Neela

Neela

Fae failures and success in the Court of Greed and Excess.The book lay open on my lap, a history of the noble houses in the Realm of Verda. Liz lent it to me when I complained about not knowing enough about my new world.

It was from the Library of Whispers, and I’d been scared to take it—after all, those books were dangerous. But Liz assured me she had whispered the correct spell to make the book harmless for a day, and another spell to stop the words from dancing so I could actually read it. “But you have to return it within twenty-four hours,” she said. “Promise.”

I promised, and was trying to read it, but I couldn’t concentrate.

I just stared across the vast lake, sitting on the Lakehouse deck, captivated by the water.

With my new fae eyesight, I could see all the way to the distant shore. What I’d previously thought was as large as an ocean was clearly just a massive lake.

Over the past few weeks, the Lakehouse had grown me a chair. Not inside with the others but outside on the deck, which suited me perfectly. I was a street rat at heart and always would be, so being cooped up indoors was not my idea of a good time.

The chair grew directly from the timber, an interwoven pattern of woody stems softened with plush foliage, and it was the most comfortable thing I’d ever sat on.

Gabrelle was nearby, practicing with her bow and arrow, trying to hit a tiny target on the lake’s far shore and occasionally succeeding. Her pink hair was pulled back in a loose braid, and she wore a bespoke black training suit with light leather armor. She stood on the boards with a wide stance, her arrow pointed up into the sky at forty-five degrees, looking every inch a warrior.

I wanted to be her when I grew up.

The silence between us was neutral, not exactly friendly, but relaxed. Dion was in the kitchen cooking something that smelled delicious that I had no intention of eating. I didn’t think I could ever eat Magirus food, although the smell was mouthwatering. Literally. Saliva dribbled at the edge of my mouth, and I had to wipe it away.

The contenders for the thrones tolerated me. Better than that, they were friendly. Maybe even becoming my friends. When the Lakehouse had grown me this chair, they’d finally accepted me as one of the heirs.

The issue of Ronan’s blood bond was a lava ball we kicked along the road, scorching our toes but delaying any decisions.

The front door slammed, and Ronan and Leif’s banter floated through the house. They must be finished with their swordplay session.

“You can’t shift into a wolf halfway through the fight and use your fangs, it’s cheating,” Ronan grumbled.

Leif whined. “It’s the only way I can beat you these days. Besides, if you’re ever in a real fight, your enemy won’t play by your rules.”

I grinned, instantly happy at hearing my lover’s voice, waiting for him to spot me. As soon as he did, he beelined toward me, plucked me out of my vine seat, and threw me over his shoulder, leaving my ass wiggling in the air.

My skirt was short, which was unusual for me, and meant my red panty-clad ass would be on full display.

“Close your eyes,” Ronan commanded Leif, who completely disobeyed and instead watched my butt travel right past his face.

Ronan carried me inside, sat on his black leather armchair, then plonked me onto his lap.

I scowled. “I am not some toy for you to throw around, princeling. I am your equal in every way.”

“Sure, you’re my equal,” he conceded. “But you’re pocket-sized, and you belong on my lap.” He squeezed my thigh, and that intimacy erased all my anger.

“Fine. But remember, I’ll be your superior after tomorrow.”

One more sleep until my Ascension Rite. I had no idea what to expect, and Double D and Leif refused to tell me.

“I don’t remember, babe,” Leif said, lounging into his huge silver sofa with one hand down his sweat pants.

“Liar,” I accused.

The wolf spread his arms wide. “Would I lie to you?”

I nodded. “Definitely. Repeatedly. I can list out the times you have if that would jog your memory.”

He grinned, produced a ball from somewhere, and tossed it above his head.

Dion called out from the kitchen. “I need parsley.”

The Magirus was my least favorite of the heirs. Leif had a cheekiness about him that was endearing, and Gabrelle was sexy and powerful and competent, and exactly who I wanted to be when I grew up. Ronan was delicious and perfect in every way. I couldn’t get enough of those black eyes, that cut jaw, the muscles, and the contours. Even that arrogant smirk made me hot these days.

But Dion? He and I had never spent much time together, and he was the angriest about Ronan ignoring his blood pact. I didn’t know if I’d ever feel relaxed around the Magirus after what he did to me. The good in our relationship didn’t outweigh the bad, at least not yet.

Ronan scooped me into his arms and stood up. “We’ll go get some. Come on, little Grower.”

He put me on my feet, and I followed him outdoors. Not because I wanted to help Dion by fetching his parsley but because I wanted to be alone with my hot prince.

We wandered around to a fertile patch of soil so black I could have used it as war paint.

“Do you think you can grow some?”

I looked at Ronan uncertainly. “I can try.”

I’d never grown anything from scratch. I was getting better at sensing the plants around me and could probably hunt down some parsley if it was growing wild in the forest, but I didn’t know if I could create it from nothing.

Still, with my Ascension the following day, it was worth getting in every bit of practice I could.

I knelt in the soil and grabbed a handful, letting some rich earth trickle through my fingers. It smelled so good, like nature, forests, and potential rolled into one ripe package.

“Gaia, stop sniffing this stuff and get on with it,” Ronan teased. “You’re going to make me jealous.”

I grinned and placed both hands flat on the ground, fingers splayed, closing my eyes. I speared my thoughts into the soil, seeking any potential for growth, seedlings, or pockets of energy that I could coerce into a herb, but finding none.

Perspiration pooled on my lower back, and awareness of it made me extra uncomfortable because Ronan was standing right behind me, smelling my stinky sweat.

The sun beat down on my head and shoulders, and I just wanted to get inside.

“Forget it. It’s not working. Double D can make do without his precious parsley.” I picked up another handful of the lovely soil and played with it.

“But it won’t taste as good without it.”

“I don’t care, I’m not eating any. I don’t want him to enchant me with his food. The only thing that tells me what to do is my bracelet.” I waggled my wrist in the air.

“And me,” he joked.

“Definitely not you. Just the bracelet.”

He grinned cockily. “And who do you think controls it?”

My head snapped up. “What do you mean?”

He beamed. “Gabrelle imbued the Floran Bracelet with Lure, then we sent it to the mortal realm to find you.”

He was still grinning like this was some hilarious joke, like I was in on it and wouldn’t care.

I scrambled to my feet and wiped my dirty hands on my thighs. “You trapped me with the bracelet and forced me to come here?” My thoughts were swirling, and I felt outside of my body for a moment as though I would fall apart emotionally but had a few precious moments to prize information out of him first. “Why?”

He radiated cockiness with every broad gesture, still thinking I was in on the joke. “We knew the Floran artifact would find you eventually, and we wanted to catch you off guard before you Ascended.”

I stepped around him so the sun wasn’t in my eyes. “But if I was in Hebes I wouldn’t Ascend anyway.”

He shrugged, his coal eyes sparkling. “Maybe, maybe not. We weren’t sure, so we wanted to get you before you had a chance of coming into your full power.”

My emotional whirlwind tightened into a hard line of fury that pulled my insides. I stepped back a pace. “You played me for a fool.”

For a moment, I was back in the Docklands, blabbing to Randy’s crew about my sources and contacts, then having them go behind my back and sever every one of them, then beat me and dump me in the forest outside the city.

I vowed then I would never be fooled again, never fall prey to another scheming crew.

But I had. These entitled princes and princesses were nothing but a gang dressed in fine clothing, and they’d played me for a damn fool.

My anger was showing now, I was practically vibrating with fury, and Ronan was beginning to catch on.

His brow furrowed, and he moved toward me, those large hands that had pulled me close so many times, now trying one final time.

I shoved him away. “I…I need to think.” I stopped backing away and stood firm, holding my chin high, my chest out, radiating fuck-off vibes that he was definitely catching.

“I—”

“Don’t tell me you’re sorry. You were grinning like a bloody idiot when you told me. You think this is all some elaborate joke. That you can pluck me from my life and treat me like a Goddamn doll? Well, I’ve got news for you, buddy. I’m not your doll. I’m your enemy.”

The word sounded wrong. Enemy. That couldn’t be right. But I was too angry to analyze it anymore, I just needed to get home and be alone.

I turned to walk away, then remembered Liz’s book. I’d promised to return it to her tonight, and given that she might be my only friend left in the world, I wouldn’t break that promise. Plus, her ominous warning that the book had to be returned within a day was hard to ignore, since it was from the dangerous Library of Whispers.

I stormed away from Ronan into the Lakehouse, with him on my heels shouting and demanding forgiveness.

The others were seated around the table, Dion smirking like the demented chef he was, Gabrelle poised at the dinner table with her loose pink braid still perfect, and Leif slouched, all looking up at me in shock.

Gabrelle was first to regain her composure. “What did you do to her this time, moody?” she asked Ronan.

I snapped my head to look at her. “Why do you call him that?” I always assumed it was because he was such a moody bastard, but my assumptions about this gang were unraveling fast.

She didn’t cower at my anger like Leif and Dion did, she just narrowed her eyes and studied me. “Answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.” I nodded. “What are all our Houses?”

My lips thinned, and I stabbed a finger at each heir in turn. “Allura. Dionysus. Caro. Mentium.” I hooked a thumb at myself. “Flora.”

“No, I mean, what do the Houses represent? Verda is known as the Realm of Indulgence, and each of our five Houses represents a different element of excess. So tell me, what does each House represent?”

I started with myself this time. “Plants and nature.” I pointed at Gabrelle. “Beauty.” Then at Dion. “Taste.” At Leif. “Sensuality.”

Leif yelped excitedly. “Sex!”

I turned to Ronan. His hair and eyes absorbed every atom of light in the room. I jabbed a finger at him but glanced away, not giving him the honor of my gaze. “Power.”

Their reactions were subtle, but my heightened senses picked them up. I got that last one wrong, so I tried again. “Ronan is from the House of Assholery.”

Leif barked a laugh, but Gabrelle just kept studying me. “House Mentium represents mood. The realm of excess is not complete without a strong dose of good mood.”

Leif nodded. “Really helps at orgies.”

I turned to Ronan accusingly. “You affect fae’s mood?” Why the hell didn’t I know that? I’d been so caught in a love bubble I hadn’t bothered to learn the basics of my realm.

A love bubble manufactured by him manipulating my mood.

I really was a fool.

He nodded, and I could see he still didn’t understand why I was so pissed.

“So when I hated you at first sight, that was partly because you hated me?”

Leif interjected. “Well, at first sight, you guys didn’t exactly hate each other, from what I’ve heard.” He made a crude gesture with his hands, poking a finger in and out of a circle.

“I mean, when you first figured out who I really was,” I spit out.

Ronan chewed his lip. “I guess that was probably part of it. Me hating you would have influenced your mood too.”

The picture was becoming clear, the pieces slotting into place. “But you so loved pulling me to pieces, tormenting me, that you got hard and happy, right? And because you were happy, I was happy around you, and then I started liking you more too.”

“Maybe…”

I dug my fingernails into the tops of my thighs, trying to keep a semblance of calm while rage built white-hot inside me. “And then you started really liking me, so I started really liking you. None of this is real. Every step of the way, you have told me how to feel, forced me to fall for you, and it’s all been a fucking lie?”

I could see the moment it hit him. That every word I said was true. That I had never fallen in love with him, I’d only been coerced and manipulated by him. That none of my emotions were real, they were just reflections of his own.

“Fuck. I—”

“No more words. The only words I ever want to hear out of your mouth again are Yes, Princess Flora when I’m ranked higher than you and giving you a damn order.”

I crossed to the deck and snatched up Liz’s book from where I’d left it, then I stormed back through the kitchen and out the front door, burning with rage.

As I made my way to the massive tree and through the moonway home, my tower of anger disintegrated, crumbled into dust, leaving nothing left to hold me up.

I had found a family. A place to belong. I had even found love.

But none of it was real. The people I thought were my friends had manipulated me, used the Floran Bracelet to Lure me to the realm, and delighted in it.

The fae I thought I loved had manipulated my emotions, my hatred, my love, my lust. None of it was me.

Tears streamed down my face and dripped from my chin as I entered the Rose Palace. Thank God Liz wasn’t here to see this Goddamn mess. I could barely see as I stumbled upstairs and flopped onto my bed, where I disintegrated utterly, my body wrenching with loud sobs.

Doug and Herb watched from the windowsill.