The Fae King's Ruin

The King and His Heart

Despite having fought an entire war alongside her, sitting in front of the Queen of All Magic made him feel like a child. Avery could feel her tremendous magic like one could taste salt on a breeze coming from the sea. It was unmistakable. Something quite hard to deny.

Which was why he knew he came to the right place.

He studied her mortal clothes, an aura of magenta hovering tightly against her loose cashmere sweater and a pair of hugging tights. Her feet were covered with oddly designed socks. Were those bunnies? She leaned against the table half covered in a pile of books and scrolls, crossing her arms as she waited for him to talk with a knowing glint in her eyes.

“How did you know?” Avery asked.

Ella smiled half-heartedly. “Intuition?” she joked. “I have a vast knowledge about any and all spells. How the Fae cast theirs is very interesting so… yeah.”

Avery sighed, slumping further into the chair. He thought back, seeing that day play out in is mind’s eye with incredible clarity.

“The spell requires us to get married,” he said slowly, “and you had the foresight to ask that day if she would be willing to do something similar. What do you know?”

“At this point, I know as much as you,” she said, shrugging. “I bet you already got your shiny scholars and scribes researching in those magnificent libraries in Alfheim. If you are here looking for an alternative, I’m afraid I can’t offer any. You Fae people are tricky with their agreements and even trickier with their spells, as you surely know. That spell is the one, fool-proof thing that will submit everyone to the premises of the Treaty.”

“Are you sure?” He was kind of hoping she was still joking. That everything she’d said up to this moment had been one, disastrously awful joke.

She gave him an acid look. “I am not in the habit of being unsure when I speak in the absolute.”

Avery groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Then that’s it,” he said in defeat. “I really do have to marry her.”

She co*cked her head to the side, her hair swaying with the curious movement. “Is she that bad?”

He shook his head. Of course, not. Aislin was not ‘bad’ at all. In fact, if circumstances were different and he was marrying the same person, Avery would not be feeling this…

Well, he didn’t know exactly what it was he felt, but it certainly was not a willingness to get married right now. Everything was too fragile, even the peace that currently held together the Seelie and Unseelie Courts seemed like a house of cards that was one wrong move away from caving in on itself.

The problem was not Aislin. It was the circumstance.

Well aware that his friend was still staring at him, Avery plucked his head up. “This is not like the olden days where I could just take a marriage of convenience lying down,” he reasoned, running a hand through his hair. “Is it foolish of me to think that I deserve to marry for love?”

As soon as he said the words out loud, Avery felt less of a king and more like a boy who knew nothing yet of what it truly meant to be a ruler. For all the times he quietly claimed in the privacy of his thoughts that he could sacrifice anything for the sake of his kingdom, here he was second-guessing whether he could truly give away the place of ‘Queen’, a title so beloved when it was held by his mother, to someone he would be marrying not out of love but out of duty.

Ella reached out, patting the back of his hand gently as she smiled softly. “I used to think that too, you know?” she murmured, her voice quiet as she offered the little confession. “Before there was Lorenzo, back when my parents were still alive, my family was also in the habit of arranging marriages for gain. I was young, I did not think much of it, because back then I was too focused on becoming a witch that my coven would be proud of. What was love when marriage gained me an alliance? When it cemented my place in the history of my coven?”

Her eyes flickered to the closed door, her smile brightening as if she could see the human mucking about in her kitchen.

“And then I met Lorenzo,” she whispered. “Then I realized that perhaps things—things that most of the time would not agree with my wants at the moment— were meant to happen for a reason. So that he would find and save me from whatever desolation I have been rotting in for the past three centuries.” Amethyst eyes glanced at him. “But that’s only me. And there are other paths you can choose. There are other spells that can seal the Treaty but the trustworthiness of the one you’ll be entering the agreement with will matter more. I think the question for you is: can you trust the Unseelie Fae—not only the princess, but the entire court—to uphold the Treaty as your people will?”

Avery opened his mouth to answer with the confidence he ought to have but no words came out of his mouth. It was a loaded question that he could not take lightly, especially when Ella might be right. He had fought harder than anyone else to get the Great Council off of the ground and serve its purpose. Avery knew within himself that no matter how much he thought of Aislin and her cousin as an ally, he could never be able to leave it all to chance.

He had always known that whatever the Great Council achieved, it would create waves bigger than all of them combined. The moment that Treaty would be signed is the moment that the two warring courts of the Fae would forever be merged into one. As it had been before.

It was his legacy. His promise to keep for the sake of peace.

Avery slowly shook his head, and whatever qualms he had left about marrying for the sake of the Treaty dissipated into the wind. Ella nodded, knowing full-well the decision had been made and rose from her perch on the desk. She was smirking a bit when he faced her, and he wondered what it was about his situation that amused her.

“Tell the Princess that I am formally extending her a seat on the Council of Magic,” Ella said lightly. “She will be a valuable addition to the circle and I look forward to seeing her at the next meeting. Assuming she accepts, of course.”

Woodenly, Avery got to his feet and bowed his head. She dismissed the formal bid goodbye and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace. He stiffened, not really used to such a warm display from the Queen, but returned the gesture anyway with as much gusto.

“It’s shitty advice,” she whispered, “ and I cannot believe I’m even asking you to consider it, but it surprisingly works: follow your heart.”

She was right. It did seem like shitty advice.

“I will,” he mumbled nonetheless, but when he took a step back and caught a glimpse in Ella’s eyes, she knew he wouldn’t actually heed it.

Smiling sadly, Ella pulled a portal effortlessly out of thin air and Avery stepped through, leaving his heart fully out of the conversation and letting his mind take charge.

***

After that miserable Great Council meeting, Aelthrys had dropped everything he'd planned for the day and asked a butler to point him to the nearest library, plunging him knee-deep in musty old texts in a matter of minutes. He drowned out the sound of the other Fae scholars drifting in and out of the library, his mind swimming with the Old Tongue and a particular spot just above his left temple beginning to pulse painfully.

There had to be something that could help them. Anything. He'd promised his cousin that they would exhaust every other option they had before they truly considered...

Aelthrys sighed heavily through his nose.

He needed to go back to Mhoryga. The libraries in their home and in the Capital would be invaluable in the situation they were in. It would be a more familiar environment, certainly, but most of all it would be home. Comfort. Not for him. He didn’t need it. But Aislin did.

She tried to act strong, as unbreakable as the mask they’d both been taught to wear, but he knew her. He’d watched her grow up. So he knew that Aislin had been terrified by the discoveries of the scribe and what it would mean for her. She was probably in right now, wits scattered about as she sifted through each of the emotions she’d tamped down.

But she’d do it, Aelthrys knew. She’d marry the Seelie King like swallowing a pretty sizeable pill.

That was the fact he hated the most.

As her General, protector, and only living family, he fought every second of every day to make her life easier. It was the least he could do. After all, none of this was her fault. No, all this— it was caused by a team of cruelly selfish and laughably shortsighted dimwits from their court, all with no regard of how they were leaving the entire bloodline in ruin. With Aislin’s half-Fallen heritage, it had already become diluted. The more traditional of their people had learned to come to terms of it. But with Seelie blood?

He hadn’t told Aislin how that would fare with some of the most important Unseelie families in their realm. He didn’t think she needed to worry about that, especially when it was beginning to look like marriage was the only viable option.

Sifting through the scrolls and heavy tomes, it was already sundown when a pair of light feet pulled him out of his reverie. It was different from the scholars who rushed around but made a conscious effort to be quiet. He listened for half a heartbeat and stiffened in his seat. This one seemed to want attention.

Lord Elrin entered moments later, out of the bookshelves that hid him partially from view. He still wore the immaculate robes from the meeting, but his black eyes seemed even more calculating from where Aelthrys sat. He thought about ignoring his uncle, which was the general rule of thumb when dealing with him, but decided that they had to talk sooner or later.

“Searching for ways to get the princess out of this sticky trap?” his uncle sneered, voice soft but deadly like poison. “The Seelie may be a lot of things but they are thorough, General. You will not find anything that the scribe hasn’t already seen.”

Aelthrys leaned back, closing the heavy leatherbound with a muted thud. “You know me, Uncle, it is not in my nature to give up so easily.”

A brow raised. “If that is so, then request to go home. Go back to Mhoryga and personally oversee the research taking place there.” Elrin slid a finger over a bookshelf before rubbing it with his thumb, inspecting for dust that was not there. “And while you’re there, maybe you could see why the blasted communication between realms has gotten mind-numbingly slow.”

“What?”

Elrin pursed his lips. “Most of the information trickling in from the subgovernment temporarily ruling Mhoryga is at least three days old. There didn’t seem to be any foul play. The other members of the Cabinet and I checked. But it doesn’t hurt to remind them of your presence.”

He could do that, Aelthrys knew. The King had already clarified that they could return to Mhoryga anytime, but staying in Alfheim until the Treaty’s completion was important. Aislin was vital to that. Him, not so much. Still, he thought that the first time they’d come back to their new home, it would be together.

“I’ll look into it,” he told him, opening the book again in obvious dismissal. But Elrin remained where he was, hovering worse than a governess. “What else do you want?”

“I am not worried about the Princess’ marriage to the king,” he said, looking down on him with a careful smile. “You shouldn’t be as well.”

With that, he left the way he came. Left all alone once again, Aelthrys found himself shivering at his uncle's attempt at an assurance. His words were anything but comforting, and although he knew he should stop for the day, he hastened instead on his research.