CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

INISFAIL COURT

FECHIN

Azar, his beautiful bride, was resplendent in green. It wasn’t the dress he’d ordered made for this day, but she was exquisite in her selection. He hadn’t given her choices about anything else since he’d found her in the woods near her home, and he wanted her happy, so he’d let her have the dress.
As his hand was bound with Azar’s with the handfasting ribbon, a sense of tranquility and destiny settled over Fechin. That happened sometimes. His mother was a goddess of fate, after all, and he’d come to learn there were some actions that felt like they were a stepping stone to a path that had to be walked. To ignore his intuition about those things led to disaster every time.
His future depended on this moment of Azar accepting her place at his side. Soon, their child would be born, and he would come into his full power as King. Then he could put more effort into finding Azar’s father for her. He’d find a way to bring her the moon and stars if she wanted them. She asked so little of him, and offered him so much. Love. Happiness. Hope. Azar had brought him back to life.
The ceremony was short, but binding. Most powerful magics were often invoked with simple words and feelings. When the last word was spoken and the final knot tied, relief and rightness sent euphoria sweeping through his blood. His heart felt lighter than it had in years, like the weight of the world had been lifted from his chest.
Fechin led Azar through the crowd. Courtiers, Seelie and UnSeelie, wished them well. His Azar had even managed to unite them. Maybe only for as long as the party lasted, but it was something. After dancing, he led a breathless Azar to the head table and held her chair as she sat. There was a bit more sparkle to her, and slightly less of the sadness that shadowed her eyes and dimmed her smiles.
“Are you happy, maité anam?” He couldn’t help asking as he sat next to her, lifted her hand, and kissed her fingers.
Azar sighed. For an eternal moment, Fechin didn’t breathe as she hesitated. His Azar was honest, and if she said no…
Her beautiful green eyes studied him, then she finally spoke. “Yes. You win. I am happy, and I love you, Fechin.”
His soul soared. The raven inside him stood tall, fluffing his feathers and cawing in triumph. The acknowledgement was something Azar hadn’t offered before. Not spoken, anyway, and words had power, especially in a Fae court. He leaned toward Azar’s upturned face, intent on kissing her lips swollen. His body hardened, ready to rip the dress off Azar and have his way with her in front of everyone. He didn’t care who watched. His lips touched hers.Thunderous booms roared across the sky and shook the world.
Fechin jerked his head up as a sense of wrong sent a wave of nausea through him. Strength and magic flowed out of him to reinforce the besieged defenses. Overhead, beyond the blue sky, a layer of gray fog hovered. Fechin swore. The fog parted, revealing a second layer of blue sky.
“What’s happening, Fechin?” Azar’s voice trembled. Her fear-filled eyes darted between the sky and his face.
The protective shields around Inisfail, and the fog that shrouded them from the world at large, were being targeted. “The wards, maité anam. We are under attack.”
Azar screamed and doubled over, wrapping her arms around her belly as she collapsed to the ground. His child!
“Maité anam!” Fechin dropped to his knees, cradling Azar to him. For the first time, conflict over where his primary duty lay made him hesitate. He owed everyone living in Inisfail his protection, but to fulfill that obligation, he’d have to leave Azar and his child while they were in pain. Didn’t he have a greater duty to her and the babe? Azar carried the future of Inisfail within her.
Who would dare target Azar? Shisti? This attack was beyond her capabilities, surely. And he’d felt her foul magic often enough. Not her. There was something familiar though. He had so many enemies, added to a longer list of anyone against the Morrigan. It could be any one of them.
Hundreds of lightning bolts struck the fog between layers of blue skies, tearing it to shreds. Each felt like a whip lashing him. Red lines and cuts formed on his skin. A few strikes came through, hitting the ground and forest, setting trees aflame, but giving him the full flavor of the magic attacking.
Beira.
Her magic had an icy, repugnant taint. The banished were always a threat. No Fae wanted to leave their home, where their power was strongest. She’d never tried to return, though.
Some Seelie and UnSeelie Fae screamed. Others stared, dumbfounded. Azar trembled in his arms. Anguish and indecision tore at him.
“Go,” Azar managed to get out through her clenched teeth. Tears of pain streaked her cheeks. “You must protect Inisfail.”
She was right. If Inisfail’s protections fell, Azar was at even greater risk. But he couldn’t bring himself to leave her. Why was the Queen of Winter attacking? Had Beira discovered he’d set Shisti aside? There would be a reckoning for that one day, but he hadn’t expected it so soon, or from this quarter. None of that mattered. He had to put a stop to the attack in order to save Azar.
Fechin gently laid Azar on the grass, changed to his raven form, and flew straight into the storm. He rose into the sky, waves of power emanating from him as the wards pulled magic to rebuild themselves through him. Winds buffeted him, blowing him sideways and backwards as he struggled for forward progress.
A streak of lightning broke from the fog and struck him like as if he were no more than a gnat. The blow hit like a hammer, sending him reeling, but he flapped furiously and recovered. Fechin intercepted the next bolt, letting the lightning hit him and taking the damage. Again and again, he took the assault to protect those below, but he was only one against the hundreds of strikes. The ones he missed hurt more than the physical torment of the ones shredding his body and magic.
More bolts followed the first, one after another, breaking through his protections one layer at a time. The Queen of Winter had never been this strong before. How had she channeled so much power? Rather than weakening as the barrage continued, her magic battered him, seeming to feed on itself and grow instead of diminishing.
Fechin screamed his defiance and pushed back. He had to strengthen the protections. Protect Azar. Thwart Beira’s attack The witch’s magic felt limitless while his was finite. Until he was King, he could act as a conduit, but the magic of Inisfail wasn’t his to wield as he pleased.
A lightning bolt shattered his final protection. The broken spell ate into him like shards of glass ground into his soul. Agony paralyzed him. Another strike set fire to him. The acrid scent of burning flesh and feathers filled his nose. Body limp, Fechin turned human. The flames extinguished, but he fell. He’d done his best and been found lacking. Maybe this would finally bring his mother home.
The world was all chilling wind streaked into his burned skin and roared in his head. Azar screamed. It was possibly the only sound that could stir him. Azar and his child needed him.
To… me… Fechin directed the sluggish thought to his ravens. To me…
That magic was innate from the Morrigan, and it was enough. His ravens burst from the tower and forest, soaring into the sky to come to his aid. Each of them caught part of him. A finger. An ankle. A scrap of ragged clothing in their talons and beaks. Flapping their wings in unison, the flock slowed his fall and deposited him in front of Azar. His skin burned and forks of red lightning tattooed him. Blood flowed from his eyes, ears, and nose, obscured his vision, left a bitter, metallic taste on his tongue, and dripped onto the grass. Azar’s calming presence acted like a balm as his body shook uncontrollably.
Fechin reached for his maité anam, found her slender arm wrapped around her abdomen. Their child. He groaned and tried to marshall his energy. Magic diminished, his body jerked in reaction as bolts of lightning continued to strike the protective magic around Inisfail. He couldn’t hold the protections much longer.
Azar screamed again.
Everywhere wards weakened, splintered, and shattered, each breaking a part of him. The protective fog vanished. Huge slashes opened into his magic. Bleeding wounds that would not heal rent his skin. Tears appeared in the sky — long narrow slits that widened into gaps. More holes opened. In the forest. In the mountains. In the swamp. On the plains.
Not just holes in the protective magic. Portals. Gateways to other places.
He’d failed.
Inisfail wasn’t protected from anything now. Another tear opened. This one was close. So close! Fechin blinked blood from his eyes, fixing his eyes on Azar. The portal had opened right behind her. Fechin struggled to get to her. Rolling. Crawling. Digging his fingers into the ground, he pulled himself across the short yet vast distance between them.
Azar reached for him. Fechin struggled to lift his arm. Scrambled desperately to rally his broken magic. The ragged scraps sliced and burned him. Fragmented, his magic wouldn’t flow. It pooled in smaller eddies, cut off from itself.
His fingertips brushed Azar’s, and for a fraction of a second, his magic and strength surged to fullness. The yawning portal expanded and stretched toward Azar. The edges were already touching her.
“Azar.” Fechin choked out her name as blood filled his throat.
Magic coiled like serpents, slithering and writhing, forming a cocoon that surrounded Azar, cutting her off from him. Her terrified green eyed pleaded for help. Tears tracked down her face, staining her cheeks with sorrow.
A burst of energy yanked Azar backward, breaking the tenuous connection between his fingertips and hers. With the last of his strength, Fechin lunged. He couldn’t let Azar go. Wouldn’t let her be taken from him.
The abyss slammed closed, swallowing his maité anam like the maw of a colossal beast. The portal vanished, taking his wife and child. Fechin landed where the portal had been less than a moment ago.
Terror and dread united his failing magic. He sent it to track the portal. He had to follow it. Save Azar and the babe. Nothing. There was no trace to follow. This magic felt like his, but he hadn’t sent Azar away. “Azar!” Fechin bellowed in impotent rage. Pain seared his already raw throat. “Azar!”
Small hands prodded and pulled at him, dragging him over the ground. The Brownies. They were taking him away from where Azar had disappeared. Fechin thrashed, but so weakened, all he could do was twitch. He couldn’t leave the last place Azar had been. It was his only hope of following her. Of bringing her back.
“You have to get inside!”
“You’ll die if you stay here!”
“Inisfail needs you!”
“We need you to be King now more than ever!”
The Brownies’ voices tumbled into his mind. Their words brought the awareness that lightning was still striking everywhere. He’d failed everyone today. Azar. His mother. His people.
Fechin couldn’t protest. The energy required to form words was beyond him. He couldn’t even blink as he stared at the place where Azar had vanished, taking their child with her.
The Brownies were stronger than their spindly, child-like bodies suggested. In no time, they dragged him through a door into Raven Castle. The moment his body crossed the threshold, strength trickled into him. Not enough to continue the battle, but enough to begin healing so he wouldn’t die.
“Azar.” Fechin braced himself and rolled to his hands and knees. Blood dripped from his nose and splashed to the stone floor.
“The ravens are searching for her.”
That wasn’t good enough. Vision wavering, unconsciousness closing in at the edges, Fechin stood, aimed himself at the door, and lumbered toward it.
“No!” a Brownie yelled. “You musn’t —”
At the threshold, Fechin slammed into a barrier that threw him backwards through the chamber. He slammed into a wall. Bones in his already battered body snapped, and he slid to the stone floor in a heap. Burned. Battered. Broken.
The Brownies were on him again, straightening his limbs and shoving a cushion under his head.
“You need to rest. Regain your strength.”
“Inisfail is wounded.”
“Until the magic recovers, you can’t leave.”
You can’t leave. Couldn’t leave? But Azar needed him! He had to find her.
The smooth edge of a cup pressed against his cracked lips. Something blessedly cool and liquid filled his mouth. He swallowed without thought, soothing his aching throat. A heaviness stole over him. Sleeping elixir. No! He didn’t have time to sleep! But the potent magic had him within its hold and darkness closed in on him.
You can’t leave.
He’d worked so hard to keep Azar in. Now he was the prisoner and Azar was…somewhere else. She could have been taken anywhere. Was she still in pain? Scared? Being hurt?
I will find you, Azar.
He hadn’t thought he’d have to do it so soon. And trapped as he was, he had no idea how he could find her. The ravens were searching. There was nothing they couldn’t find, and they loved Azar.
The Brownies were right. In his condition, he couldn’t even fight off sleep. Fechin’s eyes closed. Rest was not an option. He needed to heal and rebuild his strength. Then he would find Azar.
I will always bring you home, maité anam.