23. Not Enough

We returned to our usual routines in the days that passed after Teárlach woke, ignoring the elephant in the room. My elf assured me he had everything in order. There would be no countdown because he wasn’t leaving me. All I had to do was believe him.

T was different, jumpy, after he woke. He slept less than before, and when he did rest, he often woke from dreams about owls. There were moments when we were together where he would startle as if he had seen something in the corner of his eye.

The anxiety he was feeling was leaching into our relationship, making my alter furious. Aside from being concerned about Teárlach’s health, I wondered if this was a side effect of what had happened. Other elves wouldn’t want to attempt healing the way he had unless we figured it out.

“We’re going to see ívarr,” I announced after another bad night where T barely slept and when he did, there were two nightmares. He’d even gotten out of bed one time trying to shoo an hallucinated bird away!

“All is well,” T replied unconvincingly before eating more of his muesli.

“Not buying it,” I said, flatly. “Do you remember chasing the owl out of our bedroom?”

He looked confused. “I thought that was a dream.”

“This is why you need to see ívarr, or at the very least, Aldrin. Someone might be able to give you something to help with your sleep. You need rest, T.”

“This is unnecessary. My sleep pattern will return to normal shortly.”

“If this was me hardly sleeping, having nightmares and seeing things, what would you do?” I fixed him with a ‘don’t bullshit me’ look.

He sighed. “Alright. I will go see ívarr. We can ask him if he has made any progress looking for the legal precedent.”

“It’s a lot to put on ívarr when he’s also supposed to be overseeing the testing and looking for a reason for the elves’ infertility. Shouldn’t we find someone else? Is there anyone, maybe someone in Abrocaelum, you could trust to check into this?”

Teárlach thought for a moment. “There is someone. I can send someone with a phone so we can speak to her.”

“Who is she?”

Grimacing, Teárlach set his spoon down. “The most likely candidate for carrying my heir.”

“Excuse me? Did you say they have someone lined up already?” I felt nauseous at the idea of T having a baby with someone else, but it was worse knowing there were already elves in line for the job.

“Several eligible ladies. I would likely be required to marry the chosen one and it would all depend on her DNA profile.”

He said this matter-of-factly. As if it was perfectly normal and reasonable for his parliament to arrange this for him. I guess it was for a prince. This was all he had known.

With me, he had the opportunity to have love, possibly for the first time. If they forced us apart, what would happen to him? Would he fade like he said he would?

“You would like Kelda. She is ívarr’s youngest sister and his total opposite, though they share a love of science. She is the most eligible because she has some royal blood.”

“She’s your cousin!” I said disgustedly. I couldn’t imagine being with my cousin, not that Deke was my type at all.

“Yes. Neither of us wants the match, if that helps.” He gave a sly smile, attributing my reaction to jealousy.

“Cousins!”

T laughed, the first genuine, stress-free laugh I’d heard from him in days. Since he had healed Roan.

“Why doesn’t Kelda want you?”

“I believe she is like Chase. In all the time I’ve known her, I have never seen her romantically involved with anyone. I don’t think the idea of motherhood appeals to her, unless it was something she was doing for herself.”

“Doesn’t that mean she would be great to have your heir? As a surrogate, I mean.”

“Yes, though I know parliament will prefer I am married to the child’s mother to give the child more legitimacy for the claim of heir.”

“But your mother… you’ve never mentioned your father.”

“Mother was briefly married to my father. He fell in one of the many battles with the fae. She decided not to remarry even though parliament wished her to. There was brief talk of a union between her and a fae lord.”

“Oh, shit!”

“Yes,” T smirked. “Mother shut that down, as you would say.”

“So Kelda,” I said, changing the subject. T hadn’t talked about his father for a reason. Maybe he was really young when he died. It was possible he had no memories of his sire.

“I will get a device to her. We can talk and she can decide if she wants to help us.”

“You may as well give her your phone, for all that you use it,” I teased.

Teárlach’s grin said it all.

After explaining the reason behind our visit, ívarr subjected Teárlach to extensive tests, stretching my elf lover’s patience to the limit.

Aldrin took one look at him and pronounced the solution. “You need sleep. True, deep, healing sleep. Your sleep-walking and seeing things? A sign of extreme fatigue. From what you are saying, you are having hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Both as you are falling asleep and waking up.”

“That doesn’t account for some of the others.” T was frowning.

“No, perhaps there is something else happening. We won’t know until we sort the sleep issue out first. I’m going to give you a sleep tonic Kade swears by. Poppy made it, of course, so I know it’s of exceptional quality.” T tried to interject. “Just for a few days while we wait for ívarr to check through your results.”

“There’s no need. I agree completely with the diagnosis and treatment plan.” ívarr was still studying his tablet. “I trust you, Aldrin, even with our prince.”

The healer smiled, a faint blush on his tan cheeks. His mate squeezed his arm with pride written across his face.

My phone rang, drawing everyone’s attention. “Oh, it’s your phone with a video call,” I told Teárlach, holding up the device.

“Answer, please. ívarr, it is your sister.”

“Kelda? Why?” The serious elf almost had a confused look on his face.

“We thought you had far too much to do, so I wanted to ask her to help me,” T said as I was busy answering the call.

“Help you in what way, cousin?” The lady in question asked.

He briefly explained, noting how much her brother had to do. “Of course I will help. I am delighted you have found love, cousin! Oh, I had some files I wanted to send over to my brother. Can you tell me how to transfer them?”

The elves went through the complicated process of moving the data from Kelda’s hub to the tablet ívarr was holding. Aldrin and James just watched with me while they talked.

Over the course of their conversation, the air shifted. Tension filled the room. “These results are troubling.”

“You see it too, brother?”

“I do, clever sister. It does, however, pose more questions.”

“Such as whether this is specific to our prince or are more of our people affected?” she asked, soaking up the praise from the brother she clearly adored. Kelda was much like ívarr, with dark, straight hair, bright blue eyes. Her features were finer. She looked like a pretty porcelain doll, with her rose blush and porcelain skin.

I was not jealous of her. She barely even looked at Teárlach, though he was part of the conversation.

“I would like Teagan to look at these results, if you do not mind?”

“Teagan would be useful. I was unsure if I was letting my personal biases against this color my reading of the data.”

“Biases, sister? No. You are too fair for that. I see the exact same thing, though it is true I would not like to see you married to this brute.” He aimed a teasing smile towards T and I nearly fell off my chair! I couldn’t believe the stoic elf could crack a joke.

“We would make pretty babies until they died of the horrible genetic disorders thanks to our DNA,” Kelda mused, with a twinkle in her eye.

“Um… what?” I blurted out when I got what she was saying.

“Cousin, is this your shifter? He’s very handsome. I will certainly give you my assistance in keeping him.”

“He is my beloved, Kelda, and I appreciate the help. We will need it to stop parliament from going to war over this farce of a bargain.”

“True. I apologize,” Kelda said to me and the other shifters in the room. “The long and short of it is that I’ve found some troubling information in the genetic profiles of the candidates for Teárlach’s wife. It seems in all of them, they are too closely related to produce healthy offspring.”

“All of them?” Aldrin asked.

“Yes. The pool was reduced to fifty women. All of them were a poor genetic match, including me. Especially me. These pairings would lead to children with serious genetic defects that would reduce their quality of life dramatically.”

Teagan burst through the doors then. “Your highness! There is a contingent from Abrocaelum. They say they are here to take you home.”

We met them outside of the science center. ívarr caught Teagan up with the genetic bomb his sister had just dropped. T was looking a little green. I wanted to get him home as soon as possible.

“They’re not taking you,” I warned my lover. “I will fight each and every one of them. My alter wants to fight.”

“Don’t shift unless absolutely necessary.” T laid a calming hand on my arm, then laced our fingers together. “They will not take me.”

“I am going to ask to speak to your mother,” Kelda said, her hair fanning out behind her as she ran through the halls of the castle.

The carriage was a surprise, as were the guards on horseback. They stopped in front of us and a brown-haired elf left the safety of the vehicle.

“Ellgar!” Teagan hissed. I felt her tense beside me.

“Not a fan?” I whispered.

“Later,” she answered in an undertone. The other elves were close enough they could hear us if they tried to.

“Prince Teárlach, I am here to accompany you home. Would you like help with packing your things, or can the shifters manage it?” he said with a sneer, raising my hackles. T’s grip on me tightened.

“Welcome to Sweetwater, Ellgar. I fear you have wasted your journey.”

“Wasted?”

“Were you not privy to the terms of the bargain? I am to have a year with the shifters.”

“Lies!”

“Those were the terms.” Queen Alyalsha’s voice was heard from the speaker of the phone. Kelda had reached the queen’s side quickly. “All of the parliament signed the document. I am looking at your signature here. So it leaves me wondering what you thought you could accomplish by traveling to Sweetwater in order to renege on our bargain just days after it had been agreed. Surely your memory has not faltered since then?”

“Forgive me, my queen. There are some of us who believe it is necessary for your son to begin procuring an heir right away.”

“Now? When no young have been born for over fifty years? You think it will magically happen for my son where others have failed? He is there to find the reason.”

“Yet, he has not. Instead, he has had a dalliance with a shifter far below his station. He talks of making him consort!” Ellgar spat.

Huh. Word sure got around about that. Though, I guess we hadn’t been particularly stealthy over our relationship, or T wanting to make it permanent.

“No, he has not. Yet. Though there has been a breakthrough which needs more investigation. My son is keeping his side of the bargain thus far. We will keep our side or suffer the consequences. You remember the goddess was invoked, correct?”

Ellgar sputtered out a denial, then an apology. Without a further confrontation, he got into the carriage and the elves left.

Queen Alyalsha was still on the phone. “May I keep this device? I shall share it with Kelda so that she can provide you with updates.” She looked so hopeful.

“Of course, Mother. I was not very good at keeping track of it. The phone will be safer in your hands.”

“Thank you, Teárlach. I am concerned by this pattern Kelda has found. This should be a priority. I feel it is important.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” ívarr said. “The shifters can continue with their testing, and I can look into this more with Teagan and Kelda.”

“It will not upset the shifters to take people from their project?” The queen looked genuinely concerned.

“No,” I said. “As Second-in-command to my brother, I can confirm we would prefer resources were given to this instead. This could be the breakthrough needed to find the cause, and hopefully the solution to the fertility crisis your people face.”

“Thank you, Axel. You and my son have a year to find a way out of this bargain or to find the reason our goddesses put you two together. Fate is at play here. I did not wish to tempt it by tearing you apart, but I was given no choice. One year is all I could get you. Make it count.”