Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale (2 page)

The Queen might refer to the whole thing as an
incident,
but Luc took his defense of the Queen seriously.
To him, it represented a security nightmare.

“I can only repeat my earlier advice, my Queen,” he said, taking care to keep any hint of impatience or I-told-you-so out of his voice.
“If we were to seal the gates, I could arrange for patrols to keep them secure.
Use could then be monitored and regulated for your safety and that of your people.”

She slanted him a narrow look.
“I believe my people would dislike the feeling of being jailed, Lucifer, no matter how pretty the prison.
I won’t take such a step unless I have no other choice.
But at the moment, the security of the gates is not my concern.
Rather, it is what I have seen on the other side of them that disturbs me.”

To Luc’s knowledge the Queen hadn’t traveled to
Ithir
since before the mortals had concluded it to be round, but he could guess where she’d come by her information.
She had looked into her scrying pool, and he had served her long enough to know that this alone usually spelled trouble.

“Surely whatever mess the humans have made for themselves this time is no problem of ours, Your Majesty,” Fergus put in, his expression a well-thought-out balance of concern and charm.
“They’re such troublesome creatures, after all.
You yourself have always said that if we stepped in to save them once, they’d never leave us alone.
They’d be popping up looking for our aid for every little thing they could think of.”

Mab’s glance both measured and indulged.
“I should hardly like to disagree with my own words of wisdom, but in this case they remain beside the point.
Of course the problems of the mortals don’t concern me.
What does is the knowledge that one of my own dear hearts has left my court, and I have reason to believe he has crossed over to their world.”

And there it was, the sucker punch Luc had been waiting for.
There was only one group of Fae whom Mab referred to as her “dear hearts”—her family.
Specifically her nieces and nephews, the ones who lived in the hope of one day being proclaimed her heir and who therefore made it their lives’ work to ingratiate themselves deeply within her favor.
Where the hopefuls went, trouble followed, but Luc knew that it rode particularly hard on one set of heels in particular.

“Seoc,” he growled.

Mab sent him a frosty look.
“We dislike such hasty assumptions, Lucifer, son of Annwn.
It becomes you ill to think so poorly of others.”

He murmured an apology but noticed that her scolding offered nothing like a denial of the charge.
He also noticed he’d annoyed her enough that she reverted to her royal
we.
His hands clenched at his sides.

Fergus warned him with a glance and shifted forward to draw the Queen’s attention.
“Youth often is accompanied by a certain rashness, Your Majesty.
It’s not surprising that a young Fae looking for adventure might decide to visit
Ithir
on a whim, but I’m certain there would be no danger.
The Others know it would be folly to cause any harm or distress to a member of your court.”

What the Others knew and what they would feel justified in doing, Luc reflected, might be two very different things.
While the Fae had abandoned the mortal realm centuries ago, some supernatural races had stayed behind to live secretly among the humans, calling themselves the Others.
Immortals such as the vampires and non-humans like the werefolk still roamed throughout the human world, keeping their identities carefully guarded secrets.
Their ruling body, the Council of Others, still kept in contact with the Fae court and would have every right to dislike the thought of an unauthorized Fae visitor wandering about and causing trouble.

“Of course they know it is folly,” Mab snapped.
“Not even a demon would be so foolish.
But there are other reasons to desire my nephew’s swift return home.
In our position, we must think of more than life and death at times.
There is diplomacy to consider, both between our court and the Others’ Council and within the court itself.”

It was the use of
my nephew
that sealed it for Luc.
Despite the dozens of such relatives Mab could claim, the implication of troublemaking and possible diplomatic incidents pointed at only one of the many suspects—Seoc nic Saoirse, son of the Queen’s deceased youngest sister.
Even though his gut had told Luc that Seoc was the source of whatever trouble the Queen had detected in
Ithir
, there had remained the slim possibility that the other budding troublemaker at court could have been responsible.
Fiona might be young, a veritable teenager in Fae terms, but she was showing a gift for mischief even Seoc could not outdo.
Thankfully, she seemed to have a brighter head on her shoulders than her cousin, so Luc had moved her down the list in terms of likely culprits.
The list of two.
Which left him with only one name.

Seoc.

Some days he hated being right.

“What has Seoc done?”

Mab pursed her lips, but she could hardly dress him down for drawing the correct conclusion.
“As we said, we have reason to believe he has chosen to take himself into
Ithir
without our knowledge or approval.
While boys will be boys and all young men deserve the chance to sow some wild oats, as the mortals term it, we fear Seoc might have stepped a hair over the line.
We think he may have been…indiscreet.”

Since he could think of no response that would not sink him even lower in the Queen’s favor, Luc kept his mouth shut.
Of course Seoc had been indiscreet.
Indiscreet was his middle name.
One of his middle names.
Along with reckless, foolish, idiotic, and generally irritating.

“I am sure any small ripples in the Other community can be smoothed over, my Queen,” Fergus said, his tone deliberately even and reasonable.
All the things Luc couldn’t quite manage at that point.
“It is hardly the first time one of our people has had a run-in with one of theirs.”

“If only my concern was for something so inconsequential, Fergus.
But I fear there is more to it.”
The Queen paused, her stormy green eyes locking on a point somewhere just to the left of Luc’s temple, as if he were unworthy of her gaze.
“Unfortunately, it seems that our dear Seoc has not confined his associations to the Other-folk in
Ithir
, but has allowed his presence to be noted by the mortals as well.”

Concealing his intense un-surprise, Luc acknowledged the disclosure with an impassive stare and an internal oath.
Part of him had still held out some hope that Seoc might have used what little brainpower he possessed to keep himself confined in the Other society of
Ithir
.
He’d known it was an unfounded hope—he’d never seen any evidence that Seoc possessed a functioning brain to begin with—but it had been deep and instinctive.
The man should have known the risks of being seen by humans while the Others remained hidden among them.
Whether or not to reveal their presence to humans had been a subject of intense debate among the Others for decades now, intense enough to threaten to erupt into serious political infighting from time to time; but it ultimately belonged to their Council to decide.
And the Council would not like the threat of having their hand forced by sightings of a “fairy” in central Manhattan.

Luc knew better than to express disbelief or condemnation for the royal nephew’s actions.
Only the Queen was allowed to speak ill of the worthless dung beetle, even though it had become a larger and larger part of Luc’s job recently to drag the fool back home with his tail between his legs.
Such was life at court and service in the Queen’s Guard.

“Seoc means no harm, I am certain,” Mab proclaimed, lifting her chin and firming her lips the way she always did when she said something she knew to be not entirely accurate.
“But our nephew must learn that his antics reflect on more than himself.
Even our indulgence cannot shield him forever from the consequences of his actions.
Especially not as we must begin to think of the matter of our succession.”

Luc felt his eyebrows climb toward his hairline, but he kept his mouth shut.
If Mab had any intention of naming Seoc the heir to her throne, he’d eat his own sword.
Sure, as her nephew he had as great a claim to the title as any number of other relatives, but Luc doubted the Queen intended to turn her throne over to a complete imbecile.

Actually, Luc doubted she planned to turn her throne over to anyone short of her own death, and given the immortal life span of the Fae, that should occur sometime after the Fifth of Never.
Unless, of course, she were to be killed, but it was Luc’s job to ensure that that didn’t happen.
He took his job very seriously.

Even if sometimes he wanted to kill her himself.

Like now.

“In Faerie we can keep his mischief contained,” the Queen continued, “but we have no such control in
Ithir
.
The human world chooses not to bow to our authority, and therefore is a place too treacherous to allow him free rein.
And so we must ask our Guard to go after our nephew and return him to court.
His presence begins to disturb the flow of human reality, and the Others have sent word they are anxious to have him gone.”

Too bad no one but the Queen is anxious to have him back,
Luc thought.

“Can they not return him themselves?”
Fergus suggested.
“The Others may not have our powers, but they are not without resources.”

“The Others may be superior to the mortals they live among, but they can hardly be considered our equals, my Fergus.”
The Queen shook her head.
“Seoc could elude them forever if he so chose.
While they know of his presence in their realm, we do not think they have learned the extent of his indiscretion, which is fortunate for us.
The Others still harbor a great fear of their secret being revealed to the mortal world.
They believe the humans are not ready to acknowledge the truth of their existence, and we must agree on that point.
The inability of mortals to accept the magic before them is the reason we abandoned their realm so many years ago.
It is doubtful they have progressed so far in the time since.
No, it must be a Fae to catch a Fae.”

Luc fought the urge to roll his shoulders against the growing tension, caused almost entirely by irritation.
“I understand, Your Majesty.
I will find Seoc and return him to you with all speed, and the mortals will be none the wiser.”

“I’ll go,” Fergus said, turning to Luc.
“It’s a simple enough task.
There’s no reason for you to do it yourself.
You’ve duties here.
You keep the Guard running, and I’ll go fetch Seoc.”

“Believe me, I’d like nothing more,” Luc said with regret, “but it will be faster if I go.
I’ve gone after him before.
I know more of his habits.
And the quicker he returns, the better for everyone.
I’ll leave immediately.”
He nodded to the Queen.
“With your permission.”

“You have it.”
The Queen shifted to smile at Fergus, lifting a bejeweled hand to his face.
“I could not spare you, my Fergus.
Someone must stay and see to us here at court.

“This task I have set you to is important for many reasons.”
She addressed Luc more seriously.
“More than my nephew’s safety is at stake here.
If the existence of the Others becomes common knowledge to the mortals, it will not be long before they find their way to even our realm.
You must not allow this to happen.”

Luc set his jaw and nodded once, curtly.
“I understand,” he repeated.
“I will do all in my power and use all resources at hand, my lady.”

Mab reached up, her cool, pale fingers cupping his stubble-roughened face, and the smile she gave him reminded him why human and Fae alike still wrote odes to her beauty, even after so many endless centuries.

“If you do all in your power, my Lucifer, then I know well you cannot fail me.”
Leaning up, she brushed a kiss against his cheek and stepped back, raising her hands before her and waving them in an intricate pattern that dripped trails of light from her fingertips.
As the guardsmen watched, the light wove itself together into a shimmering doorway, expanding until it was large enough to accommodate even Luc’s height.

Blowing out a deep breath, Luc stepped forward into the Faerie door and felt the warmth of the Queen’s magic surround him.
As reality bent and reshaped itself, her voice reached him on a silver whisper.
“Go safely, my Lucifer, and may what you find to please you, ever be yours.”