My oldest friend looked a little haggard. My imprisonment at the Winter Court had not been a happy time for him. As if he couldn’t help himself, he wrapped me up in his arms quickly, before stepping back. Clearing his throat, he said: “I missed ya, Princess.” The familiar term of endearment made tears prick my eyes. Violet was also looking a tad watery-eyed as she stared between us all.
“Never thought I’d see you all again,” she choked out. “I had made my peace with it. As long as the winter queen didn’t get what she wanted. But … we’ve been given a second chance. Let’s go meet the summer king and then get back home. It’s time to destroy those who tried to destroy us.”
Oh yeah, Selene and Sabina were getting what was coming to them. Then we would unite our people and take on the winter fae. They were going to wish they never messed with me or my family.
Chapter Twelve
Warmth does not always equal life.
The fae were still holding the portal open, so the rest of us took a breath, joined hands, and with a final look over my shoulder at the cold and barren lands of the Winter Court, we stepped through to the land of summer.
Passing through the portal this time was quite easy. It felt like thick honey coated my skin for a moment but then it was gone. As I stepped through to join my friends, I looked about at the wonder of this new land, my mouth agape.
The trees here were so tall, almost too tall for me to see the tops of them, and they were thick with foliage and life. I could see a few parts that looked diseased, like the mecca imbalance was taking its toll, but all in all, their beauty was unsurpassed. And the scent. Oh my gods, the scent was probably the sweetest smell I had ever come across.
“What is that I smell?” I asked the summer fae who were standing with us in the forest.
Dalia smiled. “That is the scent of home. The winds of our lands, the eternal summer.”
Well, there you go. Pretty much everything here smelled good, because it was just the smell of their land. I’d like to take a vacation in this land when we weren’t at war. I could get used to eternal summer, especially since it wasn’t hot, just pleasantly warm, like the warmth coated your skin and heated you to the very depths of your core. But I did not feel over-heated or sweaty. Magic was truly amazing.
Butterflies and the sound of waterfalls had me spinning, and on my second pass I paused at the sight of a male fae standing in a beam of sunlight between two massive flower-laden trees. The summer king. I had never met or seen him, I just knew that’s who was standing before me. He was a few inches over six feet tall, radiating power and heat. From his golden hair, the color of a ray of sunlight, to his eyes as blue as a cloudless sky, everything about him was glowing. His skin was golden, shimmering like he had been dusted with jeweled powder. I took a step closer. Kade, my friends, and Finn right behind me.
Caspien stepped out then from wherever he had been and stood beside his father. Seeing them side by side, there was no denying they were related. They looked close in age, but the king wore his experience across his handsome features, the years he had ruled shaping him into something quite formidable, a strength that even the winter queen had not demonstrated.
He wore a red velvet cloak that trailed behind him as he approached me with a genuine smile. “Queen Arianna, it is my honor to finally meet you. I am Samson, king of the Summer Court.” He bowed his head and I fell into a full curtsy. I decided not to correct him and tell him I wasn’t a queen anymore. I intended to change that very soon anyway.
“Your Majesty, we are well met.” My appearance was not proper for meeting a king – rags covered in blood and dirt – but he didn’t seem to mind. And weirdly enough, despite his intimidating appearance, I immediately liked him.
He thrust his hand out and tipped his head to Kade. “King Kade, we are well met also.”
Kade shook his hand and smiled. “Well met, Your Majesty. Thank you for everything you have done to assist us, both here and on Earth.”
Movement behind the king caught my attention, and I realized that camouflaged in the trees were a dozen or more summer guards. Now that I could finally see the fae, I noticed how frail they looked. They were suffering, and I didn’t know how much longer they had before the mecca loss destroyed them all. I needed to make this right.
Why was the Winter Court the least affected by the imbalance? There had been a lot of power there. And food. One would think food would still grow easier in summer … which meant the queen had done something.
The king saw my eyes raking over his thin soldiers and he tipped his head toward a path. “Would you walk with me for a moment, King Kade and Queen Arianna?”
Kade and I didn’t hesitate, nodding and stepping forward. I swiveled to give Blaine and Violet a look that said to stay put. Those two were the worst with letting me venture off on my own, but I wanted the king to know I trusted him. I wanted him to trust us as well.
As the king walked, we fell in at his side, and brushed through some overhanging plants. As I touched them a lot of the leaves crumbled into my hands. It was becoming very clear that although the plants looked green and radiant, they were dry and brittle. They were dying.
“Go ahead. Touch it.” The king nodded to the plant I was inspecting. There were a few red berries left on the branch and I reached for them, inhaling sharply when they disintegrated. It was like all of the life and water had been sucked out of them but the color remained. Just like the ones I had brushed over before, the leaves crumbled to the ground.
The king watched my expression closely. “Can you fix this? Because without your help we will surely die.”
I didn’t hesitate, not even for a moment. “Yes, I will make this right. The mecca will find balance again.”
He nodded but didn’t look as hopeful as I would have liked. Something else was bothering him.
Kade pressed him. “What’s on your mind?”
King Samson reached up and rubbed his temples with a small grin. “I’ve grown worse at hiding my stresses in my old age.”
It was Prince Caspien, who had been following close by, who spoke for his father. “There is a greater evil than the winter queen, one which has been slowly seeping across the land. The loss of mecca was devastating, but it’s this darkness that could finish us all completely.”
I kept my eyes locked on him, waiting for the point he was trying to make. What could be worse than the winter queen?
“In the darkest parts of the Otherworld, there is a place where demons are made, a place where no life or green exists. This darkness has flourished with the loss of mecca, and … we believe the demons might be coming for you.”