“Sit down, Synthia, so I can heal your wound. I only sent your mother to find a healer so we could talk before she came back. It’s deep in the tissue. No organs seem to have been harmed, or you would not be standing upright.”
I sat in the lone rocking chair and eyed the pink crib. It looked as if it had been crafted with loving hands. The carpet was a plush pale green, with a yellow color on the outskirts of the room. It was a beautiful nursery.
I felt his magic pulsing inside the room as he allowed me to feel it. Instinctively, I tensed against it and reached for the magic within me, but he stopped when he felt me pulling my own around me.
“I would never hurt you. I need you to relax and trust me for right now,” he said leveling me with those expressive eyes; where mine were just as blue, his were a beautiful shade of cobalt.
I relaxed, but kept my eyes locked with his. Again, I felt the magic pushing into the torn skin, and further inside of me. He was healing the wound from the inside, and I felt the blood vessels, along with the damaged skin, begin to regenerate as they started to heal. When he had finished, I pulled my first deep breath since the explosion, and found the injury completely healed.
He smiled reassuringly as I nodded my head and thanked him.
“I’m going to start at the beginning. You need to know the entire story to see what we were up against.” He flicked his wrist and a wide, comfortable looking leather chair materialized, and he slowly lowered himself into it.
“Danu prefers balance between all castes. Each of the monarch’s wield power, and the one who holds the most of us all is the Horde King, as he oversees the most dangerous of Faery’s creatures. When Alazander ascended to his throne several millennia ago, he was a powerful yet peaceful king with the other realms. He began taking in anyone who was casteless and his power and realm grew. Unfortunately, as his power grew: he began to abuse his powers and started to attack the other castes. A little over two hundred years ago, my father made a deal with the King of the Horde. My father agreed to not raise arms and going forward he pledged that the Blood Fae would be obedient to the Horde King. He was deceived, and when Father presented his weapon in obeisance, he fell to the treachery of the Horde. The Horde King is the only Fae who can kill another Fae outright, without needing weapons. It makes him the deadliest creature in our world,” he said bitterly and held up his hand as I started to interrupt him.
“Let me tell you this, as it does pertain to why we did what we did to you, Synthia.” I had no idea what the hell anything that happened two hundred years ago would have to do with me.
“I picked up my father’s sword, and struck against the Horde in anger, and we have been at war with the Horde ever since. Now, the Fae fight wars in a very different manner than humans. Skirmishes happen up and down our borders, but actual battle is rare, and I had no fear of my father’s fate unless I faced the Horde King himself in battle. So far, our war has consisted of the Horde attacking and Blood defending—to attack his lands directly would make matters worse.”
“Wait—are you saying that he has pretty much been kicking your ass for over two hundred years and all you can do is just defend?” I was outraged that the Horde King, this badass I had heard of all of my life, the one who accepts anyone, was nothing more than a bully. This idea of the Blood Fae just bending over and taking it was just too much, but if the Horde King were that powerful it made sense; it also made sense as to why the other Fae looked up to the Blood King. The man had serious balls for trying to stand up to the Horde King for over two hundred years. My father nodded grimly and continued.
“Alazander desired your mother to be one of his concubines; he requested that Anise give her as a peace offering to the Horde. He was known to ask other rulers and noble families for their daughters to keep peace between the Horde and their families; he was also not above stealing them. He took what he wanted from people, including their children. Rumors of abuse toward his wife and concubines had reached your mother’s ears, and she begged Anise for an alternative. Anise was a good person and a loving great-aunt to your mother, and she arranged our union, and soon it became a love match.” He shook his head sadly at the memory.