The Tainted Web (The Godhunter, Book 7) (36 page)

“
Yes, very good,” I huffed a laugh. Of course he would understand, he was more magical than any god could ever be. “So when they stopped killing...”

“
The magic lost potency,” he frowned. “Are the wolves dying?”

“
I...” my mouth dropped open. “Oh fuck, I hadn't thought of that. I wonder if they'll lose their immortality.”

“
Possibly,” Arach had a thoughtful look on his face, “but if they haven't started dying yet, it's unlikely. I believe a withdrawal that extreme would have immediate results. Magic wants to live, as all living things do, it would sooner conserve resources than cut off hosts in such a way.”

“
Conserve resources,” I grimaced, “as in preventing the birth of more Froekn who would create a greater draw on the power?”

“
Yes, precisely,” his brows came down over his slightly upward tilted eyes, making it look as if his face had lengthened and stretched down the center. “Is this what has happened?”

“
My friend Samantha is married to Fallon, one of my lions.”

“
Yes, I've met them both.”

“
Right, I forgot,” I gave him a sad smile. “They've been trying to have a baby and she just found out she's sterile.”

“
Ah,” he nodded, “I grieve for her. I know the pain of empty arms, a home empty of your child's laughter.”

“
Arach,” my heart clenched.

He wanted a child badly, had in fact thought to never have one, since our race had been killed off by humans. My appearance had sparked hope for both him and his Kingdom. The possibility of an heir to the Throne of Fire and a new line of dragon-sidhe. He'd only recently won me over as a lover, even though we were married(long story), so I wasn't sure I was ready for children yet.

The Ring of Remembrance which I'd inherited from my father, which allowed me to travel in time and made it possible for me to be with Arach practically continually without spending any time apart from my other lovers, also made children with Arach a possibility. I could actually have children in Faerie and my other men wouldn't ever even see me pregnant.

It was a bit of a shock for me, who'd thought I'd never have children. I'd been happy with Vidar and Vali, my sons from another life. I had memories of raising them which fulfilled any urge I might have had to have a child. I wasn't sure if I wanted any in this life but I felt like I was being incredibly selfish if I didn't give Arach the child he'd been desiring for so long.

“We have time,” he said as if in answer to my internal struggle. “Don't fret about our possible children now. It's your Froekn friend you're concerned with at the moment.”

“
Right,” I gave a relieved huff. The talk of dragon babies could wait for another day. “I was hoping there might be something in Faerie to help, some spell or fertility fey or something like that?”

I could tell by his grim expression that the news would be bad.

“A Thaisce, I thought you  knew about our own issues with fertility. Don't you think we would have healed ourselves if we had anything like that?”

“
Oh, right,” I recalled suddenly a conversation I'd had with the High King, in which he'd told me how the fey had been reproducing less and less. It had been one of the considerations to opening the way between Faerie and the Human Realm once more. He'd thought that the fey might have better luck reproducing with humans.

“
Even if we possessed the magic to help you,” he touched my face and turned it toward his gently, “I would advise against the use of it in such a circumstance.”

“
But why?”

“
What do you think will happen if you force the magic to create another life it cannot sustain?”

“
It would have to...”

“
Yes,” his face was soft with sympathy. “It would have to take a life, possibly that of your Wolf Prince himself. Would you sacrifice Trevor's life for that of a hypothetical child?”

“
No, of course not,” I slumped back against him.

“
It's best to leave the magic alone,” his hand was stroking over my long hair, I'd left it to hang loose down my back for him. I knew he liked to play with it. “Tampering with the natural order of things always has a price.”

“
We were going to try to find a fertility goddess to help her,” I thought of my determination to kill Demeter and take her power so I could help Sam. Demeter needed to die anyway so it seemed like a perfect solution.

“
Please don't do this,” his forehead came down to touch mine. “As royalty we have to make hard decisions. Sometimes the hardest is when you decide to do nothing. It's the price we pay to rule. Sometimes the right thing to do is to do nothing. Leave this alone, let the magic work itself out.”

“
I can't give up on her so easily,” I pulled back to look at him, his deep red hair tousled, framing a lean face accented by red scales at the temples, and those bright dragon eyes staring at me in concern. “I'm going to keep looking for another way.”

“
Well,” he smiled, “if you do find a way to bring back fertility, Faerie would benefit too. The few births we've had since the way to the Human world was closed, have been to lesser fey. There's been no sidhe births at all in over fifteen-thousand years.”

“
What?” I pulled back even further, to stare at him in shock. “I thought you only started having problems since the way was closed, that's only been about five-hundred years.”

“
Five-hundred human years,” Arach chided me as if I, above all other humans, should have known the difference between time in Faerie and time in the Human Realm. He was right of course. “That's around fifteen-thousand fairy years, give or take a few hundred,” he shrugged. “Time here is so flexible.”

“
So you've been waiting for a mate for-”

“
I've been waiting for
you
for fifteen-thousand years,” he nodded. “Now do you see why I was such an asshole?”

“
You've been spending time with Roarke,” I shook my head and smiled to hide my shock. I'd thought Odin had waited a long time for me. “You weren't so much of an asshole as a supreme egotistical bastard.”

“
Well, I feel so much better now,” he laughed and pulled me back against his side.

“
Why have there been no sidhe births in so long?” I whispered, like I thought the land could hear me and I didn't want to offend her. Probably because Faerie really could hear me.

“
We don't know,” he said and I felt his shrug beneath my cheek. “Now that you've given us back the power to speak to Faerie, we've all asked her but she doesn't respond. Or if she does, it's in riddles.”

“
Riddles?” I remembered the way she spoke to me and almost as if the memory called her, I felt her presence in my mind and her voice filled my head.

Welcome home daughter of the gods, man, and fey.

“Thank you,” I said softly to her.

“
For what?” Arach looked down at me in surprise.

“
Oh, no,” I waved away his question, “I'm talking to Faerie.”

“
By all means,” he grimaced, pulling the sheet around us and snuggling in closer with me. “Maybe she'll give
you
a straight answer.”

The Dragon King is of bad humor today

“Not so bad,” I chuckled a bit.

His bad humor is a result of your sadness. You come home with a heavy heart, child.

“I hoped to find an answer to a problem I have but have only found a greater problem here.”

Yes, the children aren't being born.

“Why won't you tell them how to bring back the children?”

This is of their own doing and the answer lies with them as well. I've done all I can for them by bringing you here. You are the catalyst. If they want things to change, then they must first change themselves.

“Ah, there's the riddle,” I smiled but it faded when I realized what she said. “
Brought
me here?
You
brought me here? I thought it was an accident. I asked the Aether to take me home and it took me here instead.”

How do you think you got past the High King's magic?
She was laughing at me, I couldn't hear it but I could feel it.
Of course I brought you. I've been waiting years for you to enter the Aether alone and without chant to direct you. When you finally did, I pulled you here immediately.

“
What is she saying?” Arach was staring intensely at my slack expression.

“
She says she brought me here, that she opened the tear in King Cian's wards to allow me through.”

“
I suspected such,” he nodded and leaned down to kiss me again. I ran my hands over the hard angles of his chest, then slid them under the sheet.

Is he a good lover? I hope he doesn't disappoint you after all I've done to bring you together.

“
Oh, you're still here,” I jerked back from Arach and he gave a long suffering sigh before leaning back so I could finish my conversation with Faerie.

I am ever here.

“But if you're still speaking to me it must be for a reason,”
I cast a glance at my waiting dragon and wasn't surprised to see smoke drifting out of one nostril.

I feel strange of late. There are fey I can't find.

“King Cian has opened the way to the Human Realm now,” I reassured her. “They're probably there.”

Yes, perhaps.
And then she was blessedly gone.

“
I always feel like I've missed something and I won't figure it out until later, whenever I talk to her,” I shook my head.

“
Hmph,” he nodded, “riddles. She loves riddles.”

“
Not exactly a riddle,” I thought over her words. “She's told me a few times that she wants me here to bring change to the fey. Now she just told me that it's the reason she brought me here in the first place, and she implied that the change will bring back fertility to the fey.”

“
She did? So what's this change you're supposed to bring about?”

“
That's just it, I haven't the foggiest.”

“
Well great,” he huffed, “I'm glad that's all settled.

About the Author

Amy Sumida lives on an island in the Pacific Ocean where gods go to play. She sleeps in a fairy bed, high in the air, with two gravity-defying felines and upon waking, enjoys stabbing people with little needles, over and over, under the guise of making pretty pictures on their skin. She, like Vervain, has no filter but has been fortunate enough to find friends who appreciate this... or at least tell her they do. She bellydances and paints pictures on her walls but is happiest with her nose stuck in a book, her mind in a different world than this one, filled with fantastical men who unfortunately don't exist in our mundane reality. Thank the gods for fantasy.

On a serious note, she's the author of several books, including the Godhunter series, Feeding the Lwas, The Magic of Fabric, and Enchantress. She's been writing since she was a little girl but first decided to pursue writing as a career when she gave her high school English teacher one of her books to look over and without her knowledge, that teacher passed her book around to all her friends. A month later she was accosted in the halls by a teacher she didn't know, begging her to write a sequel. She's been writing novels ever since.