22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"The contract was forged in blood, and by blood, it must be maintained." – Lord Louis, Third Lord of Sídhetír.

A spread of food covered the table from roasted meat to vegetables to bread to sweets. The savory and sweet aromas tickled my nose, which should've elicited a growl from my empty stomach, but my stomach curled in on itself as bile climbed my throat. I swallowed convulsively to keep it where it belonged.

Cethin pushed a full plate at me. Not wanting to appear rude, I nibbled on the edge of a piece of crusty bread.

"Are you alright, dearest?"

I couldn't lie. A laugh bubbled in my throat, but I kept my lips closed since I didn't want to have to explain the inappropriate response. Prior to learning of my heritage, I'd assumed I was a truthful person due to my mother's words about lying being pointless. My inability to lie had indeed come from my mother, but by blood, not by word.

He didn't look away from me, waiting for a response as his hand snaked over mine. I flipped my hand to wrap my fingers around his. "My stomach is a bit upset. The last few days have been stressful." My fork scraped on the plate as I pushed the food from one side to the other. "Will Blodwen actually call for war?"

Cethin took a sip of a deep blue wine before responding. "It depends."

"On?"

"The Day Queen's mood."

"I beg your pardon."

"Fae are like any other creature, Aidan. We suffer from boredom, but as our lives are significantly longer, our boredom is proportional. I doubt Queen Laoise would wage war against my mother, for we noble fae get along fabulously, besides the occasional pranks. Our world is too small to do anything but get along. Humans? She might. It depends on how slighted she feels by your father's lies."

Lord Byrne being my father was difficult for me to comprehend. It didn't seem real. But my heritage couldn't be contradicted, so I didn't bother to remark on it.

"How do we keep a war from starting?" I asked, dropping my fork with a clang and with it, any pretense of eating.

"I can speak with my mother. She will assist, for a price."

"She'll want the gate placed within her lands," I surmised.

"Most likely."

"Won't Queen Laoise want the same?"

"Most likely."

I sighed, scrubbing a hand through my hair.

Cethin brought my hand to his lips, kissing my palm. "I shall be beside you the entire time."

Warmth rushed to my cheeks. "How do we go about speaking with your mother?"

"I will send her a short missive. I don't think it would be wise for me to bring you uninvited to her home, even if you are my mate."

A different kind of heat flushed my face as needles of unease poked down my spine and settled in my gut. Meeting Cethin's mother and father. I'd never thought much about my marriage, and yet, now I was meeting my future in-laws. Would they like me? Or would they be upset that Cethin's future husband was a human? No. I wasn't human. I was half-fae. A mongrel, Blodwen had called me.

A loud squeak of wood scraping glass broke the tension moments before Cethin jerked my chair away from the table and crouched in front of me. His hands rested on my knees as he stared into my eyes. "The only reason I cannot bring you home uninvited is because you are the Heir of Sídhetír. There is no other reason."

"Were my thoughts that obvious?"

He straightened to kiss my cheek. "Yes."

I stood, ignoring the food. Nothing was going to settle anyway. "Can I explore your house?"

"Our house, and yes. Let me write to my mother, then I shall join you."

Cethin lay at my back, his arm under my neck. I played with his fingers as I stared at the blooming flowers, which never seemed to fade, through our bedroom wall. Most of the day—if you could call it that—had been spent wandering around the castle, exploring the nooks and crannies. I'd lingered in the library for far longer than I normally would because guilt at abandoning Oren burned through me.

The nausea hadn't abated, and as the day progressed, it increased until I was almost constantly swallowing bile. My bruises and ribs ached more than they had before I left Sídhetír. I had no explanation, and I didn't mention my discomfort to Cethin.

He'd written to his mother, but there had been no response. I had no idea how long it took letters to traverse the Night Realm, so I couldn't guess if this was normal or if she was slighting my presence. We would remain at Cethin's home until she responded. I might not want the mantle of Sídhetír, but I couldn't abandon it or my… brothers to war.

Warm breath on the back of my neck drew me to the present. I leaned back against Cethin as I stared at our intertwined fingers on the silky sheets. It seemed incomprehensible that we were mates. That the fates had aligned in such a way to bring the two of us together. Cethin had been alive so much longer than I, and yet, I was his.

"Are you sure you don't know your own age?" I asked.

His face rubbed against the nape of my neck as he took a deep inhale. "As I said, the fae realm moves in a different rhythm than the human one. I'm old. That is the most I can say."

"Ah."

"Does my age bother you?"

"No," I answered. "It merely saddens me that you had to wait so long to find your mate."

"Every day of waiting was worth it, Aidan. I cannot put into words the feeling that came over me the first time I saw you. All my previous years were for naught because they were but a bridge leading to you."

I closed my eyes against the sudden sting. "Thank you."

He pressed a firm kiss against my neck. "There is no need."

"Still, thank you."

Tightening his arm about my waist, Cethin snuggled close.

My eyes remained on the expansive flower field. A steady wind caressed the flowers while snow drifted from the sky and golden brown leaves littered the ground. "Is it always like this?"

"What?" he asked. "Us? I assume all mates are similar enough."

"No," I replied with a slight chuckle. "The weather. It's like fall and winter exist at the same time."

"It is said that before the seam our seasons transitioned, but when the two fae realms collided, so did the seasons."

"Interesting." Part of me didn't understand how this realm worked, with the mixed weather and no day or night to mark the hours, but it did. Magic, I supposed, was the answer. Magic made the realm turn, but magic also made it nonsensical.

"You need to sleep," Cethin whispered.

"It's always night. I can sleep later."

"True, but the moon has set."

He was right. The moon was nowhere to be seen. "What does the moon setting signify?"

"It is the same as the sun setting in your world. While our realms rotate differently, our lives revolve around the rising and setting of the moon. Moonrise to moonset, businesses are open, though our nights lengthen and shorten at random."

"That sounds inconvenient."

He shrugged against my back. "It has been that way for as long as I can remember."

"And you're old, so most fae wouldn't remember a time before."

"There are noble fae alive who remember the time before the seam, but they are few in number. Not even my mother is that old."

I rolled over to face him. "Do you remember the contract?"

"I do. My mother was the night queen who signed it."

That was an interesting thought, and by interesting, I truly meant overwhelming, but I refused to allow it to distract me. "Blodwen mentioned something about Lord Byrne sacrificing his sons, besides me, if he wanted to reforge the contract."

Cethin slid a hand through my hair, stroking the back of my head in soothing motions. "Fae and humans have not always had the relative peace we have now. Noble fae for the most part were uninterested in humanity. Humans are so short lived and boring."

"Boring?" I raised my eyebrows.

He chuckled. "Not you, dearest." When I didn't say anything more, he continued, "Common fae would journey to the human realm through the many paths and wreak havoc. Humans killed fae; fae killed humans. The slaughter was indescribable. Death and deals were daily occurrences."

"Lord Rhett?" I asked.

"Six of his seven sons died by fae hands in the same battle. When Lord Rhett walked the battlefield and found his dead children, madness stole his mind. He took each of his sons' bodies and consulted a necromancer."

Necromancy was a purely human magic. Fae couldn't raise or use the blood of the dead, but we could, making soldiers that were nigh impossible to destroy. However, the magic corrupted the humans beyond recognition, according to the stories.

"With her help and the blood of his dead and living sons, he forced most of the paths between the realms into one gateway in Sídhetír, Lord Rhett's province, though it had a different name at the time. His thinking being that it would be easier to defend one entry instead of innumerable amounts."

My stomach churned as I shook my head.

"There were unintended side effects."

"Such as the land needing to be passed to the seventh son?"

"That is one. Another small one is the inability of the Heir or Lord of Sídhetír to sire a daughter. There were two main side effects Rhett did not plan for were: firstly, being tied to the land. He never thought he would be bound to the very ground of his home, though he gained the power to sense and cast out every fae within his lands. The second was the sentience of Sídhetír. Rhett breathed unexpected life into the land when he tethered the magic of realms to one place."

"Sídhetír wasn't always sentient?" I asked.

"No."

"When did the Day and Night courts get involved?"

"After. We noble fae didn't care about the human realm, but when we were all restricted from it, the common fae fought our control. We were all locked in a very small space. Suddenly, the human realm seemed much more appealing and we wanted access, but we were trapped. No full-blood fae could walk through the gate.

"My mother, Eilidh, and the Day Queen, Laoise, sent a half-fae representative through with letters. He was killed, as were the following three. Eventually, Rhett let one live and a contract began to form.

"Noble fae had to restrict access on their side, controlling how many fae could escape. Rhett wanted to keep animal fae from coming through, but it extended to all fae, and we nobles had to hunt the fae who were still in your country.

"To this day, we are charged to hunt the fae who come into the human realm to cause trouble. Mostly that happens when the transition takes place and the gate moves to the seam. But nobles are sent each reign to the human realm to purge the fae who do not belong. We tend not to bother those who leave humans alone."

"What do you do to these fae?" I asked, fearing I knew the answer.

His cold look sent a shiver down my spine. Fae were brutal.

"It took time, but a contract was struck, and blood fueled the magic, so the same has to continue. Every seventh son signs the contract in blood, keeping the magic alive."

My mouth went dry as I asked, "If the contract has to be remade, do you think my brothers will have to die?"

"I don't know. I truly don't. The contract states that the Lord of Sídhetír's seventh son must sign. It's assumed the heir must be human, so no fae can interfere or the Lord of Sídhetír could not live forever."

"What's going to happen?"

Cethin kissed my forehead. "I do not know, but I shall remain by your side to the end."

The void in my mind was growing with each passing moment, but so was my dread. If I couldn't sign the contract, would war come to Sídhetír and the entire country? Or would my brothers have to die to reforge what my birth had broken?