” he grimaced. “I know about Twitter, Instagram, and Tupac,” Tiernan made a face at me, “if you'll recall. You're being overly sensitive about one small thing.”

  “Maybe you're right,” I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall of the carriage. “I guess I'm just missing it.”

  “Missing what?” Tiernan raised a platinum blonde eyebrow.

  “The Human Realm,” I shrugged. “Earth and its people. All their quirks and casual speech. People who get my jokes.”

  “Fairy is losing its shine for you?” Tiernan couldn't have sounded more aghast.

  “No,” I opened my eyes and found his silver stare set intently on me. “I love it here. Of course I love it here. Who wouldn't? I just miss the things I was raised with.”

  “I suppose that's understandable,” he made a face that suggested otherwise.

  I just closed my eyes again. It would have meant a lot had he truly understood. But then, I guess he'd have to be human for that.

  Just as we passed through an inter-kingdom rath, which let us out in Twilight, Tiernan spoke again.

  “Seren?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What is a LOTWH?”

  I may have been tired and in need of some human understanding, but his ignorance of my acronym for his own title, made me laugh.

  “You are, T,” I laughed harder at the face he made when I called him 'T'. He hated that. “It's short for 'Lord of the Wild Hunt'.”

  “LOTWH isn't short for anything,” he rolled his eyes. “It takes nearly as long to say that as it does to say Lord of the Wild Hunt.”

  And that was my boyfriend for you. The cool, reasonable fairy. Goddess help me.

  Chapter Three

  The sight of Castle Twilight always left me speechless. Coming out of the forest, we approached the castle along the main road, and it rose up before us on the gently sloping hill it lounged across. The other kingdoms had castles perched high upon cliffs, rulers surveying their lands. But Castle Twilight didn't need elevation to express dominion. It simply dominated.

  An amethyst edifice of delicate architecture, stretching outward with a foundation of numerous wings, topped by slim towers, and surrounded by sleek walls. The stone was pale purple and polished to a glass-like sheen. Impossible to scale. It was also translucent, giving the impression that you could see straight through it, when you couldn't. The stone kept our secrets. Just as the castle's magical gate gave the illusion that there was an empty courtyard beyond its stone grate, when in actuality, there was no gate at all. Only a barrier spell which was far more effective than any piece of metal or stone.

  When the gate illusion disappeared, and we were let into the courtyard of Castle Twilight, we saw the reality of the Twilight Court going about its daily life. Knights strode purposefully towards the training fields, maids carried pails of water or piles of linen into the castle, noble sidhe strutted about in their finery, and all of them paused to watch as our procession entered the courtyard. My coach came to a stop before the main steps, where my father was waiting.

  As I exited, I told Keir what had happened, easing his anxiety as soon as I could. His shoulders sagged with relief as Cat, and then Tiernan, jumped out of the coach behind me. I took a moment to nod to several of the twilight fey who had bowed or curtsied to me.

  “It seems as though a truce with the witches comes with more perks than we initially thought,” Keir commented.

  “Indeed,” I agreed.

  “I still think we should have been a part of the team they sent,” Tiernan shook his head.

  “I admire your dedication, Lord Tiernan,” my father smacked a hand down on Tiernan's shoulder, “but frankly, I'm glad my daughter is home, safe.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Tiernan immediately agreed. “Of course.”

  “Come on, girl,” I said to Cat as I rolled my eyes. I swear Tiernan had a man-crush on my father. “I need to change out of these traveling clothes. I'll see you later, Dad,” I gave Keir a kiss on the cheek, and then headed into the castle.

  I trudged up the grand staircase, grimacing at the ridiculously large statue of my grandmother which was set to one side of the bottom step. To the other side was a statue of King Dhoire, the unseelie sidhe who had taken the throne from the dragons. He was also my grandfather. I never knew him, his death gave Uisdean the throne, but from what I'd heard, he'd been a loving father and husband. In fact, he'd died on the battlefield, trying to save his wife. I decided to pay more attention to his statue than the one of Crazy Queen Izzy (my newest nickname for my grandmother).

  Tiernan had been following me, having given up on kissing my father's ass in preference of watching mine. Okay, Tiernan wasn't exactly an ass-kisser, but he was definitely an ass man, so at least the second part of that statement was true. The thought made me smile, and I threw a quick glance over my shoulder.
Yep, he was definitely checking out the goods.

  But then I stopped on the landing, halfway up the grand staircase. Something strange had just occurred to me. Each of the statues at the base of the stairs, represented a person who had harmed someone I cared about. Iseabal had banished Tiernan from Seelie for defending his mother against the Queen, and Dhoire had stolen the Unseelie throne from Raza's grandfather. Though even Raza says he didn't blame Dhoire for that death. The first Raza had been a bloodthirsty maniac. But Dhoire didn't have to take it further and kill Raza's father.

  “Are you alright?” Tiernan caught up with me.

  “Yeah,” I shook my head and smiled at him. “I was just thinking that both sides of my fairy family have hurt people I care about.”

  Tiernan frowned, and then his expression cleared, “Dhoire killed Raza's father.”

  “Yes,” I cast a look at my own father as he entered the castle. He smiled up at me, and I smiled back. Keir loved his father, Dhoire was the only parent who had been good to my father. “Don't tell Keir I said that.”

  “He knows, Seren,” Tiernan said gently. “We fey live a long time, it's hard not to make mistakes. Considering that, we tend to forgive a lot of things humans would not.”

  I nodded absently to Tiernan as I took the flight to the left of the landing. It was an interesting observation. If you live forever, you can't afford to hold grudges. Maybe that was wise, but it sounded like a half truth to me. The Fey could hold a grudge better than any human, because of their immortality. Didn't the ongoing Seelie-Unseelie antagonism prove that? But I was too tired to get into an ethical argument with Tiernan. So I just trudged up the stairs.

  At the top, I made a sharp right and headed through the long hallways towards my tower suite. I went in with a sigh, happy to be home, and closed the door behind the three of us. That's when I spotted it.