Fae's Power

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Griffin

A c***k reverberated around the room as Griffin slammed his fist into the table. “I can’t break it.”

It was the middle of the night, and they’d had the sequence of numbers since Finn returned days ago. Most of the palace slept—including Gulliver and Riona.

Lochlan looked up from where he was dripping wax onto the numbers for some unknown reason. “Maybe if you helped me, this would go quicker.”

Griffin eyed the tomes surrounding him. He had every book on magic in Iskalt surrounding him, and Lochlan thought the solution was playing with wax?

Standing to stretch his stiff limbs, Griffin joined Lochlan at the table. “I don’t really understand what you’re doing.”

Lochlan didn’t look up. “A couple years ago, we found how Callum and Regan were passing messages. There were two ways. They had a set of books she’d spelled. Write in one, and it would show up in the other. For anything official that would need a paper trail, Regan sent messages on parchment spelled to react to hot wax.”

Griffin stared at his brother, wondering how many discoveries they’d made in the last ten years. Regan didn’t tell Griffin about her secret communications, and for reasons he couldn’t understand, the thought burned.

He’d always clung to the fact that one fae had trusted him completely, one fae had loved him.

He leaned forward to peer at the paper. “Is it working?”

Lochlan sighed. “No.” He put the candle back on the table. “But something has to. It’s just code. We’ve broken plenty such codes before.”

“Yes, but if this is a human code, magic won’t decipher it.”

Lochlan leaned back in his chair. “How do humans live such frustrating lives?”

“They aren’t frustrating to them because they never knew any different.”

“Stop trying to make me feel bad about being mad at the humans for this.” Lochlan darted a glare at him, but his lip turned up into a wry smile.

Griffin chuckled and rubbed his eyes. “We need to get creative.”

“My wax idea was creative.”

“Maybe we need more eyes. I can wake Riona. There’s only a seventy-five percent chance she’ll punch me for it.”

“No.” Lochlan shook his head and leaned forward. “Griffin, I may not remember you, but you feel like my brother—if that makes sense. And brothers always have each other’s backs, so I know I can trust you.”

Griffin squirmed, stepping away. In his world, brothers stood on opposite sides of a war. But he couldn’t tell Lochlan. This was the first time his brother had ever trusted him, and Griffin didn’t want to give that up. “So … you don’t trust Riona?”

“You told us yourself she’s an agent of the king we’re supposed to hate in Myrkur.”

He thought back on the journey he’d shared with Riona, where he could almost forget who she was beholden to. She’d kissed him, making him realize he wasn’t truly in love with Brea. It was the biggest revelation of his life. And yet, here was Lochlan voicing the exact concerns he’d once had about Riona himself.

“I don’t know if I can trust her. Did I ever tell you how we met?”

Lochlan shook his head.

“It was in the fighting pits.”

“Fighting pits?” Lochlan swallowed.

“I was fighting to free Nessa—the first time she was captured. Such things are a common occurrence in Myrkur. I won, but it was close. The rules dictated one of us had to die, but I refused to kill her. In return, she later let me go when I broke into a stronghold to save Gulliver. But then she led men to destroy my entire village.”

Lochlan rubbed a tired hand over his face. “The prison realm … it’s a very different kind of place, isn’t it?”

“Well, first, there’s no sun, only constant night. The king’s men roam the countryside capturing people to become indentured servants to work in the king’s mines.” One corner of his mouth turned up. “But there’s a place—or used to be—where the villagers worked together to keep everyone alive. We were a family. And now Egan has two members of that family and the rest are homeless and likely starving. So we will try everything, Loch. We will break this code, so that one day I can return to free my family and rebuild my home.”

“I wish I remembered you, Griffin. I wish I knew our history, because something tells me you’re someone I cared about deeply.”

Griffin didn’t tell him the truth, he couldn’t. Lochlan had never cared for him as brothers should.

And that had been Griffin’s fault.

Griffin crawled into bed as the sun rose on the horizon. He didn’t bother to change his clothing before his eyes slid shut.

Almost immediately, he could see them. Shauna and Nessa. His family. As much as he loved being around Lochlan and Brea, even when they barely knew him, they weren’t the people he worried for most.

He was killing himself trying to find the twins because that book was his way back to the people he loved most.

As he drifted off to sleep, he could hear Egan’s voice calling to Shauna, his best friend, the girl who’d saved him in the prison realm. She hadn’t asked what he’d done or if he was dangerous. The day she found him, she’d only asked if he was hungry before bringing him to the village that had served as his sanctuary for nearly a decade.

Not everything was bad in the prison realm. It was the first time he truly understood what it was to fight for other people, to care for them.

If he was going to be fatalistic, he could almost say the prison realm saved him. It allowed him to become a better version of himself. One Lochlan could respect.

Egan’s words drowned out every other thought in his sleepy mind.

“Stay away from her,” Griffin groaned.

A warm hand slipped into his. “Griff?”

His eyes popped open. “Egan, he’s going to kill them.”

“Why? He has no reason to.” Riona climbed over him to get to the other side of the bed. Her silky soft wings brushed his arm.

“We have to find this book, Riona. And these kids.”

She sat still for a long moment, her breath the only sound in the room. Pulling back the covers, she slipped underneath. “You won’t find anything if you’re half-dead from sleep deprivation.”

Griffin’s entire body relaxed. She was right. Her presence should remind him of what they had to do, of who she worked for, but instead, it calmed him. “I’m going to save them.”

Riona’s tattoos moved and swirled as if they wanted to tell him everything Riona held back. “Sleep, Griff.”

He closed his eyes once again, and this time, he didn’t see Shauna and Nessa in their cells at Egan’s palace. He saw the villagers he loved like family, the ones left behind to rebuild what was taken from them.

Griffin didn’t know what time it was when he woke. Riona and Gulliver were nowhere to be found, so he took his time shaving with the blade Lochlan had given him. He bathed and changed into a pair of thick black woolen pants and a vest over a long-sleeved white linen shirt.

His stomach growled as he yanked his boots on. When had he last eaten? It wasn’t yesterday afternoon. Maybe the morning? He was starting to lose track of the days in Iskalt and in the human realm. Every action bled together to create a nonstop quest.

When he reached the dining room, only Brea sat at the high table. The sight of her made his breath hitch. Even if he knew he wasn’t in love with her anymore, he never wanted to stop feeling confident in her presence. She’d always given him strength, and he needed it now more than ever.

“Good morning, Griffin.” She smiled, but he’d always been able to spot her false expressions.

“Good?” He lowered himself into a chair next to her. “Maybe we should stick with morning.”

“Well, it’s almost lunch, but the kitchens know to keep breakfast running late for me each morning.”

“Because you’re lazy?” He forgot for a moment that he couldn’t joke with Brea like that anymore.

Brea lifted one brow. “Because I’m a mother who spends most of the morning with my children.”

“That too.” Griffin nodded to the man who set a water goblet in front of him. He took a long drink before setting it down. Neither of them mentioned she had two fewer kids to prepare for the day.

Brea called a servant over and whispered something in his ear. The servant nodded and walked away.

“There was a time, your Majesty—”

“Don’t call me that.”

“—where you’d have laughed at the idea of servants catering to your every whim.”

“There was also a time I thought I was human.”

Griffin searched the hall, his eyes landing on all the servants waiting to be given an order. “You told me it was a flaw to like you.”

“That sounds … yes, I can see that.” She chewed on a lip. “I wish I remembered, Griff.”

“Sometimes I wish I’d forgotten it all.”

A servant placed a plate in front of each of them. Griffin surveyed their fare. Salted fish, berry pastries, poached eggs.

Brea chewed on a bite of egg before looking toward him once more. “I don’t think you really want that. It hurts, Griff, to know someone was so intwined in our lives, and yet we don’t even recognize them. You brought me from the human realm. You changed my life, and I’ve wracked my brain trying to see your face in any of my memories.”

“If you remembered me, you wouldn’t have invited me to your table.”

“No. You can’t believe that. Everything inside me is screaming to trust you. I don’t understand it, but it’s like I know you’re the only fae who can repair my family. We aren’t whole without Tia and Toby. And now, I’m wondering if a part of us has been missing this entire time. Maybe we aren’t whole without you either.”

“Please don’t say that.” He scooted his chair back and stood, his appetite suddenly gone.

Brea ran after him. “Griffin? What did I say? Is it so wrong to want to love you? To want you in our family?”

He turned on his heel so quickly she almost slammed into his chest. “Yes.”

“Why? Why can’t I trust you?”

“I’m not a good man, Brea.” Or at least he didn’t use to be. “Regan was like a mother to me, and I chose her over you again and again. I tricked you into a fae marriage you didn’t want. I didn’t just bring you from the human realm, I abducted you on Regan’s orders.” He leaned down, staring into her wide eyes. “I abducted Myles after making you believe he was dead.” That was the deal breaker for the Brea he knew. She could take everything else, but the lies about Myles hurt her the most.

Brea’s eyes hardened, and Griffin waited for her to throw him against the wall with her magic, or at the very least, yell at him. Instead, she stepped forward, sliding her arms around his waist.

He stiffened, figuring she was going to crush him with her power. There were so many things she could do to him.

After a long moment, he realized it was the worst kind of punishment of all.

A hug.

There was no pain to satisfy him, nothing that could serve as his penance.

After a while, his arms threaded around her as a tear leaked from the corner of his eye.

“I don’t know who you were, Griff,” she whispered, gazing up at him. “But I’m beginning to see who you are. We are all capable of so much bad. Bad is easy. It’s the good that’s hard, change is even harder.”

Her voice tapered off, but she didn’t end the hug. Silence stretched between them as the image of Brea shifted in his mind. Could he really be part of two families? Was it possible to get Lochlan and Brea back?

No.

Not while they were still without their memories.

Brea released him and stepped away. “You’re going to save them. I know it. And those kids will get to love you too. I refuse to believe I’ll never see them again. Promise me you won’t give up, Griff. Promise you’ll find them? They need to know their uncle Griff.”

It would be a false promise, they both knew that. But he needed to say it just as much as she needed to hear it.

“I will bring your children back to you.”

Her face brightened the slightest bit. “Good, now come and eat.”

He shook his head. “There’s someone I need to see.”

She gave him an understanding nod before he sprinted down the hall, backtracking to his room. When he slammed open the door, he found Gulliver and Riona sitting on the floor playing some game with marbles.

Riona was mesmerizing with her moving tattoos and dark eyes. Her white wings made her a contradiction, and it fit her. The light and the dark. The good and the bad.

This time, he was hoping for a little of the bad. Only Riona would have the information he needed.

Gulliver smiled up at him. “Griff! You want to play? All you have to do is pick up marbles in a sequence, creating your own pattern. I can show you.”

Griff knew the game. It was how they taught kids to break codes in Fargelsi.

“I’m sorry, Gullie. Maybe later. I need to speak with Riona.”

Gulliver shrugged and went back to playing.

Riona gave him a quizzical look as she pushed herself off the floor. Griffin led her into his bedroom and shut the door before turning on her. “How much do you know about Sorcha’s book?”

Riona’s stern look fell away into surprise. “Just as much as you—”

“Don’t lie to me. You were Egan’s champion. Before we met, I remember every time I saw you sitting atop your steed next to the king, bowing to his every whim.”

“You don’t understand.” She sidestepped him and sat on the bed.

“Then make me.” He took a seat beside her. This wasn’t supposed to be an argument. The accusations fell past his lips before he could stop them. But he knew Riona, he understood her like few others could.

Because she was just like him.

Riona rested her elbows on her knees and hunched forward. “I don’t know anything about the book, but he has a spell that allows him to wield magic from the barrier.”

Griffin knew there was a reason Egan was able to return his portal magic to him. This wasn’t news, and there was no proof the spell was from the book.

“What about you?” Riona’s eyes pinned him with her glare. “Regan never told you about the book while you were subjugating the Fargelsian people?”

She hadn’t. But she also hadn’t had him turning the human realm upside down for it. Which meant Brandon might be right. Regan knew where it was. She’d studied it, had spells from it. He tried to recall the memories he’d pushed to the back of his mind, realizing how much she had kept from him.

He hadn’t been her son or her champion. Not her partner—that was Callum. So, what was he?

Gullible.

He sighed. “She didn’t mention it or where it could be.”

Riona lifted her face to his. “A book with so much power wouldn’t be in the human realm without protections. We don’t even know what this book can do, how much power it can wield.”

“Riona,” he whispered.

Her eyes locked onto his, her voice softening as she nodded. “If it’s truly as powerful as we’ve been told, what if it can not only bring the magical barrier around the prison realm down, but this book … have you ever wondered if it can make the world remember?”

His heart thundered in his chest whether from Riona’s nearness or the questions that rolled through his mind. What if he could restore memories and cease being the forgotten prince, the one everyone felt like they knew but never would without their memories?

He flopped back on the bed. “Why is it that every choice feels like another set of chains?” Lies wrapped around him like steel tightening until he gasped for breath.

If they found this book, the truth would be right at his fingertips.

Riona lay beside him, her thigh brushing his. “I don’t have all the answers, Griff. But we’ll find this book. We’ll save the twins and return to free Shauna and Nessa.” She sat up, letting her eyes meet his before she stood. “We won’t fail, because you won’t let us.”

He stared after her as she left him behind. She was right, they’d find it. But Griffin knew they couldn’t give it to Egan.

He only wished Riona agreed.

He needed to talk to someone—someone who preferably couldn’t talk back. Ruffling Gulliver’s hair on his way past, Griffin stepped into the hall and turned the opposite way of the main hall. He’d rarely spent much time in this palace, but it still felt familiar. It called to his roots.

The library wasn’t far. Griffin ducked into the stone archway to see solid oak bookshelves lining the walls. He skimmed the dusty leather spines on his way to the back corner where a forgotten portrait hung.

There were many paintings of his parents around the palace grounds, but none were like this, so lifelike it stirred memories he couldn’t possibly have. Neither he nor Lochlan hung on these walls. A royal child in Iskalt got their first portrait done on their sixth birthday. They’d both been gone by then, living in separate kingdoms.

He sat on the arm of a nearby couch and studied them. His father had auburn hair just like Griff’s, but Lochlan favored their mother.

“What would you two think of me now?” he asked. It would have broken their hearts to see him choose Regan’s side against his brother. But if they were here, they’d have forgotten him too.

“I want my family back. But the moment I have them, they’re going to abandon me. I’m sorry. For everything. I’m just … sorry.” He buried his face in his hands.

Words failed him as his back shook. His parents were the only ones who got to see him cry. He had to be strong. For Riona and Gulliver, for his brother and his children. For Shauna and Nessa. Brea.

For everyone who’d end up hurt or dead if Egan got his hands on the book.

“I’m going to save them all.” And then he’d disappear into the prison realm again to let his first family live their lives without him. Even if he could return their memories with Sorcha’s book, these people … they’d never forgive him.