6. Eldrin

Chapter six

Eldrin

“ Y ou were supposed to bring a mortal willing to bond with the land and thus secure our barrier,” Vanir said, likely peering down his nose. It was a good guess, as that was his favored position.

I kept my head bowed, staring at the intricately etched and polished stone floor. Even in this, his private audience chamber, decadent luxury oozed from every surface. He hadn’t changed much of the palace’s ornaments since he took our father’s throne, but what was there he quickly made even more opulent, to the extent such things were possible. I could see the very tips of his red velvet slippers just at the edge of my vision, embroidered with golden skeleton peacocks with diamonds for eyes. Pretentious bastard. I didn’t begrudge him the luxury because I lost the throne—I would have made a poor king—but I begrudged him for that out of all of my brothers, he had to be the one to sit upon it. Unfortunately, my other brothers were with the remainder of the Darkening Woods, where I should have been. And with my mother.

“I did return with a mortal woman, Your Majesty,” I said. “And she is now in debt to our kingdom.”

“Yes, yes, irksome little spider, wasn’t it?” Vanir said. “Though, did you so much as bother to ask this woman’s name before you decided to tie our fate to hers?” Vanir sighed dramatically. “Of course not.”

My cheeks burned. I was not some young fool to risk everything for a pretty face. Not anymore. That Eldrin was dead. “She needs to complete the ritual in order to save her life, Your Majesty. That is more effective than simply desiring to live with us because we’re a curiosity.”

“So, you claim. But I can’t ignore what my advisors tell me—you were guided by your emotions.” Vanir chuckled darkly. “They were ever your downfall. Or was it your laziness?”

My breath caught and I forced my attention to stay focused on the ground, on the little scuffs that marred the floor. I needed to focus on anything but what Vanir had said. How dare he mention this here and now…

“What was it you told me when we were young?” Vanir continued. “Was it that you were ‘too busy to learn governing since you were going to be king regardless’? Or was it that learning how our kingdom functioned was ‘too boring’ for you? And do you remember how you mocked me for attending father’s council meetings? Well, unfortunately for you, taking and keeping a throne is a part of governing. Something you learned too late.”

I stilled, even as Vanir’s guard shifted in the corner, allowing me to imagine his hand drifting down to his sword.

Vanir was right—I had said all of those things and worse. I had ignored everything, everything I did not want to indulge in. Not even a decade ago, Father hadn’t been so old, and I had time to learn my responsibilities. I had time to enjoy being a prince, hunting and drinking and enjoying what pleasures life offered. Why waste my time boring myself now, when I didn’t have to? No matter how much mother and father begged me to turn my attention to more serious pursuits. They knew that while we had some time for me to take to my duties, we didn’t live forever. Elves were long lived, but even we had to bow before the rod of time. Even elves were able to be taken by death unawares.

A lesson I did not learn until far too late.

I stilled the argument stirring on my tongue and kept my head bowed.

Vanir wanted this—he wanted a reaction. He wanted an excuse to kill me. Elven kings did not let contenders for their thrones live—one thing we shared with the theatrical, unnatural fae—and I was the greatest threat to his reign. Though that was before our world was torn in two .

“Very well,” Vanir said, slapping the arm of his throne. “We are forced to deal with this woman and so we shall. Look at me.” Slowly, I raised my gaze to my half-brother.

Vanir’s golden hair draped over his shoulders, the silken strands catching on his embroidered green shirt. His brown eyes sparkled with flecks of gold, and he smiled at me, though there was no warmth in it. A golden crown wrought in the shape of leaves rested on his head, and a silver necklace bearing a wooden pendant lay over his shirt. His left hand, his skeletal hand, rested on his lap. His hand that was bare of all flesh. A hand we all had in common, for our domain was the autumn of life, the descent to death and rot.

“She has one month to complete the ritual and save her life,” Vanir said, “for if we die, so does she.”

“The bond cannot be made unwillingly.”

“I will marry her. That should help.” Vanir shrugged and grinned, a seemingly friendly gesture. I blinked hard. I had to have misheard. “What?” He asked upon noticing my shock. “I need a wife and she makes enough sense—what human would forego the chance to be an elven queen?”

“I’m just surprised you would turn away from the women of your court.” And be with a human, I left unsaid—there would have been less gossip if he decided to marry a pig farmer.

“This is more important,” Vanir said, as if he were convincing himself. “The bond is more important. And who cares that she isn’t elven? Once she makes the bond she’ll live as long as us anyway.”

“She will?” I asked, stunned into forgetting who I was speaking to, and forcing away my concerns that his court wouldn’t see the matter as simply as him. We weren’t immortal, but we easily lived to be three hundred years old, our bond with the Darkening Woods letting us share in the long lives of the trees.

“So I have been told.”

“Will the magic take her hand too?” And make it like ours, I meant.

“Probably not. I was told that the Woods never wanted that price from humans before, but regardless, it’s not as if her opinion matters.”

My bewilderment almost made me overlook how he was speaking this way about her . Which was a good thing—if I dwelled too long on the thought of my slimy brother touching her, holding her…I didn’t know if I could contain myself. There was no way he would ever love her. Or try. If he saw the spark in her eyes, he would do everything he could to quench it.

“So I’m told,” Vanir repeated. “I enquired when we started considering a human to bond with the barrier. Human lives can mirror ours when given the chance. This isn’t the first time our realms have blended—though the sheer amount that occurred this time is unusual. Consider cats—do humans really think they are from their world? ”

“I never considered cats, Your Majesty.” He was right—our original world had humans, and they had to have come from somewhere. There were signs of our worlds’ previous mergers that were there, if one knew where to look.

“You’re no fun, Eldrin. Even when it would behoove you to be.”

Fun? He was just prodding me for being too fun . But with Vanir, nothing was ever as simple as the words that came out of his mouth.

I tried to consider the positive side of my brother suggesting that he marry the woman—if she would have him. While my responsibility for the human woman was complete as soon as I brought her to the healers, it relieved me to know that Vanir wasn’t intending on keeping her in a dungeon after the fact. I tried to soothe the budding disgust in my heart. If he did marry her, he would be forced to give her a place of honor—even our court, such as it was now, wouldn’t tolerate anything less for a queen. She would be safe, more or less. And with time, she could find her own way to be happy. In time, she could hope to gain the acceptance she would need to thrive.

“Now that the human we need is here, is there anything else you require from me, Your Majesty?”

“Oh, Eldrin,” Vanir said slyly, sitting up a little straighter, “I’m nowhere near done with you in regard to this matter.” My stomach twisted at what was going to come out of his mouth next. “See, I am making the human woman an excellent offer—but your task is to ensure that she accepts, and to keep her in one piece until she does. And if she doesn’t…well, I don’t think you’ll be around long enough to worry about the consequences. My throne room could always use another skull…”

I left the audience with my heart thrumming in my chest. Courtiers watched me through wry gazes as I stepped through the halls, but no one approached. Many gave me a wide berth these days. Wise.

Vanir continued to heckle me during the audience, setting out the rest of his demands. He prodded me, his words as pointed and pained as a hot poker. But I would not lash out. I couldn’t. If I did, it would give him the excuse he needed, the ability to get rid of me for good. No one would blame him for removing a threat that couldn’t be contained.

Was Vanir mad? How could he ask me to do this, to take care of the human woman and coax her into marrying him? Me. Why would he ask me to do it? Did he suspect that something drew me to the human woman already, and he saw a chance to act against me? Was he counting on my needing to please him, so that I would do whatever he asked, no matter what? Or did he expect me to fail, knowing that I would hate the thought of any woman being bound to him, much less one who was alone at court?

Whatever his plot, he would be disappointed. I would continue to do my duty. And the last thing I needed was to become entangled with a mortal woman beyond what was absolutely necessary.

I stopped outside the door to where the woman was recovering, a private suite near where the rest of the minor nobility stayed in the palace. Taking a deep breath, I was relieved to hear, through the closed door, Siliana discussing the finer points of our skeleton hands. The woman wasn’t screaming. No, she seemed…curious, if mumbling every other word. The medicine she was given would take a day to wear off and for her mind to return to its prior functions. In fact, I was surprised that she was already conscious—even elves typically needed a day to recover from that dosage.

Good. This was all good. This meant that the hardest part was done. The human woman had already been told that she couldn’t go home, and that now she was living with nightmares.

I gripped the cold metal knob, opened the door, and let myself inside the room. And I lost my breath.

Both women stopped talking and watched me, while the woman’s mouth dropped open as her eyes took in my skeleton hand. I didn’t bother to try to hide it—she had seen our true natures anyway .

“You,” the human woman said, her eyes flickering with recognition.

“You remember me?” I asked.

“Yes. You were the guy from the bar. The one who was all moody and disappeared.”

I raised an eyebrow while Siliana politely covered her mouth. “Moody?” she asked.

That was all it took. The woman went into a tirade about how she noticed me, sitting and watching the crowd, apparently standing out more than I thought, all while I tried to get my nerves under control. While I tried not to stare at her.

The woman was worn and exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was a mess, but she was brilliant. That same feeling that I had when I saw her before, that inability to look away, returned, striking me hotter than ever. Her wide eyes, curious and sharp, took in every gesture, her body shifting in a way that was so alive . She missed nothing, taking in our expressions, our gestures, seemingly even the things we left unsaid. She didn’t fit in this place, in its balance between life and death, no more than a rose belonged in winter. Her supple lips beckoned to me, and I wondered what it would be like to wrap my hands in that hair and pull her to me and consume her. No, my feelings weren’t because she was human. By this point I’d been around hundreds of humans, if not thousands. Their novelty never attracted me. None of them sparked the urge to pull her against me, to devour every bit of her while she begged me for more. She was the star that flickered in the black night, the fire that overwhelmed everything it touched, consuming until it was changed forever.

And now I had to watch her marry Vanir.