Worlds Apart (43 page)

She heard the guys sigh behind her.

“You expect Niall to have a relationship with a brother and sister?”

Ouch.
Niall had promised not to marry Stephanie, but the queen didn’t know that.

“Of course not. I only know that without Taylor in his life, Niall will be devastated,” Roo said. “He loves him so much. He went through a great deal to be with him.”

“And what about you?” the queen asked.

Roo straightened her shoulders against the ripples of discomfort running through her. “Do what you like.”

“Roo, no,” Niall snapped and moved up behind her.

“What I like?” The queen laughed. “What if I’d
like
for you to be dead?”

Niall and Taylor both groaned. Taylor’s fingers wrapped around hers. Niall’s hand settled on her shoulder.

Roo swallowed and then released a shaky breath. “Well, okay. If that’s what you want, if you let Taylor stay.”

“No,” Niall and Taylor snapped together.

She kept her back resolutely toward them. “I don’t want to die, but this whole mess can’t end in a way that pleases everyone. Without Niall and Taylor, I’d be swamped with unhappiness. If I left with Taylor, how could we ever smile again knowing Niall suffered? If you send us back and wipe our memories, you leave Niall miserable. It seems to me you’re punishing people for being in love and I don’t understand why.”

Endor smiled at Roo before he turned to the queen. “See what this mortal would do for those she loves? Is there not a lesson to be learned here?”

“You forfeited the right to speak here long ago,” the queen snapped.

“I speak while I still can,” Endor said. “Before your tarsis silences me forever.”

He ripped open his shirt, and as Roo gasped, she heard exclamations of surprise and mutters of, “All this time?”and “He’s had it so long?” and “Who gave consent?” from the faeries. Endor had the same mark as Niall, but it smothered his body.

Endor walked up to Roo, took her wrist and turned her hand. “Unclench your fingers, sweetpea.”

Roo’s fingers uncurled to expose her palm. Dark lines twisted and turned in an intricate pattern, one thorny strand creeping onto her wrist. Wow, it hadn’t been so big earlier. Taylor stepped forward and put his hand out next to Roo’s. His palm was covered with identical markings. Roo groaned.

The queen rose to her feet, shock evident on her pale face.

“Recognize your mark on these humans?” Endor asked.

She shook her head. “I didn’t do that.”

“Apart from the fact that permission from at least four members of the high court is needed for this spell, it’s expressly forbidden to interfere with mortals in this way,” Endor said.

“This is a trick,” the queen whispered.

Roo could hear murmurings of shock and anger coming from the faeries, but wasn’t sure if they were against Endor or the queen.

“I didn’t do this,” the queen barked, and the voices were silenced.

“It’s your mark,” Endor said. “Let it be checked if you dispute it.”

Two faeries came forward and examined Roo’s and Taylor’s palms.

“It is the royal tarsis, Your Majesty,” one said. “Only your blood can make it. Only your blood can remove it.”

The queen seemed to shrivel, her face etched in distress.

“You and Niall have done this,” she whispered.

Endor shook his head. “Those with the mark cannot create it on another. In any case, my blood could not make this.”

Roo gasped as dark lines began to creep up her arm. She glanced at Taylor and pushed up his sleeve to see the same was happening to him. Roo sucked in a breath as pain stabbed her, needlelike pincers biting into her skin. She felt Taylor stiffen and they exchanged glances.
It hurts.
Roo panted. How had Niall coped with this all over his body? Taylor grunted and clasped his arm against his chest.

Stephanie cried out and Oisin silenced her with a finger.

Niall pulled Roo and Taylor close. “Mother, stop this,” he pleaded.

Stephanie pulled away from Oisin. “Please, Your Majesty.”

“Enough.” Oisin stepped between Stephanie and his mother. “Mortals can’t cope with the tarsis. It spreads too fast.” He turned to the queen. “You said you’d let them go.”

“This has nothing to do with me,” she barked.

Roo could see several faeries casting worried glances at each other.

“Remove the tarsis from all three of them,” Oisin said. “Niall is here, doing as he’s bid. There is no longer a requirement for this punishment. He stays. They leave. And show compassion to our father.”

The queen looked at him in shock. “I didn’t do that to the mortals.”

“Perform the retraction spell,” Oisin said. “It will lift any tarsis you created. If you didn’t make those on the mortals, what have you to fear?”

“This is a trick to make me remove Niall’s tarsis,” she spat, and turned to face Endor. “As I lift the mark from Niall, so will you lift their marks too.”

Endor fixed his gaze on her. “I cannot create or remove the mark, but to prove I do not, let the court bind my magic.”

Roo didn’t have much idea what was going on, but she could tell the queen was rattled, which had to be good.

“Do it,” the queen ordered.

Endor stepped into a ring of faeries who all held hands. The air seemed to crackle and Roo felt as though her hair were standing on end.

“Secure,” someone called.

The queen held up her hands in front of her, palms facing the three of them. Her eyes glazed and she whispered, “My blood, unwind what thou hast made.”

Niall agreed with his mother on one thing. This was some sort of trick, but he couldn’t figure it out. He’d been horrified when he’d seen the marks on Taylor and Roo. Neither had seemed shocked, so why hadn’t they told him? The court confirmed the marks were royal, so why would his mother deny doing it?

What’s my father up to?

With the tarsis gone, Niall could survive on the other side, build a life with Roo and Taylor, but all his mother had to do was repeat the spell and he was back where he started.
Ah, but she couldn’t act without the court’s permission and would they give it again?

Perhaps his father was giving him the chance to run? Did the three of them have time to cross before his mother blighted him without consent of the court? The only certainty was the sensation of the mark lifting from Niall’s body. He could feel it dissolving, his full strength and power returning. His muscles hummed, his body tingled with energy, and Niall felt better than he had for years. Strong again, though not strong enough to defeat his mother.

Niall stared down at his foot as the last dark lines slipped away. He turned to look at the hands of Roo and Taylor. The marks had gone and joy filled his heart.

Endor stepped out from the circle of faeries. “There’s the proof. The tarsis was yours.”

“It was not, but it little matters,” his mother said, sounding confident again. “Niall is free of it sooner than he would have been and these
nothings
can leave.”

The door opened and Niall gasped with surprise when his other two brothers walked in. He’d not seen Aedon or Daire for many years. Their mother staggered back to her throne and sat.
I’m not the only one who’s shocked.
Her face had lost all color.

Aedon and Daire nodded to Niall, Oisin and their father, and then bowed to their mother.

“How delightful to see both of you,” she said, clutching the sides of the throne so tightly her white knuckles looked as sharp as chiseled marble. “You’ll be able to attend Niall’s wedding tomorrow.”

“Sadly, Mother, you will not,” Oisin said.

The queen sprang to her feet. “How dare you!”

“You acted without the high court’s permission in inflicting the tarsis on the mortals,” Oisin said. “Your power is weakening, your mind deteriorating along with your abilities. The illegal spell you placed on Taylor didn’t work. He’s shown himself to be not only capable of loving Niall, but Roo as well. Your abuse of power has gone on long enough. You’re not fit to rule. I claim the throne.”

Niall’s heart jumped to lodge in his mouth. His mother looked too horrified to speak and his father had a grim smile on his face. Aedon and Daire beckoned to Oisin and Niall. Niall stepped forward, away from Roo and Taylor, his pulse racing, and clasped Aedon’s fingers. Oisin took Daire’s and their father completed the circle.

This was beyond Niall’s comprehension. He could do nothing more than offer his support. In a rush of heat, powerful magic shifted through him and he stiffened as if he’d been brushed by lightning. He felt as though some transfer was taking place, part of him, his brothers and father passing to Oisin. His mother gasped and Niall turned to see Taylor groaning on the floor and the queen dragging Roo toward the open window. Niall tried to pull free but his brothers held him firm.

Roo!
He couldn’t even speak her name, magic held him fast. Niall gulped in partial relief when Stephanie tugged Taylor to his feet, but Roo was still in danger. The circle broke open, but his father’s grasp stopped him from racing for Roo.

“Wait,” Endor whispered. “Look at your mother’s arm.”

The tarsis.
Niall shuddered.

“What is this?” the queen shouted. “Stop it or I’ll kill her. Finlay, Rubin, to my side.”

Neither man moved and Niall saw the moment realization dawned on his mother that she’d lost the support she counted on. Yet while she held Roo, she held half of Niall’s world.

“Oisin,” his mother whispered his name. “My eldest, my favorite, how can you do this?”

Oisin shook his head. “Never your favorite. I’m your imperfect son, the flawed son, the one pushed to the back, the one overlooked, the one you wish had never been born. Hard words to hear from your own mother. Born with one arm, my powers less well developed, I needed you more than the others and yet you loved me the least. I worked harder than my brothers, stayed by your side when I could have left, supported you even when I didn’t agree with you because I still hoped somewhere inside you there was affection for me. Yesterday I finally saw the truth. Last night, the woman I love made me see what I had to do. Why would you want Niall to marry Stephanie when she loves me and I love her?”

“Stephanie,” the queen called.

Taylor pulled his sister closer and Oisin stepped in front of the pair of them. “She’s not yours to command.”

“Help,” Roo gasped. “Something’s happening to me.”

Roo was turning to stone, her skin fading to gray, her panicked breathing clearly audible.

Niall followed Roo’s gaze down to her feet and groaned. “Mother, don’t,” he pleaded. “Please. I’ll do whatever you want but don’t hurt her.”

“What’s happening?” Taylor moved to his side.

“Stop this now or you kill your first grandchild,” Endor said.

Taylor tensed. “What?”

Roo whimpered.

Niall couldn’t look at either of them. He’d discovered the pregnancy last night and hoped that Roo and Taylor would think the baby was theirs, conceived after their return.

His mother laughed. “Inventive.”

“I’m not lying,” Endor said. “I felt the magic in the child yesterday when I held Roo in my arms. You can feel the child too if you try. If you have any love within you, don’t hurt either of them.”

Niall held his breath and released it with a gasp when the gray tone lifted from Roo’s skin, though his mother still held her wrist in an iron grip. Niall edged closer, his head buzzing.
My baby. Our baby.

“How dare you speak to me of love?” the queen snapped. “You, who never loved me. It was your fault Oisin was born defective. You were tainted by that mortal.”

Endor elbowed Niall aside and walked toward her, but she held up her hand. “Keep back.”

“What more can you do to me?” he asked. “I’m a shade away from death. Your tarsis has its fingers around my throat.”

Her hand dropped.

“Jealousy destroys love. It smothers happiness and steals freedom,” Endor said in a whisper. “Come to my home. Let Oisin rule.”

“I am queen of this realm.”

“You can be queen of my realm.” He held out his hand.

“I—”

“You have no choice,” he said at her ear. “Show the court your strength now in defeat.”

It seemed a long time to Niall before his mother accepted the rout. Roo sagged as the queen released her hold and she collapsed into his and Taylor’s arms.

Niall watched his mother straighten. She turned to look at the court and then faced Oisin. “Your Majesty. With permission, it seems there is a wedding to prepare for. Allow me to make arrangements.”

Niall didn’t trust her. He glanced at Oisin, hoping his brother wasn’t taken in.

“No,” Endor said. “Come with me now. We’re not needed here.”

Her shoulders fell. “I should gather my possessions.”

“We’ll come with you.” Aeden beckoned to Daire.

The moment she left the room, the court bowed to Oisin, and Niall joined them, tugging Roo and Taylor into a show of respect. Congratulations rang out as courtiers bustled around his brother and Stephanie. Niall’s heart felt so light he thought it might rise from his throat and float away.