Chapter Thirty-Five

 

 

Sometimes, all you can do is wait.

Nothing was happening on the angel or Dvārakā front; no fresh leads or suspects had popped up. I enjoyed a couple of blissfully normal days with my god family, and then decided to spend some time with my fey one. The twins' birthday was coming up.

I used my ring to return to the moment after I'd left Faerie, and appeared right in front of Arach. The last time I left had been the morning after Brevyn told me about his dream. So, Arach was waiting anxiously for me; even though it had only been moments for him. Despite his anxiety, Arach took the time to kiss me and welcome me home before he asked me how things had gone with Azrael. I explained what had happened, and how we had hit a wall in the investigation.

“Your list of angelic suspects have dwindled,” Arach said as he led me into the bedroom. “Perhaps it's time to move on to non-angelic ones.”

“Yes; we thought so as well,” I agreed. “But that list is a bit daunting, and then there's the fact that the culprit had knowledge of Jerry's actions. I simply don't see how a god outside of his pantheon could manage that.”

“Is there nothing more that could narrow down the list?”

“We'll find something,” I assured him. “But I don't want to dwell on it now. Let's focus on us for awhile.”

“I'm in full agreement with you,” Arach said as he scooped me up. “And there's a particular place on your body I would like to focus on first.”

We focused on each other late into the morning and then met with Isleen regarding the finishing touches on the boys' birthday party. Every year, we hosted a huge celebration at Castle Aithinne and invited the entire Fire Kingdom, as well as a few friends from other kingdoms, to attend. All of the royals had to be invited, but I especially hoped that the King and Queen of Water would be joining us. King Guirmean was married to an ex-fire faerie named Nora. Faerie—the Consciousness of the Realm—had transmutated Nora into the first water-phooka (a sort of dog/horse-shifter). Guirmean also had a son around Brevyn and Rian's age; though he wasn't as far advanced as my twins. Still, my boys had known Morgan for all of their lives, and they loved it when he came to visit.

Isleen confirmed that all the royals would be attending, along with my lion, Darius; who lived in Water with his lover, Lorna. Lorna was Prince Morgan's mother, but she had only slept with Guirmean to give him an heir. That made for a very unique living situation which was eased by the fact that the Water Kingdom had two castles—three, if you considered that one of them was split in half. Castle Deuraich was perched on the rim of the Water Kingdom's basin—a large landform that held the ocean which made up most of the kingdom. Deuraich was the main castle and was used for meeting with air-breathing visitors. Within the ocean, there was another castle that was split horizontally; the bottom half of it was encased in an underground cavern full of air, and the top half was above the sand and open to the ocean. Collectively, it was Castle Underwater, but in its separate entities, it was Castle Under and Castle Water; named for the cities surrounding it.

Lorna and Darius had a suite in Castle Deuraich, while Guirmean ruled the Kingdom from Castle Underwater. The idea was that Prince Morgan would journey back and forth between castles to spend time with both of his parents. But Lorna and Guirmean were friends and most of the time, Lorna and Darius would live wherever Guirmean was. It said a lot about both Guirmean and Lorna that they were all happy living that way.

Water wasn't the only kingdom who'd be bringing a royal child to the party. The newest kingdom—the Kingdom of Darkness—had twins like us. Prince Baidhen and Princess Sinnea were a little older than my twins, but they were growing at the same rate (dragon-sidhe rate), and so had plateaued at around the same maturity as my boys. Yes, the Dark Royals were dragon-sidhe too; they were the only other dragons in Faerie.

Arach had hopes of Rian marrying Sinnea one day (Brevyn already had a girlfriend waiting for him—long story) but I wasn't going to force my son into marriage simply because Sinnea happened to be the only available female dragon-sidhe. I had already done my part to continue the species; I wasn't going to force my son into it as well. We were immortal; eight dragon-sidhe were enough for now.

That didn't stop Arach from doing everything within his power to inspire affection among the children.

“Make sure that Princess Sinnea sits beside Rian at the feast,” Arach said to Isleen.

“Arach,” I growled under my breath.

Every time Arach tried his hand at matchmaking, I remembered the horrible future we had averted. In that future, Rian had refused to marry Sinnea because he was already in love with Kaitlin; the aforementioned girlfriend. I had allowed Rian to abdicate his claim on the throne so that he could be with Kaitlin. I had felt responsible; both for placing Ull within my son's body and for allowing Thor to keep Kaitlin alive with the Norse Apples of Immortality. So, I had convinced Arach to name our daughter, Samara, as his heir. And then Arach had promised Samara's hand in marriage to Prince Baidhen. Their engagement had united Darkness and Fire and had eventually led to our kingdoms becoming one; the Kingdom Collective of Darkfire. That had in turn led to so much destruction that I couldn't think about it without crying.

But that future was with a Rian who hadn't been split into twins. Now, the part of him who had loved Kaitlin was Brevyn, and Brevyn was free to love her while Rian was free to love whomever he chose. If Rian happened to choose Sinnea, that may be good for the dragon-sidhe race. Or it might lead us down the same path that we'd been on before. Whatever happened, I had to make sure that the Kingdom of Darkfire never existed.

“I want to sit next to Brevyn!” Rian cried.

“You will be sitting next to Brevyn,” Arach assured him. “Sinnea will be on your other side.”

“Oh.” Rian simmered down. “Okay then.”

“You're okay with Princess Sinnea sitting next to you?” I asked Rian.

“Yeah; she's nice,” Rian said. “She can make smoke people.”

“She can do what?” Arach asked.

“Smoke people,” Rian said again.

“Sin can blow black smoke from her mouth,” Brevyn explained for his brother. “She can shape it into stuff; people, animals, whatever she wants.”

“Oh.” Arach nodded. “So, Rian, do you like Sinnea?”

“Arach, stop,” I growled again.

“He thinks she's pretty,” Brevyn tattled.

Arach's dragon eyes lit up.

“Enough!” I grabbed Arach's hand and pulled him out of the room. When we were a safe distance away from the boys—with a shut door between us—I lashed out at him. “Don't you remember what I told you about that other future?”

“Things are different now,” Arach huffed. “I know better.”

“We cannot unite our kingdoms.”

“We won't unite them in that manner,” he said with deadly seriousness. “I promise you, Vervain; that will never happen.”

“Thank you,” I said in relief.

“But that doesn't mean that our children can't marry and have children of their own,” he went on wistfully. “Sinnea could live here with Rian while her brother remained in Darkness to be the heir apparent. There could be noble dragon-sidhe walking the halls of Aithinne again.”

“I don't know, Arach,” I whispered. “But either way, it has to be their choice. I don't want them to feel compelled to be together. You will not hold the continuance of our species over their heads like you did with me. We were lucky that we found happiness together.”

“I won't force them into anything,” he agreed and then pulled me into a hug. “I want this for our children, A Thaisce. This happiness—the sublime joy that you have given me—is worth risking our race for.”

“Damn it, you did it again,” I growled.

“What?”

“Ruined my tirade by being romantic.” I sighed. “I love you, Dragon King.”

“I love you too, Dragon Queen,” Arach whispered and then crowned his romance with a kiss.